Category Archives: 1963

The Raven
Directed by Roger Corman
Written by Richard Matheson from a poem by Edgar Allen Poe
1963/USA
Alta Vista Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Dr. Craven: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore. / While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, / As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door./ “‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door. / Only this and nothing more.”[/box]

This Poe-inspired comedy can be pretty corny.  But it’s also really enjoyable to watch three classic horror actors ham it up to the max.

The movie begins with Vincent Price’s somber voice-over reading of Poe’s poem.  As soon as we move into the story, though, it becomes obvious we are in for a comedy.  The bird tapping at the chamber door is Dr. Adolphus Bedlo (Peter Lorre) who has been transformed into a raven by magician Dr. Scarabus (Boris Karloff).  He has come to Dr. Erasmus Craven (Price) to be changed back into his original form.  Scarabus was the arch enemy of Craven’s father.

A bunch of stuff happens that leads Craven to believe he must pay a call on Dr. Scarabus. He is accompanied by his own beautiful daughter Estelle, Bedlo, and Bedlo’s son Rexford (Jack Nicholson).  When he gets there he discovers his lost love Lenore has actually been lured away by Scarabus.  The raven gambit was actually Scarabus’s way of luring Craven to his mansion and learning the secrets of his powerful magic.  The film ends with a comic “duel to the death” between the two magicians.

Everything is played strictly for laughs.  All the actors turn in good performances but perhaps the most memorable is Lorre’s.  It’s not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.

Bandini
Directed by Bimal Roy
Written by Jarasahnda, Nabendu Ghosh, and Paul Mahendra
1963/India
Bimal Roy Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] To other countries, I may go as a tourist, but to India, I come as a pilgrim. Martin Luther King, Jr. [/box]

Bollywood also made musical dramas like this pretty good one.

Kalyani is confined to women’s prison.  She bravely volunteers to nurse an inmate with TB. The prison doctor falls in love with her but she turns him down due to her terrible past. She is due to be released from prison, though, and the jailer convinces her to write her story.  We then segue into flashback and learn how Kalyani’s ill-fated romance with a freedom fighter led her to commit murder.  We return to the present and learn how Kalyani’s romance with the doctor turns out.

This 2 1/2 hour film could have used at least half an hour of strategic cutting.  Nevertheless, it held my interest throughout.  The leading lady is the best thing about the movie and fortunately she is on screen most of the time.  The songs are OK.  There is no dancing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZolzVlVOtk4

Clip – no subtitles – a freedom fighter goes singing to his execution

Youth of the Beast
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
Written by Ichiro Ikeda and Tadaki Yamakazi from a novel by Haruhiko Obayu
1963/Japan
Nikkatsu Film Company
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] I make movies that make no sense and make no money. – Seijun Suzuki[/box]

Was Seijun Suzuki the Sam Fuller of Japan?  Possibly.

The plot is almost too complicated to follow.  The movie begins with a newspaper story about the double-suicide of a police officer and a call girl.  From there we move to the mysterious, gun-crazy Jo Mizuno who offers himself as a yakuza hitman in what proves to be a Yojimbo like fashion.  Eventually, we learn that Mizuno’s real mission is to solve the case of the police officer, which he believes to be a murder.  It’s hard to pay attention to plot details, though, among the heaping helpings of ultra-violence.

Suzuki had an outsider’s vision of the world that makes his gangster films particularly fascinating to watch.  There are some stunning scenes including backgrounds from other films, stripteases, etc. In the end it’s just too violent for my taste, however.

No subtitles but a lot of dialogue-free action

Jason and the Argonauts
Directed by Don Chaffey
Written by Jan Read, Beverley Cross, and Apollonios Rhodios
1963/UK/USA
The Great Company/Morningside Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Hera: [asked why the gods set temptations and traps for mortals] So that the gods may know them, and men may know themselves.[/box]

Who needs CGI when you can have Ray Harryhausen?

Pelias usurps the throne of Thessaly by killing King Aristo.  However, there is a prophesy that he will eventually be defeated by a child of the King.  He makes the mistake of slaying a daughter of the King who has sought Hera’s protection.  Thereafter, Hera becomes the benecfactrix of the daughter’s son Jason.

The baby Jason grows up and is ready to punish the man who murdered his father and take up the throne.  Before he can do so, he must retrieve the fabled Golden Fleece from the island of Colchis.  He obtains a vessel, the Argos, and brave crew that includes the demi-God Hercules.  On the way to the fleece, Jason and his men undergo many fantastic adventures.

The genre makes it likely that this would not be a favorite.  The stop-motion animation, however, makes it a joy to watch throughout. Ray Harryhausen reached the top of his game with this one.  It is just mind-blowing the amount of skill that went into making an entire army of individual skeletons move so realistically.  Recommended to fans of this kind of thing.

Trailer

Clip (The version on Amazon Instant has been restored to pristine condition, making the effects that much more impressive.)

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.