73%  Winner:   Gigi  115 min,  G,  [Comedy, Musical, Romance]  [Vincente Minnelli]  [25 Jun 1958]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 68%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 79%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 9 Oscars. Another 12 wins & 9 nominations.
Actors:  Hermione Gingold, Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier
Writer:  Alan Jay Lerner (screen play), Colette (based on the novella by)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English, French    Country:  USA
Plot:  Weary of the conventions of Parisian society, a rich playboy and a youthful courtesan-in-training enjoy a platonic friendship, but it may not stay platonic for long. Gaston, the scion of a wealthy Parisian family finds emotional refuge from the superficial lifestyle of upper class Parisian 1900s society with the former mistress of his uncle and her outgoing, tomboy granddaughter, Gigi. When Gaston becomes aware that Gigi has matured into a woman, her grandmother and aunt, who have educated Gigi to be a wealthy man's mistress, urge the pair to act out their roles but love adds a surprise twist to this delightful turn-of-the 20th century Cinderella story.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Leslie Caron plays Gigi, a young girl raised by two veteran Parisian courtesans (Hermione Gingold and Isabel Jeans) to be the mistress of wealthy young Gaston (Louis Jourdan). When Gaston falls in love with Gigi and asks her to be his wife, Jeans is appalled: never has anyone in their family ever stooped to anything so bourgeois as marriage! Weaving in and out of the story is Maurice Chevalier as an aging boulevardier who, years earlier, had been in love with Gingold's character. Chevalier gets most of the best Lerner & Loewe tunes, including Thank Heaven for Little Girls, I'm Glad I'm Not Young Any More, and his matchless duet with Gingold, I Remember it Well. Caron's best number (dubbed by Betty Wand) is The Night They Invented Champagne while Jourdan gets the honor of introducing the title song. Filmed on location in Paris, Gigi won several Oscars, including Best Picture; it also represented the successful American movie comeback of Chevalier, who thanks to this film was "forgiven" for his reputed collaboration with the Nazis during World War II. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

86%  Nominee:   Auntie Mame  143 min,  Approved,  [Comedy, Drama, Romance]  [Morton DaCosta]  [27 Dec 1958]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 80%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 93%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Nominated for 6 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 6 nominations.
Actors:  Coral Browne, Forrest Tucker, Fred Clark, Rosalind Russell
Writer:  Betty Comden (screenplay), Adolph Green (screenplay), Patrick Dennis (from the novel: "Auntie Mame" by)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English, French, Russian, Hindi    Country:  USA
Plot:  Mame is an unconventional individualist socialite from the roaring 20's. When her brother dies, she is forced to raise her nephew Patrick. However, Patrick's father has designated an executor to his will to protect the boy from absorbing too much of Mame's rather unconventional perspective. Patrick and Mame become devoted to each other in spite of this restriction, and together journey through Patrick's childhood and the great depression, amidst some rather zaney adventures.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Auntie Mame began as a novel by Patrick Dennis (aka Ed Fitzgerald), then was adapted into a long-running Broadway play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. This 1958 film version permits Rosalind Russell to recreate her stage role as Mame Dennis, the flamboyant, devil-may-care aunt of young, impressionable Patrick Dennis. Left in Mame's care when his millionaire father drops dead, young Patrick (Jan Handzlik) is quickly indoctrinated into his aunt's philosophy that "Life is a banquet--and some poor suckers are starving to death." Social-climbing executor Dwight Babcock (Fred Clark) does his best to raise Patrick as a stuffy American aristocrat, but Mame battles Babcock to allow the boy to be as free-spirited as she is. In 1974, Auntie Mame was remade as the filmmusical Mame with Lucille Ball. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

89%  Nominee:   Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  108 min,  Not Rated,  [Drama]  [Richard Brooks]  [29 Aug 1958]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 81%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 97%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Nominated for 6 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 10 nominations.
Actors:  Burl Ives, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Carson, Paul Newman
Writer:  Richard Brooks (screenplay), James Poe (screenplay), Tennessee Williams (play)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  The family of "Big Daddy" Pollitt convenes at his and Big Momma's vast 28,000 acre East Mississippi plantation for his sixty-fifth birthday, although it may as well be for his funeral on the belief that he is dying. Despite his latest medical report being clean, in reality he truly does have terminal colon cancer, something the doctor only tells Big Daddy's two sons, Gooper Pollitt, a lawyer, and Brick Pollitt, who recently left his job as a sportscaster. Brooding Brick and his wife Maggie Pollitt, who have driven up from New Orleans for the occasion, are going through a long rough patch in their marriage. Brick wanted to split, but Maggie convinced him to stay married on the condition that she not pressure him for sex. In their troubles, Brick has turned to the bottle, leading to a drunken incident which has left Brick currently on crutches. Maggie believes Gooper and his wife Mae Pollitt are trying to orchestrate Brick out of Big Daddy's will. Brick and Maggie's saving grace is Big Daddy has greater affinity for them than Gooper and Mae. Maggie is beautiful and Brick was a star athlete, specifically in football and track. As Gooper and Mae have a sixth child on the way, Maggie also believes they could combat anything Gooper and Mae could do by having a child of their own. In his current state, Brick has contempt for everyone and everything around him, which includes Big Daddy's money. All Brick and Maggie's problems seem to center on their respective relationships with Brick's high school friend and football partner, Skipper, and events in their lives just prior to Skipper's death. What happens not only with Brick and Maggie but the entire Pollitt family may depend on if Brick can reconcile himself with his life, much of which is currently in Big Daddy's house, including Maggie.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Based on a play by Tennessee Williams, this intense, absorbing drama centers on a wealthy Southern family. Though he doesn't know it, the family father is slowly dying of cancer. However, the other family members are well aware of his imminent demise and have their eyes on his fortune.

73%  Nominee:   Separate Tables  100 min,  UNRATED,  [Drama, Romance]  [Delbert Mann]  [11 Feb 1959]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 75%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 71%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 2 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 15 nominations.
Actors:  David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Rita Hayworth, Wendy Hiller
Writer:  Terence Rattigan (screenplay), John Gay (screenplay), Terence Rattigan (based on a play by)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life at the Beauregard is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock is not what he appears to be. The news is particularly shocking for her frail daughter, Sibyl, who is secretly in love with the Major.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Based on Terence Rattigan's play, Separate Tables is about a number of characters and their adventures at a British seaside hotel. Among the guests are an alleged war hero (David Niven), a timid spinster (Deborah Kerr) and her domineering mother (Gladys Cooper), and a divorced couple (Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth) trying to re-ignite their romance despite the presence of his mistress (Wendy Hiller). All of the characters' lives become intertwined in the course of the film as the story examines love affairs and secrets. Separate Tables is a fine, textured drama, filled with terrific performances and was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Deborah Kerr), Best Actor (David Niven), Best Supporting Actress (Wendy Hiller), Best Screenplay From Another Medium, Best Cinematography and Best Music. Niven and Hiller won Oscars for the film.

79%  Nominee:   The Defiant Ones  96 min,  Approved,  [Crime, Drama]  [Stanley Kramer]  [27 Sep 1958]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 77%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 81%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 2 Oscars. Another 12 wins & 21 nominations.
Actors:  Charles McGraw, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel, Tony Curtis
Writer:  Nedrick Young, Harold Jacob Smith
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  When the truck that is transporting convicts has an accident on the road, the inmates John "Joker" Jackson and Noah Cullen that are chained to each other escape. They hate each other but they need to help each other to succeed in their intent of going north to jump in a train and reach freedom. Meanwhile the humane Sheriff Max Muller organizes a posse to track them down in a civilized manner and respecting justice. Joker and Cullen reach a small farm where a lonely woman helps them to get rid of their chains. She offers to drive her car with Joker and her son Billy while Cullen would escape through the swamp to the railroad. But when Joker learns that she sent Cullen to a trap, he leaves her and is shot in the shoulder by Billy. Joker seeks out Cullen to save him and when they meet each other, their former hatred has changed to friendship and respect.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Convicts Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier escape from a chain gang. Curtis' character, John "Joker" Jackson, hates blacks, while Poitier's character, Noah Cullen, hates whites. However, the men are manacled together, forced to rely on each other to survive. Captured at one point by a lynch-happy mob, the convicts are rescued by Big Sam (Lon Chaney Jr.), himself a former convict. The men are later sheltered by a lonely, love-hungry widow played by Cara Williams, who offers to turn in Cullen if Joker will stay with her. By the time the two men are within hailing distance of a train that might take them to freedom, they have become friends. The script for The Defiant Ones is credited to Harold Jacob Smith and Nathan E. Douglas. The latter was really Nedrick Young, a blacklisted writer, whom producer Stanley Kramer hired knowing full well that Young was using an alias (when "Douglas"' credit appears onscreen, it is superimposed over a close-up of a truck driver -- played by Nedrick Young). Both the script and the photography by Sam Leavitt won Academy Awards. If you look closely, you'll notice that the actor playing Angus is former Little Rascal Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, making his last screen appearance. The Defiant Ones was remade for TV in 1986, with Robert Urich and Carl Weathers in the leads.