Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurry, Ray Walston
Directed by: Billy Wilder
IMDB Rating: 8.4
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Jack Lemmon plays an office worker who's a real up-and-comer. Not because of his work ethic, but mainly because he lets the top brass use his apartment for extra marital flings. So risque! And so funny, and sweet, and touching, and dramatic, and everything that a movie should be...endlessly entertaining. Lemmon is his usual magnificent self, MacMurray is such a bastard you want to punch him in the face, and MacLaine is so bewitchingly sweet and beautiful that its almost impossible to take your eyes off of her, even in her darkest moments. Only Billy Wilder could make this tragic tale light-hearted and with a happy ending. Warms my heart just thinking about it. "Shut up and deal!".
- Shirley MacLaine filmed her cameo for "Ocean's Eleven" while on break from this film.
- Writers Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond always had Jack Lemmon in mind while creating the screenplay.
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Marin Balsam
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
IMDB Rating: 8.6
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Any movie that can keep me from taking showers is something quite special in my books! I was about 8 years old when I first saw this movie...its a wonder how I manage to take showers now. Never before, and possibly since, has a movie had such an impact on audiences. People fainted in theatre...fainted!! The star of the film murdered less than half way through?? Unheard of! Not being allowed to enter the theatre after the film began?? Could never happen today! But beyond all the hype, the movie still holds up as a tight, frightening thriller with outstanding performances from Perkins, Leigh and Balsam. We studied the shower scene in film class and it still amazes me that that scene is only 45 seconds long, and we're still talking about it 50 years later. A true classic that can be watched again and again without getting sick of it.
- Alfred Hitchcock demanded a 60% share of the profits from Paramount instead of his normal $250,000 fee. Paramount reluctantly agreed. Hitch made over $15 million!
- First American film to ever show a toilet flushing on screen.
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Claude Rains, Jose Ferrer
Directed by: David Lean
IMDB Rating: 8.4
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
This film showed me that camerawork and music can help rouse the spirits of any film viewer. Phenomenal story played out by some of the best actors of the day and it all plays second fiddle to the remarkable, epic filmmaking of David Lean and his team. This is simply a gorgeous movie to behold!! Peter O'Toole rightfully became a star, Omar Sharif is just magical, Alec Guinness is the ultimate actor. But the sweeping scenes of the desert, the cast of thousands, the glorious, angelic score that plays throughout...it makes watching a three-and-a-half hour movie fly by.
- Reportedly the longest film not to have a speaking role for a woman.
- King Hussein of Jordan lent an entire brigade of his soldiers to be used as extras.
Starring: Peter Sellers, Sterling Hayden, George C. Scott, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
IMDB Rating: 8.6
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
One of the funniest satires I've ever seen still holds up today and makes me howl with laughter. Hayden as Col. Ripper is completely believable in his insanity, trying desperately to start World War 3. George C. Scott has never been funnier as Gen. Turgidson. (His accidental prat fall in the War Room still cracks me up). But this film belongs to the genius that was Peter Sellers! Playing three different roles, all with incredible ease, he is simply fantastic to watch. The strange thing is, he plays the rolls completely straight, letting the situation dictate the comedy. His conversation with the Russian president on the phone should be studied by everyone who wants to be a comic actor! Probably my favourite Kubrick film, and that's saying a lot.
- Sellers was also set to play the role of Maj. Kong (played by Slim Pickens) but he couldn't develop a Texan accent to his liking.
- Look closely at the people surrounding Dr. Strangelove during his scenes in the War Room. You can see the rest of the cast holding back laughter as Sellers ad-libbed most of his lines.
Starring: Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern, Orson Welles, Susannah York
Directed by: Fred Zinnemann
IMDB Rating: 7.9
Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
Based on the true story of Sir Thomas More, a man who would not give in to the King Of England. More was unwilling to bend his views between Church and State when King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife to marry Anne Boleyn. The movie was taken from a stage play, and it seems like we're watching a play at times...which is good! The acting is spectacular, from Scofield's stoic portrayal of More, to Shaw's manic and maniacal portrayal of Henry VIII. But even beyond the acting, one can get completely engulfed by the story, watching a man who believes so much about what he preaches that he's willing to die for it. That just doesn't happen everyday.
- Paul Scofield and Leo McKern reprised their roles from the Broadway play.
- John Hurt's first major film role.
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef
Directed by: Sergio Leone
IMDB Rating: 9.0
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
I will be the first to admit that this movie is not for everybody. It's long (almost three hours), it's poorly dubbed in spots, and there are long passages where there is no dialogue whatsoever. Those are just three of the reasons that I love this movie sooooooo much! Could anybody be cooler than Eastwood? Yes! His name is Lee Van Cleef!! Eli Wallach, stuck in for comedy relief, is just as strong as the other two. The music...fahgetaboutit! Ennio Morricone became a superstar composer after this film. Every note fits perfectly with what we're watching, especially during the climax where nary a word is spoken for about ten minutes. Even though Leone made two other "Man With No Name" movies before this one, this is easily the best of them. A perfect movie for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
- The bridge that gets blown up was a real bridge built by Spanish Army engineers. It was agreed that the Army's captain would light the fuse. A crewman mistakenly told him to "go" but no cameras were rolling. The Spanish Army rebuilt the bridge only to blow it up again!
- Charles Bronson was offered the roles of Tuco and Angel Eyes, declining both.
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross
Directed by: Mike Nichols
IMDB Rating: 8.1
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
This was the first movie I became obsessed about, not Star Wars, not Raiders, but The Graduate. I realize it hasn't aged well, and I know I look at it through rose-coloured glasses, but I don't care. I completely connected with Benjamin, not that I had an affair with an older woman, but his sense of being lost, not knowing what the future held for him, and wanting to do something, anything, to shake that feeling. But the movie is also incredibly funny, and to watch a young Dustin Hoffman perfectly portray those emotions is what I love most. Oh, and staring at the gorgeous Katharine Ross ain't too bad either. I will never get sick of this film.
- The famous image from the promotional still that has Hoffman obscured by Mrs. Robinson's leg was not the leg of Anne Bancroft. A stand-in was used for the shot. That stand-in was Linda Gray, famous for he role on TV's Dallas.
- Robert Redford screen tested for the role of Benjamin. He would have been very close to the description of Benjamin from the novel. Mike Nichols didn't think Redford could portray the underdog qualities of the character because Redford was too good-looking.
Starring: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
Directed by: Sergio Leone
IMDB Rating: 8.7
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Another spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone, with glorious music from Ennio Morricone, that's just as good, and in some scenes even better, than "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly". The opening...a good fifteen minutes without any words spoken. The scene where we first meet Henry Fonda's character Frank has to be ranked as one of the best scenes ever filmed! Fonda's steely blue-grey eyes, playing so far against type, and doing it perfectly. Claudia Cardinale!! Who needs Sofia Loren or Raquel Welch when you have Cardinale...hubba hubba!! Another long, poorly dubbed western that I could watch, and have watched, over and over again.
- Leone wanted to reunite the three leads from "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly" for the opening scene, but Clint Eastwood was unavailable.
- Henry Fonda originally turned down the role of Frank. Leone convinced him by telling Fonda to imagine a shot of a gunslinger, shot from the waist down, shooting a child in the back, camera panning up, and the audience realizing it was Henry Fonda!!
Starring: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross
Directed by: George Roy Hill
IMDB Rating: 8.2
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
The first pairing (of two) of Newman and Redford gives us pulse-pounding action, hilarious banter and great fun. You know, without knowing anything about the story, that things will not end well for our heroes. But you just don't care!! The dialogue in the film is so natural you'd think Newman and Redford were Butch and Sundance. All the secondary characters, Butch's gang, Katharine Ross, the entire Bolivian Army, add to the excitement of the film. But the movie is really about the chemistry between the two stars, something I wish would have happened more than the two times it did on screen. These guys were the original Pitt and Clooney!
Or Damon and Clooney. You know what I mean!
- When first cast for the movie, Redford was supposed to be Butch and Newman Sundance. It was Redford who requested to switch roles.
- Butch Cassidy's real gang was known as The Wild Bunch, but the similarly titled movie was released not long before this one, so the name of the gang was changed to The Hole In The Wall Gang.
That'll do it for the 1960's. A lot of Westerns, eh? Some other movies I still would like to see from this decade include:
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
The Sand Pebbles (1966)
Seven Days In May (1964)
The Longest Day (1962)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
True Grit (1969)
Persona (1966)
Hud (1963)
La Dolce Vita (1960)
The Lion In Winter (1968)
Eyes Without A Face (1960)
Judgment At Nuremberg (1961)
Jules And Jim (1962)
L'Avventura (1960)
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