Category Archives: 1963

The Pink Panther
Directed by Blake Edwards
Written by Maurice Richlin and Blake Edwards
1963/USA
Mirisch-GE Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Inspector Jacques Clouseau: Simone! Where is my Surété-Scotland-Yard-type mackintosh?[/box]

Beautiful people, beautiful dresses, beautiful scenery … and Inspector Clouseau.

The story is set in various locations in France and Italy.  The bumbling Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) has devoted his life to finding the international jewel thief known as the Phantom.  We learn early on that this is Sir Charles Litton Lytton (David Niven) and that Clouseau’s beautiful duplicitous wife Simone (Cappucine) is in league with him.  Sir Charles, Clouseau and company are drawn to an Italian ski resort by the presence of The Pink Panther, a rare diamond owned by a Princess (Claudia Cardinale).

Clouseau’s inability to stay standing upright for many minutes at a time and the various amorous maneuverings of Lytton, Simone and Lytton’s nephew (Robert Wagner) keep things interesting.

My favorite parts of this movie are actually the sixties clothes, color and production values. The comedy fell kind of flat for me but that may have just been my mood.

Henry Mancini was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Substantially Original Score.

Judex
Directed by Georges Franju
Adapted by Jacques Champreux and Francis Lacassin from a 1916 screenplay by Arthur Bernede and Louis Feuillade
1963/France/Italy
Comtoir Francais du Film Production/Filmes Cinematografia
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] I admit I’m much more sensitive to the scenic than the dynamic. When I was tiny I saw a fire for the first time, and afterwards I saw the façade with nothing behind. I’ve kept the vision of something very artificial and strange- a façade with nothing behind. And what was in front of it? Space..now haunted. — Georges Franju[/box]

Pure magic.

This is a remake of Louis Feuillade’s Judex serial of 1916 and is set in that era.  It is full of cliff-hangers and surprises that I will try not to spoil!  Banker Favraux is a thoroughly unscrupulous man.  He made his millions through blackmail and is not above murder to solve his problems.  He is marrying his daughter (Edith Scobe), a young widow, off to a man she does not love.  He is in love with her daughter’s governess.

Before his daughter’s engagement party, he receives a letter from “Judex” (“Justice”) threatening him with dire consequences if he does not move to correct his evildoing before midnight.  Favraux hires a detective to investigate the identity of the letter writer.  Judex is true to his word and …

Every once in awhile I discover a film that makes my heart sing.  This was one.  It is a beautifully satisfying battle between good and evil.  Lavish use is made of art nouveau style and there is a wonderful Maurice Jarre score.  Franju captures the old style of melodrama without once going into camp.  The use of both “real” and cinematic magic is delightful.  I might even prefer this film to the director’s Eyes Without a Face (1960), which I also love.  Highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1LU9WWZG5s

Clip

Captain Newman MD
Directed by David Miller
Written by Richard L. Breen and Phoebe and Henry Ephron from a novel by Leo Rosten
1963/USA
Brentwood Productions/Reynard/Universal Pictures
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Col. Norval Algate Bliss: Is Mr. Future *insane*?[/box]

This mixture of psychodrama and comedy did not work as well for me as it might have.

Captain Joe Newman is in charge of a base psychiatric ward.  He has six weeks to bring his men back to fighting trim or send them to a psychiatric hospital for long-term care.  He fights hard to get quality staff.  Two people he lures from other duties are Cpl. Jake Liebowicz (Tony Curtis), an orderly, and Lieut. Francie Corum (Angie Dickinson), a beautiful nurse.  Liebowicz specializes in wheeling and dealing and comic relief.

The story includes the treatment of three soldiers Cpl. Jim Tompkins (Bobby Darin), Col. Norval Algate Bliss (Eddie Albert) and Capt. Paul Winston (Robert Duvall).  All have mental problems stemming from some kind of guilt.  Liebowicz is around to keep things lively.  With James Gregory as the commander of the hospital and Jane Withers as a nurse.

I thought that both Darin and Eddie Albert overacted terribly, spoiling much of the story for me.  Duvall was good in a smaller role.

Captain Newman MD was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Darin), Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, and Best Sound.

Scum of the Earth
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Written by Herschell Gordon Lewis
1963/USA
Box Office Spectaculars
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Lang: It’s time for straight talk, Kim. It’s not my fault you posed for Harmon. It’s not my fault you posed for Larry in the nude. You did it, its your problem, its pretty late to act prissy and prim. All you kids make me sick! [/box]

Herschell Gordon Lewis makes a film about porno without nudity and it’s more pervy than if it had some.

Sandy has been doing topless photo shoots with photographer Harmon for quite some time.  After she is assaulted by the evil Larry, she wants out.  Boss-man Lang will allow this only if she recruits fresh blood.  Sandy quickly rounds up prim and proper high-schooler Kim.

Harmon grooms Kim by starting with leg and swimsuit shots.  Eventually, he tempts her with hard cash for more.  She needs the money to go to college.  She finds that once she has gone topless she has sold her soul to the devil.

Lewis filmed this immediately after his gory classic Blood Feast (1963).  I left it feeling a little dirty though the nudity is carefully placed off camera.  The acting is horrendous, see clip below.

Trailer

The Big City (Mahanagar)
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Written by Satyajit Ray from a story by Narendranath Mitra
1963/India
R.D. Banshal & Co.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Arati: [to her husband] You would not recognize me if you saw me at work.[/box]

Satyajit Ray does it again in a very human and perfectly realized domestic drama.

Subrata Mazumder works as a bank manager.  His wife Arati keeps house and cares for their young son.  The couple has not been able to make ends meet since his parents moved in with his younger sister.  Both are very traditional Bengalis. The father is a retired teacher who mightily resents the fact that his students have succeeded while he lives in poverty.  He believes they owe him something and is generally demanding at home.

Subrata lets slip that the wife of one of his friends has gone to work outside the home. This sets Arati ablaze with the idea of similarly helping out.  She gets a job as a door-to-door salesperson.  She finds that not only is she good at it but she loves it.

On the other hand, all the other members of the household, with the exception of the sister-in-law, disapprove. Father stops speaking to either his son or daughter-in-law. Tensions rise as Arati goes from success to success as her husband’s fortunes slide. The story builds to a really satisfying conclusion.

Satyajit Ray had the magical ability to make all his characters understandable despite their flaws.  This movie is just fantastic.  We can sympathize with both the husband and the wife as they struggle to adapt to a new India.  Even the father has his reasons.  The film is also beautiful to look at.  Very highly recommended.

Re-release trailer

Le joli mai (The Merry Month of May)
Directed by Chris Marker and Pierre L’Homme
Written by Chris Marker and Catherine Varlin
1963/France
Sofracima
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Narrator (English version): Why search for beauty in a dove and poetry in poets? When you have owls, painters, cosmonauts, inventors, lovers… [/box]

Chris Marker and company make a beautiful documentary about a beautiful city and its people at a particular time.

The setting is Paris.  The time is May 1962.  President de Gaulle advocated independence for Algeria.  The French overwhelmingly voted for independence and an end to the war in April but feeling still ran high.  Progress continued on rehousing Parisians suffering a crunch dating from WWII.  Lovers loved, poets wrote, and the average Joe tried to make ends meet while having a good time.  All these facets of Parisian life are explored in the film accompanied by striking images of Paris’s grand and not-so-grand locales.

This is very much a film of its time and my appreciation could have been heightened by more of a knowledge of French history.  I love Paris and I enjoyed it very much anyway.  Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oev6gGMTF9o

Trailer

Palm Springs Weekend    
Directed by Norman Taurog
Written by Earl Hamner Jr.
1963/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] P.S. I Love You – Palm Springs city slogan[/box]

I live 25 miles from Palm Springs so naturally I had to watch this sitcom of a movie.

It is Easter Break in early 60’s Palm Springs.  Stephanie Powers’ father is the Chief of Police.  He looks askance at all the rowdy goings on.  Basically this a a Where the Boys Are style plot.  The boys are Texan Ty Hardin, odd-ball Jerry Van Dyke, nice-guy Troy Donahue and bad-boy villain Robert Conrad.  The girls are Powers, pseudo-sophisticate Connie Stephens and “plain-Jane”  Zeme North.  There’s a sub-plot about a middle-aged hotel owner and the chaperon/coach of the boys.  She has an obnoxious bratty son played by Billy Mummy.

Every year in the Coachella Valley we celebrate Mid-Century Modernism week celebrating the style and architecture of exactly this era.  Palm Springs was in its hey day in 1963.  The scenery and style made it fun for me to watch.  The story on the other hand is a piece of fluff made worse by Jerry Van Dyke’s style of “comedy”.

McLintock!
Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
Written by James Edward Grant
1963/USA
Batjac Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] George Washington McLintock: I’ve got a touch of hangover, bureaucrat. Don’t push me.[/box]

John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara get the sparks flying once again.

G.W. McLintock (Wayne) is the richest man in the territory.  He has been living as a bachelor for two years since wife Katherine (AKA Katie – O’Hara) walked out on him without explanation.  Daughter Becky (Stephanie Powers) returns after finishing college back East and so does her mother.  Becky promptly falls for the son of GW’s housekeeper, Devlin.

Both GW and Devlin find that the way to a strong woman’s heart just happens to be a coal shovel applied with gusto to the back side.  With Yvonne De Carlo as the housekeeper, Patrick Wayne as Devlin and a host of familiar faces including Chill Wills, Jack Kruschen, Edgar Buchanan, Bruce Cabot and Struther Martin.

Imagine the sexual politics of The Quiet Man ratcheted up a notch and moved to the Old West.  If you think brawling can be hilarious you will love this movie.  It’s OK for light-hearted entertainment on a gloomy fall day.