My Top 20 by Year - 1952
by miran_kor | created - 07 Jul 2015 | updated - 2 weeks ago | PublicUnder construction and always in progress.
The Best films from this year (according to IMDb) I've seen (so far).
Out of (only) 129 films 'seen' (ie rated at IMDb).
(Apr 2024)
Notes:
- Features, shorts, docs and TV movies eligible ("A film is a film is a film.").
- TV mini-series are NOT (unless stated otherwise).
- My humble rates added (for films with the same rate just once or twice though).
- Films with the same rate are ordered arbitrarily. Feel free to re-order them at your will.
- When I saw more than 20 excellent films (9/10 or above in my book) from a certain year I'll try and list them ALL. That would make some lists much longer but all the excellentia deserves to be mentioned.
Cinema = cinema (big screen) viewing TV = TV viewing PC = download OL = online viewing VHS = VHS viewing
Yet to see (among many):
Casque d'or (Golden Marie, Becker, 1952) Genbaku no ko (Children of Hiroshima, Shindô, 1952) The Sound Barrier (Lean, 1952) Fanfan la Tulipe (Fan-Fan the Tulip, Christian-Jacque, 1952) Alenkiy tsvetochek (The Scarlet Flower, Atamanov, 1952) Na dne (The Lower Depths, Frolov, 1952) Manon des sources (Manon of the Spring, Pagnol, 1952) Revizor (The Inspector-General, Petrov, 1952) Scandal Sheet (Karlson, 1952) The Lusty Men (N. Ray/R. Parrish, 1952) My Cousin Rachel (Koster, 1952) La fête à Henriette (Holiday for Henrietta, Duvivier, 1952) Las aguas bajan turbias (Dark River, del Carril, 1952) Mandy (Mackendrick, 1952) La noche avanza (Night Falls, Gavaldón, 1952) Affair in Trinidad (V. Sherman, 1952) The Star (Heisler, 1952) Si muero antes de despertar (If I Should Die Before I Wake, C.H. Christensen, 1952) Phone Call from a Stranger (Negulesco, 1952) Pysná princezna (The Proud Princess, B. Zeman, 1952) Room for One More (Taurog, 1952) Pat and Mike (Cukor, 1952)
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
G | 103 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
A silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.
Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly | Stars: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen
Votes: 260,652 | Gross: $8.82M
Cinema.
2. Feed the Kitty (1952)
Approved | 7 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
A bulldog, charmed by a kitten, tries to keep her hidden from his human guardian.
Director: Chuck Jones | Stars: Bea Benaderet, Mel Blanc
Votes: 3,548
OL.
3. Neighbours (1952)
Not Rated | 8 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
A surreal story of two neighbours' destructive feud over a flower.
Director: Norman McLaren | Stars: Grant Munro, Jean Paul Ladouceur
Votes: 3,883
PC.
4. A Phantasy (1952)
Not Rated | 8 min | Animation, Short
Drawn in pastels, and scored with jazzy music, fantastical plant-like things "grow" from the ground, launching five spheres in to space to create even more fantastical scenes.
Director: Norman McLaren
Votes: 366
PC.
5. Magical Maestro (1952)
Approved | 6 min | Family, Animation, Comedy
A magician seeks revenge against an opera singer for refusing to let him perform his magic act. He then devises what he thinks is a clever plan to enact his revenge with some hilarious results.
Director: Tex Avery | Stars: Daws Butler, Tex Avery, Carlos Ramírez
Votes: 1,228
OL. 10/10.
6. Ikiru (1952)
Not Rated | 143 min | Drama
A bureaucrat tries to find meaning in his life after he discovers he has terminal cancer.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Shin'ichi Himori, Haruo Tanaka
Votes: 87,556 | Gross: $0.06M
PC. 9.5/10.
7. Umberto D. (1952)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama
An elderly man and his dog struggle to survive on his government pension in Rome.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari, Ileana Simova
Votes: 28,190 | Gross: $0.07M
Cinema. 9/10.
8. Forbidden Games (1952)
Not Rated | 86 min | Comedy, Drama, War
A young French girl orphaned in a German air attack is befriended by the son of a poor farmer, and together they try to come to terms with the realities of death.
Director: René Clément | Stars: Georges Poujouly, Brigitte Fossey, Amédée, Laurence Badie
Votes: 13,100 | Gross: $0.01M
TV.
9. Secrets of Women (1952)
Not Rated | 107 min | Comedy, Drama
The four wives of four brothers share stories of their marriages as they each wait for their husbands in a small, secluded cottage.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Anita Björk, Eva Dahlbeck, Maj-Britt Nilsson, Birger Malmsten
Votes: 2,962
Cinema.
10. Limelight (1952)
G | 137 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A fading comedian and a suicidally despondent ballet dancer must look to each other to find purpose and hope in their lives.
Director: Charles Chaplin | Stars: Charles Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Nigel Bruce, Buster Keaton
Votes: 22,136 | Gross: $1.00M
Cinema.
11. Rabbit Seasoning (1952)
Approved | 7 min | Animation, Short, Adventure
Daffy Duck tricks Elmer Fudd into believing it's rabbit season; but Bugs Bunny uses a female disguise and faulty pronouns to fight back.
Director: Chuck Jones | Stars: Mel Blanc, Arthur Q. Bryan
Votes: 4,721
OL.
12. Beep, Beep (1952)
Approved | 7 min | Animation, Family, Short
The Coyote chases the Road Runner through a maze of mine shafts, with their positions made visible only by the lamps on their helmets.
Director: Chuck Jones | Star: Paul Julian
Votes: 1,831
OL.
13. Panta Rhei (1952)
10 min | Documentary, Short
There are no people and little animals, primordial nature is in constant change. The images of cloudy skies, surf, a turbulent stream, wind, falling leaves and similar motifs alternate, sometimes violently, sometimes slow, sometimes fast.
Director: Bert Haanstra
Votes: 122
OL.
14. Number 7 (1952)
5 min | Animation, Short
An experimental film from artist Harry Smith and part of his Number series of various animated scenes.
Director: Harry Smith
Votes: 165
PC.
15. Between Two Worlds (1952)
19 min | Short
A short film in which a male and female dancer are separated by an impenetrable barrier.
Director: Guy L. Coté | Stars: Tutte Lemkow, Sara Luzita, Sam Kaner
Votes: 38
OL.
16. Water, Water Every Hare (1952)
Approved | 7 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole floods, causing him to float to the laboratory of an evil scientist who wants to use his brain for a robot.
Director: Chuck Jones | Stars: Mel Blanc, John T. Smith
Votes: 2,295
OL. 9/10.
17. The Life of Oharu (1952)
Not Rated | 133 min | Drama
Follows a woman's fight and survival amid the vicissitudes of life and the cruelty of society.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Tsukie Matsuura, Ichirô Sugai, Toshirô Mifune
Votes: 7,644
TV. 8/10.
18. Europe '51 (1952)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama
A wealthy woman becomes obsessed with humanitarianism when her young son dies after committing suicide.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox, Ettore Giannini, Giulietta Masina
Votes: 4,785
PC.
19. Le Plaisir (1952)
Not Rated | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Three separate stories about the same thing: le plaisir (pleasure).
Director: Max Ophüls | Stars: Jean Gabin, Danielle Darrieux, Simone Simon, Claude Dauphin
Votes: 5,378
TV.
20. 5 Fingers (1952)
Approved | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
During WWII the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: James Mason, Danielle Darrieux, Michael Rennie, Walter Hampden
Votes: 5,468
Cinema.
21. High Noon (1952)
PG | 85 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at "high noon" when the gang leader, an outlaw he "sent up" years ago, arrives on the noon train.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 110,174 | Gross: $9.45M
Cinema.
22. Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)
Approved | 99 min | Drama, Romance
An emotionally remote recovering alcoholic and his dowdy, unambitious wife face a personal crisis when they take in an attractive lodger.
Director: Daniel Mann | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Shirley Booth, Terry Moore, Richard Jaeckel
Votes: 5,384
OL.
23. The Overcoat (1952)
Approved | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Based on the Nikolai Gogol story but set in 1950s Italy, THE OVERCOAT is the story of a poor city hall clerk (Renato Rascel) whose only desire is to buy a new overcoat.
Director: Alberto Lattuada | Stars: Renato Rascel, Yvonne Sanson, Giulio Stival, Ettore Mattia
Votes: 696
Cinema.
24. The Quiet Man (1952)
Passed | 129 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in 1920s Ireland, where he falls for a spirited redhead whose brother is contemptuous of their union.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond
Votes: 42,401 | Gross: $10.55M
TV.
25. The Little World of Don Camillo (1952)
107 min | Comedy
A determined priest and a Communist mayor develop a grudging friendship in spite of their official rivalry.
Director: Julien Duvivier | Stars: Fernandel, Gino Cervi, Vera Talchi, Franco Interlenghi
Votes: 4,848
TV.
26. Rome 11:00 (1952)
107 min | Drama
Based on an actual incident, this is the story of five girls (told in a slow beginning) who are among the 200 women who answer a want ad for a modest secretarial position one rainy morning ... See full summary »
Director: Giuseppe De Santis | Stars: Lucia Bosè, Carla Del Poggio, Maria Grazia Francia, Lea Padovani
Votes: 858
OL.
27. Mother (1952)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama
A teenaged girl witnesses her widowed mother's attempt to sustain her family.
Director: Mikio Naruse | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Kyôko Kagawa, Eiji Okada, Akihiko Katayama
Votes: 863
OL.
28. Moulin Rouge (1952)
Not Rated | 119 min | Biography, Drama, Music
Fictional account of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Director: John Huston | Stars: José Ferrer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Suzanne Flon, Claude Nollier
Votes: 6,521 | Gross: $11.81M
TV. 8/10.
Tell Your Friends