Manji (Swastika) Directed by Yasuzo Masumura Written by Kaneto Shindo from a novel by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki 1964/Japan Daiei Studios
First viewing/YouTube
[box] I’m not lesbian; I’m not bisexual; I’m not straight. I’m just curious. Alice Walker [/box]
Strikingly shot movie about forbidden love.
A housewife becomes obsessed with the model posing as a nude Buddhist Goddess of Mercy in her art class. Her feelings are reciprocated. But the housewife’s husband and the model’s fiance make the romance a fraught love quadrangle.
This didn’t grab me but is quite OK. The swastika must refer to the four points of the love quadrangle. There is no specific reference to it in the film.
Theater admission numbers had dropped dramatically to below 1 billion. The trend started to reverse itself with the arrival of blockbusters and multi-plexes, but Hollywood would never get back to its glory days in the 1940s and 1950s.
Sony began marketing the first reel-to-reel video tape recorder designed specifically for home use in 1964 — however, widescale consumer use of video tape recorders didn’t really take off until the mid-1970s.
Alan Ladd died at the age of 50, due to a lethal combination of alcohol and drugs. Peter Lorre died of a heart attack/stroke at the age of 59. Elizabeth Taylor married Richard Burton for the first time.
Ronald Reagan’s last feature film appearance before his retiring from the screen was in director Don Siegel’s The Killers (1964) in which he played a ‘heavy’ for the first time. Two years later, he would be elected governor of California.
After three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights act of 1964 but this did not stop the violence as it continued to increase in many American cities. The Act outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It prohibited unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations. Resistance to the public accommodation clause continued for years on the ground, especially in the South. Resistance by school boards continued into the next decade, with the most significant declines in black-white school segregation only occurring at the end of the 1960s and the start of the 1970s. Lyndon Johnson was returned to office in a landslide victory over Barry Goldwater.
A parent wrote to the US Attorney General complaining that the lyrics to “Louie Louie” by The Kingsmen were obscene. After 2 years of investigation, the FBI dismissed the complaint because the lyrics of that recording were “unintelligible at any speed”.
The great soul singer Sam Cooke was shot dead at a motel under disputed circumstances.
“I Want to Hold Your Hand “spent seven weeks atop the Billboard Charts, making it the number one single of the year. At one point, songs by The Beatles occupied the top 5 places on the Billboard Top Ten. Both Beatlemania and the British Invasion took Amereica by storm. Other British groups also found success including The Rolling Stones and The Animals and together with the American talent of The Supremes and Bob Dylan many say this was one of the greatest years for music in the last century. Also one young loud talented boxer by the name of Cassius Clay won the Boxing World heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston. Time Magazine’s Man of the Year was Lyndon B. Johnson. No Pulitzer Prize was awarded for either literature or drama in 1964.
Although the U.S. denied that it had combat soldiers in South Vietnam, U.S. soldiers routinely participated in combat operations against the Viet Cong. The number of U.S. soldiers in South Vietnam rose to more than 16,000 by year’s end with 122 combat deaths in just that year.
The President of South Vietnam Ngô Đình Diệm initiated a brutal crack-down on protests by Buddhists against his (largely Roman Catholic) government that caused consternation in the U.S. and concern that the Diệm government was failing. In November, Diệm was overthrown and killed in a coup d’état by his military, with the tacit acquiescence of the United States. A military junta headed by General Dương Văn Minh replaced Diệm.
I have now watched 120 films that were released in 1963. A complete list can be foundhere. Despite my many complaints about the films on the List, it was a strong year and I had 18 films for my favorites list. They could have been sliced and diced in any number of ways – I aimed for a balance between List and non-List films. The films I reluctantly left off my Top Ten were: Shock Corridor; Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie; The Organizer; It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World; The Leopard; Billy Liar; Lilies of the Field; and High and Low. I was unable to locate The Cool World or Mediterranee from The List. My favorites are no particular order though 8 1/2 would remain at the top no matter how I compiled my list.
The Leopard (Il gattopardo)
Directed by Luchino visconti
Written by Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Luchino Visconti et al from a novel by Giuseppi Thomasi di Lampidusa
1963/Italy/France
Titanus; Societe Nouvelle Pathe Cinema; Society Generale de Cinematographie
Repeat viewing/Netlfix rental
[box] Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: We were the leopards, the lions, those who take our place will be jackals and sheep, and the whole lot of us – leopards, lions, jackals and sheep – will continue to think ourselves the salt of the earth.[/box]
Beautiful people, beautiful scenery, beautiful things and a poignant story of change and mortality – what could be better?
Prince Don Fabrizio Salina (Burt Lancaster) is the patriarch of a family of hereditary princes drawing their legitimacy from the House of Savoy, As story begins Garibaldi and his red shirts invade the island intending to claim it for King Victor Immanuel of a unified Italy. Amidst the general panic, Dan Fabrizio does not intend to alter his behavior in any way. And his prerogatives are largely respected due to his nephew Tancredi’s (Alain Delon) decision to fight with the red shirts. Both the Prince and Tancredi are skilled at playing both sides against the middle.
The Prince continues to look out for his nephew and realizes that the key thing he will need for advancement is plenty of money. The problem is solved in the person of the beautiful Angelica (Claudia Cardinale) and her vulgar, nouveau riche father. As the Prince cements this alliance his own mortality calls to him and he makes a graceful peace both with death and with the new age.
I am rarely in the mood for a three hour movie but I wasn’t checking the time through this one. It’s a character study more than anything and I think the story needed space and time to give us such a round portrait of the prince. All the acting, including several supporting characters, is first-rate. And the production and camera work is simply amazing. Highly recommendedl
The Leopard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Color.
This ends my viewing of 1963 films.
Clip – the waltz – no subtitles but pure eye candy
A Legend or Was It? (Shito no densetsu)
Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita
Written by Keisuke Kinoshita
1963/Japan
Shochiku Eiga
First viewing/FilmStruck
[box] Legend remains victorious in spite of history. Sarah Bernhardt [/box]
Set in the last days of WWII, this film is powerful but completely tragic.
We are told from the colorful beginning that this is a tale so tragic that the participants never speak of it. Then we segue into flashback and black-and-white. The Sonobe family – grandma, mother (Kinuyo Tanaka), son and two daughters – have evacuated from Tokyo to Hokkaido. As the story begins, another son has returned from the war due to illness. The family is resented by most of the local villagers but has managed to feed itself because the mayor’s son wants to marry the oldest daughter. She doesn’t like him but has agreed to the marriage.
The brother informs his family that the mayor’s son was guilty of atrocities in China. This is enough to cause the sister to reject him and allows the villagers’ resentment to grow into real hate. The son reveals himself to have been fully capable of war crimes. All this domestic tragedy is set to the bad news coming in from the front.
Well, the movie certainly delivers all the sadness it promised. There is a very interesting counterpoint between the villagers’ fanatical patriotism and the family’s growing conviction Japan will lose the war. Despite the unremitting bleakness, the movie is well and powerfully made and acted.
The Executioner (El verdugo) Directed by Luis Garcia Berlanga Written by Luis Garcia Berlanga, Rafael Ascona, and Ennio Flaiano 1963/Spain/Italy Naga Films/Zebra Films
First viewing/FilmStruck.
Amadeo, el verdugo: [subtitled version] You think that’s bad? That’s only 125 volts! The Americans are worse, with their electric chairs..
Berlanga makes a black comedy about an unwilling executioner while at the same time skewering modern materialism.
José Luís Rodríguez (Nino Manfredi) is an undertaker. One day he is called to collect a corpse from a prison. He finds the whole idea of executions repugnant even after meeting the kindly executioner. The executioner leaves his tool box behind and Rodriguez must visit his home to return it. There he meets and immediately falls for the executioner’s daughter. They have had similar problems with their love lives due to their morbid associations.
Eventually Rodriguez and the daughter marry. The father is eligible for a state-funded apartment but he will retire soon and lose the privilege. One thing and another lead the very reluctant Rodriguez to take over.
I suspect that something is lost in the translation with Berlanga’s comedy. They are pleasant enough to watch but I am never tempted to laugh out loud.
Borom Sarret Directed by Ousmane Sembene Written by Ousmane Sembene 1963/Senegal
First viewing/FilmStruck
[box] You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree. You can’t hate Africa and not hate yourself. Malcolm X [/box]
The life of a poor cart driver is anything but uplifting but Ousmane Sembene gives us a priceless look at African urban life through his eyes.
This 20-minute film covers a day in the life of a man who ekes out a living driving a wagon in the “African” quarter of Dakar, Senegal. Most of his customers are even poorer than he. It will not be a profitable day.
In one way this is a continuation of the “bleak movie” theme running through 1963. But I found it pretty darned fascinating.
Dry Summer (Susuz Yaz) Directed by Metin Erksan Written by Metin Erksan, Kemal Inci, Ismet Soydan; story by Nekati Kumali 1963/Turkey Hitit
First viewing/FilmStruck
[box] “Human kind is made up of two sexes, women and men. Is it possible that a mass is improved by the improvement of only one part and the other part is ignored? Is it possible that if half of a mass is tied to earth with chains and the other half can soar into skies?” ― Mustafa Kemal Atatürk[/box]
This brutal and infuriating film really got under my skin.
Kokabas Osman has the heart and soul of a bully. One fine day he decides that the land he owns with his brother Hasad requires every bit of water supplied by the spring on their property. So he dams the spring, preventing water used downstream by farmers for irrigation from reaching its destination. Hasad is totally opposed to this tactic but is too weak or bound by tradition to defy his older brother. Violence between the downstream and upstream users ensues.
In the meantime, Kokabas has persuaded Hasan to steal away his betrothed, Bahar, before the wedding date her family has selected. This is basically to get added labor for the farm. But from the time of her arrival Kokabas’s lust knows no bounds.
Never have I longed more for a movie death than for the demise of the evil, greedy elder brother in this movie. It’s another bleak 1963 entry but has so much energy and was so absorbing that I can recommend it. Warning: Brief graphic footage of animal slaughter.
Zatoichi on the Road (Zatoichi kenka-tabi) Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda Written by Minoru Inuzuka from a story by Kan Shimozawa 1963/Japan Daiei Studios
First viewing/FilmStruck
[box] Zatôichi: Using an innocent woman as bait – Unscrupulous coward! None of you deserves to live.[/box]
Further proof that these Zatoichi movies can do no wrong!
Having been bribed with fine food, Blind Ichi is on his way to visit a yakuza boss. On the way he meets up with a young maiden on her way back to wealthy parents in Edo. She is worth quite a bit of ransom and attracts the attentions of many different assailants with whom Zatoichi must do battle.
This is the fifth fine entry in the series of 26 films. It has one of the more coherent plots. I highly recommend giving these a try to anyone willing to believe that a kindly blind masseur can dispatch twenty heavily-armed attackers with his cane sword in 30 seconds flat. This is surprisingly easy to do!
The Sword in the Stone Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman Written by Bill Peet from a novel by T.H. White 1963/USA Walt Disney Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Archimedes the Owl: Now, boy, flying is not merely some crude, mechanical process. It is a delicate art. Purely aesthetic. Poetry of motion. And the best way to learn it is to do it.[/box]
A pleasant bit of nostalgia.
The great wizard Merlin is expecting company. He just doesn’t know who. His visitor takes the shape of pre-teen Arthur, better known as The Wart, a squire-in-training. Merlin predicts a bright future for the lad and sets about educating him with the help of his owl Archemides. The future begins to take shape when Arthur accompanies his knight to a tournament and grabs a sword from a stone to take the place of a missing weapon.
I remember loving this as a kid. I think we had the soundtrack album. Now it seems to have been a lesser entry in Disney’s catalogue of animated features.
The Sword in the Stone was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment.
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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