Category Archives: 1962

The Tale of Zatoichi (Zatôichi monogatari)
Directed by Kenji Misumi
Written by Minoru Inuzuka from a short story by Kan Shimozawa
1962/Japan
Daiei Motion Picture Company
First viewing/FilmStruck

Tane: Why don’t you live a decent life?
Zatôichi: It’s like being stuck in a bog; it’s not easy to pull yourself out once you’ve fallen in.

I had been looking forward to starting this series and the first entry did not disappoint.

The hero Ichi is blind.  He used to work as a masseuse before self-studying sword fighting and becoming a gangster.  As the series begins, he arrives in a new town looking for a previous acquaintance and is insulted by the locals.  We soon learn that it is a grave error to get on the wrong side of Ichi.  When his acquaintance, the boss of the local gang, comes he orders that Ichi be treated with tender loving care.  Secretly, the boss wants to start a gang war with the gang in a neighboring town and hopes to use Ichi as his big guns.

In the meantime, Ichi meets the samurai that has been hired by the rival gang. The samurai is dying of consumption.  The two form a special bond though it appears that they must inevitably face off.  Ichi also forms a special bond with the sister of the no-good lackey of “his” boss.  The movie culminates in some awesome mayhem.

There are 26 films in the series and luckily it starts off with a bang.  The absurd hero actually works perfectly in context.  I was expecting lots of swordplay.  I wasn’t prepared for the sensitive story that leads up to it.  I’m looking forward to the next one. Recommended.

Clip – actually available by searching the title on YouTube

Billy Budd
Directed by Peter Ustinov
Written by Peter Ustinov and DeWitt Bodeen from the play by Louis O. Coxe and Robert H. Chapman based on the novel by Herman Melville
1962/UK
Allied Artists Pictures/Anglo Allied
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Billy Budd: There are many ways to lie, Mr. Claggert, but there is only one way to tell the truth.[/box]

The acting is the thing in this symbolic maritime tragedy.

Angelic young Billy Budd (Terence Stamp) is everyone’s favorite among the crew on the merchant ship Rights of Man.  It is the Napoleonic Wars and impressment is a constant threat to merchant sailors.  Sure enough, the HMS Avenger commanded by Post Captain James Vere (Peter Ustinov) arrives and selects Billy as the likeliest fighting man from the ship.  Billy greets this turn of events will cheerful equanimity.  He soon becomes the favorite of almost everyone on the Avenger.

Everyone, that is, is except Master of Arms John Claggert (Robert Ryan).  Claggert is sadist that mercilessly works the men under him and is as widely hated as Billy is loved. The thing is that Claggert seems to have a need to be hated.  He begins to plot Billy’s destruction.  Captain Vere is eventually left with a dreadful dilemma.  With Melvyn Douglas as an ancient mariner and a host of British character actors.

The Christ symbolism is applied here with a trowel, just as it was in the play and, I imagine, the novel.  But the acting is so strong that it overcomes some pretty clunky dialogue. Director Ustinov made marvelous use of the sea setting and the services of cinematographer Robert Krasker (The Third Man).  Recommended.

The DVD I rented contained a terrific commentary in the form of a conversation between Steven Soderbergh and the erudite and amusing Terence Stamp.

Terence Stamp was Oscar-nominated as Best Supporting Actor for his film debut (despite playing the lead).

Cape Fear
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Written by James R. Webb from a novel by John D. MacDonald
1962/USA
Melville Productions/Talbot Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Max Cady: Go ahead. I just don’t give a damn.[/box]

Mitchum’s Max Cady is scarier than any monster.

Max Cady has just been released from eight years in person for assaulting a woman. Attorney Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck) was the eye witness at his trial. Max looks him up and begins a subtle but effective campaign of terror which he soon escalates.

Bowden is not about to take this lying down, especially since the main threat is to his wife (Polly Bergen) and teenage daughter.  But everything he tries makes things worse until he feels compelled to take drastic action.  With Martin Balsam as a police chief.

Robert Mitchum seems to have been born to play a villain – that is until you see him play a hero.  This performance may even surpass his bravura turn in Night of the Hunter for sheer evil.  Director Thompson ratchets up the suspense to eleven.  The tension is heightened by the fantastic Bernard Herrmann score.  I do get a bit frustrated with all the wrong-headed moves Peck’s character makes.  Highly recommended.

If a Man Answers
Directed by Henry Levin
Written by Richard Morris from a novel by Winifred Wolfe
1962/USA
Ross Hunter Productions/Universal International Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rentals

[box] Germaine Stacy: Husbands often leave home. Pets never do. There must be a reason.[/box]

This mildly risque sitcom shows how a new bride learns to manipulate her man.

Chantal Stacey (Sandra Dee) was born of a wealthy Bostonian father and French mother. As the film begins she is ripe for marriage.  She selects an unlikely candidate in confirmed bachelor Eugene Wright (Bobby Darrin).  It doesn’t take long before all his defenses are gone and they wed.

The newlyweds go through the normal growing pains.  Chantal’s mother advises Chantal on how to keep her man’s interest.  This includes a dog training manual and the jealousy maneuver.  With John Lund of Bulldog Drummond fame as Chantal’s father, Cesar Romero as a mystery man, and Stephanie Powers as Chantal’s rival.

With the addition of a laugh track this could have played on 60’s TV, minus a couple of slightly naughty bits.  The chemistry between Dee and Darrin carries the piece.

Montage of clips with Darrin’s rendition of the title tune

The Cabinet of Caligari
Directed by Roger Kay
Written by Robert Bloch
1962/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Associated Producers/Robert L. Lippert Productions
First viewing/YouTube

Caligari: How old were you when you first let a man make love to you? Next, who was he? Next, how did you feel at the time? Next, how did you feel afterwards? What did you feel? What did you think? Were you pleased, frightened, ecstatic, disgusted? What did he say? What words did you speak? That’s what I want to know. Now. Tell me. Now. Now. All of it, now. Tell me. YES!

While it does not measure up to its illustrious predecessor or even its own poster, this confusing little thriller did hold my interest.

The YouTube version available to me cut off the credits and probably a few of the first minutes of the film.  At any rate, Jane Lindstrom (Glenys Johns) has been plunked down into the middle of some kind of hotel or other lodging place and now is unable to leave.  She is tormented by encounters with Caligari (Dan O’Herlihy).

Jane tries to enlist the help of her fellow guests, without success.  I won’t spoil the ending.

I wasn’t expecting much from the title but it turns out the leads were A-list actors and its a competently made film.  The director even tries to get a little Expressionistic in places but without the effect of the films famous predecessor.

Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjuro)
Directed by Akira Kurasawa
Written by Ryuzo Kikushima, Hido Oguni, and Akira Kurasawa from a novel by Shugoro Yamamoto
1962/Japan
Toho Company/Akira Kurasawa Production Company
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Sanjûrô Tsubaki: Stupid friends are dangerous.[/box]

The crafty ronin Sanjuro returns – this time to teach life lessons to some clueless samurai.

The nameless ronin of (1961) (Toshiro Mifune) hides out in another town and overhears some young samurai discussing corruption.  He straightens them out on who is responsible.  Before they can take further action, the good Chamberlain and his family has been kidnapped by the evil Superintendent.  The group retrieves the Chamberlain’s wife and daughter (?).  The elderly wife impresses Sanjuro with her counsel that a good sword remains in its sheath.

Unfortunately, the young samurais’ impulsive behavior interferes with Sanjuro’s plan to conduct a campaign of wits to return the Chamberlain  to power.  Bloodletting ensues.

I give Yojimbo only a slight edge over this one.  Mifune is once again completely delightful.  The film also contains another great performance by Testuya Nakadai as a kindred spirit on the other side.  Underneath all the fun are some masterful compositions and camerawork and a wonderful Masaru Sato score.  Highly recommended.

The Criterion Blu-Ray looks beautiful and contains a good commentary by a film scholar.

No Man Is an Island
Directed by Richard Goldstone and John Monks Jr.
Written by Richard Goldstone and John Monks Jr.
1962/USA
Gold Coast Productions
First viewing/Netflix

[box] Where is Guam and why would North Korea attack it? — Fox News[/box]

If the story weren’t true, one could hardly believe it.

George R. Tweed (Jeffrey Hunter) and some comrades are serving in the Navy on Guam when it is attacked and swiftly occupied by the Japanese, simultaneous with the attack on Pearl Harbor.  A very small contingent escapes into the countryside where the residents, previously referred to as “fishheads”, shelter them at considerable danger to themselves.  All but Tweed succumb in short order.

He is sent deeper inland to a Catholic compound that has been spared.  Tweed begins a small campaign of subversion.  Before long, he is chased out of there as well and takes shelter in a cave on a remote mountain top.  He forms a close relationship with the local family that is providing for him, most especially the daughter.

This movie is enjoyable without being outstanding in any way.  It could be good family fare as there is no graphic violence.

Clip

Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Eugene O’Neill
1962/USA
First Company
Repeat viewing/YouTube

[box] “The fog was where I wanted to be. Halfway down the path you can’t see this house. You’d never know it was here. Or any of the other places down the avenue. I couldn’t see but a few feet ahead. I didn’t meet a soul. Everything looked and sounded unreal. Nothing was what it is. That’s what I wanted—to be alone with myself in another world where truth is untrue and life can hide from itself. Out beyond the harbor, where the road runs along the beach, I even lost the feeling of being on land. The fog and the sea seemed part of each other. It was like walking on the bottom of the sea. As if I had drowned long ago. As if I was the ghost belonging to the fog, and the fog was the ghost of the sea. It felt damned peaceful to be nothing more than a ghost within a ghost.” ― Eugene O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey Into Night[/box]

This faithful adaptation of the play is  filled with great acting and poetry.

Everyone in the Tyrone family is struggling with an addiction except youngest son Edmund (Dean Stockwell).  Ironically, he is the one who is dying.  It is a dysfunctional family where every one lies to each other and, more significantly, to themselves.  All the men have drinking problems to one degree or another but focus their attention on mother Mary (Katharine Hepburn) who is unsuccessfully struggling to overcome a morphine addiction acquired after giving birth to Edmund.  She is lost in the past.

Father James (Ralph Richardson) is a would-be Shakespearean actor who wound up appearing in the same melodrama over and over.  Both son Jamie (Jason Robards Jr.) and Edmund resent him mightily for being a tightwad.  James spends as little time as possible in the company of his wife.

Jamie acts when he can but spends much of his time boozing and whoring.  At the moment though he is doing odd jobs for his father.  He is quite the cynic.  The story takes place from morning to deep in the night of the day in which Edmund is to receive his diagnosis.

The film is a verbatim performance of the play which Lumet opened up somewhat to work cinematically.  It takes place over the course of a single day.  All the performances are wonderful, with Hepburn managing to trump the others including my beloved Ralph Richardson.  She is both radiant and tragic at once.  It’s a depressing story with no resolution but still well worth seeing.  Highly recommended.

Hepburn was Oscar-nominated as Best Actress.