Every Decade Of Cinema - Ranked

Notable films: Godzilla; Ben-Hur; Creature from the Black Lagoon; The War of the Worlds; Vertigo; High Noon; 12 Angry Men; The Searchers; Seven Samurai; Rebel Without a Cause; Singin' in the Rain; The Day the Earth Stood Still; Lady and the Tramp; Old Yeller.

The 1950s marked the beginning of the golden age of science fiction. Cold War paranoia brought about a surge in science fiction films, many of which pondered the immeasurable destructive capabilities of science (specifically science gone wrong, often due to human error). Films like Godzilla, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Them! reflected these sentiments.

The 1950s also saw actors like John Wayne and Marlon Brando at career highs, starring in Westerns like The Searchers and dramas like A Streetcar Named Desire.

On the presentation front, the fifties saw filmmakers trying to outdo the recently-popularized television, which they feared would siphon viewers away from cinematic fare in favor of small screen stories, which could be viewed from the comfort of their living rooms. The widescreen format (a la Cinemascope) became incredibly popular, lending an air of grandeur to historical epics of the day.