1966 Recap and Ten Favorite Films

I love your work Bea – and really admire your fortitude! Such a lot of duds to sit through! Your updates and views are much appreciated though.

But I’m missing the rationale behind the source list of 94 on IMDb – what to include and what to leave out. I remember 1966 very well and saw most of the prominent films at the time. Do you know the selection criteria of Marie_D? The list seems to be missing a lot of films that were emblematic of the period. Of course most will NOT reward the time spent viewing them, but some absent titles would be considered essential 1966 viewing for one reason or another. Here’s a few:

From a film buff or art-film perspective: The Fortune Cookie (Wilder – OK, not his best, but very quirky); You’re a Big Boy Now (Coppola’s first commercial feature and probably his most likeable), La guerre est finie (Resnais – tedious, but de rigeur for art film buffs), Made in USA (Godard’s other film of the year and more interesting than Masculin Féminin).

Popular with the cooler set of the day: Cul-de-sac (Polanski – hardly a masterpiece, but very, very oddball), Morgan! (Reiz – from the UK, sums up the wacky, mod, anti-establishment mood).

Some real cultish items that also give the spirit of the times: Chelsea Girls (Warhol/Morrissey), Three on a Couch (Jerry Lewis – only for some, but considered a masterpiece by the French critics of the day), Thunderbirds are GO (the original spinoff from TV – in retrospect a doper film before its time).

Of course also missing are many that were big box office in the USA at the time – emblematic blockbusters of maybe questionable value today, but they certainly brought the moviegoers of 1966 out in their droves. Check out Wikipedia’s “1966 in Film” for a full list (but don’t bother with 90% of them!). Here are a couple that are of mild interest and capture the era: The Professionals (Richard Brooks – extremely popular with students of the day), Modesty Blaise (Losey – zany pop-art silliness), The Group (Lumet – somewhat tacky but tame take on the scandalous bestseller), Nevada Smith (Hathaway – pretty dull genre piece, but hey, Steve McQueen was an absolute cult-hero for with-it youth), The Wrong Box (Forbes – all-star comic cast from the UK; weird but amusing).

Of things like Hawaii, The Bible, Khartoum, The Silencers, The Singing Nun and The Glass Bottom Boat – the less said the better!

For the record, these would also be quite high on my list: Come Drink with Me, Le Deuxieme Souffle, Lord Love a Duck, The Wild Angels, The Chase.

Looking forward to 1967!
Peter – Melbourne (Oz, not Florida)

25 thumbs up “I hate Jerry Lewis worse than” (insert just about anybody) – I will say that is based on his (so called) comedies. I haven’t been able to bring myself to anything else.

Mr PH – wow – no sarcasm intended.

Actually came here after stumbling across an “epic” and automatically thinking “that’ll be rubbish” then being surprised at the number of “this on the whole is surprisingly accurate and not bad” comments so went to the site that I respect more than IMDB, Criticker, and got a real surprise on seeing 82/100 – tho the handful of actual reviewed mentions (as opposed to simple scores) are less kind.

Then thought “well what does the Busy Bea think….oh not there”, then saw “I basically eliminated any big-budget Hollywood blockbuster rated less than 7/10 on IMDb” which explains it – is a near miss at 6.8.

The movie is Khartoum, (PH above said no) unwatched by me, and I was wondering if you’d seen it, outside of your listing work?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060588/

(I’ve said this before – you should at least have a look at Criticker, I actually am a member which is a huge compliment to them LOL).