2015 marks the 120th anniversary of sf cinema. This is the third part of a year-by-year list of films I’d recommend (not always for the same reasons), and there are a few years where there is little to recommend for any reason.
Part one (1895-1914), part two (1915-1934) – both of which have lots of links to actual films rather than just occasional pictures…
1935
Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale)
Kosmitchesky Reis/The Space Ship (Vasili Zhuravlev)
Mad Love (Karl Freund)
1936
The Devil Doll (Tod Browning)
Flash Gordon (Frederick Stephani)
The Invisible Ray (Lambert Hillyer)
The Man Who Changed His Mind (Robert Stevenson)
Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies)
1937
Q Planes (Tim Whelan, Arthur Woods)
1938
The Big Broadcast of 1938 (Mitchell Leisen)
1939
The Man They Could Not Hang (Nick Grinde)
Return of Dr X (Vincent Sherman)
1940
Before I Hang (Nick Grinde)
Black Friday (Arthur Lubin)
Dr Cyclops (Ernest B. Schoedsack)
The Man with Nine Lives (Nick Grinde)
Son of Frankenstein (Rowland Lee)
1941
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Victor Fleming)
1943
The Mad Ghoul (James P. Hogan)
1944
Time Flies (Walter Forde)
The Man in Half Moon Street (Ralph M. Murphy)
1949
The Perfect Woman (Bernard Knowles)
Siren of Atlantis (Greg Tallas)
1950
Destination Moon (Irving Pichel)
1951
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise)
Five (Arch Oboler)
The Man from Planet X (Edgar G. Ulmer)
The Man in the White Suit (Alexander Mackendrick)
The Thing (from another World) (Christian Nyby)
1952
Monkey Business (Howard Hawks)
1953
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (Eugene Lourié)
Four-Sided Triangle (Terence Fisher)
Invaders from Mars (William Cameron Menzies)
It Came from Outer Space (Jack Arnold)
1954
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold)
Gojira (Ishirô Honda)
Them! (Gordon Douglas)