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Best Romance Movies of the 1950s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
198 romance films from the 1950s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is Singin' in the Rain (1952), at 8.3 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.7. Biggest split between audiences and critics: White Christmas, 7.6 on IMDb against 56 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singin' in the Rain '1952 | Comedy / Romance | 8.3 | 100% | 99 | 8.1 | Gene Kelly |
| 2 | Vertigo '1958 | Mystery / Romance / Thriller | 8.2 | 94% | 100 | 8.1 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 3 | Some Like It Hot '1959 | Comedy / Romance / Crime | 8.2 | 95% | 98 | 8.1 | Billy Wilder |
| 4 | On the Waterfront '1954 | Crime / Drama / Romance | 8.1 | 99% | 91 | 7.8 | Elia Kazan |
| 5 | The Cranes Are Flying '1957 | Drama / Romance / War | 8.3 | 96% | 76 | 7.9 | Mikhail Kalatozov |
| 6 | Roman Holiday '1953 | Romance / Comedy / Drama | 8.0 | 97% | 78 | 7.9 | William Wyler |
| 7 | Limelight '1952 | Romance / Drama / Comedy | 8.0 | 88% | 84 | 7.9 | Charlie Chaplin |
| 8 | In a Lonely Place '1950 | Thriller / Drama / Romance / Mystery | 7.9 | 96% | - | 7.6 | Nicholas Ray |
| 9 | Ballad of a Soldier '1959 | Drama / Romance / War | 8.2 | 94% | - | 8.0 | Grigoriy Chukhray |
| 10 | Pyaasa '1957 | Drama / Romance | 8.3 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Guru Dutt |
| 11 | The Big Country '1958 | Drama / Western / Romance | 7.9 | 100% | 61 | 7.6 | William Wyler |
| 12 | Hiroshima Mon Amour '1959 | Drama / Romance | 7.8 | 96% | - | 7.7 | Alain Resnais |
| 13 | The African Queen '1952 | Romance / War / Drama | 7.7 | 96% | 91 | 7.3 | John Huston |
| 14 | Orpheus '1950 | Romance / Fantasy / Drama | 7.8 | 97% | - | 7.7 | Jean Cocteau |
| 15 | The Bad and the Beautiful '1952 | Drama / Romance | 7.8 | 79% | 86 | 7.3 | Vincente Minnelli |
| 16 | The Quiet Man '1952 | Romance / Comedy / Drama | 7.7 | 91% | 85 | 7.3 | John Ford |
| 17 | A Place in the Sun '1951 | Drama / Romance / Crime | 7.7 | 90% | 76 | 7.3 | George Stevens |
| 18 | Imitation of Life '1959 | Drama / Romance | 7.8 | 82% | 87 | 7.4 | Douglas Sirk |
| 19 | Sabrina '1954 | Comedy / Romance / Drama | 7.6 | 89% | 72 | 7.5 | Billy Wilder |
| 20 | White Christmas '1954 | Comedy / Musical / Romance | 7.6 | 76% | 56 | 7.2 | Michael Curtiz |
| 21 | From Here to Eternity '1953 | War / Romance / Drama | 7.6 | 88% | 85 | 7.3 | Fred Zinnemann |
| 22 | The Earrings of Madame de... '1953 | Drama / Romance | 7.8 | 97% | - | 7.5 | Max Ophüls |
| 23 | Gun Crazy '1950 | Crime / Romance / Drama | 7.6 | 91% | 74 | 7.4 | Joseph H. Lewis |
| 24 | Chikamatsu Monogatari '1954 | Drama / Romance | 8.0 | 100% | - | 7.8 | Kenji Mizoguchi |
| 25 | Smiles of a Summer Night '1955 | Comedy / Romance | 7.7 | 100% | - | 7.4 | Ingmar Bergman |
| 26 | Marty '1955 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 96% | 82 | 7.5 | Delbert Mann |
| 27 | Ashes and Diamonds '1958 | Drama / War / Romance | 7.7 | 96% | - | 7.4 | Andrzej Wajda |
| 28 | White Nights '1957 | Drama / Romance | 7.8 | 93% | - | 7.5 | Luchino Visconti |
| 29 | Hobson's Choice '1954 | Comedy / Drama / Romance | 7.7 | 91% | - | 7.4 | David Lean |
| 30 | Casque d'Or '1952 | Drama / Crime / Romance | 7.6 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Jacques Becker |
| 31 | Awaara '1951 | Drama / Musical / Romance | 7.8 | - | - | 7.2 | Raj Kapoor |
| 32 | All That Heaven Allows '1955 | Drama / Romance | 7.6 | 91% | - | 7.3 | Douglas Sirk |
| 33 | Born Yesterday '1950 | Comedy / Romance | 7.5 | 95% | - | 7.3 | George Cukor |
| 34 | Le Plaisir '1952 | Drama / Comedy / Romance | 7.6 | 80% | - | 7.5 | Max Ophüls |
| 35 | A Star Is Born '1954 | Drama / Musical / Romance | 7.5 | 98% | 89 | 7.1 | George Cukor |
| 36 | Scaramouche '1952 | Romance | 7.5 | - | - | 7.0 | George Sidney |
| 37 | Summer with Monika '1953 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.3 | Ingmar Bergman |
| 38 | To Catch a Thief '1955 | Mystery / Romance / Thriller | 7.4 | 95% | 82 | 7.3 | Alfred Hitchcock |
| 39 | La Ronde '1950 | Romance / Comedy / Drama | 7.4 | 94% | 82 | 7.3 | Max Ophüls |
| 40 | Cyrano de Bergerac '1950 | Romance / Drama | 7.4 | 74% | - | 6.9 | Michael Gordon |
| 41 | Summer Interlude '1951 | Drama / Romance | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.4 | Ingmar Bergman |
| 42 | An Affair to Remember '1957 | Drama / Romance | 7.4 | 65% | 71 | 7.4 | Leo McCarey |
| 43 | The King and I '1956 | Romance / Drama | 7.4 | 93% | 72 | 7.1 | Walter Lang |
| 44 | Early Spring '1956 | Drama / Romance | 7.7 | 100% | 84 | 7.5 | Yasujirō Ozu |
| 45 | Cinderella '1950 | Fantasy / Animation / Romance | 7.3 | 95% | 85 | 7.1 | Clyde Geronimi |
| 46 | The River '1951 | Drama / Romance | 7.4 | 92% | - | 7.2 | Jean Renoir |
| 47 | Pillow Talk '1959 | Comedy / Romance | 7.4 | 93% | 73 | 7.1 | Michael Gordon |
| 48 | Lady and the Tramp '1955 | Animation / Romance / Comedy | 7.3 | 91% | 78 | 7.1 | Hamilton Luske |
| 49 | Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island '1956 | Action / Drama / Romance | 7.5 | - | - | 7.2 | Hiroshi Inagaki |
| 50 | Senso '1954 | Romance / Drama / War | 7.4 | 88% | - | 7.2 | Luchino Visconti |
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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Other genres in the 1950s
Action of the 1950s Animation of the 1950s Comedy of the 1950s Crime of the 1950s Drama of the 1950s Fantasy of the 1950s Horror of the 1950s Musical of the 1950s Mystery of the 1950s Sci-Fi of the 1950s Thriller of the 1950s War of the 1950s Western of the 1950s
Directors on this list
Alfred Hitchcock Billy Wilder Elia Kazan Mikhail Kalatozov William Wyler Charlie Chaplin Nicholas Ray Alain Resnais John Huston Jean Cocteau Vincente Minnelli John Ford
Actors on this list
Gene Kelly James Stewart Kim Novak Tony Curtis Jack Lemmon Marlon Brando Gregory Peck Audrey Hepburn Charlie Chaplin Claire Bloom Humphrey Bogart Gloria Grahame