Best Movies of 1951

The highest-rated films from 1951 according to MovieMagicScore. Rankings based purely on what viewers actually think.

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Strangers on a Train

1951 · 1,790 ratings

A charming psychopath tries to coerce a tennis star into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders—each killing the other’s most-hated person.

7.7

Ace in the Hole

1951 · 708 ratings

An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.

7.9

A Streetcar Named Desire

1951 · 1,425 ratings

A disturbed, aging Southern belle moves in with her sister for solace — but being face-to-face with her brutish brother-in-law accelerates her downward spiral.

7.6

The Day the Earth Stood Still

1951 · 1,181 ratings

An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.

7.5

Alice in Wonderland

1951 · 6,098 ratings

On a golden afternoon, wildly curious young Alice tumbles into the burrow and enters the merry, madcap world of Wonderland full of whimsical escapades.

7.2

Early Summer

1951 · 197 ratings

A 28-year-old single woman is pressured to marry.

7.9

Diary of a Country Priest

1951 · 275 ratings

An inexperienced, sickly priest shows up in the rural French community of Ambricourt, where he joins the community's clergy. But the locals don't take kindly to the priest, and his ascetic ways and unsociable demeanor make him an outcast. During Bible studies at the nearby girls school, he is continually mocked by his students. Then his attempt to intervene in a family feud backfires into a scandal. His failures, compounded with his declining health, begin to erode his faith.

7.5

Scrooge

1951 · 349 ratings

Ebenezer Scrooge malcontentedly shuffles through life as a cruel, miserly businessman, until he is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve who show him how his unhappy childhood and adult behavior has left him a selfish, lonely old man.

7.4

A Place in the Sun

1951 · 405 ratings

A young social climber wins the heart of a beautiful heiress but his former girlfriend's pregnancy stands in the way of his ambition.

7.3

#10

Cops and Robbers

1951 · 179 ratings

Esposito is a thief who cons tourists in Rome. Officer Bottoni manages to catch him and starts persecuting him. When Esposito manages to flee, Bottoni's superiors inform him that he'll lose his job if he can't catch Esposito.

7.5

#11

Miracle in Milan

1951 · 254 ratings

Once upon a time a wise and kind old woman discovers a baby in her cabbage patch. She brings up the child and, when she dies, the boy, Totò, enters an orphanage. Totò leaves the orphanage a happy young man, and looks for work in post-war Milan. He ends up with the homeless and organizes them to build a shanty town in a vacant lot. But when greedy developers threaten the community’s land, Totò will need all the help he can get in order to find an impossible way out.

7.3

#12

Quo Vadis

1951 · 432 ratings

After fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadership of the despotic emperor Nero.

7.1

#13

An American in Paris

1951 · 612 ratings

Jerry Mulligan is an exuberant American expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend Adam is a struggling concert pianist who's a long time associate of a famous French singer, Henri Baurel. A lonely society woman, Milo Roberts, takes Jerry under her wing and supports him, but is interested in more than his art.

7.0

#14

Othello

1951 · 204 ratings

When a secret marriage is planned between Othello, a Moorish general, and Desdemona, the daughter of Senator Brabantio, her old suitor Roderigo takes it hard. He allies himself with Iago, who has his own grudge against Othello, and the two conspire to bring Othello down. When their first plan, to have him accused of witchcraft, fails, they plant evidence intended to make him believe Desdemona is unfaithful.

7.3

#15

The Lavender Hill Mob

1951 · 266 ratings

A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipments of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country.

7.2

#16

Summer Interlude

1951 · 165 ratings

During a brief summer vacation, a lonely woman recalls her first love thirteen years earlier.

7.4

#17

Rabbit Fire

1951 · 133 ratings

Daffy Duck and Bugs argue back and forth whether it is duck season or rabbit season. The object of their arguments is hunter Elmer Fudd.

7.4

#18

The River

1951 · 117 ratings

Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature—shot entirely on location in India—is a visual tour de force. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, the film eloquently contrasts the growing pains of three young women with the immutability of the Bengal river around which their daily lives unfold. Enriched by Renoir’s subtle understanding and appreciation for India and its people, The River gracefully explores the fragile connections between transitory emotions and everlasting creation.

7.2

#19

The Enforcer

1951 · 106 ratings

After years of investigation, Assistant District Attorney Martin Ferguson has managed to build a solid case against an elusive gangster whose top lieutenant is about to testify.

7.1

#20

Detective Story

1951 · 152 ratings

Tells the story of one day in the lives of the various people who populate a police detective squad. An embittered cop, Det. Jim McLeod, leads a precinct of characters in their grim daily battle with the city's lowlife. The characters who pass through the precinct over the course of the day include a young petty embezzler, a pair of burglars, and a naive shoplifter.

7.0

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About 1951 Movies

These are the best-rated movies released in 1951 according to MovieMagicScore. Our ranking system aggregates genuine viewer ratings to give you an honest picture of what audiences actually think about these films.

From blockbusters to indie gems, discover what made 1951 memorable in cinema based on the collective opinion of movie lovers worldwide.

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