Monthly Archives: July 2019

Spider Baby, or the Maddest Story Ever Told
Directed by Jack Hill
Written by Jack Hill
1967/USA
Lasky-Monka
First viewing/Amazon Prime
One of 1000 Movies on They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They?

[box] Schlocker: This has gone well beyond the boundaries of prudence and good taste.[/box]

Watched this in hopes of a so-bad-its-good movie.  Surprised at how down-right entertaining it was.

Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr.) works as caretaker for the Merrye Family manse. He has three very weird young people in his charge. We learn in the intro that the children suffer from a hereditary curse that causes them to regress in age until they reach a pre-natal state. Who knew that before birth we were cannibals that identify with venomous spiders! Bruno really has his hands full.

One fine day, the household is visited by an evil aunt, her grasping attorney, and a couple of fairly decent other people. They have no idea what they are in for.  With Mantan Moreland as the first victim.

I would classify this as a very black comedy that also qualifies as horror though I was never scared.  Lon Chaney Jr. finally gets a role he can sink his teeth into and is very good!  The rest of the cast rises up to meet him.  I thought the film was fun and entertaining.

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I’m going out of town for a week.  See you when I come back.

The Whisperers
Directed by Bryan Forbes
Written by Bryan Forbes from a novel by Robert Nicolson
1967/UK
Seven Pines
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Mrs. Ross: Are you there?[/box]

Great, sensitive performance from Dame Edith Evans in a well-made film.  Bit of a misery sandwich though.

Margaret Ross lives a lonely life in her two-room flat.  Age has left herwith dementia, hallucinations, and delusions of grandeur.  She believes she is being spied on from the flat above. Unfortunately, her paranoia does not save her from the multitude of family and strangers that take advantage of her.  With Eric Portman as Margaret’s estranged husband.

I can’t think of a single thing wrong with this film other than I really did not feel like almost 2 hours of a poor old lady being abused.  I’m glad I watched it though.  Edith Evans has long been a favorite and is simply amazing here.

Edith Evans gives some advice on acting

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Directed by David Swift
Written by David Swift from the Broadway musical by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert and the novel by Shepherd Mead
1967/USA
The Mirisch Corporation
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

J. Pierpont Finch: This is the secret ingredient: it can’t miss, I’m combining greed with sex.

I was looking for a movie that was sure to make me happy yesterday.  This beloved favorite was just the ticket!

Window washer J. Pierpont Finch (Robert Morris) gets ahold of the titular self-help manual.  He picks the World Wide Wicket Company as his target.  He manages to favorably impress CEO J.B. Biggley (Rudy Vallee) and snag a job in the mailroom.

Within two hours he has advanced to the junior executive pool.  As he rises to the top, he has to contend wit ruthless rival Bud Frump, Biggley’s nephew, and flirtation from secretary Rosemary Pilkington (Michelle Lee).  Things get sillier and sillier as one glorious number follows another.

This is basically a filmed stage musical.  That bothers me not at all.  I just love Morse and Vallee, the story, and all the singing and dancing.  Unreservedly recommended to musical lovers.

Clip – “Gotta Stop That Man”/”I Believe in You”

To Sir, with Love
Directed by James Clavell
Written by James Clavell from a novel by John R. Stone
1967/UK
Columbia British Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Mark Thackeray: If you apologize because you are afraid, then you’re a child, not a man.[/box]

The surroundings have dated but Sidney Poitier is forever.

Mark Thakeray (Poitier) is an unemployed engineer who finds work teaching in an inner city London high school.  The kids test him mightily until he decides to start teaching life lessons instead of out of textbooks.

The most important lesson Thackeray teaches is respect for self and others.  Eventually he earns their love.  Introducing teen singing sensation Lulu and with The Mindbenders as the high school rock band.

I liked this a lot on original release and it remains an entertaining movie. Without Poitier it would have been so much less.  I tend to like inspirational teacher stories.

Despite hitting number one in the US, the title song was not nominated for an Academy Award.  I have always loved it.

Lulu’s final rendition in the film – some spoilers but nothing you would not have guessed already

Wait Until Dark
Directed by Terence Young
Robert Carrington and Jane Howard-Hammerstein from a play by Frederick Knott
1967/US
Warner Bros.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Susy Hendrix: Do I have to be the world champion blind lady?[/box]

This movie has lost none of its gripping terror since original release.  And what a great cast!

A young beauty transports heroin from Europe to New York hidden inside a doll.  Once there, however, she passes the doll to an unsuspecting stranger instead of delivering it to the intended recipients.  She will not be long for this world.

The stranger is Sam Hendrix (Efram Zimbalist Jr.).  He takes it back to the apartment he shares with wife Susy (Audrey Hepburn).  Susy was blinded in a car accident a year ago. Sam cuts her no slack whatsoever, demanding that she be self-reliant to the maximum extent possible.

Good thing too as some very bad guys will be along to acquire the doll post-haste.  The leader of the gang is Roat (Alan Arkin), a psychopath who combines evil, oiliness, and smarts in equal measure.  His henchmen are clean-cut Mike Talman (Richard Crenna) and ex-policeman Carlino (Jack Weston.

The men begin by trying to get the doll by gaining Susy’s confidence.  I’m going to say nothing about further plot points except to say that the story moves on to an absolutely terrifying climax.

[box] You don’t get nominated for being mean to Audrey Hepburn – Alan Arkin[/box]

I can’t think of anything more terrifying than a home invasion unless it is experience one while blind.  The screenplay is tight, the acting – especially by Hepburn and Arkin – is great, and the Mancini-penned score adds to the suspense.  Highly recommended.

Audrey Hepburn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Rush to Judgement
Directed by Emile de Antonio
Written by Mark Lane
1967/US
Judgement Films
First viewing/You Tube

[box] “History is much more the product of chaos than of conspiracy” ― Zbigniew Brzezinski[/box]

Interesting documentary that raises more questions about the Kennedy Assassination than it answers.

Author Mark Lane interviews many eyewitnesses to the assassination.  Some are certain at least two of the shots were so close together that they could not have been made by the same gun.  Others say they observed shot coming from a different direction than the Texas Book Depository.  Many of these witnesses later died under suspicious circumstances according to Lane.  No theories about who the other shooter/s might have been or who was behind any conspiracy or cover-up.

All of de Antonio’s documentaries have political agendas.  The difference with this one is that it has a narrator – Lane – who does not exactly let the audience draw its own conclusions.  The conspiracy theory is so convoluted that I generally give up early on in trying to understand it.  If there are any Kennedy assassination enthusiasts among my readers, I can highly recommend Oswald by Norman Mailer.  It’s based on personal access to Marina Oswald as well as de-classified KGB records detailing surveillance on Lee Harvey during his years in the USSR.

No clip or trailer – so here’s Mark Lane speaking about Jim Garrison’s investigation in 1967

The Dirty Dozen
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Written by Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller from a novel by E.M. Nathanson
1967/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/MKH/Seven Arts Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Major John Reisman: I never went in for embroidery, just results.[/box]

Remains a fun action adventure after all these years, largely due to a collection of the best character actors of the 50s and 60s.

Maverick US Army Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin) seems to General Worden (Ernest Borgnine) to be the best man to lead a suicide mission to slay as many of the German High Command as possible.  He will be given a unit composed of twelve convicts sentenced to long prison sentences or death for violent crimes.  The survivors will be given a reprieve if they perform the mission as ordered.  Colonel Breed (Robert Ryan) will be a thorn in his side during the entire training period.

We follow the dozen’s arduous training which converts a few of them to soldiers, war games, and finally the mission itself, complete with MANY explosions.  With John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, Charles Bronson, Clint Walker, Donald Sutherland, Trini Lopez, etc. among the dozen.

This is simply a very entertaining war movie.  It’s not that easy to get these things right. It’s about perfect for what it is.

The Dirty Dozen won the Academy Award for Best Effects, Sound Effects.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Cassavetes), Best Sound, and Best Film Editing.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Directed by Stanley Kramer
Written by William Rose
1967/USA
Columbia Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Tillie: All hell done broke loose now![/box]

I don’t like most, if not all, movies produced or directed by Stanley Kramer.  This one, as usual, rang false to me – starting with its Oscar-winning screenplay.

Young Joey Drayton (Katharine Haughton) meets a John Prentice in Hawaii and spends a very romantic ten days with him culminating in a marriage proposal, which she accepts. The man happens to be black. He is also just so happens to be a genius tropical disease researcher that looks exactly like Sidney Portier.  She takes him to meet her wealthy parents, Matt (Spencer Tracy) and Christina (Katharine Hepburn).  Matt is a famous liberal newspaper owner and Christina is a free-spirited art gallery proprietor.  Joey is sure her parents will warmly welcome John into the family.  John is not so sure and tells Matt privately that he will not marry Joey if her parents object.  He is departing for Geneva the next day.

In the meantime, John calls his parents (Roy Glenn and Beah Richards) to break the news. They decide to take a quick flight from LA to San Francisco to meet the intended.  Good thing because Joey decides to join John in flying out the next day.  They are flabbergasted that she is white.  Both sets of parents are worried about the future of an interracial couple.  But with this plot and avuncular wise man Monsignor Ryan (Cecil Kellaway) on hand, the outcome is never in doubt.

The acting is mostly great with the exception of the terribly over-earnest Houghton.  And what cinema fan could miss Hepburn and Tracy together for the last time?  But the actors are forced to speak in trite speeches.  I agree with all the sentiments expressed but they were irritating the hell out of me by the end.  You do get to see some San Francisco scenery, which is always a plus.  I would say this movie was dated from the day it was released.  Others apparently like it for some reason.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner won Academy Awards for Best Actress (Hepburn) and Best Screenplay, Written Directly for the Screen.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actor (Tracy, posthumously); Best Supporting Actor (Kellaway); Best Supporting Actress (Richards); Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment.