Category Archives: 1962

The Day of the Triffids
Directed by Steve Stekeley
Bernard Gordon from a novel by John Wyndam
1963/UK
Allied Artists Pictures/Security Pictures Ltd.
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] And I really got hot/ When I saw Janette Scott/ Fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills – “Science Fiction Double Feature”, lyrics by Richard O’Brien[/box]

Well, I can hardly think of anything cooler than a story about a small band of survivors that tries to battle carnivorous plants in a world gone blind.

As the story begins, the world is being treated to the most spectacular meteor showers in recorded history.  All eyes are glued on the heavens.  All, that is, except for a few lucky people.  Naval officer Bill Masen (Howard Keel) was recovering from eye surgery and blind folded.  When he wakes the next morning he cannot rouse the doctor or anyone else from the clinic.  He unwraps his own bandages and discovers a London that seems entirely populated by blind people.  Eventually he meets up with a little girl who spent the night of the meteor shower stowed away in a freight car.  The two go on to meet up with huge, and mobile, carnivorous plants that seem determined to wipe out humanity.  As they try to find help outside the city, they eventually come across a few other survivors nursing a number of blind people in a mansion.

On a separate track, marine biologists Tom (Kieron Moore) and Karen (Janette Scott) Goodwin conduct research in an isolated light house.  Tom is evidently trying to drink himself to death and has no inclination to see the light show.  Karen stands by her man, wringing her hands.  But the Triffids have found even their little island and Tom finally has to put on his big boy pants and get to work.

It’s got a certain amount of cheese and the bi-furcated solution to the problem doesn’t bear much scrutiny.  No matter, I loved this thing.  Just the idea of all these newly blind people bumping into each other while being pursued by plants caught my fancy.

The Day of the Triffids was the last movie referenced in the song “Science Fiction Double Feature” that I had left to watch.  If you would like to pursue this quest you will end up seeing:   (1951); (1936); The Invisible Man (1933); King Kong (1933); (1953); Doctor X (1932); (1956); (1955); Day of the Triffids (1963); (1957) and (1951).  Anyone interested in seeing some really classic sci-fi could do far worse than this list.

Trailer

“Science Fiction Double Feature” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Intruder (AKA “I Hate Your Guts”, “The Stranger”, and “Shame”)
Directed by Roger Corman
Written by Charles Beaumont from his novel
1962/USA
Roger Corman Productions
Repeat viewing/YouTube

[box] Adam Cramer: No matter how much you hate me, blame me, and want to shoot me – it wasn’t all my fault![/box]

Roger Corman and William Shatner went way outside their comfort zones to make this little exploitation flick the best work of either.

The “white” public schools in a small Southern town are about to be integrated under then-current Supreme Court decisions.  There is no love lost between blacks and whites in the town but the whites basically accept the action because, after all, it is the law.  This creates a gap that “social reformer” Adam Cramer (Shatner) is aching to exploit.

In his shining white suit, Cramer preaches conservative values and race hate and manages to stir up violent opposition on the first day of school.  He soon finds out a mob is a dangerous thing and can turn on a dime.

The first time I saw this I was amazed at how powerful it was.  It held up very well to a second viewing.  Shatner plays one of the most repellent rats in movie history and is excellent at it.  If you have a strong aversion to use of the “n” word and racial slurs, even though necessary to the plot, this might not be for you.  Otherwise, I recommend it.

Trailer

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Having survived a bout with pneumonia, I will be catching up on the B science fiction films I watched on my tablet in the hospital over the next couple of days before starting again on the regular rotation.

Tears on the Lion’s Mane (AKA “A Flame at the Pier”) (Namida o shishi no tategami ni)
Directed by Masuhiro Shinoda
Written by Ichiro Mizunuma, Masuhiro Shinoda, Shuji Terayama
1962/Japan
Shochiku Company
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] The fall of the Berlin Wall makes for nice pictures. But it all started in the shipyards. Lech Walesa [/box]

For me, there seems to be a real cultural disconnect that prevents me from understanding Shinoda’s films.  Here is another very dark, sex-fueled expose of corruption in the Japanese shipping industry.

Super-cool some-time rock singer Saburo Murakami is the right hand man to a man living off graft on the docks.  His main occupation is as a strike breaker. The boss man has convinced Saburo that he saved him from fire-bombing as a toddler and thus owes him his life.  Between beating up people, Saburo just happens to fall in love with the cute daughter of one of the union organizers.

Of course, the organizer has to be Saburo’s next target. Heartbreak ensues.

I can’t quite put my finger on it but there was a vibe in 60’s Japan that just does not compute with me.  A lot of what the people do in these films is clearly meant to be “cool” but simply baffles me.  I keep watching them but wish they were more like the older generation of film makers I love so much.

Sweet Bird of Youth
Directed by Richard Brooks
Written by Richard Brooks from a play by Tennessee Williams
1962/USA
Roxbury Productions Inc.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Alexandra Del Lago: No. No, I must look hideous in it.

Chance Wayne: Oh, no, honey. You just look exotic. Yeah. Like a princess from Mars or a… big magnified insect.[/box]

I’ve loved many movies based on Tennessee Williams plays.  Unfortunately, his crazy lady plot had run out of steam long before 1962.

Chance Wayne (Paul Newman) drifts back into his home town with washed-up movie star Alexandra del Lago (Geraldine Page) in tow.  She is deeply into the sauce and assorted controlled substances and when she comes to she has little memory of how she got there. Chance’s plan is to blackmail Alexandra into giving him a boost toward his own dream of movie stardom.

Alexandra may be a drunk but she is nobody’s fool and things backfire badly on Chance. In the meantime, Chance’s reappearance gives “Boss” Finley, the most powerful man in town, a chance to get vengeance on the drifter for trifling with his daughter (Shirley Knight).

One of the things that throws the film off from the get go is that Page is supposed to be an aging movie star and Paul Newman a much younger man.  Trouble is that Page was only a year older than Newman and they looked like a perfect match sexually.  More fundamentally, we’ve seen this story too many times before.  Billy Wilder did it much better in Sunset Blvd.  I think I had seen bits of pieces of this on TV before.  I always lost interest before seeing the whole thing.  Now that I have, I can see why.

Ed Begley won the Oscar for Best Actor in a supporting role.  Geraldine Page was nominated for Best Actress and Shirley Night for Best Supporting Actress.

Trailer

Billy Rose’s Jumbo
Directed by Charles Walters
Written by Sidney Shelton; book by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur
1962/USA
Euterpe/Arwin Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix

[box] My romance doesn’t need a castle rising in Spain/ Or a dance to a constantly surprising refrain/ All at once I can make my most fantastic dreams come true/ My romance, doesn’t need a thing but you – lyrics by Lorenz Hart[/box]

It seems it is a challenge to make a good circus movie.  This one does not break the genre’s losing streak.

Chronic gambler “Pop” Wonder (Jimmy Durante) owns a circus whose star attraction is the elephant Jumbo.  His show-rider daughter Kitty (Doris Day) has to deal with the many bill collectors hounding the production.

One day Sam Rawlins (Stephen Boyd) shows up looking for work.  It turns out he is a talented aerialist and Sam and Kitty quickly fall in love.  Can the relationship work after Sam’s connection to a rival circus owner is revealed?  With Martha Rae as Pop’s long-suffering fiancee.

One of the problems with circus movies is the need to show circus acts while at the same time including some kind of plot.  This one also adds in a bunch of Rogers and Hart ballads to get through.  All the elements are just OK and do not make a satisfying or coherent whole.  Still, this is another movie I saw as a child.  We had the soundtrack album on frequent rotation at our house.  So it retains a little bit of magic for me.

Jumbo was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment.

Trailer

The Inheritance (Karami-ai)
Directed by Misaki Kobayashi
Written by Koichi Inagaki from a novel by Norio Nanjo
1962/Japan
Shochiku Eiga
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Kikuo Furukawa: I’ve got a favor to ask. It’s embarrassing. But a coffin is waiting for me, so I can say this plainly. I don’t have any legally recognized children. But I do have children. To top it off, I’ve got three of them. Some may be dead. But there’s no way all three are dead. So I want you to find my children. I don’t mean to legally acknowledge them and their heirship right away. Some may have grown up to be scoundrels. But if any of them are suitable, I’d like to add them as heirs.[/box]

This lacks the gravitas of Kobayashi’s other 1962 film,  , but the imagery is equally beautiful.

Immensely wealthy Kikuo Furukawa is terminally ill and is trying to get his affairs in order before he dies.  He decides to leave a third of his estate to his wife and the remainder to his three illegitimate children who have remained unacknowledged until now.  If the children are not located he intends to leave their share to charity.

The story follows the search for the children.  It is half-hearted at best as those close to the dying man want that money for themselves.  With Tetsuya Nakadai as one of the money seekers.

I think Kobayashi is at his best when he has a grand theme to work with and I enjoy his period pieces the most (Harakiri, Samurai Rebellion). All the characters in this are unlikeable and there is a certain sameness to the proceedings.  No one could fail to appreciate the exquisite compositions however.

Clip (credit sequence)

Reach for Glory
Directed by Philip Leacock
Written by Jun Kin, John Kohn and John Rae from Rae’s novel
1962/UK
Blazer Films
First viewing/Netflix

[box] War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace. THOMAS MANN, attributed, This I Believe [/box]

British schoolboys behave eerily like Hitler Youth as they dream of glory in WWII.

In a small English coastal town,  home boys and evacuees from London and farther afield can hardly wait to be old enough to go off to war.  In the meantime, they are drilled three times a week in use of firearms, etc.  Unfortunately, the basic anti-Semitism of their parents hasn’t escaped them and bullies will be bullies even in wartime.  The teens’ war games go tragically amiss.

This was an uncomfortable watch with few likable  characters.  Doesn’t make it a bad movie though.

Trailer

Almost Angels
Directed by Steve Previn
Written by Vernon Harris; original story by Robert A. Stemmle
1962/USA
Walt Disney Productions
Repeat viewing/YouTube

[box] My voice? Yeah, well, I used to drink a lot of beer when I was a kid and I sounded like a drunk in a choir. I don’t drink anymore. Eric Burdon [/box]

This is a fun family movie about the Vienna Boys Choir – more so if the family loves beautiful music.

The plot focuses on two boys.  One is a working-class lad with great talent who is just starting out.  The other is a star singer whose voice is beginning to change and must deal with the new guy getting all his best solos.

My mother took us to see this in the theater and I remember it to this day.  The story is cute but it is the music that sells it now. I hope mom is hearing the angels sing it in heaven.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuCcLs8t9P4

Clip

Sundays and Cybele (Les dimanches de Ville d’Avray)
Directed by Serge Bourgignon
Written by Serge Bourgignon and Antoine Tudal from a novel by Bernard Eschasseriaux
1962/France/Austria
Fides/Les Films Trocadero/Orsay Films/Terra Film Produktion
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “If we can forgive what has been done to us . . /. If we can forgive what we’ve done to others . . ./ If we can leave all of our stories behind. Our being villians or victims./ Only then can we maybe rescue the world. ― Chuck Palahniuk, Haunted[/box]

This is a beautifully shot movie but doesn’t really ring my bells.

Pierre (Hardy Krüger) has blocked out the memory of a bombing raid in Indochina that left a young girl dead.  His amnesia for the event hasn’t made him any happier.  One day, he sees a young girl (maybe 12?) being left off by her father at a convent school.  The father promises to visit on Sundays but Pierre witnesses something that lets him know Dad won’t be coming back.  So Pierre convinces the nuns he is the father and starts spending each Sunday with Francoise.  Their afternoons together are idyllic.

But something about the relationship strikes other adults as creepy.  Reality slowly intrudes its ugly head.

I’ve seen this twice now and it didn’t wow me either time.  Something about it just drags for me.  Your mileage may definitely vary.

Sundays and Cybele won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment.