List of Films Based On Actual Events - 1950s

1950s

• Young Man with a Horn (1950) — Self-taught cornetist Bix Beiderbecke sets new jazz standards, but succumbs to alcoholism at 28.
• 5 Fingers (1951) — James Mason plays Cicero, World War II-era spy in Ankara, Turkey, the highest-paid spy in history.
• The Desert Fox (1951) — German general Erwin Rommel evades the Allies in North Africa, but not the Gestapo back home.
• A Place in the Sun (1951) — Update of Dreiser's An American Tragedy; Chester Gillette was executed for drowning pregnant girlfriend.
• Moulin Rouge (1952) — John Huston's colorful film about artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
• Houdini (1953) — Fanciful account of the life of magician and escapologist Harry Houdini starring Tony Curtis.
• Titanic (1953) — Film about the RMS Titanic.
• The Dam Busters (1955) — Technically challenging raids against German dams in WWII required development of "bouncing bombs."
• To Hell and Back (1955) — Audie Murphy, America's most decorated soldier, played himself at studio's urging; he wanted Tony Curtis.
• Lust for Life (1956) — Force-of-Nature painter Vincent van Gogh, played by Kirk Douglas. Anthony Quinn plays Paul Gauguin.
• The Wrong Man (1956) — Hitchcock effort with Henry Fonda as a man wrongly accused of armed robbery.
• Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) — Life of silent film actor Lon Chaney, Sr., child of deaf-mute parents, played by James Cagney.
• The Spirit of St. Louis (1957) — Charles Lindbergh's first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, with James Stewart as "Lucky Lindy."
• I Want to Live! (1958) — Heavily fictionalized story of Barbara Graham, a woman convicted of murder and facing execution.
• A Night to Remember (1958) — Documentary-style telling of the Titanic's demise, from the still-definitive 1955 book by Walter Lord.