Category Archives: 1962

The Grim Reaper (La comare seca)
Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
Written by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Sergio Citti
1962/Italy
Cinematografica Cervi/Cineriz
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] What you want from a movie when you begin it is 150,000 miles from what you reach at the end. Moviemaking is a process. You end with something different; that’s what gives it life. I cannot plan a film as a script or as a storyboard. I need the camera; I need the actors. I can’t do it on a desk. I need the reality to whisper to me. If you leave the door open to reality, the smell of reality is so strong, it adds so much. It attacks and enters and infiltrates, that’s what I enjoy. — Bernardo Bertolucci[/box]

Bertolucci didn’t make his name for murder mysteries.  This is an OK one with an interesting premise.

The police (never shown on camera) are investigating the murder of a prostitute found dead in a Roman park.  They question many people who were in the park at the time of the murder.  We get the version of events given by the witness accompanied by shots of what the witness was actually doing.  Most of what anyone tells the police is a lie.

The film covers the same time period several times with a sudden rainstorm and the prostitute’s preparations for work tying the pieces together.

This didn’t rock my world or anything.  It’s an ingenious way of storytelling and there are some beautiful shots.  Bertolucci was only 20 years old when he shot this film so we can cut him some slack.

Ben Mankiewicz intro

Light in the Piazza
Directed by Guy Green
Written by Julius J. Epstein, story by Elizabeth Spencer
1962/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Amazon Instant

Meg Johnson: Nobody with a dream should come to Italy. No matter how dead and buried you think it is, in Italy, it will rise and walk again.

The scenery of Florence and the appeal of Olivia De Havilland rescue a most improbable tale.

Meg Johnson (De Havilland) and her 26-year-old daughter Clara (Yvette Mimeux) are on an extended holiday in Florence.  Husband and father Noel (Barry Sullivan) remains in America making millions.  Meg is very protective of Clara who has suffered brain damage.  It is the kind of movie disease that preserves the sufferer’s beauty, speech and motor function.  We are told Clara’s mentality is that of a 10 year old, though she also becomes fluent in Italian in nothing flat.  Any way, the handsome and cultivated Fabrizio (George Hamilton) soon falls for Clara in a big way.

Clara is soon head-over-heels for Fabrizio and his wealthy family approves of her whole-heartedly.  Meg is left with a dilemma.  She tries to solve her problem by leaving Florence and calling her husband on an emergency basis to Rome.  But Noel’s solution to the whole situation is to put Clara in an institution and there is no way Meg will agree to that.  What to do? With Rosanno Brazzi as Fabrizio’s father.

Trailer

Mamma Roma
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Written by Pier Paolo Pasolini
1962/Italy
Arco Film
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] The mark which has dominated all my work is the longing for life, this sense of exclusion, which doesn’t lessen, but augments this love of life. – Pier Paolo Pasolini[/box]

I loved my introduction to director Pier Paolo Pasolini.  I’m looking forward to the rest of his work.

Mamma Roma (Anna Magnanni) is a successful streetwalker and force of nature.  She finally ditches her pimp who has gotten married.  Mamma now has saved enough to buy a nice flat and market stall and to bring her son back from the countryside where he has been raised by a respectable family.

Unfortunately, Mamma’s pimp is not cut out for married life and will not leave her alone. The story follows the journey of her son from innocent to criminal and Mamma’s heartbreak.

I didn’t know what to expect and was a little nervous knowing that Pasolini also directed Salo.  I needn’t have worried.  This is a beautiful combination of sublime classical music and cinematography with unflinchingly gritty real life. It is one of the few movies where the largely non-professional cast is totally convincing.  I thought this was one of Magnanni’s best performances in a career full of great ones.  Recommended.

Clip – no subtitles but not really needed

Siberian Lady Macbeth
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Written by Sveta Lukic, story by Nikolai Leskov from a play by William Shakespeare
1962/Yugoslavia
Avala Film
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] “All causes shall give way: I am in blood/ Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” ― William Shakespeare, Macbeth[/box]

This is more like The Postman Always Rings Twice than Macbeth but doesn’t work all that well as either.

Beautiful Katerina lives on a pig farm with her cranky father-in-law who berates her constantly for having no children.  Her husband is away on business.  The farm is always looking for strong workers and hires serf Sergei when he shows up looking for work.  He is a likely lad and soon is having an affair with Katerina.  At her instigation, the couple systematically does away with anybody who gets in the way of their love or money.

I’ve loved everything I’ve seen so far by director Wajda but this left me cold.  The characters aren’t well developed and it drags. He seems to have been meant for his native land and contemporary themes.

Clip (no subtitles)

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
Directed by Joseph Green
Written by Joseph Green, original story by Green and Rex Carlton
1962/USA
Rex Carlton Productions
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Dr. Bill Cortner: Oh, come on now, Doris. Do I look like a maniac who goes around killing girls?[/box]

Not the best in the “brain-in-a-bottle” genre.

Dr. Bill Cortner is a hot-shot young surgeon.  His father cautions him against experimenting on humans but he disregards all advice.  He has been doing horrific operations at the family’s summer place.

Bill is engaged to surgical nurse Jan.  He is called out to the summer place to deal with an emergency and takes her with him.  He is driving way over the speed limit when he crashes into a barrier and down a cliff.  Bill is ejected from the car, which explodes in flames.  He manages to save Jan’s head …

This movie had real potential to be bad movie gold.  The best and most ludicrous part is the doctor’s speedy rescue of the head which he does without a knife or scalpel.  There are also some nice moments with a “creature” and Jan is pretty good.

Unfortunately, the film has been padded out to fill its 82 minute run-time.  This means we have to sit through interminable bad driving sequences, burlesque dancing, etc. before we get to the good stuff.

The Pirates of Blood River
Directed by John Gilling
Written by John Hunter and John Gilling; story by Jimmy Sangster
1962/UK
Hammer Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Brocaire, a pirate: [Realizes the sword thrust through him is fatal] Oh, Mama… [He falls over dead][/box]

The highlight of this movie is Christopher Lee and his French accent.

A couple of generations ago, French Huguenots fled to the Isle of Devon in the Caribbean to escape religious persecution.  The ideals of their forebears have been corrupted and the island is now run by religious fanatics.  As the movie starts, Jonathan Standing (Kerwin Matthews), is caught kissing one of the elders’ wives.  He is tried by a panel including his own father, who is also an elder, and sentenced to 15 years in the penal colony.  This is tantamount to a death sentence as the jailers are brutal.

Jonathan manages to escape and runs into pirates headed by Capt. LaRoche (Christopher Lee). Jonathan makes a deal with LaRoche so that the pirates will take him back to the village to organize a rebellion.  Unbeknowst to Jonathan, the pirates are actually nterested in treasure and will kill until its location is revealed.  This might be a problem as Jonathan is convinced there is no treasure.  Mayhem ensues.   With Oliver Reed as one of the pirates.

Hammer Studios was not known for its pirate movies but the gore carries over from the better-known Gothic horror films.  There are plenty of swordfights and other brutality to be had.  It’s mildly OK.

Trailer

These Are the Damned (AKA “The Damned”)
Directed by Joseph Losey
Written by Evan Jones from a novel by H. L. Lawrence
1962/UK
Columbia Pictures Corporation/Hammer Studios/Swallow Productions Ltd.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Freya Neilson: You know, someone once told me when a bureaucrat wants to keep his job, he stamps everything ‘Top Secret.’ [/box]

The story is an uneasy mixture of JD movie with sci-fi thriller.  Director Joseph Losey keeps all of it powerful, if not coherent.

As our story begins American tourist Simon Wells (McDonald Carey) is visiting an English seaside resort.  Joanie (Shirley Anne Field) gives him the eye and he picks her up only to be brutally mugged by a gang of “teddy boys” headed by King (Oliver Reed), her brother. King has an unhealthy obsession with his sister’s virtue (think Scarface).  But Simon is the only man who has ever treated her like a lady and she cannot stay away from him.

We are also introduced to a bureaucrat and his estranged artist wife and learn that the former has some kind of sinister secret.

Simon and Joanie sail down the coast in Simon’s boat and happen to hide out in the bureaucrat’s house, which has been long vacant.  But the estranged wife arrives to spend the summer there and they are found out.  Before too long, Kind and his gang come looking for his sister and trouble.

Simon and Joanie escape and eventually find themselves in a cave with some children who are desperate to escape their current situation.  The bureaucrat’s secret, which involves these children, gradually unfolds over the remainder of the story.  Simon and Joanie are now in danger from both King’s gang and the bureaucrat’s assistant.

The story is really all over the place and does not bear scrutiny.  There were too many coincidences for me.  Also, I don’t want to give away the secret but it is insufficiently fleshed out.  I wish the movie had ditched a lot of the JD parts, particularly the “Black Leather Rock” song.  That would have given some more time to explain.

Setting the story aside, the film is beautifully and powerfully filmed.  Oliver Reed’s acting makes up for Carey’s inherent dullness and the rest of the cast is fine.  Recommended to sci-fi fans.

It was not until I was doing research for this film that I realized Oliver Reed was director Carol Reed’s nephew!

Trailer

The Awful Dr. Orlof (Gritos en la noche)
Directed by Jesus Franco
Written by Jesus Franco
1962/Spain/France
Hispamer Films/Leo Lax Production/Ydex Eurocine
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] I feel that cinema should be like a box of surprises, like a magic box. And in that world, anything is allowed to enter, as long as it’s always treated with a spirit of “Pop!”. Not in the spirit of “Now you understand the problems of society in 1947”. No, I don’t give a shit about that. I think cinema should be like magic, a surprise, that’s all. That’s why, to conclude, I love movies . . . and stories. – Jesus “Jess” Franco[/box]

Though the version I watched left a lot to be desired, there was a much to like about this take on the Eyes Without a Face plotline.

The movie is set at the turn of the last century.  As it begins, we see a blind, scarred zombie-like figure murder a woman in her bedroom and take the body away.  Segue to the police force and we find out there has been a string of missing women.  At first, it was assumed they had run off with men but now it is surely murder.  Soon after, we learn that the blind man is the faithful servant of a doctor who is trying to restore his daughter’s lost beauty.

Naturally, the police inspector assigned to the case has a fiancee who is the spitting image of the doctor’s daughter.  She is eager to help and does the most stupid things imaginable.

Although it is no match for the film it ripped off, there is some really beautiful camerawork in this film.  The horror parts are enjoyably lurid but there is some comic relief that brings the movie down a notch.  This was one of Franco’s first films.  I’m interested in seeing a few of the other 202 films he directed.

Unfortunately, the DVD contained only a dubbed and a French-language version of the film.  I had to watch the dubbed version since there were no subtitles .  Between the poor sound quality and the lack of a match between the dialogue and the lips, I had a hard time understanding the English and it made the acting seem really wooden.  The dissonant score was also an irritant.

Trailer

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (Zoku Zatôichi monogatari)
Directed by Kazuo Mori
Written by Minoru Inuzuka; story by Kan Shimozawa
1962/Japan
Daiei Motion Picture Company
First viewing/Filmstruck

[box] “There’s none so blind as those who will not listen.” ― Neil Gaiman, American Gods[/box]

The filmmakers keep the standard high in the second of the “Blind Ichi” films.

This is truly a continuation of the story with many of the same characters reappearing.  Ichi is wandering the land.  The mild mannered masseuse cannot seem to help attracting the attention of every sword-happy samurai he meets.  He dispatches about 20 of them in the first five minutes of the film.  Then he is asked to massage a Lord.  In doing so, he is privy to the secret that the noble is a half-wit and the retinue send out a couple of thugs to silence him.  I do not need to tell you what happens to the thugs.  The Lord’s retainers do not give up on doing away with Ichi and hire a local gang boss to slay him.

It is the one year anniversary of Ichi’s duel with the consumptive samurai from the first film and Ichi returns to the same setting to pay his respects to the only man he was able to call friend.  The boss from the first film does not have fond memories of Ichi.  Finally, he encounters women old and new who are attracted to his goodness and his own no-good brother.

This has way more action than the first film.  I was less surprised by the story but equally entertained.  You can see the entire series on Filmstruck but multiple complete versions are also currently available on YouTube.

Clip with extraneous soundtrack – would recommend muting!