Sorry to jump so far back in time, but I'm honestly a little sick of talking about films from the 90s. I don't recall ever having much discussion on films from the 50s, so I figured we could start here. There is no format for this like the other's, but as for myself I'm listing 5 or near 5 star films from each year of the decade. If the day comes when I finalize a top ten or top 15 list for each year, then I'll probably edit it, but for now, just listing each film that would be worthy of such a list. Rather than use my ridiculous methods of tracking down US release dates, again it's all international release dates as supplied by allmovie.com (which recently changed their format much to my disappointment).

1950 
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa / Japan)
Adam's Rib (George Cukor / US)
La Ronde (Max Ophuls / France)
Los Olvidados (Luis Bunuel / Mexico)
Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder / US)
Orpheus (Jean Cocteau / France)
In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray / US)
All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz / US)
Father of the Bride (Vincente Minelli / US)
Night and the City (Jules Dassin / UK)
The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston / US)
Born Yesterday (George Cukor / US)
Harvey (Henry Koster / US)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (Otto Preminger / US)
Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske / US)
Diary of a Country Priest (Robert Bresson / France)

1951 
Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder / US)
Early Summer (Yasujiro Ozu / Japan)
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock / US)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise / US)
A Place in the Sun (George Stevens / US)
A Christmas Carol (Brian Desmond Hurst / UK)
Detective Story (William Wyler / US)
A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan / US)
An American in Paris (Vincente Minelli / US)
Miracle in Milan (Vittorio De Seca / Italy)

1952
Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly / US)
High Noon (Fred Zinnemann / US)
Othello (Orson Welles / France, Italy, Morocco)
Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa / Japan)
The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincente Minelli / US)
Umberto D (Vittorio De Seca / Italy)
The Narrow Margin (Richard Fliescher / US)

1953 
Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu / Japan)
From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann / US)
The Big Heat (Fritz Lang / US)
Voyage in Italy (Roberto Rosellini / Italy)
Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi / Japan)
Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller / US)
The Bandwagon (Vincente Minnelli / US)
Glen or Glenda? (Edward D. Wood Jr. / US)

1954 
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen / US)
On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan / US)
The Crucified Lovers (Kenji Mizoguchi / Japan)
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa / Japan)
A Generation (Andrzej Wajda / Poland)
Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi / Japan)
Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray / India)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock / US)
A Star is Born (George Cukor / US)
La Strada (Federico Fellini / Italy)
Sabrina (Billy Wilder / US)
Creature From the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold / US)

1955
Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer / Denmark)
Lola Montes (Max Ophuls / France)
Marty (Delbert Mann / US)
Diabolique (Henri Georges Clouzot / France)
Night and Fog (Alain Resnais / France)
Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray / US)
East of Eden (Elia Kazan / US) 
Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich / US)
Smiles of a Summer Night (Ingmar Bergman / Sweden)
The Man With the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger / US)
Rififi (Jules Dassin / France)
Summertime (David Lean / US, UK)
Mr. Roberts (John Ford, Mervyn Leroy / US)
Richard III (Laurence Olivier / UK)
The Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske / US)
The Man From Laramie (Anthony Mann / US)

1956
Bigger than Life (Nicholas Ray / US)
The Ten Commandments (Cecile B. DeMille / US)
The Searchers (John Ford / US)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Spiegel / US)
A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson / France)
The Killing (Stanley Kubrick / US)
Forbidden Planet (Fred Wilcox / US)
Bus Stop (Joshua Logan / US)

1957
Funny Face (Stanley Donen / US)
Kanal (Andrzej Wajda / Poland)
Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean / US, UK)
The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman / Sweden)
12 Angry Men (Sydney Lumet / US)
Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman / Sweden)
Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick / US)
The Cranes are Flying (Mikhail Kalatozov / USSR)
Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa / Japan)
Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini / Italy)
Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder / US)
Aparajito (Satyajit Ray / India)
Les Girls (George Cukor / US)
The Lower Depths (Akira Kurosawa / Japan)
Peyton Place (Mark Robson / US)
Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (John Huston / US) 
Tokyo Twilight (Yasujiro Ozu / Japan)
Il Grido (Michelangelo Antonioni / Italy)

1958
Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda / Poland)
The Magician (Ingmar Bergman / Sweden)
Touch of Evil (Orson Welles / US)
Mon Oncle (Jacques Tati / France, Italy)
Some Came Running (Vincente Minelli / US)
Man of the West (Anthony Mann / US)
South Pacific (Joshua Logan / US)
Look Back in Anger (Tony Richardson / UK)
Eroica (Andrzej Munk / Poland)

1959
Ben-Hur (William Wyler / US)
The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut / France)
Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder / US)
General Della Rovere (Roberto Rossellini / France, Italy)
Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks / US)
Good Morning (Yasujiro Ozu / Japan)
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson / France)
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock / US)
The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray / India)
Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger / US)
Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli / Italy)
Shadows (John Cassevettes / US)

*Edited for Glen or Glenda?