National Board of Review

1953 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerFrom Here to EternityIn Hawaii in 1941, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second-in-command are falling in love.AmazonJulius CaesarThe growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar, but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.AmazonLiliAn orphaned young woman becomes part of a puppet act and forms a relationship with the anti-social puppeteer.AmazonLittle FugitiveA young boy fears that he shot his older brother, who is only faking. He then runs away to Coney Island, a crowded beach area, and gets money by returning soda bottles for their deposits.AmazonMart...

1952 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films Winner5 FingersDuring WWII the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.AmazonAbove and BeyondCol. Paul Tibbetts piloted the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in World War 2.AmazonHigh NoonA town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at high noon when the gang leader, an outlaw he sent up years ago, arrives on the noon train.AmazonLimelightA fading comedian and a suicidally despondent ballet dancer must look to each other to find purpose and hope in their lives.AmazonMy Son JohnThe Jeffersons are the ideal picture-perfect all-American family in a small t...

1951 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerA Place in the SunA poor boy gets a job working for his rich uncle and ends up falling in love with two women.AmazonA Streetcar Named DesireDisturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.AmazonAn American in ParisThree friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.AmazonDeath of a SalesmanAn over-the-hill salesman faces a personal turning point when he loses his job and attempts to make peace with his family.AmazonDecision Before DawnAs the US Army approaches Nazi Germany, they recruit German prisoners to spy behind German lines.AmazonDetective StoryOn one day in ...

1950 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerAll About EveAn ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends.AmazonCyrano de BergeracThe charismatic swordsman-poet helps another woo the woman he loves in this straightforward version of the play.AmazonEdge of DoomA mentally unbalanced young man kills a priest. One of the priest's colleagues sets out to find the killer.AmazonNo Way OutA black doctor is assigned to treat two white racist suspects who are brothers, and when one dies, it causes tension that could start a race riot.AmazonPanic in the StreetsA doctor and a policeman in New Orleans have only 48 hours to locate a killer infected with pneumonic plague.AmazonStage FrightA struggling actress tries to help a f...

1949 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerA Letter to Three WivesA letter is addressed to three wives from their "best friend" Addie Ross, announcing that she is running away with one of their husbands...but she does not say which one.AmazonBicycle ThievesIn post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen. He and his son set out to find it.AmazonDevil in the FleshDuring World War I, the star-crossed affair of an underage French student with a woman engaged to a soldier.AmazonGermany Year ZeroA young German boy faces the problems of the tough life in the immediate post WWII Berlin.AmazonHome of the BraveDuring WW2, a reconnaissance platoon is sent to map out a Japanese-held island but racial tensions arise between the white soldiers and the only black member of the group.A...

1948 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerDay of WrathThe young wife of an aging priest falls in love with his son amidst the horror of a merciless witch hunt in 17th century Denmark.AmazonHamletPrince Hamlet struggles over whether or not he should kill his uncle, whom he suspects has murdered his father, the former King.AmazonJoan of ArcThe abbreviated life of the 15th Century French heroine.AmazonJohnny BelindaIn post-war Cape Breton, a doctor's efforts to tutor a deaf/mute woman are undermined when she is raped, and the resulting pregnancy causes scandal to swirl.AmazonLouisiana StoryThe idyllic life of a young Cajun boy and his pet raccoon is disrupted when the tranquility of the bayou is broken by an oil well drilling near his home.AmazonPaisanThe language barrier has tragic...

1947 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerBoomerang!The true story of a prosecutor's fight to prove the innocence of a man accused of a notorious murder.AmazonCrossfireA man is murdered, apparently by one of a group of demobilized soldiers he met in a bar. But which one? And why?AmazonGentleman's AgreementA reporter pretends to be Jewish in order to cover a story on anti-Semitism, and personally discovers the true depths of bigotry and hatred.AmazonGreat ExpectationsA humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.AmazonIt's a Wonderful LifeAn angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.AmazonMonsieur VerdouxA suave but cynical man supports his famil...

1946 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerA Walk in the SunDuring WWII, a platoon of American soldiers trudge through the Italian countryside in search of a bridge they have been ordered to blow up, encountering danger and destruction along the way.AmazonAnna and the King of SiamIn 1862, a young Englishwoman becomes royal tutor in Siam and befriends the King.AmazonBrief EncounterMeeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.AmazonHenry VIn the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.AmazonIt Happened at the InnIn a french lost village an old woman is killed and her savings stolen. Several members of her family, all called:"Goupi-...", are suspected.AmazonMy Darling Clementin...

1945 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerA Tree Grows in BrooklynEncouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.AmazonStory of G.I. JoeDuring WW2, Pulitzer prize winner and war correspondent Ernie Pyle joins the army and writes articles about his comrades in his daily columns.AmazonThe ClockIn 1945, during a 48-hour leave, a soldier accidentally meets a girl at Pennsylvania Station and spends his leave with her, eventually falling in love with the lovely New Yorker.AmazonThe Fighting LadyThe film follows the WWII exploits of the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-10) (unidentified in the film), in its first major operations following its commissioning in 1943. ...AmazonTh...

1944 National Board of Review - Top Ten Films WinnerGoing My WayFather Charles O'Malley, a young priest at a financially failing Church in a tough neighborhood, gains support and inspires his superior.AmazonHail the Conquering HeroWoodrow is discharged from the military for hay fever, but fabricates receiving a heroic honorable discharge before returning home.AmazonLifeboatSeveral survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship in World War II find themselves in the same lifeboat with one of the U-boat men who sunk it.AmazonMeet Me in St. LouisIn the year leading up to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, the four Smith daughters learn lessons of life and love, even as they prepare for a reluctant move to New York.AmazonNone But the Lonely HeartWhen an itinerant reluctantly returns home to help his sic...