The Mouse on the Moon Directed by Richard Lester Written by Michael Pertwee from the novel by Leonard Wibberley 1963/UK Walter Shenson Films
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] [repeated line] Grand Duchess Gloriana XIII: It’s that nasty tin thing again![/box]
This was possibly more hilarious in 1963 than it is now.
The setting is The Duchy of Grand Fenwick as introduced in 1959’s The Mouse That Roared. The duchy is still presided over by Grand Duchess Gloriana XIII (Margaret Rutherford) but Rupert Mountjoy (Ron Moody) has taken over as Prime Minister. Mountjoy has determined that the tiny duchy needs new plumbing and once against plots to get the money out of the US. This time the plan is to announce that Grand Fenwick needs cash for its space program. This will give the Americans the chance to show “international cooperation” with a country that cannot really compete.
In the meantime, a scientist has in fact dreamt up a low-tech way to get to the moon and the US and USSR can’t risk coming in second … or third. With Terry-Thomas as a birdwatcher.
This lost me shortly after it began. There are some funny moments but the humor is perhaps too topical … and too British …to really work for this viewer at this late date.
The Kiss of the Vampire Directed by Don Sharp Written by Anthony Hinds 1963/UK Universal International Pictures/Hammer Films
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Dr. Ravna: [referring to Marianne] I will not say that she has not changed in any way., Mr. Harcourt. She has, as you may put it, grown up – tasted the more sophisticated, more erotic fruits of… life.
Gerald Harcourt: [realizing that she has been initiated into vampirism] Oh, my God!
Dr. Ravna: [officiouly] God is hardly involved, Mr. Harcourt.[/box]
Perhaps Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee could have injected some oomph into this underwhelming Gothic horror flick.
The story takes place in the early years of the last century. As the film begins, we witness a professor driving a stake through a coffin just as it is about to be lowered into the earth – this will be one of the few evidences of blood shown in the film. We then follow the journey of newlyweds Gerald and Marianne who are motoring through Europe. They run out of petrol and are forced to stay in a hotel that has fallen on hard times. It contains only one other guest – the professor we saw at the beginning.
The local aristocracy reaches out to the couple, inviting the two to dinner and then a ball. But it is soon clear that Dr, Ravna and his family have sinister intentions with regard to Marianne ….
This may be the least scary vampire movie ever made. When I think Hammer horror I think gore and ominous atmosphere. This movie is lacking in both as well as in good acting or storytelling. A disappointment.
8 1/2 Directed by Federico Fellini Written by Federico Fellini, Tulio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi 1963/Italy/France Cineriz/Francinex
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Guido: When did I go wrong? I really have nothing to say, but I want to say it all the same.[/box]
One of the few meta films that succeeds for me on every level.
Director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) attempts to take refuge from his many problems at a health spa. He is pursued by his entire production company and various aspirants for parts in his film. All these people want to know is what the film, which is actually in production, is to be about. Guido is unable to tell them or to escape them. To add to his problems both his mistress (Sandra Milo) and his long-suffering wife (Anouk Amie) have joined him.
Guido tries to escape into childhood memories and various fantasies. But he is constantly plagued by an internal and external critic who get the better of him before the glorious ending.
Fellini and I are on the same wave-length, at least through 1963, and I have loved this film since the first time I saw it. I don’t think the black-and-white cinematography and production design has ever been bettered. I find Guido’s creative and personal troubles and their resolution immensely satisfying.
8 1/2 won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White. It was nominated in the categories of Best Director; Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, Written Directly for the Screen; and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White. Nino Rota was clearly robbed for his fantastic score.
Monstrosity (AKA The Atomic Brain) Directed by Joseph V. Mascelli Written by Vy Russell, Sue Dwiggins, and Dean Dillman Jr. 1963/USA Cinema Venture
First viewing/Amazon Prime
[box] Narrator: As with the other bodies stolen from cemeteries, the nerve endings of the brain were too far gone to receive a proper transplant. The experiment failed to produce anything more than a walking, breathing zombie-like creature. But the doctor permitted her to wander about the laboratory – she was harmless and … [leering tone] at times even amusing.[/box]
Horror meets mild titillation in this truly weird and terrible brain transplant movie.
Dr. Frank’s experiments in atomic brain transplants are being financed Mrs. March, a wealthy, mean and nasty old woman. She hopes to have her 80-year-old brain transplanted into a sexy young body so that she can at last be “loved for herself.” For now her needs are satisfied by craven gigolo Victor.
Dr. Frank has been somewhat successful with transplanting animal brains into dead bodies leaving a Wolf Man like monstrosity to do his bidding. What he needs are some live bodies to work on. These arrive in the form of foreign young women – from Britain, Austria, and Latin America – hired by Mrs. March as domestics. On and on the story goes as experiments pile up, misfiring along the way to the fiery climax.
Once again the Random Number Generator has supplied a movie from the very bottom of the barrel to begin a new year. This one is bizarre in the extreme. The most amusing part is the sexy “British” girl’s – she’s named Bea! – sporadic attempts at an accent that range from Cockney to upper class. But there’s something for every bad movie lover here. It does drag at only just over an hour.
Cleopatra, the most expensive film ever made to date, opened. It was one of the biggest flops in film history (cost-overruns made the $2 million budget become $44 million). The off-screen extra-marital affair conducted between stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) was beneficial for the film’s bottom line. Nevertheless, it took many years for the film to recoup its enormous costs.
Ampex began to offer its first consumer version of a videotape recorder, sold through the Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalogue for $30,000. The first theater originally designed as a multiplex opened – it was called Parkway Twin (for its two screens).
Sex symbol Jayne Mansfield appeared naked (breasts and buttocks) in the unrated sex farce Promises! Promises, making her the first mainstream actress to appear nude in an American feature sound film. (The honor would have been held by Marilyn Monroe in Something’s Gotta Give (1962), but she died during production.) The provocative film was heavily publicized in Playboy‘s June 1963 issue, with pictures to prove it. That led to the magazine’s publisher Hugh Hefner being charged with obscenity (and later acquitted) — the only time in his life.
Actor/director Dick Powell died at the age of 58 in Los Angeles, CA — much too soon.
The biggest and saddest news of the year was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Dallas, Texas on November 22. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president later that day. Shooter Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby two days later. The FBI and the Warren Commission officially concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin, but various groups contradicted the findings of the Warren Report and believed that Kennedy was the victim of a conspiracy. After Kennedy’s death, Congress enacted many of his proposals, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In Civil Rights, the year began with Alabama governor George Wallace declaring “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation for ever.” On April 3, African Americans in Birmingham, Ala., began daily nonviolent demonstrations and sit-ins . Over 400 protestors were arrested, including Dr. Martin Luther King. On August 28, King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. In September, Ku Klux Klan members bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.
“Sugar Shack” by Jimmy Gilmore and the Fireballs was the #1 song on Billboard‘s 1963 Year-End Chart of Pop Singles. The Reivers by William Faulkner won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Martin Luther King was Time Magazine’s Man of the Year.
The Beatles’ first full-length album “Please Please Me” was released in March. It topped the charts in the United Kingdom for thirty weeks until replaced by another Beatles album, “With The Beatles.” The band’s massive success in the USA would wait until 1964.
The Soviet Union launched the Vostok 6 spacecraft, carrying Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. UK War Minister John Profumo resigned after admitting he lied about his relationship with Christine Keeler. Call girl Keeler was simultaneously involved with a Soviet Navy officer and a drug dealer.
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I have 139 films on my list for 1963, though I doubt that I will watch all of them. It can be found here.
I’ve been a classic movie fan for many years. My original mission was to see as many movies as I could get my hands on for every year from 1929 to 1970. I have completed that mission.
I then carried on with my chronological journey and and stopped midway through 1978. You can find my reviews of 1934-1978 films and “Top 10” lists for the 1929-1936 and 1944-77 films I saw here. For the past several months I have circled back to view the pre-Code films that were never reviewed here.
I’m a retired Foreign Service Officer living in Indio, California. When I’m not watching movies, I’m probably traveling, watching birds, knitting, or reading.
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