The Love Goddesses Directed by Saul J. Turrell Written by Graeme Ferguson and Saul J. Turrell 1965/USA Paramount Pictures/Walter Reade
Repeat viewing/FilmStruck
[box] [asked for her thoughts on Marilyn Monroe after Monroe’s death] A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered. – Clara Bow[/box]
Interesting look at female sex symbols between the silent era and 1965.
The history of sex in cinema is shown to be emblematic of the mores of various periods during the 20th century. The film is filled with good clips from films with some beautiful movie stars.
Theda Bara
Movie lovers of all stripes should enjoy this documentary.
It Happened Here Directed by Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo Written by Kevin Brownlow, Andrew Mollo et al 1965/UK Rath Films
First viewing/YouTube
[box] Doctor Richard Fletcher: The appalling thing about fascism is that you’ve got to use fascist methods to get rid of it.[/box]
Interesting premise does not result in an interesting movie.
The year is 1947. In the alternative history of this film, Britain was invaded and occupied by Germany following the retreat at Dunkirk. By 1947, with the main German forces concentrated in fighting in the USSR, the UK is run by a small force of German soldiers and a large number of collaborators. The U.S. has entered the war and supplied partisans in the West of England. The population of this area is evacuated to London.
The story is centered on the experiences of a public health nurse who just wants to practice her profession without affiliating with either side. This proves to be impossible. The movie ends with a pretty devastating twist.
I was looking forward to this one. It could have been so much more than it was. Just kind of cold and tedious.
The Knack … and How to Get It Directed by Richard Lester Written by Charles Wood from a play by Ann Jellicoe 1965/USA Woodfall Film Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] [of Tolen’s “rough play” with women] Tom: Just think of what you could do with a real whip, Tolen. A real whip.[/box]
“Comedy” about Swinging 60’s London was a major disappointment.
Plot is almost non-existent. Colin (Michael Crawford) is a twenty-something virgin who lives with self-styled lady killer Tolen (Ray Brooks). Colin would like lessons but never does seem to develop the knack. Concurrently, naive young Nancy Jones (Rita Tushingham) has just arrived in London and is having trouble get directions from the YWCA.
I expected something better than this from Lester after his electric A Hard Day’s Night (1964). Unfortunately, this has a lot of that film’s wackiness but none of its charm or laughs. Toward the end there is a tongue-in-cheek section about Tushingham’s “rape” that is even less funny than the rest of the film. Not recommended despite my love for Tushingham.
Ship of Fools Directed by Stanley Kramer Written by Abby Mann from a novel by Katherine Anne Porter 1965/USA Stanley Kramer Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] Bill Tenny: [Drunk] You know what I think?
Glocken: No.
Bill Tenny: I think you’re a sawed-off intellectual.[/box]
Omnibus story
The year is 1933. The ship is German departing Mexico with a final destination of Bremerhaven, Germany. The first-class passengers are of various nationalities, with a predominance of Germans. Many Spanish sugar workers are being shipped back to Spain since sugar prices have dropped and live in deplorable conditions on an open deck. Dwarf Karl Glocken (Michael Dunn) addresses the audience and says that all the passengers are fools. Can we recognize ourselves among them?
There are several stories being told simultaneously. One involves a drug-addicted Countess (Simone Signoret) who is being sent to prison in Tenerife for defending workers on the plantation owned by her husband. Oskar Werner is the ship’s doctor who treats and falls in love with her. Vivien Leigh is an aging divorced socialite who makes a strange dinner partner for boozy ex-baseball player Lee Marvin. Jose Ferrer plays an loud and obnoxious early Nazi party member. Prejudice plays a major supporting role with the Jewish outcast being one of the most affable and positive member of the cast of characters and particularly touching.
Casts of thousands and many stories to keep track of are hard to pull off but I thought this worked surprisingly well. It helped that the stars involved were all on the top of their game. Recommended.
Ship of Fools won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White. It was nominated for Best Picture; Best Actor (Werner); Best Actress (Signoret); Best Supporting Actor (Dunne); Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.
Summer Children Directed by James Bruner Written by Norman Handelsman; original story by James Bruner 1965/USA Robinette Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime
[box] West: But everyone looks up to Franky.
Diana: Yes, but looking up to people can be a pain in the neck.[/box]
Trite story of young people boozing and screwing their way to and around Catalina Island on a yacht is lifted to the extraordinary by Vilmos Zsigmond’s stunning cinematography.
Three couples and a mystery deck hand set off on a sailing party to Catalina on West’s daddy’s yacht. The hanky panky begins almost immediately. One of the girls is not interested in this nonsense and is of course, the most desirable. Franky, one of the boys, has musical beds in mind. All this is accompanied by hard drinking. The basic scenario does not change when the kids land on the island. There we get some music and dancing to go with it.
An R-rated beach party movie without the beach. Leering tone kind of left me feeling icky. But the cinematography is far better than it deserves. The views of the yacht and the sparkling sea are spectacular.
Battle of the Bulge Directed by Ken Annakin Written by Philip Yordan, Milton Sperling, and John Melson 1965/USA United States Pictures/Cinerama Productions Corp.
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] Col. Martin Hessler: They have the fuel and planes to fly Cake over the Atlantic Ocean. Do you know what this means?[/box]
Building on the success of The Longest Day (1962), this movie is long on star power, explosions, and Cinerama moments and short on story.
By its own admission, this is a “generalized” and “synthesized” version of the last German offensive of WWII. Col. Hessler (Robert Shaw) is ordered to launch an all-out attack on American forces with his Panzer division. He has only 50 hours before his tanks will run out of fuel. In the meantime, intrepid surveillance officer Lt. Col. Dan Kiley (Henry Fonda) attempts to warn the brass of the impending battle but is not believed. All hell breaks loose. With Robert Ryan and Dana Andrews as Fonda’s superiors and Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, and James MacArthur as soldiers.
This film was denounced by former President (and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during WW2) Eisenhower soon after its release in a press conference due to its glaring historical inaccuracies. For one thing, it completely omits the major role the British Army played in the fighting. For another, it was shot on Spain in terrain vastly different than that encountered by the participants.
Leaving that aside, the film is almost three hours of footage in search of a story or compelling characters. On the other hand, if you are in the mood for explosions and awesome Cinerama visions of approaching tanks you could do far worse. Shaw’s performance as a hardened Nazi warrior is the highlight of the performances.
Baby the Rain Must Fall Directed by Robert Mulligan Written by Horton Foote from his play 1965/USA Solar Productions/Park Place Production
First viewing/YouTube
Henry Thomas: [yelling a couple feet away from Miss Kates bedroom door] I’M NOT GOING TO QUIT MY MUSIC! YOU HEAR THAT OLD LADY?… I’m not going to quit MUSIC!
OK 60’s movie about a singer who is a real rebel without a cause.
Henry Thomas (Steve McQueen) is a singer/songwriter who performs at honkey tonks. As the movie begins, he is just back to work after being released from prison on parole from a stabbing conviction. His life is run by his abusive former caretaker who is convinced he is no good. She apparently has the power to send him back to prison if he does not do what she wants. She wants him to give up his music and go to vocational school to learn a useful trade.
Henry’s wife Georgette (Lee Remick) shows up with their six-year-old daughter for a reunion. Nobody is even aware of her existence. But somehow Henry and Georgette build a new life together. Henry’s temper is going to keep him in constant trouble, however.
This is quite OK. I like Lee Remick and she was the main reason to watch for me. McQueen is playing against type and it is not something he excels at. His singing is dubbed by someone with a very different vocal quality. It’s kind of a basic 60’s psycho drama about a guy who had a bad childhood.
Alphaville (Alphaville, une etrange aventure de Lemmy Caution) Directed by Jean-Luc Godard Written by Jean-Luc Godard 1965/France/Italy Andre Michelin Productions/Filmstudio/Chaumiane
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Alpha 60: Once we know the number one, we believe that we know the number two, because one plus one equals two. We forget that first we must know the meaning of plus.[/box]
Second viewing confirmed my opinion that Godard is just too full of himself for me.
The story takes place some time in the future in a city called Alphaville that is run by the Alpha 60 computer and logic. Alphaville looks exactly like the seedier side of 1965 Paris. Our hero secret agent Lemmy Caution (AKA Ivan Johnson) (Eddie Constantine) arrives from the Outlands (New York) on a mission to bring back Professor Leonard Nosferatu Von Braun, who controls the computer, dead or alive.
First he meets Von Braun’s daughter Natasha (Anna Karina) who has been assigned to accompany him on his travels through Alphaville. Then he meets with fellow secret agent Henri Dickson (Akim Tamiroff) who is on the verge of either suicide or murder.
Lemmy and Natasha fall in love – an emotion that is unknown and forbidden in Alphaville. The bulk of the movie is occupied by cool looking strangeness and pretentious philosophy.
Godard reminds me of a precocious teenager who thinks it is brilliant to just stuff every random idea that comes into his head, no matter how obvious or inane, into his movies. My readers are already sick of hearing about what I think about that.
Morituri Directed by Bernhard Wicki Written by Daniel Taradash from a novel by Werner Jorge Luddecke 1965/USA Arcola Pictures/Colony Productions
First viewing/YouTube
[box] Robert Crain: I was blackmailed to the strains of Mozart.[/box]
With this title it could be an African safari movie. Instead, it’s a WWII thriller with excellent performances by a stellar cast and plenty of action.
“Robert Crain” (Marlon Brando) is a German ship’s engineer who is hiding out in India under a false British passport. Thoroughly apolitical, he just wants to sit out the war in peace. A British colonel (Trevor Howard) is on to his ruse and blackmails him to accomplish what looks like mission impossible. He is to board a German ship taking a precious cargo of rubber from Tokyo to France (!) and sabotage the ship so that it cannot be scuttled when it is captured by the American Navy.
Fate works in Crain’s favor. The ship’s commander Captain Muller (Yul Brynner) is in disgrace for losing his previous ship to a torpedo while drunk and this is used against him to force him to take a number of prisoners on board as crew. So when Crain boards the ship, Muller immediately assumes he is an SS agent. This gives Crain an unexpected entree to work his will on various members of the crew. There is also a remarkable number of Nazi-haters aboard. With Wally Cox in a nice supporting role as a morphine-addicted doctor.
The plot bears very little scrutiny. The confluence of events here really makes no sense at all. On the other hand, it gives Wicki a chance to do some effective action sequences and highlights a couple of excellent performances by Brando and Brynner. I thought it was 20-30 minutes too long.
Morituri was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Tini zabutyck predkiv) Directed by Sergei Parajanov Written by Ivan Chendej and Sergei Parajanov from a novel by Mikhaylo Kotsyubinsky 1964/USSR Dovzhenko Film Studios
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Our history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary influences of our race, and our ancestors virtually live in us. James Nasmyth [/box]
Amazing cinematography and imagery of a totally alien (to me) culture highlight a one-of-a-kind film.
The story illustrates the ancient customs of the Hutsul people of Ukraine through the life of one man, Ivan. As a boy, his sole surviving brother loses his life protecting Ivan from a falling tree. At the funeral, evil Yurko kills Ivan’s father. Young Ivan meets Yurko’s daughter Marichka. Playmates become lovers but their Romeo and Juliet affair is ended by tragedy.
Ivan wanders grief-stricken and lost for quite some time but eventually marries the seductive Palagna. He is still in love with Marichka however and their union bears no children. In a bid to win Ivan completely, Palagna consults Yurko, who is a sorcreer. She begins an affair with him …
This movie is a complete visual and sonic feast. It is surreal yet hyper-detailed. One niggle is that the plot is more or less a vehicle for showing wedding, funeral, Christmas, church, etc. customs, folkdress, etc., etc. I thought it dragged by the end though it may be that I was just suffering sensory overload. Definitely a must-see however.
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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