Best Drama Movies of 1952

A retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love.

Jan de Hartog's two-person stage play The Fourposter has always seemed to attract married acting couples, a tradition established by the play's first Broadway stars Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. The film version featured Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer, who (you guessed it) were man and wife at the time. The story traces the history of a marriage from the wedding night in 1890 to the death of the wife in the 1930s; all crucial scenes are acted out in the couple's boudoir, near the fourposter bed they'd received as a wedding present. The passing years, and the triumphs and tragedies of the couple, are wittily represented by transitional animation sequences produced by the UPA cartoon studios. A musical version of The Fourposter titled I Do I Do opened on Broadway in 1966, breaking precedent by starring Mary Martin and Robert Preston, who were happily married but not to each other.

Stanley Kramer's WW-II character study has Lee Marvin as the Sergeant of a small squad laid over during fighting in Italy. During the otherwise boring time between battles, tensions arise as they are ordered not to rescue a squad mate pinned down by the enemy, for fear of risking more lives. Based on the stage play "A Sound of Hunting", by Harry Brown.

In this 1952 drama directed by William Dieterle, William Holden stars as an agent for horse jockeys who faces his greatest challenge.

A college professor begins to suspect that a student's accidental death was tied to his refusal to take part in a traditional "hazing" and was no accident.

The story of Jerome "Dizzy" Dean, a major-league baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs in the 1930s and 1940s.

Entertaining ensemble piece dealing with several characters who are on the way to the races on Derby day. It cleverly blends dramatic, romantic and comic elements, including the woman and lover who have murdered her husband, and the working class couple who are excited about their chance to go to the races, but end up listening to it on the radio in the car-park because they've got such a bad view.

A woman suspects that the local council is corrupt and building defective drains that could cause public health issues.

A woman, distraught because of her recent miscarriage, accidentally injures a child in a hit-and-run accident, but she keeps the incident a secret. Overcome with guilt and remorse, she seeks out the child in the hospital and attempts to help him regain his speech, even though, if successful, it might mean he will implicate her for the crime.