The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Directed by José Quintero
Written by Gavin Lambert and Jan Read from a novel by Tennessee Williams
1961/USA
Louis de Rochemont Associates
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Paolo di Leo: Rome is a very old city. Three-thousand years. How old are you? Fifty?[/box]

Well, the scenery is gorgeous and we get a great scene-stealing performance by Lotte Lenya.

Stage actress Karen Stone (Vivien Leigh) is not making a big hit as Rosalind in a new production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. She still has the acting chops but is simply too old to play ingenues.  Karen abandons the play and decides she needs a real vacation.  Her doting much-older husband accompanies heron the plane trip to Rome.  He dies of a heart attack over the Atlantic.  Karen installs herself in a posh apartment and “drifts”, a lost and lonely soul.

Contessa Magda Terribili-Gonzales (Lenya and what a great character name!) is in the business of arranging meetings between beautiful young italian men and wealthy ladies too old to be able to attract them independently.  In exchange, she demands 50% of whatever her protege earns from the affair.  She is trying this ploy with a gorgeous young Italian named Paolo di Lio (Warren Beatty) and Mrs. Stone.  It takes an inordinate amount of time for him to get next to her but once he does she falls in love and begins throwing caution to the wind. Tragedy seems inevitable.

My biggest problem with this film was the performance of Warren Beatty.  His character is not supposed to be likable but he takes that to the next level with an arrogance that completely turned me off.  I did’t find him believably Italian either.

When Lenya took the screen I was mesmerized.  Her character has so many layers of humor, cynicism, and hatred of the human race that she sucks all the energy out of the rest of the room.  This is no mean feat when you are working with Vivian Leigh, who is also fine.

Lotte Lenya was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Trailer

The Innocents
Directed by Jack Clayton
Written by William Archibald and Truman Capote; additional dialogue by John Mortimer; from the novel “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James
1961/UK
Achilles/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Miles: It was only the wind, my dear.[/box]

Here is a beautiful, scary, and ambiguous ghost story for adults.

Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) seeks employment as a governess, having just left the household of her father, a fundamentalist preacher.  “The Uncle” (Michael Redgrave) hires her to care for his two orphan wards despite her total lack of experience.  He admittedly has little to no interest in his charges, preferring to carouse in town.  Miss Giddens gets the job based on her earnestness and professed love of children.  Omninously, she is replacing a young governess who died on the job.  The Uncle gives her total control of the household.

“The Uncle’s” country estate seems like a dream come true to Miss Giddens.  She instantly warms to little Flora and the housekeeper Mrs. Grose (Megs Jenkins).  Flora’s brother Miles is away at school but Flora uncannily predicts his quick return.  Sure enough, a letter arrives announcing Miles’s expulsion due to his bad influence on the other boys.  The mystery of what exactly Miles did wrong will consume Miss Giddens for the rest of the film.

Miss Giddens begins seeing visions of people she identifies as Miss Jessel, the former governess, and Peter Quint, a former groundskeeper, also deceased.  As time goes on, she comes to believe these apparitions have possessed the children and that it is her duty to “save” them.  Is she going mad or could her visions be real?

I find twisted little children to be inherently scary and we get them here in spades.  Add in the ghosts and you have something special.  The cinematography and art direction combine to make the film a visual feast.  This was reportedly Deborah Kerr’s favorite of all her film performances which is really saying something.  Recommended.

Trailer

The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Directed by Val Guest
Written by Wolf Mankowitz and Val Guest
1961/UK
Melina Productions/Pax Films
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Peter Stenning: So Man has sown the wind – and reaped the whirlwind. Perhaps in the next few hours, there will be no remembrance of the past, and no hope for the future that might have been. All the works of Man will be consumed in the great fire out of which he was created. But perhaps at the heart of the burning light into which he has thrust his world, there is a heart that cares more for him, than he has ever cared for himself. And if there is a future for Man – insensitive as he is, proud and defiant in his pursuit of power – let him resolve to live it lovingly; for he knows well how to do so. Then he may say once more: Truly the light is sweet; and what a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to see the Sun. [/box]

This interesting sci-fi film shows there is more than one way to achieve climate change.

The US and USSR acidentally engage in powerful H-bomb testing simultaneously.  Soon the newspapers are full of stories of bizarre weather around the world.  Reporter Peter Stennings (Edward Judd) is put on the story when a solar eclipse occurs several days earlier than predicted.  All scientific authorities on the subject refuse to talk.  Finally, it is revealed that the axis of the Earth was shifted by the bomb.

The remainder of the story follows London’s response as temperatures rise and water dwindles.  Stenning’s remaining time is also occupied with a sometimes strained new romance with secretary Jeannie (Janet Munro).  With Leo McKern as another reporter.

If this story was made today it would be filled with riots, explosions, and conflagrations. This film is much tamer but still very effective.  Its stiff upper lip attitude actually makes the dilemmas of the characters more compelling.  A lot of the conversations sound a lot like end-phase climate-change scenarios posited today.  Recommended to the curious.

Trailer

Come September
Directed by Robert Mulligan
Written by Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin; story by Stanley Roberts and Robert Russell
1961/USA
Universal International Pictures/7 Pictures/Raoul Walsh Enterprises
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Lisa Helena Fellini: Why be miserable with someone you don’t love? Better to be miserable with someone you do love![/box]

This is a pleasant enough “sex comedy” of its era, with the added advantage of taking place on the Riviera.

Robert Talbot (Rock Hudson) is an American millionaire bachelor who apparently has only one month out of the year to spend with his main squeeze, the fiery Lisa Fellini (Gina Lollobrigida).  Usually this is September, but Robert can’t wait that long this year and arrives for his month-long holiday in Italy in July.

This throws various spanners in the works.  Lisa finds out about Robert’s arrival on her wedding day to a stuffy Englishman.  She realizes her error in the nick of time and agrees to join Robert at his villa.

When the couple arrives there, they find the place occupied by a large group of teenage girls and their chaperone.  It turns out that Robert’s major domo (Walter Slezak) has been running the villa as a hotel during the other eleven months of the year.  The girls are man-magnets and soon Robert has a squad of young men camped just outside his gate.  Young Tony (Bobby Darin) sets about seducing 18-year-old Sandy (Sandra Dee).  Robert is highly moral when it comes to the younger set and counsels Sandry to play hard to get.  Meanwhile, Robert is not having his long-awaited  “alone time” with Lisa.  And Lisa is getting ideas from Sandy.

This is basically a piece of fluff in a gorgeous setting.  All the actors do well with comedy and the film goes down easily.

Trailer

Rocket Attack U.S.A.  
Directed by Barry Mahon
1961/USA
Exploit Films
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Tannah: Last month I became the mistress of the secretary of defense. When the pig gets drunk, he talks.

John Manston: What a setup![/box]

How you make a movie about impending atomic devastation this boring is beyond me.

An American spy tries to find out what information has been developed from the Sputnik satellite.  It turns out the Soviets now have an intercontinental ballistic missile at their disposal and its launch date is imminent.

To be honest, this movie lost me from the first frame and the above plot summary is all I can really remember of it.  The film has no redeeming qualities.  Give it a miss.

Trailer

Mothra (Mosura)
Directed by Ishiro Honda
Written by Shinichi Sekizawa from a novel by Shinichiro Nakamura et al
1961/Japan
Toho Company
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Shobijin, Shobijin: Mothra, she’ll rescue us, and return us to our island![/box]

Here’s our first giant mutant hero.  A destructive hero to be sure, but his heart is in the right place.

A fishing ship runs aground on Infant Island, the supposedly uninhabited location of Rolisican atomic tests.  None of the sailors is suffering from radiation poisoning.  They attribute this to some juice prescribed by the local people.

A joint Japanese-Rolisican expedition sets out to explore the island.  The team includes two snoopy Japanese investigative reporters and the evil Rolisican who demands to be in charge of the entire mission.  It turns out this man is a notorious collector of ancient artifacts.  When the group discovers two one-foot high beauties living on the island, the villain promptly kidnaps them and puts them on display on the main land.  Their “act” mostly consists of a song in their own language begging “Mosura” to rescue them.

The girls’ plea does not go unanswered for long.  An egg undergoes its metamorphosis from caterpillar to pupa to moth in short order.  Mosura is single-minded in his quest.  No amount of persuasion will persuade the bad guy to release his captives.  He merely smuggles them out of Japan to Rolisican.  The moth changes course, but not before destroying the Tokyo Tower.

This is a fun film.  Even the obligatory comic relief is somehow endearing.  You need to accept it for what it is – a vehicle for the teen idol identical twin singing group who play the tiny beauties.

The DVD contained both the Japanese and American versions and a commentary.

American Trailer