When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences looked at 1955, it gave its Best Picture award to Marty, a film that's pleasant but hardly great. I prefer these:
1. One Froggy Evening
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Michael Maltese
This feels like folklore, doesn't it? The legend of the singing frog?
2. The Trouble with Harry
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by John Michael Hayes, from a novel by Jack Trevor Story
The most appealing portrait of rural life that I've ever seen onscreen, which may say more about me than it says about the movie.
3. Smiles of a Summer Night
Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman
The phrase "life-affirming Bergman comedy" may sound about as plausible as “Theo Von's four-hour Shakespearean drama." But that—the Bergman comedy, not the Von epic—is nonetheless what this is.
4. The Night of the Hunter
Directed by Charles Laughton
Written by James Agee, from a novel by Davis Grubb
"Ah, little lad, you're staring at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand?"
5. Kiss Me Deadly
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Written by A.I. Bezzerides, from a novel by Mickey Spillane
Cold War noir.
6. Diabolique
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
Written by Clouzot, Jerome Geronimi, Frederic Grendel, and Rene Masson, from a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac
The Hitchcockian thriller that inspired Columbo and, less happily, a terrible remake with Sharon Stone.
7. East of Eden
Directed by Elia Kazan
Written by Paul Osborn, from a novel by John Steinbeck
"I'm not my brother's keeper."
8. Pather Panchali
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Written by Ray and Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, from a novel by Bandyopadhyay
Another portrait of rural life. It doesn't have much in common with The Trouble with Harry.
9. The Man from Laramie
Directed by Anthony Mann
Written by Philip Yordan and Frank Burt, from a story by Thomas T. Flynn
Lear in the old west.
10. Rebel Without a Cause
Directed by Nicholas Ray
Written by Stewart Stern and Irving Shulman, from a story by Ray
Forget all the vague vibes that have gathered around this movie's memory—the James Dean posters, the '50s teen nostalgia—and approach it with fresh eyes. By the time Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo take over that deserted mansion, you should see just how much stranger and more interesting this is than its reputation.
Honorable mentions:
11. Ordet (Carl Dreyer)
12. Rififi (Jules Dassin)
13. Water-Mirror of Granada (José Val del Omar)
14. Mama Don't Allow (Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson)
15. Cellbound (Tex Avery)
16. Hare-Brush (Friz Freleng)
17. The Criminal Life of Archibaldo De La Cruz (Luis Buñuel)
18. Gumbasia (Art Clokey)
19. Killer's Kiss (Stanley Kubrick)
20. The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick)
Best beginning that a film can't live up to: Sure, The Tall Men is good. But it isn't nearly as good as the movie we seem to be watching instead for the first 13 minutes.
Of the films of 1955 that I haven't seen, I'm most interested in Moonfleet.