Category Archives: 1964

Zorba the Greek (Alexis Zorba)
Directed by Michael Cacoyannis
Written by Michael Cacoyannis from a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis
1964/Greece/USA
Twentieth Century Fox
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

Alexis Zorba: Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.

Anthony Quinn is such an infectious life force that it is easy to forget how sad much of this movie is.

Basil (Alan Bates) is a bookish young Brit who has returned to his father’s native island of Crete to try his hand at reopening the old family coal mine.  His boat is delayed by a storm and he meets Zorba (Anthony Quinn) who instantly takes a liking to him and offers to accompany him as cook and “mining engineer”.  The two could not be more different but Zorba quickly becomes a father figure and cultural guide to the younger man.

The earthy Zorba has sexual energy to spare and soon starts an affair with Parisian widow Madame Hortense (Lila Kordova) who lives in her very colorful past.  He advises Basil to set his cap for an aloof young widow (Irene Pappas) who has rejected the advances of most of the single men in town, including the mayor’s son who is obsessed by her.  The joys of life on Crete are counterbalanced by some genuine tragedy.

Anthony Quinn is absolutely amazing in this picture.  He becomes Zorba and you fall in love with him.  The women match him in intensity.  Bates is something of a cipher and his plummy upper-class accent sounds odd on him.  The production values are outstanding. One would want to move to Crete if it didn’t rain so much.  Then again the Cretan people are not seen in the best light.

Zorba the Greek won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Kedrova); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; and Best Art Decoration-Set Decoration, Black-and-White.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor (Quinn); Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Media.

The Pumpkin Eater
Directed by Jack Clayton
Written by Harold Pinter from a novel by Penelope Mortimer
1964/UK
Romulus Films
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,/ Had a wife but couldn’t keep her;/ He put her in a pumpkin shell/ And there he kept her very well. – Nursery rhyme [/box]

Powerful performances anchor a story of marital breakdown.

Jo has eight children from three marriages.  Six are living at home with her and husband Jake.  Only one of the children is his but Jake apparently takes the chaotic household in stride.  Something tells Jo that all is not well and she becomes suspicious of the relationship between her live-in friend Philpot (super-young Maggie Smith) and Jake.

Unspoken tension in the marriage is pushing Jo to the point of nervous breakdown.  Then she finds herself pregnant again and the tension erupts into fireworks.  With Cecil Hardwicke in his final film as Jo’s father and James Mason as a wronged husband.

I enjoyed this for the performances but did not understand the dynamics of the relationship too well.  The film includes a nice Georges Delerue score and beautiful cinematography by Oswald Morris.

Anne Bancroft was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress.

What a Way to Go!
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green; story by Gwen Davis
1964/USA
Apjac-Orchard Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Rod Anderson, Jr.: What are you doing after the orgy?[/box]

A stellar cast and lavish production enliven a pretty silly story.

The story is framed by Louisa May Foster’s (Shirley MacLaine) session with a psychiatrist (Robert Cummings) telling her life story.  When Louisa May Foster (Shirley MacLaine) comes of age, her money-grubbing mother wants her to marry Leonard Crawley (Dean Martin), the big man in Crawleyville.  Louisa despises the conceited Crawley and marries Edgar Hopper, a Thoreau-reading general store keeper.  One day, Edgar is inspired to go to work and just can’t stop until he has amassed a fortune.  He dies of overwork leaving a rich widow.

Louisa seems to be condemned to repeat the same story over and over again.  In turn she marries a starving American artist in Paris (Paul Newman), a bored millionaire who wants to go back to the farm (Robert Mitchum), and a bad small-time comic (Gene Kelly).  As soon as MacLaine thinks she has found happiness, her husband becomes successful and leaves a rich and overworked corpse.  Each of the segments contains a movie spoof showing life with that husband.

There was a sort of craze for what I call “cartoon-style” colorful larger-than-life story in the 60s which this film exemplifies perfectly.  It’s fun to look at, especially MacLaine’s fantastic wardrobe, but ultimately unsatisfying to me.

What a Way to Go! was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color amd Best Costume Design color.

The Soft Skin (La peau douce)
Directed by Francois Truffaut
Written by Francois Truffaut and Jean-Louis Richard
1964/France
Les Films du Carosse/SEDIF/Simar Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Pierre Lachenay: I’ve learned that men’s unhappiness arises from the inability to stay quietly in their own room.[/box]

Adultery works out unsatisfactorily for every one concerned in this interesting film from Francois Truffaut.

Pierre Lachenay (Jean Desailly) is a famous literary critic who is popular on TV and the lecture circuit.  He is married to Franca (Nelly Benedetti) and they have one daughter, Sabine, about age 10.  She seems devoted to him.  One day on a flight to Lisbon he spots airline stewardess Nicole (Francoise Dorleac) and they keep running into each other in the airport and at the hotel where both overnight.  He calls her and so begins their affair.

The affair involves a lot of lying and sneaking and Pierre is not very clever at this game.  He literally cannot stay away from Nicole however.  Inevitably, his marriage hits the skids.  And then …

I liked everything about this movie.  Truffaut made all the characters very identifiable.  I really was not expecting the ending!!!  Dorleac, who was Catherine Deneuve’s elder sister, is a revelation.  Recommended.

Kiss Me, Stupid
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond from a play by Anna Bonacci
1964/USA
The Mirsch Corporation/Phalanx Productions/Claude Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Dino: [responding to an offer to buy the rights for a song] I need another Italian song like a giraffe needs a strep throat.[/box]

By 1964, Billy Wilder had his peak behind him

Dean Martin plays an alcoholic womanizing version of himself called “Dino”.  Dino has finished a gig in Las Vegas and is driving to Hollywood to film a TV special.  He hits a detour and is routed through the desert.  He stops in tiny Climax, Nevada for gas.  The gas station attendant Barney (Cliff Osmond) and piano teacher Orville (Ray Walston) are a song-writing duo and conspire to create a mechanical malfunction that will keep the singer there overnight to listen to their catalogue.

Dino will wake up with a headache if he goes even one night without some action.  He expresses some interest in the insanely jealsous Orville’s wife Zelda (Felicia Farr).  Instead, they recruit “bar girl” Pistol Polly (Kim Novak) to entertain him.  Various hijinx ensue.

This is a bit of a mess.  Everything feels forced and overdone, unusual for the sophisticated Wilder.  It’s almost like he couldn’t handle the permissiveness of 1964, gave into it, and lost his way.  I also thought Novak’s New Jersey hooker was particularly grating.  Not a winner,

Adventures of Zatoichi (Zatoichi sekisho yaburi)
Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda
Written by Shozaburo Asai; story by Kan Shimozawa
1964/Japan
Daiei Studios
First viewing/FilmStruck

[box] Zatoichi: Such mischief, in broad daylight! Right under the watchful eye of Mister Sunshine. Put the young lady down. I don’t hear an answer. If I’m blind, and you’ve gone mute, this could be difficult. No, no. Don’t move. Move and you’ll find yourself split in two.[/box]

The presence of actor Shintaro Katsu as the blind swordman ensures that each film in the series will be at least enjoyable even as the style and quality of the direction varies.

In this one, blind Ichi shows up in a village to celebrate the New Year.  Vendors in town are feeling the pinch from the tax gouging of an evil magistrate and his gang boss enforcer. Simultaneously, Zatoichi promises to help a young girl locate her father, who was killed at the behest of the boss.  Ichi won’t enjoy a peaceful New Year after all.

The best of these films have an almost Yojimbo-like sense of grim humor.  This one is pretty bleak.  But Shintaro Katsu as the hero never takes himself seriously and is as lovable as always.

Trailer – No subtitles

World Without Sun (Le monde sans soleil)
Directed by Jacques-Yves Cousteau
1964/France/Italy
C.E.I.A.P./Filmad/etc.
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Jacques-Yves Cousteau: Starfish, despite their peaceful appearance, are carnivores specially adapted to eat shellfish. Scallops have many eyes to look out for their dreaded enemy.[/box]

The undersea documentary started with Cousteau.

Legendary oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau  created Continental Shelf Station Two, an early-1960s attempt at underwater living located 10 meters below the surface of the Red Sea. The “aquanauts” had air, food, water, electricity and other life essentials supplied to allow week-long stays at depth.  The documentary also includes many sequences starring deep sea life.

When this was made, Cousteau was exploring a totally unknown frontier.  It is amazing that life can exist under such extreme pressure without sunlight.

World Without Sun won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Features.

Seven Up!
Directed by Michael Apted
1964/UK
Granada Television
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Nicholas Hitchon: If I could change the world, I’d turn it into a diamond.[/box]

Director Michael Apted has made documentaries of the lives of the same English people every seven years for the last six decades.  The beginning was this half-hour TV program.

The premise of the documentary is to cover seven-year olds from all regions and social strata of England – the people that will be 40 in the year 2000.  He sure chose well.

I love this entire series.  It’s fascinating to see how the kids change and stay the same.

56 Up Trailer includes clips from this film