Flickers in Time

You Only Live Twice
Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Written by Roald Dahl from a novel by Ian Fleming
1967/UK
Eon Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Tiger Tanaka: You like Japanese sake, Mr. Bond? Or, would you prefer a vodka martini?

James Bond: Oh, no. I like sake. Especially when it’s served at the correct temperature: 98.4 degrees fahrenheit like this is.[/box]

1967’s Bond entry is missing a certain something.  It certainly isn’t explosions!

U.S. and Russian spacecraft are mysteriously disappearing.  The case takes James Bond (Sean Connery) to Japan where he meets up with many Asian Bond girls and super-villain Blofeld (Donald Pleasance).  I think fans can figure out the rest of the very slim plot from there.

This was made on location and I enjoyed seeing 1967 Tokyo and the girls are certainly gorgeous.  Pleasance makes a great villain but there is simply too little of him.  The film is mainly double entendres and explosions and probably will not linger in my memory long.

Mouchette
Directed by Robert Bresson
Written by Robert Bresson from a novel by Georges Bernanos
1967/France
Argos Films/Parc Film
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” ― Mahatma Gandhi[/box]

Sparse dialogue and beautiful images accompany the sad life of a poverty-stricken, victimized, teenage outcast.

Mouchette lives in abject poverty in the French countryside with her dying mother, alcoholic father, and an underfed howling infant.  She is the target of much scorn from her schoolmates and others.  She takes revenge by throwing mud on their clean clothes and possessions.  She has become so hardened that she cannot recognize gestures of kindness when she sees them.

One night she is stuck in the woods in the rain.  She observes a drunken poacher, Arsene, fighting with a drunken gameskeeper.  Arsene, who quite possibly has murdered the gameskeeper, takes her to a shack to dry out and then back to his cabin.  Things continue to go downhill from there.

The message of this film, if any, appears to be “life’s a bitch and then you die”.  You can’t help feeling some sympathy for Mouchette although she is a very unpleasant person with a gigantic chip on her shoulder.  This is Bresson, so the film is gorgeous to look at.  I won’t be looking at it again.

For some reason, Bresson allowed Jean-Luc Godard to “direct” this trailer which misses the whole tone of his film.

The Night of the Generals
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Written by Joseph Kessel and Paul Dehn from a novel by Hans Helmut Kirst
1967/UK/France
Horizon Pictures/Filmsonor
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Inspector Morand: But, murder is the occupation of Generals.

Major Grau: Then let us say what is admirable on the large scale is monstrous on the small. Since we must give medals to mass murderers, why not give justice to the small… entrepreneur.[/box]

Solid WWII thriller benefits from a cast of great actors.

The story starts in 1942 Warsaw where Major Grau (Omar Sharif) begins his investigation of the brutal sex murder of a Polish prostitute/German agent.  The only clue comes from a terrified witness who glimpsed the red stripe on the trousers of a German army officer leaving her flat. That red stripe signifies a general.  The three suspects are Generals Tanz (Peter O’Toole), Kahlenberge (Donald Pleasance) and General von Seidlitz-Gabler (Charles Gray).  Grau is frustrated at every turn.  At the same time, we are introduced to Corporal Hartmann (Tom Courtney) who comes from the Russian front begging for a desk job, which he gets. Hartmann begins a romance with von Seidlitz-Gabler’s rebellious daughter.

Time marches on and all these characters wind up in Occupied Paris.  Two of the Generals are involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler.  Grau seeks help from Police Inspector Morand who is also in the French resistance.  Hartmann is assigned to squire General Tanz around town.  Another murder occurs.  The story then jumps twenty years and Grau is still on the case. With Christopher Plummer in a small role as Field Marshall Rommel.

You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to guess the culprit in the first half hour.  Yet Litvak and his brilliant cast kept me engaged throughout.  It’s not necessarily something I will seek out again but it’s an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours.

Dance of the Vampires (AKA The Fearless Vampire Hunters or Pardon Me, But You’ve Got Your Teeth in My Neck)
Directed by Roman Polanski
Written by Gerard Brach and Roman Polanski
1967/UK
Cadre Films/Filmways Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental
They Shoot Zombies Don’t They?

[box] It’s easy to direct while acting – there’s one less person to argue with. – Roman Polanski[/box]

It’s hard to make a funny horror film.  Polanski doesn’t quite succeed here.

Bat researcher Professor Abronsius (Jack McCowan) and his timid, bumbling assistant Alfred (Polanski) stop at an inn they hope is on the route to a vampire  There Alfred becomes smitten with barmaid Sarah Shagal (Sharon Tate), who is then abducted by a hideous hunchback.  They track him to the castle of Count von Krolock (Ferdy Main).

The Professor and Alfred have many horrifying adventures, which culminate in a ball for the Count and his victims.  Can Sarah be saved?

Well, I was neither scared nor really amused by this film.  It looks handsome enough though and there are a some jump cuts to get the blood racing for a few seconds.  The weakest of Polanski’s films if you ask me, which of course you didn’t.

The movie is, however, MUCH better than the American trailer!

Valley of the Dolls
Directed by Mark Robson
Written by Helen Deutsch and Dorothy Kingsley from the novel by Jacqueline Susann
1967/USA
Red Lion
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Anne Welles: Neely, you know it’s bad to take liquor with those pills.

Neely O’Hara: They work faster.[/box]

I was expecting a sudsy melodrama with over-the-top acting and that is exactly what I got.  Not that this is entirely a bad thing!

Nice girl Anne (Barbara Parkins) leaves her idyllic home in New England for the excitement of the Big Apple.  She promptly gets a job with a show business attorney.  This eventually leads to meeting Helen Lawson (Susan Hayward), an aging Broadway legend; Neely O’Hara (Patty Duke), an aspiring Broadway legend; and Jennifer (Sharon Tate), a sweet, reluctant sex symbol.  Anne, with her elegant looks, gets hired to represent a line of beauty products.

All of the younger women fall in love with men who are basically non-entities. The stress of  making their dreams comes true lead all to prescription drugs and booze at some point.  Neeley goes completely over the edge.  With Lee Grant as a doting sister.

This became kind of a guilty pleasure.  It’s super trashy but very entertaining.  I didn’t know Patty Duke could overact to this extent but she is perfect for her part.  Susan Hayward emerges with her dignity intact.  I had forgotten how much I love Dionne Warwick’s rendition of the theme song.  Can’t exactly recommend it but don’t regret I saw it one bit.

John Williams was nominated for an Academy Award for his adapted score.  Andre and Dory Previn wrote the songs.

Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (Daikyoju Gappa)
Directed by Hiroshi Noguchi
Written by Iwao Yamakazi and Ryuzo Nakanishi
1967/Japan
Manson Corporation/Nikkatsu
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] President Funazu: Like it? I call it Playmate Land.[/box]

In a year of goofy monster movies, this is second rate.  I blame part of that on the English dubbing.

As usual, Japanese scientists travel to a tropical island to do some questionable experiments and come upon an infant monster.  Of course, they must take it home, largely at the insistence of a greedy promoter.  Mommy and Daddy Gappa come to the rescue and all but destroy Tokyo in the process.

The movie is in color but I liked this still.

This combines a bird-lizard monster a la The X from Outer Space and the sentimentality of Son of Godzilla.  It lacks the  inadvertent hilarity of both, though.

A Colt Is My Passport (Koruto wa ore no pasupooto)
Directed by Takashi Nomura
Written by Hideichi Nagahara and Nobuo Yamada
1967/Japan
Nikkatsu
First viewing/Criterion Channel

[box] War is the statesman’s game, the priest’s delight, the lawyer’s jest, the hired assassin’s trade. — Percy Bysshe Shelley[/box]

This is one of the better of the many “noir” gangster movies put out by Japan’s Nikkatsu studio in its prime.

Jo “Chipmunk Cheek” Shishido plays Shuji Kamamura, an assassin for hire.  As the film begins, he is assigned to kill a mob boss.  His target is heavily protected.  Then Kamamura’s boss is offered a lot of money to wipe his employee out.

I find these things are a bit samey in the plot but generally of a fairly high standard.  I particularly liked director Nomura’s attention to detail.  But best of all was the jazzy score!

Hear Morricone’s influence?

The Sorcerers
Directed by Michael Reeves
Written by Michael Reeves and Tom Baker
1967/UK
Toby Tenser Films/Curtwel Productions/etc.
First viewing/Amazon Instant
They Shoot Zombies Don’t They?

[box] Prof. Marcus Monserrat: From now on, we are going to control your mind.[/box]

Interesting premise plus Boris Karloff made this unsung thriller a very pleasant surprise.

Aged hynostist Marcus Monserrat (Karloff) has invented telepathic mind control which he hopes to use for the good of mankind.  The process also causes the hynotist to feel the sensations felt by his subject.

Monserrat and his dotty old wife Estelle (Catherine Lacey) manage to lure a bored young man into their web.  It is only then that Marcus learns that Estelle has been hiding something dark in the recesses of her mind and that she is a pretty powerful hypnotist herself.

I hadn’t heard of this before finding it on the They Shoot Zombies Don’t They List.  Had no idea what was coming and was delighted to discover this character-driven thriller.  Karloff and Lacey are really superb.  Other features are 1967 Swinging London and some psychedelia.