kingrat
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Posts posted by kingrat
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Sorry if I put In the French Style a year too soon. Preview of coming attractions: It's a dramatization of two Irwin Shaw stories. Jean Seberg plays the same character in both. In the first, and better, half, she and a young man she meets try to find a hotel room so they can spend the night together. A few years have passed before the second half, as Seberg meets up with the married man she's been having an affair with. Stanley Baker, as usual, delivers a strong performance as the married man.
Speaking of Stanley Baker, both he and Jeanne Moreau give memorable performances in Joseph Losey's Eva, aka Eve. Baker plays a Welsh writer living on an island near Venice; Moreau plays the woman who decides to spend the night in his house when he's out for the evening. Baker has a sweet fiancee, Virna Lisi, but he's much more drawn to the dominating Eve. Losey's style is go-for-baroque; some enjoy it; others don't. One obvious admirer of the film was Nicolas Roeg; if you've seen Don't Look Now, you'll spot some obvious influences. The producers re-cut the film, and what's available on VHS is not Losey's cut. Fans of Baker, Moreau, Losey, and/or baroque style might want to investigate.
Term of Trial is a drama about a schoolteacher (Laurence Olivier) in an unhappy marriage (Simone Signoret is his wife) who is accused of having sex with a student (Sarah Miles). Well made for this kind of drama. Signoret delivers the intensity, and this is by far the best performance from Sarah Miles that I have seen.
Lisa is an excellent drama, based on a novel by Jan de Hartog, about a woman who was the subject of medical experiments in the concentration camps. She is in Holland, seeking passage to Palestine. Dolores Hart is excellent as Lisa; Stephen Boyd is also quite good as the man who tries to help her, and of course falls for her; and Donald Pleasence, as usual, gives a quietly strong performance as a man who may be able to help her.
Experiment in Terror is a first-rate thriller. The Blake Edwards who directed this and Days of Wine and Roses (in the same year) bears little resemblance to the director of his comedies, most of which are not favorites of mine. Perhaps Lee Remick was his real muse?
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Good point about the ax handle scene, Jake. For many at the time, that would be an obvious reference to Lester Maddox passing out ax handles to keep his place of business segregated.
A couple of obvious conservative messages from the 1980s, both of which have been discussed here before. In An Officer and a Gentleman Richard Gere finds salvation through military service, which lets us know that the anti-establishment 1960s and early 1970s are dead. It would make an amusing and instructive double feature with Easy Rider.
In the original Ghostbusters the human villain, played by William Atherton, works for the EPA. Remember Bill Murray's crude attack on him, which can't be spelled out here? "Hey, ****less. This man has no ****." Environmental protection = lack of masculinity.
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Nowhere near so good as the previous year.
TOP TEN FILMS OF 1963:
The Organizer
The Fire Within (Le feu follet)
America America
The Birds
The Great Escape
The Servant
The Haunting
The Silence
Billy Liar
High and Low
Alternates: 8 1/2, Contempt
Best first half hour (tie): 8 1/2, Contempt
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Several of us mentioned Alberto Sordi in Mafioso on our best actor lists for 1962. TCM showed Mafioso a couple of years ago, so it may turn up again. This is one of the very few films that changes tone successfully. We begin with Alberto Sordi as a kind of Walter Mitty character who has an office job in the big city. He and his family go to visit Mama and the rest of his relatives in Sicily. So far, we're seeing a kind of National Lampoon's Italian Family Vacation movie.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
It turns, out, however, that the poor schlub actually has one talent: he was always a good shot. That makes him extremely useful to the local mafiosi. They want a rival in New York taken out, and who better than a shooter who will transported in and out?
For the film to work, the tone has to be managed carefully. The lead actor has to get everything just right. With Alberto Sordi as our hapless henpecked guy, there are no worries. The very capable director is Alberto Lattuada, who co-directed Fellini's first film, Variety Lights.
Italian cinema from the rise of neorealism to the mid-60s appears to have been one of the golden ages of film, and not just the four or five big names. I would enjoy seeing more films by directors like Lattuada, Mario Monicelli, and Dino Risi.
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Was Advise and Consent (1962) the first American film to show a scene in a gay bar? I know there's one in the mid-1950s French film Razzia sur le chnouf.
First American film where a white man looks lustfully at a black man: Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).
First American film where a black man and a white man implicitly are lovers: The Pawnbroker, where gangster Brock Peters apparently has a white boytoy. Of course Brock Peters had played a musician with an unrequited crush on a white man in Britain's The L-Shaped Room (1962).
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I imagine a number of people are interested in the new film from Oliver Stone, Snowden. You will not be surprised to learn that Stone sees Edward Snowden as a hero, or possibly a saint. When Snowden leaves for the last time the dark underground bunker in Hawaii where he's been working, he emerges in slow motion into bright light. All that's missing is a halo, or possibly a 1930s angelic chorus on the soundtrack.
My spouse says that the film faithfully follows the books he has read about Snowden. This does not necessarily mean they are accurate, of course. The main assets of the film are the important and controversial subject matter and the superb performance of Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, who disappears into the role of Edward Snowden. I was almost never aware of an actor doing stuff; he seems to behave naturally as the character would react.
The film successfully moves back and forth between 2013, when Snowden is making his revelations to reporters and a documentary filmmaker in Hong Kong, and the past, from Snowden's attempt to become an Army Ranger (major borrowings from An Officer and a Gentleman), his first encounters as a cyber whiz recruited by the CIA to his growing concerns about the invasion of privacy. Stone keeps WikiLeaks almost completely out of the movie; we see nothing of Julian Assange and only a very brief clip of a woman who says she's a lawyer for WikiLeaks.
The film builds up the role of Snowden's girlfriend, played by Shailene Woodley, in an attempt to get more women viewers. (I would have thought women were just as interested in questions of privacy as men.) In any event, it would be easy to cut twenty minutes of scenes which keep making the point that working for secret agencies puts a strain on relationships. I don't think that the scriptwriters, director Stone, or Shailene Woodley intended for the girlfriend to seem as incredibly annoying as she becomes. Perhaps it's because she keeps stopping the movie in its tracks.
Tom Wilkinson's performance as a reporter is rather trite--you canna poot all yuir work into yuir Scots accent, laddie. The rest of the cast, however, is strong, especially the other computer geek guys, as well as Melissa Leo as the documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. Rhys Ifans does a good job as Snowden's CIA mentor. Ifans, and, I suppose, Stone too, deserve credit for not making this villainous character devoid of humanity and sympathy.
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My spouse and I also liked Sully. The script is a little odd, shifting back and forth between the events of the day itself and the hearing to decide whether the pilot and co-pilot were at fault for not heading to one of the nearby airports. This leads to a little awkwardness during the first third of the film, but then works just fine. We see the big event twice.
Tom Hanks is an excellent choice for the quietly unheroic hero, and Aaron Eckhart, for once, gets to play a good guy, the co-pilot. How nice to see Delphi Harrington, a much underused actress, as the passenger in the wheelchair. She was marvelous as an intelligent, sophisticated woman in the long-gone soap opera Where the Heart Is and was also believable as a trashy Southern murderess on Guiding Light and as a trashy Southern prostitute on All My Children. Here she plays a somewhat stereotypical New York Jewish mother. As a daughter she gets Valerie Mehaffey of Desperate Housewives.
Sully shows something rarely seen in movies these days, the simple heroism of ordinary people, like the ferry boat crew members who rescue the passengers from the plane.
Be sure to stay for the credits, where you will see a reunion of many of the actual passengers and crew from the flight.
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1962 is not only the last great year of the studio system which lasted through, say, 1966, it is one of the best years for movies ever. Like Lawrence, I'm overwhelmed by so many great choices for best actor. I had Robert Mitchum as an easy winner for best supporting actor, but the rest of you seem to think this is a lead role, which overloads the best actor category even more.
Best Actor for 1962:
Peter O'Toole, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA****
Laurence Harvey, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
Robert Mitchum, CAPE FEAR
Jack Lemmon, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES
James Mason, LOLITA
Alberto Sordi, MAFIOSO
Gregory Peck, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Ralph Richardson, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
Honorable mention: Stanley Baker, EVA; Tom Bell, THE L-SHAPED ROOM; Tom Courtenay, THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER; Keir Dullea, DAVID AND LISA; Robert Preston, THE MUSIC MAN; Dean Stockwell, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT; Oskar Werner, JULES AND JIM
Best Actress of 1962:
Jeanne Moreau, JULES AND JIM****
Lee Remick, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES
Leslie Caron, THE L-SHAPED ROOM
Jean Seberg, IN THE FRENCH STYLE
Anne Bancroft, THE MIRACLE WORKER
Honorable mention: Patty Duke, THE MIRACLE WORKER; Katharine Hepburn, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT; Janet Leigh, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE; Corinne Marchand, CLEO FROM 5 TO 7; Simone Signoret, TERM OF TRIAL
Best Supporting Actor of 1962:
Frank Sinatra, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE****
Omar Sharif, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
Jason Robards, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
Charles Bickford, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES
Walter Pidgeon, ADVISE AND CONSENT
Honorable mention: Warren Beatty, ALL FALL DOWN; Paul Ford, THE MUSIC MAN; Alec Guinness, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA; Ross Martin, EXPERIMENT IN TERROR; Patrick McGoohan, ALL NIGHT LONG; Brock Peters, THE L-SHAPED ROOM; Donald Pleasence, LISA
Best Supporting Actress of 1962:
Angela Lansbury, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE****
Claire Bloom, THE CHAPMAN REPORT
Vera Miles, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE
Cicely Courtneidge, THE L-SHAPED ROOM
Avis Bunnage, THE L-SHAPED ROOM
Honorable mention: Barrie Chase, CAPE FEAR; Hermione Gingold, THE MUSIC MAN; Sarah Miles, TERM OF TRIAL; Eva Marie Saint, ALL FALL DOWN
Best Musical Number: "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty," performed by Cicely Courtneidge in THE L-SHAPED ROOM
As Bogie noted, I like to give special mention to performers who manage to give outstanding performances in less than stellar films. How on earth can anyone give a serious performance in a campy, giggle-provoking film? I don't know, but she does:
Claire Bloom, THE CHAPMAN REPORT
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Top Ten Films of 1962:
Lawrence of Arabia
The Manchurian Candidate
Days of Wine and Roses
Jules and Jim
Cleo from 5 to 7
L'Eclisse
The Exterminating Angel
Mafioso
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
To Kill a Mockingbird
Knife in the Water
Alternates: Lolita, Cape Fear, Ride the High Country, Lisa, David and Lisa, Long Day's Journey Into Night
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Thanks, Bogie, you answered the question I was going to ask. The absence of The L-Shaped Room makes the 1963 best actress competition rather weak, but that's what happens some years.
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Whistle Down the Wind, based on the novel by Mary Hayley Bell (wife of John Mills, mother of Hayley Mills), tells the story of three children who believe that the escaped convict hiding in their barn is Jesus. Hayley Mills has said that Alan Bates was "the most beautiful Jesus ever." Filming in rural Lancashire is a plus; this helps the story be more believable. Along with professional child actors, like Hayley Mills, some of the local children were cast, most notably little Alan Barnes as her younger brother Charlie. Music by Malcolm Arnold and fine cinematography. Bryan Forbes, in his first job as a director, does a great job of pulling all these elements together and finding exactly the right tone.
When Whistle Down the Wind was shown at the 2011 TCM festival, I thought it would soon be appearing on TCM, which has not been the case. It is available on YouTube, however.
My other favorite from 1961 is IL POSTO (The Job; released in America as The Sound of Trumpets, but now generally known by its Italian title). Available from Criterion. TCM has shown it as well. This is a simple tale of a young man from a small town who passes a civil service exam and gets a job in the big city. Ermanno Olmi applies Antonioni-inspired visuals to this gentle comedy, and surprisingly this works.
Both Swithin and I like The Greengage Summer (USA title: Loss of Innocence), based on a novel by Rumer Godden. A young girl on the verge of womanhood (Susannah York) falls for a charming con man (Kenneth More). The story develops along predictable enough lines, but the process of getting there is what's important. Both Susannah York and Kenneth More give strong performances.
No Love for Johnnie is a political film from Britain starring Peter Finch in one of his best roles as a politician who faces corruption is both his personal and political lives. TCM has shown this, though only once in the last five or six years. A friend saw this on the big screen at a recent film festival and raved about it.
If you enjoy Margaret Rutherford, you'll probably like Murder She Said (and the subsequent Miss Marple films she did). She's not much like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, but she's a lot of fun.
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The tides of critical favor shift so much that Samuel Fuller, once shamefully neglected, is now the most overrated director of the classic era. The strength of his directing is too often undermined by the weakness of his writing. The opening scene of Shock Corridor, imaginatively directed but atrociously written, shows the problem at its most acute.
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First let me say that I have read every post on this thread and this is one of the more interesting threads, but I didn't wish to comment until now.
It appears that one criteria, especially when applied to an actress, is that they do NOT assume the leading role just because they are the leading women in a film. I always viewed this the opposite way; Miles is the leading female character in Valence therefore this is a leading role.
Another criteria relates to the main characters of the story (i.e. the plot revolves around them) verses screen time for all characters. I tend to define a 'lead' as the plot revolving around them more so than screen time. Of course in most cases a lead meets both criteria but All Falls Down is a good example where this isn't true. I view Saint and Beatty as the leads, and the others as supporting (but de Wilde as co-lead also works for me since like Hud the story is told through him).
Anyhow my two cents for the day!
Thanks, James. I always enjoy your comments. All Fall Down is a particularly interesting example of the problem. The story is about Brandon de Wilde's growing up. The novel is first person from his point of view, if I recall. His mother and brother are the people most involved in his growing up. He has a schoolboy crush on the glamorous woman his older brother is involved with. John Frankenheimer was particularly taken with Angela Lansbury's performance, and for my taste we see a bit too much of her in the film and too little of Beatty and especially Saint; the story isn't balanced quite properly.
If there's one thing we've learned from going through this exercise, for the Oscars it's all about who is considered a star and who isn't, until the recent era when producers try to get supporting awards for their stars. Juveniles are never put in the lead category. For me, screen time has a great deal to do about the proper category, and even then there are often arguments on each side. For 1963 we'll have the case of Hud, where Patricia Neal has the shortest performance of any Best Actress winner, and was nominated for Supporting Actress by the Golden Globes. Brandon de Wilde, nominated in support, clearly belongs in the lead category.
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If you like Deborah Kerr and Edith Evans, you'll probably like The Chalk Garden. Felix Aylmer has a nice supporting role as a judge who's an old suitor of Edith Evans. She refers to him as "Puppy."
Fury is worth seeing, too. Fritz Lang directing Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney in a story about mob violence, based in part of an incident in California.
The October schedule is really well thought out, with different nights dedicated to different parts of Christopher Lee's career. The choices for the Trailblazing Women series are quite good, too.
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Thanks to everyone for reminding me of some of the directors I hadn't mentioned earlier:
Robert Hamer: The Long Memory
Henry Hathaway: Johnny Apollo
Colin Higgins: Foul Play
George Roy Hill: The World According to Garp
John Huston: The Man Who Would Be King
Norman Jewison: Fiddler on the Roof
Larence Kasdan: The Big Chill
Irvin Kirshner: The Empire Strikes Back
Henry King: Twelve O'Clock High
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I saw Long Day's Journey Into Night again when it was recently shown on TCM. Dean Stockwell had a much larger role than I remembered, with more screen time than Ralph Richardson. Jason Robards is more clearly in a supporting role.
Would we agree that Vera Miles has a supporting role in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence?
All Fall Down: Brandon de Wilde is definitely a lead, and with the amount of screen time she gets, Angela Lansbury is, too. Billing aside, Eva Marie Saint and Warren Beatty have supporting roles, along with Karl Malden.
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FILM THAT UNFORTUNATELY SHOWS THAT SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
Natalie Wood's treatment (especially in regard to sex) in 1920s Kansas in Splendor in the Grass. Her mother tells her (and I may be paraphrasing), "women aren't supposed to like [sex], we just are supposed to lie back and accept it."
BEST ENDING
The ending to Splendor in the Grass. It isn't necessarily a happy ending, but it is a good ending and a realistic one.
Speedracer, Kazan wrote in his memoirs that Splendor in the Grass wasn't his best film, but it had the best last two reels. Many of us would agree that the bittersweet ending is just about perfect. It's not just Warren and Natalie; poor Zohra Lampert could hardly have wanted to live on an isolated farm in rural Kansas.
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I don't want to raise the whole Stanley Kramer thing again, but if you did have to choose a performance from Judgment at Nuremberg, why wouldn't you choose Lancaster's?
To speak personally, I think Lancaster is miscast. He gives his best effort, as always. This is one of the Spencer Tracy performances I like best, without the scene-stealing ear-tugging and various other acting tricks.
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Tom, count me in as another fan of The Guns of Navarone. It ranks with The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Hunt for Red October as the gold standard for action adventure movies. Yes, to a modern audience it will seem to move slowly. However, the well-defined characters, great cast, and finely crafted script keep this viewer fully engaged, and the big action finale does not disappoint.
One of the changes from Alastair MacLean's book was to make the local guides female instead of male. This gives us Irene Papas and Gia Scala, and makes a certain plot point more memorable.
David Niven's confession that he can't swim is indeed one of the highlights of the film. Tom, I like your description of The Guns of Navarone as a "fantasy adventure," for this is much more a film with a WWII background than a war film.
J. Lee Thompson had begun his directing career in Britain with smaller-scale films, most of which I have not seen (including Ice Cold in Alex, much liked by many of those who have seen it), and then The Guns of Navarone and 1962's Cape Fear would seem to put him on the top rung of Hollywood's commercial directors, but the subsequent course of his career was not a happy one.
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1961 is perplexing. My favorite performance is in the supporting actor category; it's the one several of you have already placed at the top of your lists. Otherwise, there's not a lot of depth in the supporting categories. 1960 had much stronger lead actor and lead actress nominations, too. I hesitate to place Paul Newman at the top of the best actor list for The Hustler because to me he's overshadowed by two of his co-stars. (Clearly, I need to see Divorce Italian Style.) It's also weird to give three of the four acting awards to a film which isn't a favorite; I do like it a lot until the interminable pool match.
On a more positive note, this year has one of my absolute favorite juvenile performances.
Best Actor of 1961:
Paul Newman, THE HUSTLER****
Spencer Tracy, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG
Laurence Harvey, TWO LOVES
Peter Finch, NO LOVE FOR JOHNNIE
James Cagney, ONE, TWO, THREE
Honorable mention: Warren Beatty, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS; Gunnar Bjornstrand, THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY; Dirk Bogarde, VICTIM; Toshiro Mifune, YOJIMBO; Kenneth More, THE GREENGAGE SUMMER (LOSS OF INNOCENCE); David Niven, THE GUNS OF NAVARONE; Stuart Whitman, THE MARK
Best Actress of 1961:
Piper Laurie, THE HUSTLER****
Rita Tushingham, A TASTE OF HONEY
Harriet Andersson, THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
Deborah Kerr, THE INNOCENTS
Natalie Wood, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS
Honorable mention: Anouk Aimee, LOLA; Marlene Dietrich, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG; Audrey Hepburn, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S; Shirley MacLaine, TWO LOVES; Jeanne Moreau, LA NOTTE; Maureen O'Hara, THE DEADLY COMPANIONS; Margaret Rutherford, MURDER, SHE SAID; Miyoshi Umeki, FLOWER DRUM SONG
Best Supporting Actor of 1961:
George C. Scott, THE HUSTLER****
Anthony Quinn, THE GUNS OF NAVARONE
Russ Tamblyn, WEST SIDE STORY
Juano Hernandez, TWO LOVES
Best Supporting Actress of 1961:
Beatrice Kay, UNDERWORLD USA****
Zohra Lampert, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS
Rita Moreno, WEST SIDE STORY
Monica Vitti, LA NOTTE
Lotte Lenya, THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE
Honorable mention: Judy Garland, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG
Best Juvenile Performance: Alan Barnes, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND
Best Line: Alan Barnes as "Our Charlie" in WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND: "He's not Jesus. He's just a fella."
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One other that is well worth tracking down is Tunes of Glory as it has marvellous parts for many of its cast: Alec Guinness, John Mills, Gordon Jackson, Susannah York and Dennis Price to name a few.
So glad to see all the love for Tunes of Glory. An intelligent script twists us back and forth in our sympathies for the hard-nosed military man (Alec Guinness) and the more humane John Mills. The cast is solid gold. The director, Ronald Neame, had worked on several of David Lean's earlier films, and Neame's The Horse's Mouth and Tunes of Glory continue this tradition admirably.
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I liked Devi a good bit when I saw it in college these many years ago. A man has a dream that his daughter-in-law is a goddess. This clearly involves some sexual jealousy of his son.
If you're only having one Oscar Wilde film, Trials of Oscar Wilde is the better choice, even though Peter Finch certainly does not resemble Wilde. It's a beautiful first-class production with color cinematography, costumes, and sets of award-worthy quality. John Fraser makes an excellent and despicable Bosie. Lionel Jeffries, only six or seven years older than John Fraser, is able to bring some sympathy to the angry-to-the-point-of-madness Marquess of Queensbury. Yvonne Mitchell makes a lovely Constance, and James Mason's marvelous voice makes him a good choice as Sir Edward Carson, Queensbury's lawyer.
Oscar Wilde is a low budget black-and-white, not all that well directed by Gregory Ratoff. The cast is fine, however. Robert Morley had made his reputation as a young man by playing Wilde on stage. By now he's too old and too heavy, though he definitely has the right quality, and he delivers Wilde's witticisms in fine style. Ralph Richardson is even better as Sir Edward Carson than James Mason is.
Les bonnes femmes is probably one of those films you will either love or hate. Maybe not the best choice for a first Chabrol movie, but if you really like his work, this is for you. Several young women work in a department store. One of them (Bernadette Lafont) sleeps around, even with men she doesn't much care for. Stephane Audran is a much more gentle soul. As for what happens to Clothilde Joano . . . .
The League of Gentlemen assembles some fine British character actors to play former soldiers down on their luck who try to pull off a hesit. Each of these non-gentlemen has "blotted his copybook," as the Brits say. Script by Bryan Forbes, whose fingerprints are all over this film, and Basil Dearden directs. Richard Attenborough is terrific, as usual. Bryan Forbes plays a gigolo, and Kieron Moore, so inadequate as Vronsky in Anna Karenina, has a hilarious bit as he tries to pick up a rather dim-witted youth. To my mind, it lacks a slam-bang finale, but it's still most enjoyable.
Richard Attenborough stars in The Angry Silence, and he's absolutely first-rate as a worker who doesn't want to go out on a wildcat strike and is subsequently shunned by his mates. Another good script by Bryan Forbes, and capable direction by Guy Green.
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Home from the Hill, if not up to the level of the best Douglas Sirk melodramas, is nonetheless worth seeing. Minnelli can turn out a decent melodrama, too. We're in the South, in an area with plenty of forests for hunting. (After all, the quote from the Robert Louis Stevenson poem is "And the hunter, home from the hill.") Robert Mitchum is the macho patriarch. Eleanor Parker is the ice queen wife unable to accept Mitchum's infidelities. George Hamilton, surprisingly good, is the sensitive son who isn't up to Mitchum's standards. George Peppard, also very good, is the illegitimate son who has all the manly virtues the legitimate son lacks. Naturally, the two boys are rivals for the same girl.
The Criminal (aka The Concrete Jungle) is my favorite of the Joseph Losey films I've seen, even better than The Prowler, right up there with the remake of M. Stanley Baker is the thief who gets out of prison. He knows where the loot is stashed, so both the police and other criminals want to track him to the money. Subtitles might help for some of the thick British accents in the prison scenes. Great noirish visuals. It's odd that the career of a Welsh actor like Stanley Baker owes so much to two blacklisted American expatriates, Joseph Losey and Cy Endfield. Both know how to use Baker's hard-edged persona, or occasionally to play against it.
The Criminal was shown on TCM a couple of years ago. Home from the Hill turns up with some regularity.
Le Trou tops the list of the ones I'd like to see. By the way, a few years ago, someone posted a link to an article about the fashion styles of the different actresses in Where the Boys Are. The article was really well done, and is worth looking for if you are interested in fashion. Granted, that is not a major emphasis for most of us.
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Not nearly so good as the year on either side of it, but 1961 had its moments, including two particular favorites:
Top Ten Films of 1961:
WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND
IL POSTO
YOJIMBO
VIRIDIANA
THE GUNS OF NAVARONE
WEST SIDE STORY
TWO LOVES
THE INNOCENTS
THE HUSTLER
SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS
Alternates: THE GREENGAGE SUMMER (LOSS OF INNOCENCE); A TASTE OF HONEY; NO LOVE FOR JOHNNIE; ONE, TWO, THREE
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Your Favourite Performances from 1929 to present are...
in Your Favorites
Posted
As much as I hate to go against the Bogester, I have to put Patricia Neal in the supporting category, especially in comparison with the screen time of all the other lead actress candidates except Rachel Roberts. It's been a long time since I saw All the Way Home, but I remember being impressed with Jean Simmons' performance as a grieving widow. The supporting actor category seems weak this year.
Best Actor for 1963:
Tom Courtenay, BILLY LIAR****
Dirk Bogarde, THE SERVANT
Richard Harris, THIS SPORTING LIFE
Marcello Mastroianni, THE ORGANIZER
Paul Newman, HUD
Honorable mention: Albert Finney, TOM JONES; James Fox, THE SERVANT; Sidney Poitier, LILIES OF THE FIELD; Maurice Ronet, THE FIRE WITHIN
Best Actress for 1963:
Jean Simmons, ALL THE WAY HOME****
Julie Harris, THE HAUNTING
Rachel Roberts, THIS SPORTING LIFE
Jean Seberg, IN THE FRENCH STYLE
Jeanne Moreau, BAY OF ANGELS
Honorable mention: Audrey Hepburn, CHARADE; Ingrid Thulin, THE SILENCE; Natalie Wood, LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER
Best Supporting Actor for 1963:
Donald Pleasence, THE GREAT ESCAPE****
Richard Attenborough, THE GREAT ESCAPE
Gregory Rozakis, AMERICA AMERICA
Hari Rhodes, SHOCK CORRIDOR
Walter Matthau, CHARADE
Best Supporting Actress for 1963:
Patricia Neal, HUD****
Claire Bloom, THE HAUNTING
Julie Christie, BILLY LIAR
Lilia Skala, LILIES OF THE FIELD
Gunnel Lindblom, THE SILENCE
Honorable mention: Anouk Aimee, 8 1/2; Wendy Hiller, TOYS IN THE ATTIC; Joyce Redman, TOM JONES; Margaret Rutherford, THE VIPS
Best Attempt at a Brando Clone, Right Down to the Haircut: Richard Harris, THIS SPORTING LIFE
Best Performance by an Actor I Usually Dislike: Richard Harris, THIS SPORTING LIFE
Romantic Couples We're Supposed to Cheer For But I'm Singing "Run, better run, all the other kids are saying run, better run, faster than a bullet" Award (tie): Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts, THIS SPORTING LIFE; Jeanne Moreau and Claude Mann, BAY OF ANGELS
Best Performance in a Bad Movie: Last year it was Claire Bloom in THE CHAPMAN REPORT. This year it's Hari Rhodes in SHOCK CORRIDOR.
Least Likely Siblings: Dean Martin and Wendy Hiller, TOYS IN THE ATTIC
Guilty Pleasure Award: Watching Wendy Hiller mop the floor with Geraldine Page in their scenes together in TOYS IN THE ATTIC. British training 1, Method twitterings 0.