Monthly Archives: January 2018

Lilies of the Field
Directed by Ralph Nelson
Written by James Poe from a novel by William E. Barret
1963/USA
Rainbow Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

Mother Maria: [upon first meeting Homer] God is good. He has sent me a big strong man.

Here’s another one I saw in my youth.  I still love the humor and Sidney Portier’s performance.

Homer Smith (Portier) is driving through the desert when his car overheats.  The nearest civilization is a small convent run with an iron hand by Mother Maria (Lilia Scala).  The nuns escaped East Germany in order to reach America and this dry property that had been left to them.  Mother Maria’s dream has been to build a chapel – the parish is currently served by a priest who conducts mass from the back of a trailer.  She sees Homer as the answer to her prayers.  He wants to keep moving on, then agrees to work for hire for a few days.  Mother Maria has no money to pay him but is not about to get let him get away.

Bit by bit the Baptist Homer is lured into building the chapel and a community of workers forms around him.  His affability wins him friends with everyone except Mother Maria.  She insists on seeing everything he does as the will of God.

This is a simple story, full of heart  If you are looking for a feel good movie look no farther.

Sidney Portier won the Oscar for Best Actor.  The film was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actress (Lilia Scala); Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White.

Daisan no kagemusha (The Third Shadow Warrior)
Directed by Umetsugo Inoue
Written by Seiji Hoshikawa and Norio Nanjo
1963/Japan
Daiei Kyoto
First viewing/FilmStruck

Nobukado Takeda: The shadow of a man can never stand up and walk on its own. (From Kagemusha (1980) directed by Akira Kurosawa

A bloodier take on the Kagemusha source story also made by Akira Kurosawa in 1980.

A humble farmer longs to be a samurai.  A warlord’s retainers promise him a job but it turns out to be to serve as a double and decoy for the warlord.  Much bloody fighting and maiming ensues.

This was well-made but too gruesome for my taste.

Clip

Black Sabbath (I tre volti della paura)
Directed by Mario Bava
Written by Marcello Fondato, Alberto Bevilacqua and Mario Bava
1963/Italy
Emmepi Cinematografica, Galatea Film, etc.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Mary: [to Rosy] You have no reason to be afraid.[/box]

This is OK horror, stylishly presented by Mario Bava.

There are a trio of stories here, all introduced by Boris Karloff.  “The Telephone” concerns a call-girl whose calls turn threatening.  Are they from a man she helped put in jail?  In “The Wurdulak”, the head of a large family (Boris Karloff) may have been transformed into a vampire.  In “The Drop of Water” a corpse returns to take revenge on a woman who stole a ring from its dead finger.

This didn’t grab me in any way but is nice to look at thanks to the talented Bava.

I watched a sub-titled version.  There’s an interesting commentary on the DVD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvqT1D7qvrc

Trailer

The Thrill of It All
Directed by Norman Jewison
Written by Carl Reiner and Larry Gelbart
1963/USA
Ross Hunter Productions/Arwin Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Dr. Gerald Boyer: I’m the kind of a husband who likes to see his wife. Not staring at him from a billboard, or looking up at him from a magazine ad. I want to see her, and I want to see here in person and often.[/box]

I found it difficult to laugh very hard at a comedy whose main point seems to be that a wife’s place is in the home.

Beverly Boyer (Doris Day) and her obstetrician husband Gerald (James Garner) have the idyllic marriage, complete with two adorable small children.  Although they have a live-in housekeeper (Zasu Pitts), Beverly keeps busy cooking and making her own ketchup.  One day at a party she inadvertently endorses the host’s brand of soap and ends up becoming the company’s spokesperson.

Beverly’s new job makes her better paid than Gerald and takes her away from the family even more that his night deliveries.  Hilarity ensues as the couple squabble.

I like Day and Garner and they have excellent chemistry.  It’s just hard to get behind a plot that keeps teaching Day over and over that “doctor’s wife” is a fulfilling career in itself.

The Haunting
Directed by Robert Wise
Written by Nelson Giddings from the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
1963/USA
Argyle Enterprises
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Theodora: Haven’t you noticed how nothing in this house seems to move until you look away and then you just… catch something out of the corner of your eye?[/box]

Jack-of-all-trades Robert Wise made a haunted house movie truly scary through implication learned at the hands of Val Lewton.

Many residents of Hill House have died shocking deaths during the previous 90 years of its existence.  Local people are thoroughly convinced it is haunted and none will be there after dark.  Dr. John Markway, a researcher in the paranormal and supernatural, invites a carefully curated list of people with paranormal bents to spend a few days investigating the house.  In the event, all of these drop out save psychic Theodora (Claire Bloom) and Eleanor Vance (Julie Harris), an emotionally fragile “outsider” who somehow believes that the mansion may be her real home.  Along for the ride is skeptic Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn) who stands to inherit the house and doesn’t want any dark rumors depressing its market value.

I’ll not reveal much more except that this film takes the haunted house concept very, very seriously while still leaving it open that some of the more horrific occurrences may be aided or created by Eleanor’s mental state.

It takes more and more to give me the shivers the longer I am on this journey.  This movie does the job right.  I was yelling at my TV set “don’t go up those stairs!”.  The acting is all great and the black-and-white cinematography super atmospheric.  Recommended.

Spencer’s Mountain
Directed by Delmer Daves
Written by Earl Hamner Jr and Delmer Daves
1963/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Miss Parker: The world steps aside to let any man pass if he knows where he is going.[/box]

This pleasant family film has the same homespun wisdom of The Waltons TV series which it spawned.

Granpa (Donald Crisp) and Grandma Spencer beget a brood of nine sons.  They all work in a quarry in the Snake River Valley.  Eldest son Clay (Henry Fonda) and wife Olivia (Maureen O’Hara) also have nine children, this time a mixed brood.  Clay’s dream is to build Livvie a dream house atop Spencer’s mountain.  The couple have the grander dream of seeing their children better off than they are.  Clayboy (James MacArthur) manages to graduate high school.  The family must overcome various adversity to send him to college.In the meantime, Claris Coleman relentlessly pursues the somewhat obtuse Clayboy in a bid for the altar.  With Wally Cox as a preacher.

This is a sweet movie with some beautiful mountain scenery.  It was hard to imagine Henry Fonda or Maureen O’Hara as hillbillies but they do pretty well at it.  I doubt if this will stay in my memory long.

Trailer