Top 75 Ranked

Best 1966 Movies of All Time

Classic Masterpieces and Cinematic Legends

Explore the best films from a landmark year in cinema history. From Western epics to avant-garde dramas, discover the top-rated movies of the mid-sixties.

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About Movies in 1966

If you want to pinpoint the exact moment when the old guard of Hollywood began to crumble while the rest of the world sprinted toward the future, look no further than 1966. It was a year of profound transition, a bridge between the polished studio systems of the past and the gritty, experimental revolution that would define the late sixties. Cinema was no longer just about entertainment. It was becoming a weapon, a mirror, and a fever dream.

In America, the crumbling of the Motion Picture Production Code changed everything. For decades, the Hays Code had acted as a moral straightjacket, but Mike Nichols ripped it apart with Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton traded vitriolic, booze-soaked insults that would have been censored just years earlier. This film proved that audiences were hungry for psychological brutality and adult realism. Meanwhile, John Ford, the titan of the classic Western, released his final film, Seven Women. It felt like the closing of a chapter, especially as a new kind of Western was being born in Europe.

That year, Sergio Leone unleashed The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It was the definitive Spaghetti Western, replacing the white-hat heroism of old Hollywood with cynical, sweat-stained anti-heroes and Ennio Morricone’s haunting, unconventional score. It signaled that the center of gravity for genre filmmaking was shifting away from California.

Across the Atlantic, the international art house scene was hitting its stride. Michelangelo Antonioni moved to London to film Blow-Up, a stylish, paranoid masterpiece that captured the frantic energy of the Swinging Sixties while questioning the very nature of reality. It was a massive hit, proving that mainstream audiences were ready for ambiguous endings and complex visual metaphors. In France, Robert Bresson gave us Au Hasard Balthazar, a devastatingly beautiful film about a donkey that remains one of the most spiritual experiences in cinema history.

Innovation was everywhere. John Frankenheimer released Seconds, a chilling sci-fi noir that used distorted lenses to capture a modern identity crisis. Even the blockbusters were getting smarter and weirder. Grand Prix used split-screen techniques to revolutionize how we saw speed on screen, while Fantastic Voyage shrunk the human imagination down to a microscopic level.

Culturally, 1966 was the year that global cinema became truly interconnected. You could see a samurai epic like Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another in the same breath as a British historical drama like A Man for All Seasons, which would go on to sweep the Oscars. It was a year where the high-brow and the low-brow started to bleed into one another.

Film fans remember 1966 because it felt like the world was waking up. The colors were more vivid, the stories were more daring, and the rules were being rewritten in real time. It was the last year of cinema’s innocence and the first year of its modern sophistication. By the time the credits rolled on 1966, the movies had changed forever, and there was no going back.

The Complete Rankings

Based on the top picks in drafts on SnakeDrafts

See Top Ten
75
1966 in Father's Trip (1966)
Father's Trip
1966

Determined to assert his paternal rights, Quentin leaves his small village on the Swiss border to go to Lyon to look for his daughter, now a hairdresser, who, busy with her work, hasn't been back to the village for two years. In a few days, it will be Denise's birthday, the youngest of his daughters, and, urged on by his wife, he sets off, determined to bring the prodigal son back to the family celebration. But Denise is now living off her charms.

Drama
1h 30m
Denys de La Patellière
Fernandel, Lilli Palmer, Laurent Terzieff, Philippe Noiret
74
1966 in The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966)
The Spy with a Cold Nose
1966

A dog with a spying device under its skin is sent to the Russian government as a present. When the Russians send the dog to a veterinary, British intelligence must get to the dog first and retrieve the spying device.

Comedy
1h 33m
Daniel Petrie
Laurence Harvey, Daliah Lavi, Lionel Jeffries, Eric Sykes
73
1966 in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
1966

A wily slave must unite a virgin courtesan and his young smitten master to earn his freedom.

Music
Comedy
Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford, Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton

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72
1966 in Pharaoh (1966)
Pharaoh
1966

Young Pharaoh Ramses XIII clashes with Egypt's clergy over influence on the affairs of the state and its coffers. inexperienced, but quite ambitious pharaoh is putting up a fight against a powerful clan of priests usurping rule over the country.

History
Drama
2h 31m
Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Jerzy Zelnik, Wiesława Mazurkiewicz, Barbara Brylska, Krystyna Mikołajewska
71
1966 in Ambush Bay (1966)
Ambush Bay
1966

A Marine unit on a Japanese-held island in the Philippines tries to hook up with local Filipino guerrillas.

War
Drama
1h 49m
Ron Winston
Hugh O'Brian, Mickey Rooney, James Mitchum, Greg Amsterdam
70
Landlady and Tenant
1966

Sau-chen goes out with the tenant Wong Chun-ching over the protests of her class-conscious parents Eighth Uncle and his wife. To foot the medical bills of his mother, Sau-chen works as a promoter at the Products Expo for Lung Wah Pharmacy and attracts the unwanted attention of the boss Chin Hoi-ngan. Chin desires the woman as a concubine. Acting on the advice of his subordinate Chiu Chik, the boss invents a phantom son and proposes marriage with the offer of a handsome dowry. The employee Wong, short of cash and needs money fast, is drafted as his saviour to meet the parents when the plot is duly exposed. Teaming up with his tenants, Eighth Uncle invites the henpecked husband's termagant wife along and causes a scene. In gratitude of their efforts, the landlord and his wife give blessings to their daughter and her lover.

Comedy
1h 47m
Mok Hong-See
Ting Ying, Paul Chu Kong, Helena Law Lan, Ko Lo-Chuen
69
1966 in Madame X (1966)
Madame X
1966

Holly Parker, the wife of a wealthy diplomat, is compromised by the accidental death of a man who has been romantically pursuing her. She is forced by her mother-in-law to assume a new identity in order to save the reputation of her husband and infant son. She wanders the world, trying to forget her heartbreak with the aid of alcohol and unsavory men. Eventually returning to the city of her downfall, she murders a blackmailer who threatens to expose her past. Amazingly, Holly is represented at her murder trial by her now adult son, who has become a public defender. In the hope of protecting her family, she refuses to reveal her real name and is known to the court as "Madame X".

Drama
Crime
1h 40m
David Lowell Rich
Lana Turner, John Forsythe, Constance Bennett, Ricardo Montalban
68
1966 in Africa Blood and Guts (1966)
Africa Blood and Guts
1966

A chronicle of the violence that occurred in much of the African continent throughout the 1960s. As many African countries were transitioning from colonial rule to other forms of government, violent political upheavals were frequent. Revolutions in Zanzibar and Kenya in which thousands were killed are shown, the violence not only political; there is also extensive footage of hunters and poachers slaughtering different types of wild animals.

Documentary
History
2h 18m
Gualtiero Jacopetti
Sergio Rossi, Jomo Kenyatta, Gualtiero Jacopetti, Julius Nyerere
67
1966 in The Family Way (1966)
The Family Way
1966

Young newlyweds Arthur and Jenny Fitton want nothing more than to get their marriage started on the right foot. But before they can depart for their honeymoon in Spain, they have to spend their first night together at the home of Arthur's parents. The couple are prevented from having any intimacy, but it only gets worse. They find out that their trip to Spain is canceled, which sets the tone for a rocky few weeks.

Comedy
Drama
1h 55m
Roy Boulting
Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett, John Mills, Marjorie Rhodes
66
1966 in The Idol (1966)
The Idol
1966

A rebellious student embarks on an affair with the mother of his best friend, leading to disastrous consequences.

Drama
1h 49m
Daniel Petrie
Jennifer Jones, Michael Parks, John Leyton, Jennifer Hilary
65
1966 in Gamera vs. Barugon (1966)
Gamera vs. Barugon
1966

Gamera escapes from his rocket enclosure and makes his way back to Earth as a giant opal from New Guinea is brought back to Japan. The opal is discovered to have been an egg that births a new monster called Barugon. The creature attacks the city of Osaka by emitting a destructive rainbow ray from his back, along with a freezing spray capable of incapacitating Gamera.

Fantasy
Action
1h 46m
Shigeo Tanaka
Kōjirō Hongō, Kyōko Enami, Yūzō Hayakawa, Takuya Fujioka
64
1966 in The Defector (1966)
The Defector
1966

An American scientist is sent by the CIA to East Germany to retrieve a secret microfilm from a Soviet scientist interested in defecting to the West but the Stasi secret police's surveillance complicates matters.

Drama
Thriller
1h 40m
Raoul Lévy
Montgomery Clift, Hardy Krüger, Macha Méril, David Opatoshu
63
1966 in Return of the Seven (1966)
Return of the Seven
1966

Chico, one of the remaining members of The Magnificent Seven, now lives in the town that they (The Seven) helped. One day someone comes and takes most of the men prisoner. His wife seeks out Chris, the leader of The Seven for help. Chris also meets Vin another member of The Seven. They find four other men and they go to help Chico.

Western
1h 35m
Burt Kennedy
Yul Brynner, Robert Fuller, Julián Mateos, Warren Oates
62
1966 in Johnny Tiger (1966)
Johnny Tiger
1966

Teacher George Dean packs up his children to accept a job instructing Native American children on a Seminole reservation in Florida.

Drama
Western
1h 42m
Paul Wendkos
Robert Taylor, Geraldine Brooks, Chad Everett, Brenda Scott
61
1966 in Mister Buddwing (1966)
Mister Buddwing
1966

An amnesiac wanders the streets of Manhattan, trying to solve the mystery of who he is.

Drama
Mystery
1h 40m
Delbert Mann
James Garner, Suzanne Pleshette, Jean Simmons, Katharine Ross
60
1966 in The Singing Nun (1966)
The Singing Nun
1966

Belgian nun Sister Ann is sent to another order where she's at first committed to helping troubled souls, like Nichole and little Dominic. When Father Clementi hears Sister Ann's uplifting singing style, he takes her to a talent contest. Sister Ann is signed to a record deal and everyone is listening to her lighthearted songs. She is unprepared for her newfound fame (like appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show) and unwanted side effects, including a wrongful attraction to an old friend.

Music
Comedy
1h 37m
Henry Koster
Debbie Reynolds, Ricardo Montalban, Greer Garson, Agnes Moorehead
59
1966 in Harper (1966)
Harper
1966

Harper is a cynical private eye in the best tradition of Bogart. He even has Bogie's Baby hiring him to find her missing husband, getting involved along the way with an assortment of unsavory characters and an illegal-alien smuggling ring.

Mystery
Crime
2h 1m
Jack Smight
Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill
58
1966 in Any Wednesday (1966)
Any Wednesday
1966

Ellen Gordon, a New York executive's mistress falls for the executive's young business associate when the young man is accidentally sent to use the apartment where the executive and his mistress get together every Wednesday. More complications arise when the executive's wife shows up with plans to redecorate the apartment.

Comedy
Romance
1h 49m
Robert Ellis Miller
Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, Dean Jones, Rosemary Murphy
57
1966 in The Rare Breed (1966)
The Rare Breed
1966

When her husband dies en route to America, Martha Price and her daughter Hilary are left to carry out his dream: the introduction of Hereford cattle into the American West. They enlist Sam "Bulldog" Burnett in their efforts to transport their lone bull, a Hereford named Vindicator, to a breeder in Texas, but the trail is fraught with danger and even Burnett doubts the survival potential of this "rare breed" of cattle.

Western
1h 37m
Andrew V. McLaglen
James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Juliet Mills
56
1966 in The Chase (1966)
The Chase
1966

The escape of Bubber Reeves from prison affects the inhabitants of a small Southern town.

Crime
Drama
2h 15m
Arthur Penn
55
1966 in Penelope (1966)
Penelope
1966

When Penelope gets married to banker James Elcott, she finds him too preoccupied with work to pay much attention to her, so she robs his bank in disguise. After she confesses to her psychiatrist, Greg Mannix, he offers to return the money for her, as he is secretly in love with her. However, he abandons the money when the police approach. Penelope becomes determined to admit to the crime, but neither James nor the police believe her story.

Comedy
Crime
1h 38m
Arthur Hiller
Natalie Wood, Ian Bannen, Dick Shawn, Peter Falk
54
1966 in Khartoum (1966)
Khartoum
1966

English General Charles George Gordon is appointed military governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by the Prime Minister. Ordered to evacuate Egyptians from the Sudan, Gordon stays on to protect the people of Khartoum, who are under threat of being conquered by a Muslim army.

History
War
2h 14m
Basil Dearden
Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Richard Johnson, Ralph Richardson
53
1966 in Georgy Girl (1966)
Georgy Girl
1966

A homely but vivacious young woman dodges the amorous attentions of her father's middle-aged employer while attempting to please her glamorously stuck-up roommate Meredith.

Comedy
Drama
1h 39m
Silvio Narizzano
Lynn Redgrave, James Mason, Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling
52
1966 in After the Fox (1966)
After the Fox
1966

A criminal mastermind sets up a phony film production as part of a plan to smuggle stolen gold.

Crime
Comedy
Peter Sellers, Victor Mature, Britt Ekland, Martin Balsam
51
1966 in Not With My Wife, You Don't! (1966)
Not With My Wife, You Don't!
1966

During the Korean War, Italian nurse Virna Lisi falls in love with two American fliers, Tony Curtis and George C. Scott. Lisi marries Curtis after he convinces her that Scott has been killed in a plane crash. She soon discovers Scott is alive, but remains happily married to Curtis until Scott re-enters their lives 14 years later.

Comedy
Romance
1h 59m
Norman Panama
Tony Curtis, Virna Lisi, George C. Scott, Carroll O'Connor
50
1966 in The Group (1966)
The Group
1966

It's 1933, and eight young women are friends and members of the upper-class group at a private girl's school, about to graduate and start their own lives. The film documents the years between their graduation and the beginning of the World War in Europe, and shows, in a serialized style, their romances and marriages, their searches for careers or meaning in their lives, their highs and their lows.

Drama
Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, Elizabeth Hartman, Shirley Knight
49
1966 in Hawaii (1966)
Hawaii
1966

Abner Hale, a rigid and humorless New England missionary, marries the beautiful Jerusha Bromley and takes her to the exotic island kingdom of Hawaii, intent on converting the natives. But the clash between the two cultures is too great and instead of understanding there comes tragedy.

Drama
Adventure
3h 9m
George Roy Hill
Julie Andrews, Max von Sydow, Richard Harris, Gene Hackman
48
1966 in Modesty Blaise (1966)
Modesty Blaise
1966

Modesty Blaise, a secret agent whose hair color, hair style, and mod clothing change at a snap of her fingers is being used by the British government as a decoy in an effort to thwart a diamond heist. She is being set up by the feds but is wise to the plot and calls in sidekick Willie Garvin and a few other friends to outsmart them. Meanwhile, at his island hideaway, Gabriel, the diamond thief has his own plans for Blaise and Garvin.

Comedy
Crime
2h 0m
Joseph Losey
Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, Dirk Bogarde, Harry Andrews
47
1966 in Mademoiselle (1966)
Mademoiselle
1966

A sexually repressed school teacher releases her pent up passions in a series of shocking crimes.

Drama
1h 45m
Tony Richardson
Jeanne Moreau, Ettore Manni, Keith Skinner, Umberto Orsini
46
1966 in The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1966)
The Birds, the Bees and the Italians
1966

An anthology presents three storylines, all set in the Italian town of Treviso: A husband pretends to be impotent as a cover for having an affair; a bank clerk abandons his wife for his mistress, but the rest of the town's husbands become jealous and unite to conspire against them; and local men all seduce a promiscuous young woman, but when her father eventually reveals that she is underage, they all face prosecution for statutory rape.

Comedy
1h 55m
Pietro Germi
Virna Lisi, Gastone Moschin, Nora Ricci, Alberto Lionello
45
1966 in Duel at Diablo (1966)
Duel at Diablo
1966

In Apache territory, a supply Army column heads for the next fort, an ex-scout searches for the killer of his Native wife, and a housewife abandons her husband to rejoin her Apache lover's tribe.

Western
1h 45m
Ralph Nelson
James Garner, Sidney Poitier, Bill Travers, Bibi Andersson
44
1966 in Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966)
Ride Beyond Vengeance
1966

Jonas Trapp falls in love with the beautiful Jessie, a wealthy girl out of his humble class. Against the wishes of her snobbish aunt, she marries him, later faking a pregnancy to win her aunt's consent. But Jonas tires of living off of his wife's family, and eventually deserts her to become a buffalo hunter. 11 years later, with his self-made fortune, he sets out to return home, only to be set upon by three sadistic marauders, who steal his money and leave him for dead. Rescued by a farmer who nurses him back to health, Jonas becomes consumed by the desire for revenge. As fate would have it, all three men live close to Jonas' former home. Matters quickly get worse when Jonas reunites with his wife, only to discover that she is now engaged to Renne.

Western
Action
1h 41m
Bernard McEveety
Chuck Connors, Michael Rennie, Kathryn Hays, Joan Blondell
43
1966 in Torn Curtain (1966)
Torn Curtain
1966

During the Cold War, an American scientist appears to defect to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the formula for a resin solution—but the plan goes awry when his fiancee, unaware of his motivation, follows him across the border.

Thriller
Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova, Hansjörg Felmy
42
1966 in Way... Way Out (1966)
Way... Way Out
1966

A platonically wed American couple run a lunar weather station near an unwed Soviet couple.

Comedy
Science Fiction
1h 41m
Gordon Douglas
Jerry Lewis, Connie Stevens, Robert Morley, Dennis Weaver
41
1966 in Is Paris Burning? (1966)
Is Paris Burning?
1966

Near the end of World War II, Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz receives orders to burn down Paris if it becomes clear the Allies are going to invade, or if he cannot maintain control of the city. After much contemplation Choltitz decides to ignore his orders, enraging the Germans and giving hope to various resistance factions that the city will be liberated. Choltitz, along with Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling, helps a resistance leader organize his forces.

War
Drama
2h 53m
René Clément
Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron, Jean-Pierre Cassel
40
1966 in Grand Prix (1966)
Grand Prix
1966

The most daring drivers in the world have gathered to compete for the 1966 Formula One championship. After a spectacular wreck in the first of a series of races, American wheelman Pete Aron is dropped by his sponsor. Refusing to quit, he joins a Japanese racing team. While juggling his career with a torrid love affair involving an ex-teammate's wife, Pete must also contend with Jean-Pierre Sarti, a French contestant who has previously won two world titles.

Action
Drama
James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Toshirō Mifune
39
1966 in The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
The Quiller Memorandum
1966

After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.

Thriller
Drama
1h 44m
Michael Anderson
George Segal, Alec Guinness, Max von Sydow, Senta Berger
38
1966 in The Creatures (1966)
The Creatures
1966

A writer decides to use the strange inhabitants of a small island as a basis for characters in his new book.

Drama
Mystery
1h 34m
Agnès Varda
Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, Eva Dahlbeck, Marie-France Mignal
37
1966 in Blindfold (1966)
Blindfold
1966

A patient being psychoanalyzed by Dr. Snow is a government scientist. General Pratt hides him in a secret place known as "Base X," forcing Dr. Snow to wear a blindfold whenever he is taken there ...

Comedy
Romance
1h 42m
Philip Dunne
Rock Hudson, Claudia Cardinale, Jack Warden, Guy Stockwell
36
1966 in Nevada Smith (1966)
Nevada Smith
1966

Nevada Smith is the young son of an Indian mother and white father. When his father is killed by three men over gold, Nevada sets out to find them and kill them. The boy is taken in by a gun merchant. The gun merchant shows him how to shoot and to shoot on time and correct.

Western
2h 8m
Henry Hathaway
Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy
35
1966 in What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)
What's Up, Tiger Lily?
1966

In comic Woody Allen's film debut, he took the Japanese action film "International Secret Police: Key of Keys" and re-dubbed it, changing the plot to make it revolve around a secret egg salad recipe.

Action
Comedy
Tatsuya Mihashi, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama, Tadao Nakamaru
34
1966 in Lt. Robin Crusoe U.S.N. (1966)
Lt. Robin Crusoe U.S.N.
1966

Lt. Robin Crusoe is a navy pilot who bails out of his plane after engine trouble. He reaches a deserted island paradise where he builds a house and begins to adjust to life. He is in for trouble however when a local girl is banished to the island by her father, who then comes after Crusoe.

Adventure
Comedy
1h 53m
Byron Paul
Dick Van Dyke, Nancy Kwan, Akim Tamiroff, Arthur Malet
33
1966 in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)
Paradise, Hawaiian Style
1966

Blacklisted by the major airlines for endlessly chasing female staff, pilot Rick Richards returns to Hawaii to set up a helicopter charter company with his friend Danny. Having a girl on every island is a good way to get business but it becomes clear that romance and flying don't always mix.

Music
Comedy
1h 31m
Michael D. Moore
Elvis Presley, Suzanna Leigh, James Shigeta, Marianna Hill
32
1966 in Fantastic Voyage (1966)
Fantastic Voyage
1966

In order to save an assassinated scientist, a submarine and its crew are shrunk to microscopic size and injected into his bloodstream.

Science Fiction
Adventure
1h 41m
Richard Fleischer
Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmond O'Brien, Donald Pleasence
31
1966 in The Appaloosa (1966)
The Appaloosa
1966

A man tries to recover a horse stolen from him by a Mexican bandit.

Western
1h 39m
Sidney J. Furie
Marlon Brando, Anjanette Comer, John Saxon, Emilio Fernández
30
1966 in The Silencers (1966)
The Silencers
1966

Matt Helm is called out of retirement to stop the evil Big O organization who plan to explode an atomic bomb over Alamagordo, NM, and start WW III.

Comedy
Action
1h 42m
Phil Karlson
Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, Daliah Lavi, Victor Buono
29
1966 in Gambit (1966)
Gambit
1966

Harry Dean is a career burglar set on stealing a piece of priceless art from the world's wealthiest man, Mr. Shahbandar. With the help of exotic showgirl Nicole Chang, he concocts the perfect scheme for how the robbery should go and lays it out point by point. However, when the team tries to execute the plan, perfection and reality don't quite match up, and Harry's vision begins to unravel in this twisty tale of a heist gone wrong.

Comedy
Crime
1h 49m
Ronald Neame
Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, Herbert Lom, Roger C. Carmel
28
1966 in King of Hearts (1966)
King of Hearts
1966

An ornithologist mistaken for an explosives expert is sent alone into a small French town during WWI to investigate a garbled report from the resistance about a bomb which the departing Germans have set to blow up a weapons cache.

Comedy
Drama
1h 42m
Philippe de Broca
Alan Bates, Geneviève Bujold, Pierre Brasseur, Michel Serrault
27
1966 in The Blue Max (1966)
The Blue Max
1966

A young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambitiously to earn the medal offered for 20 kills.

War
Action
2h 36m
John Guillermin
George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Jeremy Kemp
26
1966 in Texas Across the River (1966)
Texas Across the River
1966

The Louisiana wedding of debutante Phoebe Ann Naylor to Don Andrea de Baldasar, El Duce de la Casala is stopped by the Cavalry over a matter of honor. Don Andrea flees across the river to Texas, where he meets up with Sam Hollis and his Indian sidekick, Kronk, who are carrying rifles to the town of Moccasin Flats. Don Andrea rescues an Indian maiden, Lonetta, tames some longhorns, competes with Sam for Phoebe's affections, eludes a Comanche war party and the cavalry and ultimately saves the town and gets his girl.

Comedy
Western
1h 41m
Michael Gordon
Dean Martin, Alain Delon, Rosemary Forsyth, Joey Bishop
25
1966 in How to Steal a Million (1966)
How to Steal a Million
1966

A woman must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father's art forgeries.

Comedy
Crime
Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith
24
1966 in The Sword of Doom (1966)
The Sword of Doom
1966

Ryunosuke, a gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, has no moral code and kills without remorse. It’s a way of life that leads to madness.

Action
Drama
2h 2m
Kihachi Okamoto
Tatsuya Nakadai, Yūzō Kayama, Michiyo Aratama, Yōko Naitō
23
1966 in Cul-de-sac (1966)
Cul-de-sac
1966

On the run and in search of help, two wounded gangsters find refuge in the secluded castle of a feeble man and his wife; however, under the point of a gun, nothing is what it seems.

Thriller
Comedy
Lionel Stander, Donald Pleasence, Françoise Dorléac, Jack MacGowran
22
1966 in Arabesque (1966)
Arabesque
1966

When a plot against a prominent Middle Eastern politician is uncovered, David Pollock, a professor of ancient hieroglyphics at Oxford University, is recruited to help expose the scheme. Pollock must find information believed to be in hieroglyphic code and must also contend with a mysterious man called Beshraavi. Meanwhile, Beshraavi's lover, Yasmin Azir, seems willing to aid Pollock -- but is she really on his side?

Thriller
Comedy
1h 45m
Stanley Donen
Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren, Alan Badel, Kieron Moore
21
1966 in Tokyo Drifter (1966)
Tokyo Drifter
1966

After yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival kingpin offers a position to Kurata's top operative, Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka taps unstoppable Tatsuzo the "Viper", a ruthless gun-for-hire, to assassinate him. As the Viper trails his target through the countryside, the agile Phoenix Tetsu grows concerned that one of his former associates has betrayed him.

Thriller
Crime
1h 23m
Seijun Suzuki
Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Hideaki Nitani, Tamio Kawachi
20
1966 in El Dorado (1966)
El Dorado
1966

Cole Thornton, a gunfighter for hire, joins forces with an old friend, Sheriff J.P. Harrah. Together with a fighter and a gambler, they help a rancher and his family fight a rival rancher that is trying to steal their water.

Western
19
1966 in The Fortune Cookie (1966)
The Fortune Cookie
1966

TV cameraman Harry Hinkle is injured while filming a football game. Seeing big dollar signs, his unscrupulous ambulance-chasing lawyer brother-in-law Willie Gingrich enters the picture, and convinces Harry to overstate his injuries and claim $1 million in pain and suffering. Harry's similarly-minded ex-wife suddenly reappears in an attempt to rekindle their relationship.

Comedy
Drama
Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ron Rich, Judi West
18
1966 in Our Man Flint (1966)
Our Man Flint
1966

When scientists use eco-terrorism to impose their will on the world by affecting extremes in the weather, Intelligence Chief Cramden calls in top agent Derek Flint.

Action
Comedy
1h 48m
Daniel Mann
James Coburn, Lee J. Cobb, Gila Golan, Edward Mulhare
17
1966 in The Sand Pebbles (1966)
The Sand Pebbles
1966

Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and cynical nature soon clash with the 'rice-bowl' system which runs the ship and the uneasy symbiosis between Chinese and foreigner on the river. Hostility towards the gunboat's presence reaches a climax when the boat must crash through a river-boom and rescue missionaries upriver at China Light Mission.

Drama
War
3h 16m
Robert Wise
Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna, Candice Bergen
16
1966 in The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966)
The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!
1966

When a Soviet submarine gets stuck on a sandbar off the coast of a New England island, its commander orders his second-in-command, Lieutenant Rozanov, to get them moving again before there is an international incident. Rozanov seeks assistance from the island locals, including the police chief and a vacationing television writer, while trying to allay their fears of a Communist invasion by claiming he and his crew are Norwegian sailors.

Comedy
War
Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin, Brian Keith
15
1966 in A Man for All Seasons (1966)
A Man for All Seasons
1966

A depiction of the conflict between King Henry VIII of England and his Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, who refuses to swear the Oath of Supremacy declaring Henry Supreme Head of the Church in England.

Drama
History
2h 0m
Fred Zinnemann
Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern, Robert Shaw
14
1966 in Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Fahrenheit 451
1966

In the future, the government maintains control of public opinion by outlawing literature and maintaining a group of enforcers, known as “firemen,” to perform the necessary book burnings. Fireman Montag begins to question the morality of his vocation…

Drama
Science Fiction
1h 53m
François Truffaut
Julie Christie, Oskar Werner, Cyril Cusack, Anton Diffring
13
1966 in Batman (1966)
Batman
1966

The Dynamic Duo faces four super-villains who plan to hold the world for ransom with the help of a secret invention that instantly dehydrates people.

Action
Comedy
1h 45m
Leslie H. Martinson
Adam West, Burt Ward, Lee Meriwether, Cesar Romero
12
1966 in Alfie (1966)
Alfie
1966

A young man leads a promiscuous lifestyle until several life reversals make him rethink his purposes and goals in life.

Comedy
Drama
1h 54m
Lewis Gilbert
Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Millicent Martin, Julia Foster
11
1966 in Django (1966)
Django
1966

A coffin-dragging gunslinger and a prostitute become embroiled in a bitter feud between a merciless masked clan and a band of Mexican revolutionaries.

Action
Western
1h 33m
Sergio Corbucci
Franco Nero, José Bódalo, Loredana Nusciak, Ángel Álvarez
10
1966 in Closely Watched Trains (1966)
Closely Watched Trains
1966

At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of frustration, eroticism, and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot.

Comedy
Drama
1h 33m
Jiří Menzel
Václav Neckář, Jitka Scoffin, Vladimír Valenta, Libuše Havelková
Why it ranks

Menzel finds a delicate, subversive beauty in the mundane through this centerpiece of the Czech New Wave. Its seamless blend of ribald, coming-of-age comedy and the shadow of wartime tragedy creates a poignant, understated defiance.

9
1966 in The Professionals (1966)
The Professionals
1966

An arrogant Texas millionaire hires four adventurers to rescue his kidnapped wife from a notorious Mexican bandit.

Western
Adventure
1h 57m
Richard Brooks
Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode
Why it ranks

Brooks revitalizes the western with a lean, muscular professionalism that ditches romanticism for gritty, tactical efficiency. The film’s explosive pacing and cynical camaraderie signal a rugged transition into the uncompromising grit of New Hollywood.

8
1966 in Seconds (1966)
Seconds
1966

An unhappy middle-aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity; one that comes with its own price.

Science Fiction
Thriller
Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph, Will Geer
Why it ranks

Frankenheimer delivers a chilling, paranoiac subversion of the American Dream through a distorted lens of mid-century anxiety. James Wong Howe’s hallucinatory cinematography captures the horrific cost of discarding one’s identity in a sterile, corporate world.

7
1966 in The Battle of Algiers (1966)
The Battle of Algiers
1966

Paratrooper commander Colonel Mathieu, a former French Resistance fighter during World War II, is sent to Algeria to reinforce efforts to squelch the uprisings of the Algerian War. There he faces Ali la Pointe, a former petty criminal who, as the leader of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directs terror strategies against the colonial French government occupation. As each side resorts to ever-increasing brutality, no violent act is too unthinkable.

Drama
War
2h 2m
Gillo Pontecorvo
Brahim Hadjadj, Jean Martin, Yacef Saâdi, Fouzia El Kader
Why it ranks

Pontecorvo’s jagged, newsreel aesthetic achieves a level of documentary realism so potent it feels like a transmission from the front lines of revolution. This is a visceral masterclass in political filmmaking that refuses to offer easy moral absolution.

6
1966 in A Man and a Woman (1966)
A Man and a Woman
1966

A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens' boarding school. Slowly, they reveal themselves to each other, finding that they have something deeply in common.

Drama
Romance
1h 42m
Claude Lelouch
Anouk Aimée, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Barouh, Valérie Lagrange
Why it ranks

Lelouch breathes new life into the romantic genre with a lush, impressionistic visual style that prioritizes mood over melodrama. Its rhythmic editing and evocative use of color filters create a sensory memory of intimacy that feels both modern and timeless.

5
1966 in Andrei Rublev (1966)
Andrei Rublev
1966

An expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk eventually gains a reputation for his art. But after Rublev witnesses a brutal battle and unintentionally becomes involved, he takes a vow of silence and spends time away from his work. As he begins to ease his troubled soul, he takes steps towards becoming a painter once again.

Drama
History
3h 3m
Andrei Tarkovsky
Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Ivan Lapikov, Mykola Hrynko, Nikolai Sergeyev
Why it ranks

Tarkovsky’s medieval tapestry is a staggering visual hymn to the persistence of the artist amidst a landscape of brutality and celestial silence. This monolithic achievement transcends mere historical drama to become an immersive sensory experience of faith and fire.

4
1966 in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1966

A history professor and his wife entertain a young couple who are new to the university's faculty. As the drinks flow, secrets come to light, and the middle-aged couple unload onto their guests the full force of the bitterness, dysfunction, and animosity that defines their marriage.

Drama
Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis
Why it ranks

Nichols strips away Hollywood artifice to reveal a domestic battlefield of lacerating wit and alcoholic despair. By weaponizing language, the film transforms a suburban living room into a claustrophobic arena of psychological warfare.

3
1966 in Persona (1966)
Persona
1966

A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer.

Drama
Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand
Why it ranks

Bergman shatters the traditional narrative frame to explore the porous borders between identity and silence. The haunting fusion of Ullmann and Andersson’s faces remains the most daring psychological transgression ever committed to celluloid.

2
1966 in Blow-Up (1966)
Blow-Up
1966

A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he unknowingly captures a death on film.

Drama
Mystery
1h 51m
Michelangelo Antonioni
David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle
Why it ranks

Antonioni captures the fractured soul of Swinging London through a lens of existential detachment and voyeuristic uncertainty. It is a stylish, haunting meditation on the fallibility of the photographic image and the elusive nature of objective truth.

1
1966 in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
1966

While the Civil War rages on between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hitman, and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox containing $200,000 in stolen gold.

Western
Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè
Why it ranks

Leone reaches the zenith of the spaghetti western by trading frontier myths for a scorching, operatic study of greed and nihilism. Morricone’s jagged score and the film’s innovative, wide-angle tension redefine the geometry of the cinematic standoff.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about this list and SnakeDrafts

The best movies of 1966 span a variety of genres, prominently featuring Westerns like 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' and 'Django', as well as dramas such as 'Persona' and 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'. This diversity reflects the transitional nature of cinema in that year, blending classic storytelling with avant-garde and experimental approaches.

Films like 'The Battle of Algiers' and 'Andrei Rublev' showcase the era's deep engagement with political and historical themes, mirroring societal unrest and cultural shifts. The year’s cinema became a platform for social commentary, marking a departure from purely entertainment-focused studio productions to more provocative, reflective works.

Yes, 1966 was marked by influential directors such as Sergio Leone, known for his iconic Western style in 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', and Ingmar Bergman, whose introspective drama 'Persona' challenged narrative conventions. The year also featured auteurs like Michelangelo Antonioni and Andrei Tarkovsky, who pushed the boundaries of film art.

'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' is a seminal Western from 1966 that revolutionized the genre with its stylistic direction, morally complex characters, and distinct musical score. Its influence helped transition Westerns from straightforward heroes-and-villains tales to more nuanced and gritty narratives.

Films like 'Blow-Up' and 'Seconds' introduced innovative narrative structures and visual experimentation that broke from traditional Hollywood formulas. This was a period where filmmakers increasingly embraced ambiguity, psychological depth, and visual symbolism, laying groundwork for the cinematic revolutions of the late 1960s.

International cinema was highly influential in 1966, with critically acclaimed films such as 'Persona' from Sweden and 'The Battle of Algiers' from Italy/Algeria offering diverse perspectives and styles. These works highlight the global shift towards art-house and politically engaged films, enriching the landscape of world cinema in that era.

Absolutely, many 1966 films embody the decline of the classic Hollywood studio system, embracing more experimental, socially conscious, and auteur-driven approaches. This period marked a critical transition where filmmakers increasingly sought creative freedom beyond the constraints of traditional studio control.

'Fahrenheit 451', directed by François Truffaut, adeptly combines science fiction with social commentary, exploring themes of censorship and conformity through a dystopian narrative. It exemplifies the year’s trend of using genre films to question contemporary societal issues.
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