Name a depressing movie made between 1955 and 1965

[KansDem]

I'll start...

The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
I Want to Live (1958)
The Hustler (1961)
The Misfits (1961)
Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

on edit: One that reflects those years...

[Fran Kubelik]

1. I was going to post I Want To Live

funny!

[KansDem]

4. Yes, it is depressing, to say the least...

There seemed to be more sympathy and compassion for the underdogs and misfits of society back then. I wonder how Hollywood would portray this story today. :shrug:

on edit: Because of the subject content, I won't let my 10-year-old son watch it (we have it on DVD). I don't think he'd really understand what was going on...

[old mark]

2. At least 25% of them were depressing.

It was very in fashion back then.
If you think it sucks now, you should have been around in the late 50's to early 60's.


mark

[newmajority]

3. Pretty much the entire Elvis Presley series of horror films

They weren't supposed to be horror films, they just turned out that way. John Lennon was right when he said (in 1977) "Elvis died when he joined the Army". Though he did briefly resurrect himself in 1968.

[BrotherBuzz]

5. Nevil Shute's On the Beach

Directed by Stanley Kramer. With Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire. (1959)

[KansDem]

11. I remember that one!

Didn't they hear a signal and, thinking there were other people alive, travel to the source of that signal only to find a deserted building with a communication system that is shorting itself and causing the signal?

Excellent movie!

[BrotherBuzz]

19. Yep, and the trip only confirmed to them, the world they knew was gone

The intermittent radio signal was the result window shade blowing in the breeze and occasionally striking the telegraph key.

[Zuiderelle]

6. West Side Story - 1961

[KansDem]

14. Of course!

How could I have forgotten this one?

And I played in the pit orchestra for a local performance of this back in the 1970s.

[skooooo]

34. depressing tho??

:shrug:

[kentauros]

7. From the 1961 British film:

The Day the Earth Caught Fire

Global Warming taken to extremes. The ending scenes show all these places around the world that are dried up, and leave you hanging as to whether their "solution" even worked :o

[KansDem]

13. I don't think I've seen this one...

Thanks for the heads-up! :hi:

[kentauros]

31. You're welcome!

It's an excellent movie and it's on DVD :D

Look for any of the Quatermass movies, too, as they're from the same time period and level of quality. :)

[Blue_Tires]

8. Vertigo? or at least the ending?

what about The Birds? -- well i guess that is more creepy/funny than depressing

how about Requiem for a Heavyweight? top that one....

[KansDem]

10. Yes! I forgot about "Requiem"

When "Mountain" Rivera comes out for the last time to be a professional wrestler and goes into his dance, that scene just tears me up. He tried so hard throughout the movie for the (self)respect he thought due him.

American film making at its finest.

[Blue_Tires]

50. yeah...that and the time when

Rivera finds out Jackie Gleason (a slimy little shit) was betting against him all this time....you could visibly see Rivera's heart break

[skooooo]

9. Old Yeller (1957)

[KansDem]

12. Oh, yeah! How could I have forgotten that one! (nt)

[Arkham House]

15. Well--how about "Psycho"?...

...a stay at the Bates motel wasn't exactly cheerful...:-(...

[begin_within]

40. Can you believe Hitchcock considered it a comedy?

I think the original "Psycho" is the greatest example of the craft of filmmaking produced so far. But I don't see why people consider it a "black comedy." I keep reading that a lot in discussions of that film. To me it's not a comedy or even a horror film, it's a drama.

[graywarrior]

16. Splender in the Grass made me want to kill myself

[Shakespeare]

17. Same here.

And pretty much caused me to dislike Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty on general principle, no matter what else they did.

[Sequoia]

23. So, why didn't you?

Ha, ha...we love you, just kidding. Yes, that was one powerfully sad movie. It still tugs my heart strings. "Be good, be a good little girl!" I liked Nat, and saw the house where she was a child, around 6 years old. Read her bio too. Her mother was a trip...passed her "drowning curse" onto her daughter and made her go to bed with Frank Sintra when she was around 14 or 15. Poor girl.

[graywarrior]

26. That movie was a head fuck

It conditioned me to date guys who treated me like I was a nutcase.

Oh wait.....I WAS a nutcase.....


....did I say was?

[MotorCityMan]

18. Fail-Safe (1964)

I rented it years ago and was shocked at the ending. Major downer. And WAY too believable.

[bookworm65t]

20. Dr. Strangelove

At least I think it is before 1965.

[Blue_Tires]

35. that's more of a satire, imo

[Throd]

21. Lady In A Cage (1964)

More of a "feel bad" movie than anything

[Sequoia]

22. "Madame X"

with Lana Turner and John Ford. Mean ole rich mother in law made show girl leave her politically ambitious husband and baby boy while on a ship. Made like the wife had fell overboard. She goes to another country and lives in poverty, etc.

[Bullwinkle925]

36. good god . . .

my grandmother and i watched that years and years ago and went through a box of kleenex!!


:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[ThoughtCriminal]

24. On the Beach

1959

[Mobius]

25. No fair

you took the best ones

[mwooldri]

27. I would post "It Happened Here" but it was shot in 1966.

I'm posting it anyway because even though it is a depressing film it's definitely thought provoking and haunting, especially if you're British. Basically the film is taking a "what if" approach for World War 2 - what if the Battle of Britain was lost and Hitler invated Britain...

Mark.

[mockmonkey]

28. Bob n/t

[Starbucks Anarchist]

29. Paths of Glory (1957).

[csziggy]

30. On the Beach

I wanted to post Lost Weekend, but it is ten years too early.

[kentauros]

32. Oh yeah, one more:

The Haunting (1963 version)

Creepy, scary and sad in the end, since basically, the house "wins" :scared:

[skooooo]

33. Rebel Without a Cause

[Adsos Letter]

37. "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" (1962)

Bette Davis, et.al...

[begin_within]

39. I find it entertaining rather than depressing.

I guess you could view it as depressing but to me it's so over-the-top that it's really a comedy.

[Adsos Letter]

42. While I have you here and am reminded of it...

the photo that "looked like Yuma area" was taken in the northeastern corner of California, on the road which crosses one of the alkali lakes between Cedarville and the Nevada border.

:hi:

[begin_within]

43. Wow - never been in that area or near it at all. Thanks

[bridgit]

38. The Man With the Golden Arm (1955)...

'Review Summary

When Otto Preminger was willing to release his drug-addiction drama Man With the Golden Arm without the sanction of a Production Code seal, it proved to be yet another nail in the coffin of that censorial dinosaur. Based on the novel by Nelson Algren, the film stars Frank Sinatra as Frankie Machine, expert card dealer (hence the title). Recently released from prison, Frankie is determined to set his life in order -- and that means divesting himself of his drug habit. He dreams of becoming a jazz drummer, but his greedy wife Eleanor Parker wants him to continue his lucrative gambling activities. Since Parker is confined to a wheelchair as a result of a car accident caused by Frankie, he's in no position to refuse. Only the audience knows that Parker is not crippled, but is faking her invalid status to keep Frankie under her thumb. Gambling boss Robert Strauss wants Frankie to deal at a high-stakes poker game; terrified that he's lost his touch, Frankie asks dope pusher Darren McGavin to supply him with narcotics. When McGavin discovers that Parker is not an invalid, she kills him, and Frankie (who is elsewhere at the time) is accused of the murder. He is willing to go to the cops, but he doesn't want to show up with drugs in his system. So with the help of sympathetic B-girl Kim Novak, Sinatra locks himself up and goes "cold turkey"-a still-harrowing sequence, despite the glut of "doper" films that followed in the wake of this picture. After Parker herself is killed in a suicidal fall, the path is cleared for Frankie to pursue a clean new life with Novak. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide'

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/31223/The-Man-With-the-Golden-Arm/overview

[begin_within]

41. "The Exterminating Angel" (1962)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056732/

[kentauros]

44. Oh, that movie was brilliant!

:)
I saw it on TCM a couple of years ago when they were showing Mexican Cinema and Bunuel movies. I found out that archive.org has "Un Chen Andalou" on their site as well. I've only gotten about ten minutes into it (because I was at work at the time) and haven't gone back to it, though I need to. It was compelling and fascinating filmaking :)

[begin_within]

46. I enjoy Buñuel's films for their bizarre humor.

A man kicking a violin down an empty street... I think that was in "L'Ag d'Or" (1927). Some of his films are very depressing, like "Los Olvidados" (1950) but all of his films are interesting in one way or another.

[begin_within]

45. La Dolce Vita (1960) and L'Avventura (1960)

[bridgit]

47. La Strada...

54 but still :cry:

[wickerwoman]

48. Night of the Hunter (1955)

Not so much depressing as scary as shit and my all time favorite Robert Mitchum movie.

[Enrique]

49. Suddenly Last Summer