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Best Crime Movies of the 1950s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
117 crime films from the 1950s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Witness for the Prosecution (1957), at 8.4 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.7. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Touch of Evil, 7.9 on IMDb against 99 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Witness for the Prosecution '1957 | Drama / Mystery / Crime | 8.4 | 100% | 76 | 8.2 | Billy Wilder |
| 2 | Some Like It Hot '1959 | Comedy / Romance / Crime | 8.2 | 95% | 98 | 8.1 | Billy Wilder |
| 3 | Rashomon '1950 | Crime / Drama / Mystery | 8.1 | 98% | 98 | 8.0 | Akira Kurosawa |
| 4 | Dial M for Murder '1954 | Thriller / Crime / Drama | 8.1 | 90% | 75 | 8.0 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 5 | On the Waterfront '1954 | Crime / Drama / Romance | 8.1 | 99% | 91 | 7.8 | Elia Kazan |
| 6 | The Young and the Damned '1950 | Drama / Crime | 8.2 | 91% | - | 8.1 | Luis Buñuel |
| 7 | Rififi '1955 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 8.1 | 92% | 97 | 7.8 | Jules Dassin |
| 8 | Anatomy of a Murder '1959 | Crime / Drama / Mystery | 8.0 | 100% | 95 | 7.8 | Otto Preminger |
| 9 | Strangers on a Train '1951 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 7.9 | 98% | 88 | 7.7 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 10 | The Killing '1956 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 7.9 | 96% | 91 | 7.6 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 11 | The Night of the Hunter '1955 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.9 | 93% | 97 | 7.9 | Charles Laughton |
| 12 | Touch of Evil '1958 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 7.9 | 96% | 99 | 7.7 | Orson Welles |
| 13 | The Big Heat '1953 | Crime / Thriller | 7.9 | 95% | - | 7.7 | Fritz Lang |
| 14 | Elevator to the Gallows '1958 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.9 | 93% | 94 | 7.6 | Louis Malle |
| 15 | The Asphalt Jungle '1950 | Crime / Drama | 7.8 | 98% | 85 | 7.5 | John Huston |
| 16 | Night and the City '1950 | Drama / Crime | 7.8 | 86% | - | 7.5 | Jules Dassin |
| 17 | A Place in the Sun '1951 | Drama / Romance / Crime | 7.7 | 90% | 76 | 7.3 | George Stevens |
| 18 | Big Deal on Madonna Street '1958 | Comedy / Crime | 7.9 | 89% | - | 8.1 | Mario Monicelli |
| 19 | Gun Crazy '1950 | Crime / Romance / Drama | 7.6 | 91% | 74 | 7.4 | Joseph H. Lewis |
| 20 | The Ladykillers '1955 | Comedy / Crime | 7.6 | 100% | 91 | 7.3 | Alexander Mackendrick |
| 21 | Bad Day at Black Rock '1955 | Western / Drama / Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 7.6 | 97% | - | 7.3 | John Sturges |
| 22 | The Narrow Margin '1952 | Thriller / Crime | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Richard Fleischer |
| 23 | Casque d'Or '1952 | Drama / Crime / Romance | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Jacques Becker |
| 24 | Pickup on South Street '1953 | Thriller / Crime | 7.6 | 92% | - | 7.4 | Samuel Fuller |
| 25 | Where the Sidewalk Ends '1950 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.2 | Otto Preminger |
| 26 | The Lavender Hill Mob '1951 | Comedy / Crime | 7.5 | 100% | 90 | 7.2 | Charles Crichton |
| 27 | Sudden Fear '1952 | Thriller / Crime | 7.5 | 92% | - | 7.2 | David Miller |
| 28 | The Breaking Point '1950 | Crime / Drama | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.1 | Michael Curtiz |
| 29 | Kiss Me Deadly '1955 | Mystery / Thriller / Crime | 7.5 | 98% | - | 7.2 | Robert Aldrich |
| 30 | Touchez Pas au Grisbi '1954 | Crime / Thriller | 7.6 | 100% | 85 | 7.2 | Jacques Becker |
| 31 | Pickpocket '1959 | Crime / Drama | 7.5 | 93% | - | 7.3 | Robert Bresson |
| 32 | The King of the Neighborhood '1950 | Comedy / Crime | 7.9 | - | - | 8.4 | Gilberto Martínez Solares |
| 33 | Detective Story '1951 | Crime / Drama | 7.5 | 71% | 78 | 7.1 | William Wyler |
| 34 | The Defiant Ones '1958 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.5 | 90% | 69 | 7.2 | Stanley Kramer |
| 35 | No Way Out '1950 | Drama / Crime / Thriller | 7.4 | 85% | - | 6.9 | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| 36 | Bob le Flambeur '1956 | Drama / Action / Crime | 7.5 | 97% | 80 | 7.3 | Jean-Pierre Melville |
| 37 | The Wrong Man '1956 | Crime / Drama | 7.4 | 93% | 83 | 7.1 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 38 | The Desperate Hours '1955 | Crime / Thriller | 7.5 | 88% | - | 7.1 | William Wyler |
| 39 | Death of a Cyclist '1955 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.7 | 100% | - | 7.1 | Juan Antonio Bardem |
| 40 | Scandal Sheet '1952 | Crime / Thriller | 7.4 | 100% | - | 7.0 | Phil Karlson |
| 41 | It Happened in Broad Daylight '1958 | Crime / Thriller | 7.7 | - | - | 7.4 | Ladislao Vajda |
| 42 | The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz '1955 | Comedy / Drama / Crime | 7.6 | 92% | - | 7.3 | Luis Buñuel |
| 43 | The Swindle '1955 | Drama / Crime | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Federico Fellini |
| 44 | Kansas City Confidential '1952 | Crime | 7.3 | 79% | - | 7.0 | Phil Karlson |
| 45 | An Inspector Calls '1954 | Crime / Drama / Mystery | 7.5 | - | - | 7.2 | Guy Hamilton |
| 46 | Mystery Street '1950 | Crime / Thriller | 7.2 | - | - | 6.8 | John Sturges |
| 47 | Blackboard Jungle '1955 | Crime / Drama | 7.4 | 75% | 67 | 6.9 | Richard Brooks |
| 48 | Woman on the Run '1950 | Thriller / Crime / Mystery | 7.2 | 88% | - | 6.8 | Norman Foster |
| 49 | Force of Evil '1950 | Crime / Drama | 7.2 | 100% | 89 | 6.7 | Abraham Polonsky |
| 50 | I Want to Live! '1958 | Drama / Crime | 7.5 | 94% | - | 7.0 | Robert Wise |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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Action of the 1950s Animation of the 1950s Comedy of the 1950s Drama of the 1950s Fantasy of the 1950s Horror of the 1950s Musical of the 1950s Mystery of the 1950s Romance of the 1950s Sci-Fi of the 1950s Thriller of the 1950s War of the 1950s Western of the 1950s
Directors on this list
Billy Wilder Akira Kurosawa Alfred Hitchcock Elia Kazan Luis Buñuel Jules Dassin Otto Preminger Stanley Kubrick Orson Welles Fritz Lang Louis Malle John Huston
Actors on this list
Tyrone Power Marlene Dietrich Tony Curtis Jack Lemmon Toshirō Mifune Ray Milland Grace Kelly Marlon Brando James Stewart Lee Remick Sterling Hayden Robert Mitchum