The Executioner (El verdugo)
Directed by Luis Garcia Berlanga
Written by Luis Garcia Berlanga, Rafael Ascona, and Ennio Flaiano
1963/Spain/Italy
Naga Films/Zebra Films
First viewing/FilmStruck.

Amadeo, el verdugo: [subtitled version] You think that’s bad? That’s only 125 volts! The Americans are worse, with their electric chairs..

Berlanga makes a black comedy about an unwilling executioner while at the same time skewering modern materialism.

José Luís Rodríguez (Nino Manfredi) is an undertaker.  One day he is called to collect a corpse from a prison.  He finds the whole idea of executions repugnant even after meeting the kindly executioner.  The executioner leaves his tool box behind and Rodriguez must visit his home to return it.  There he meets and immediately falls for the executioner’s daughter.  They have had similar problems with their love lives due to their morbid associations.

Eventually Rodriguez and the daughter marry.  The father is eligible for a state-funded apartment but he will retire soon and lose the privilege.  One thing and another lead the very reluctant Rodriguez to take over.

I suspect that something is lost in the translation with Berlanga’s comedy.  They are pleasant enough to watch but I am never tempted to laugh out loud.

Trailer – no English subtitles

Borom Sarret
Directed by Ousmane Sembene
Written by Ousmane Sembene
1963/Senegal
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree. You can’t hate Africa and not hate yourself. Malcolm X [/box]

The life of a poor cart driver is anything but uplifting but Ousmane Sembene gives us a priceless look at African urban life through his eyes.

This 20-minute film covers a day in the life of a man who ekes out a living driving a wagon in the “African” quarter of Dakar, Senegal.  Most of his customers are even poorer than he.  It will not be a profitable day.

In one way this is a continuation of the “bleak movie” theme running through 1963.  But I found it pretty darned fascinating.

Montage of clips

Dry Summer (Susuz Yaz)
Directed by Metin Erksan
Written by Metin Erksan, Kemal Inci, Ismet Soydan; story by Nekati Kumali
1963/Turkey
Hitit
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] “Human kind is made up of two sexes, women and men. Is it possible that a mass is improved by the improvement of only one part and the other part is ignored? Is it possible that if half of a mass is tied to earth with chains and the other half can soar into skies?” ― Mustafa Kemal Atatürk[/box]

This brutal and infuriating film really got under my skin.

Kokabas Osman  has the heart and soul of a bully.  One fine day he decides that the land he owns with his brother Hasad requires every bit of water supplied by the spring on their property.  So he dams the spring, preventing water used downstream by farmers for irrigation from reaching its destination.  Hasad is totally opposed to this tactic but is too weak or bound by tradition to defy his older brother.  Violence between the downstream and upstream users ensues.

In the meantime, Kokabas has persuaded Hasan to steal away his betrothed, Bahar, before the wedding date her family has selected.  This is basically to get added labor for the farm.  But from the time of her arrival Kokabas’s lust knows no bounds.

Never have I longed more for a movie death than for the demise of the evil, greedy elder brother in this movie.  It’s another bleak 1963 entry but has so much energy and was so absorbing that I can recommend it.  Warning: Brief graphic footage of animal slaughter.

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Zatoichi on the Road (Zatoichi kenka-tabi)
Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda
Written by Minoru Inuzuka from a story by Kan Shimozawa
1963/Japan
Daiei Studios
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Zatôichi: Using an innocent woman as bait – Unscrupulous coward! None of you deserves to live.[/box]

Further proof that these Zatoichi movies can do no wrong!

Having been bribed with fine food, Blind Ichi is on his way to visit a yakuza boss.  On the way he meets up with a young maiden on her way back to wealthy parents in Edo.  She is worth quite a bit of ransom and attracts the attentions of many different assailants with whom Zatoichi must do battle.

This is the fifth fine entry in the series of 26 films.  It has one of the more coherent plots. I highly recommend giving these a try to anyone willing to believe that a kindly blind masseur can dispatch twenty heavily-armed attackers with his cane sword in 30 seconds flat. This is surprisingly easy to do!

The Sword in the Stone
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman
Written by Bill Peet from a novel by T.H. White
1963/USA
Walt Disney Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Archimedes the Owl: Now, boy, flying is not merely some crude, mechanical process. It is a delicate art. Purely aesthetic. Poetry of motion. And the best way to learn it is to do it.[/box]

A pleasant bit of nostalgia.

The great wizard Merlin is expecting company.  He just doesn’t know who.  His visitor takes the shape of pre-teen Arthur, better known as The Wart, a squire-in-training.  Merlin predicts a bright future for the lad and sets about educating him with the help of his owl Archemides.  The future begins to take shape when Arthur accompanies his knight to a tournament and grabs a sword from a stone to take the place of a missing weapon.

I remember loving this as a kid.  I think we had the soundtrack album.  Now it seems to have been a lesser entry in Disney’s catalogue of animated features.

The Sword in the Stone was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment.

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Donovan’s Reef
Directed by John Ford
Written by Frank S. Nugent and James Edward Grant; story by Edmund Beloin
1963/USA
John Ford Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Michael Patrick ‘Guns’ Donovan: Yeah, well, frangipani and flame-throwers don’t seem to go together, but that’s the way it was.[/box]

John Ford’s forte was not comedy.  This one is just OK.

It is Christmastime in Paradise.  “Guns” Donovan (John Wayne) remained in the South Pacific after the end of WWII and built up a prosperous shipping business.  He also owns a saloon called “Donovan’s Reef”.  Navy buddy Doc Dedham (Jack Warden) also stayed behind.  As the movie begins a third friend, “Boats” Gilhooley (Lee Marvin),  swims to shore from a passing freighter.  Doc Dedham needs to make a medical circuit of the outer islands and leaves his half-Polynesian children in Donovan’s care.

Shortly thereafter, Doc’s daughter Amelia (Elizabeth Allen) from his first marriage arrives. She is a Boston socialite who has become Chairman of the Dedham Shipping Company. Doc has now acquired a majority of the shares through inheritance.  Amelia hopes to find some violation of a morals clause that would make him ineligible to control the company. Naturally, Amelia and Donovan will fall in love and in a fairly predictable way.  We also get the standard barroom brawl that seems to be indispensable in these sorts of things.  With Dorothy Lamour as Gilhooley’s long-suffering girlfriend.

In Ford’s eye’s a good spanking seems to be the ultimate sign of affection – even as late as 1963!  The cast obviously had a good time and the Kaua’i scenery is gorgeous but this won’t stay with me for long.

This was Ford and Wayne’s final collaboration.

Move Over, Darling
Directed by Michael Gordon
Written by Hal Kanter and Jack Sher based on a screenplay by Sam and Bella Spewack
1963/USA
Melcher-Arcola Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Judge Bryson: Well, are you gonna answer the question or is she going to talk for you the rest of your life?[/box]

This is a fairly faithful remake of My Favorite Wife (1940) with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. I prefer that version but this isn’t bad.

Nicholas Arden (James Garner) is an attorney whose wife Ellen (Doris Day) was presumably lost at sea after an airplane crash which he survived.  It is five years later and Nick is seeking to have Ellen declared legally dead so he can marry his girl friend Bianca (Paula Prentiss).  On the very day he ties the knot, Ellen reappears, having been rescued from a mostly deserted island by a submarine.

Helen shows up at her husband’s honeymoon hotel determined to halt the consummation of his new marriage.  But this has an idiot plot and Nick finds himself unable to spit out the situation to his new bride for most of the running time of the film.  Many misunderstandings ensue on the way to the happy ending.  With Edgar Buchanan as a befuddled judge and Thelma Ritter as Nick’s mother.

This was pleasant enough though the usually reliable Day gets a bit shrill at times.  It lacks the sophistication of McCarey’s original.