The Best Movie Of Each Year From 1925-2025

76. 1950 - Sunset Boulevard

Honourable Mentions: All About Eve, In a Lonely Place, Wagon Master

If The Third Man is the greatest film noir of all time, then the best film of 1950, Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, can't be far behind.

Arguably Wilder's most seminal work, the William Holden, Gloria Swanson-starring tragedy - all about Hollywood's ruthlessness and the corrupting influence of wealth and celebrity - kickstarted the hagsploitation genre and generated some of the decade's most affecting imagery and scripture; Holden's Gillis floating lifelessly in a mansion pool, punctuated by his own post-mortem narration; the bizarre funeral procession of a beloved but departed chimpanzee; Swanson's Norma Desmond readying for a final, parting close-up - it's a masterclass in Hollywood introspection, often immitated, but never bettered.