National Film Registry Year by Year

[BLACHEFAN]

Ride the High Country (1962)

Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott are aging gunfighters chaperoning a gold shipment to a mining town in director Sam Peckinpah's western. One partner wants to deliver the gold safely and the other to steal it. On the way they meet a religious fanatic (R.G. Armstrong) and his daughter Elsa (Mariette Hartley in her film debut), who is planning to elope with her boyfriend Billy (James Drury). The next day, Elsa insists on joining up with the group so she can marry Billy at the mining town. Complications ensue, leading to a final shoot-out that allows McRea and Scott to reconcile their differences and pave the way for the film's poignant finale.

The expanded essay is below this description.

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/ride_high_country.pdf

[BLACHEFAN]

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Novelist Harper Lee's child's-eye view of southern bigotry is adapted exquisitely for film by screenwriter Horton Foote and director Robert Mulligan. Gregory Peck, who won an Oscar for his performance, is country lawyer Atticus Finch who must defend a black man (Brock Peters) on a trumped-up rape charge. As the courtroom drama unfolds, the Finch children (Mary Badham and Philip Alford) learn about courage and self-respect. In his film debut, Robert Duvall plays the mysterious Boo Radley.

[BLACHEFAN]

Hud (1963)

Courtesy of Paramount

Paul Newman received his third Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the title character, the handsome, surly and unscrupulous bad-boy son of a Texas rancher who locks horns with his father over business and family matters. Loosely based on Larry McMurtry's debut novel, "Horseman, Pass By," the film received seven Academy Award nominations, winning three: Patricia Neal (best actress), Melvyn Douglas (best supporting actor) and James Wong Howe (black-and-white cinematography). Motion Picture Academy President John Bailey in 2017 chronicled the production of the film and summed up some of his impressions of the film's relevance 55 years after its release: "Naked and narcissistic self-interest have always been a dark undercurrent to the limpid surface stream of American optimism and justice, but it is not a reach to see the character of Hud as an avatar of the troubling cynicism of that other side of American Populism — the side that espouses a fake concern for one's fellow man while lining one's own pockets. Hud, a lothario at the wheel of his crashed convertible, raising a shroud of dust clouds in its trail, is nothing more than a flimflam 19th century snake-oil salesman and carnival barker. His type erupts over and over onto America's psyche like a painful pustule."

[BLACHEFAN]

The Birds (1963)

"The Birds" was the fourth suspense hit by Alfred Hitchcock—following "Vertigo," "North by Northwest" and "Psycho"—revealing his mastery of his craft. Hitchcock transfixed both critics and mass audiences by deftly moving from anxiety-inducing horror to glossy entertainment and suspense, with bold forays into psychological terrain. Marked by a foreboding sense of an unending terror no one can escape, the film concludes with its famous, final scene, which only adds to the emotional impact of "The Birds."

[BLACHEFAN]

America, America (1963)

"My name is Elia Kazan. I am a Greek by blood, Turk by birth, American because my uncle made a journey." So begins the film directed, produced and written by Elia Kazan, and the one he frequently cited as his personal favorite. Based loosely on Kazan's uncle, Stavros dreams of going to America in the late 1890s. Kazan, who often hired locals as extras, cast in the lead role a complete novice, Stathis Giallelis, whom he discovered sweeping the floor in a Greek producer's office. Shot almost entirely in Greece and Turkey, Haskell Wexler's cinematography evokes scale and authenticity that combines with Gene Callahan's Oscar-winning art direction to give the film a distinctly European feel. Intended as the first chapter of a trilogy, the epically ambitious "America, America" also earned Oscar nominations for best director, best screenplay and best picture.

[BLACHEFAN]

The Cool World (1963)

In director Shirley Clarke's stark semi-documentary look at life in the Harlem ghetto, a 15-year-old gang member comes of age amidst drugs, violence and daunting racial prejudice. Eager to buy a gun (a "piece"), the teen struggles to establish his manhood in the only way he believes he can. Based on the novel by Warren Miller and the play by Robert Rossen, Clarke infuses her exposé with jazz music by such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, while minimizing any narrative form. "New York Times" reviewer Bosley Crowther noted, "The players, most with little or no previous experience in films, move with the random impulsiveness of characters caught on the run... the pounding vitality blisters the eyes and claws the senses with its vicious and hideous visual truths."

[BLACHEFAN]

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)

Images like this of Governor George Wallace attempting to block integration at the University of Alabama appear throughout director Robert Drew's documentary about clashing ideologies on segregation.

Robert Drew was a pioneer of American cinema-verite (a style of documentary filmmaking that strives to record unfolding events non-intrusively). In 1963, he gathered together a stellar group of filmmakers, including D. A. Pennebaker, Richard Leacock, Gregory Shuker, James Lipscomb, and Patricia Powell, to capture on film the dramatic unfolding of an ideological crisis, one that revealed political decision-making at the highest levels. The result, "Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment," focuses on Gov. George Wallace's attempt to prevent two African-American students from enrolling in the University of Alabama—his infamous "stand in the schoolhouse door" confrontation—and the response of President John F. Kennedy. The filmmakers observe the crisis evolve by following a number of participants, including Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Gov. Wallace and the two students, Vivian Malone and James Hood. The film also shows deliberations between the president and his staff that led to a peaceful resolution, a decision by the president to deliver a major address on civil rights and a commitment by Wallace to continue his battle in subsequent national election campaigns. The film has proven to be a uniquely revealing complement to written histories of the period, providing viewers the rare opportunity to witness historical events from an insider's perspective.

[BLACHEFAN]

The Hole (1963)

With "The Hole," legendary animators John and Faith Hubley created an "observation," as the opening title credits state, a chilling Academy Award-winning meditation on the possibility of an accidental nuclear catastrophe. Jazz great Dizzy Gillespie and actor George Mathews improvised a lively dialogue that the Hubleys and their animators used as the voices of two New York construction workers laboring under Third Avenue. Earlier in his career, while he worked as an animator in the Disney studios, John Hubley viewed a highly stylized Russian animated film—brought to his attention by Frank Lloyd Wright—that radically influenced his ideas about the possibilities of animation. With his new vision realized in this film, the Hubleys ominously, yet humorously, commented on the fears of nuclear devastation ever-present in cold war American culture during the year that the Cuban Missile crisis unfolded.

The expanded essay is below this description.

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/the_hole2.pdf

[BLACHEFAN]

The Nutty Professor (1963)

In what many consider Jerry Lewis's greatest film as actor and director, this film is a twist on the classic "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" story, as translated by Lewis and co-screenwriter Bill Richmond. Nerdy professor Lewis concocts a formula to become more popular and turns himself into the narcissistic womanizer Buddy Love who attempts to work his magic on co-ed Stella Stevens. This comical character study tinged with pathos reveals Lewis's not inconsiderable acting talent.

[BLACHEFAN]

The Pink Panther (1963)

This comic masterpiece by Blake Edwards introduced both the animated Pink Panther character in the film's opening-and-closing credit sequences, and actor Peter Sellers in his most renowned comic role as the inept Inspector Clouseau. The influence of the great comics of the silent era on Edwards and Sellers is apparent throughout the film, which is recognized for its enduring popularity. The musical score composed by Henry Mancini is also memorable. In addition to Sellers, the cast includes David Niven and Robert Wagner as a suave uncle and nephew both trying to steal the famed "Pink Panter" diamond. Capucine plays Mrs. Clouseau, who dallies with both uncle and nephew, and Claudia Cardinale is a princess and owner of the illustrious gemstone.

[BLACHEFAN]

Shock Corridor (1963)

Director Sam Fuller's movies often were labeled too edgy and unseemly, with the ability to simultaneously grab and repel the viewer. Seen as Hollywood's tough guy, his style was most evident in his breakneck storytelling and central characters who defy easy categorization. In "Shock Corridor," undercover reporter Peter Breck gets himself committed to a psychiatric ward to flush out a Pulitzer Prize-worthy story. Cinematographer Stanley Cortez shot the film entirely indoors in ominously lit rooms and corridors, and editor Jerome Thoms amps up the hysteria with quick cuts that create a montage of disturbing behavior, violent outbursts, and dream sequences.

[BLACHEFAN]

Zapruder Film (1963)

When Abraham Zapruder scaled a concrete parapet in Dallas, Texas to get a better view of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade on November 22, 1963, the 58-year-old clothing manufacturer could not foresee that he would capture 26 seconds of film that would be scrutinized for decades to follow. As the president's limousine passed in front of Zapruder, the amateur photographer was already following the motorcade with his 8mm Bell & Howell Zoomatic camera and recorded the fatal rifle shot that struck the president. Though other amateur film of the assassination exists, the Zapruder footage is considered the most authoritative record of the event.

[BLACHEFAN]

My Fair Lady (1964)

Courtesy of CBS

In the 1950s and 1960s, besieged by shifts in demographics and having much of its audience syphoned off by television, film studios knew they had to go big in their entertainment in order to lure people back to the theater. This film version of the musical "My Fair Lady" epitomized this approach with use of wide-screen technologies. Based on the sparkling stage musical (inspired by George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion"), "My Fair Lady" came to the big screen via the expert handling of director George Cukor. Cecil Beaton's costume designs provided further panache, along with his, Gene Allen's and George James Hopkins' art and set direction. The film starred Rex Harrison, repeating his career-defining stage role as Professor Henry Higgins, and Audrey Hepburn (whose singing voice was dubbed by frequent "ghoster" Marni Nixon), as the Cockney girl, Eliza Doolittle. Though opulent in the extreme, all these elements blend perfectly to make "My Fair Lady" the enchanting entertainment that it remains today.

[BLACHEFAN]

Dead Birds (1964)

One of the most influential ethnographic films of the 1960s, "Dead Birds" is director Robert Gardner's interpretation of life among a group of Dani natives in Papua, New Guinea. The film focuses on two natives in particular, following them through the events of Dani life, contrasting the peaceful: farming sweet potatoes and raising pigs and the warlike: raids and skirmishes. Gardner wrote, "Wars were the best way they knew to keep a terrible harmony in a life which would be, without the strife they invented, mostly hard and dull." He described the meaning of the film's title as "both immediate and allegorical. In the Dani language it refers to the weapons and ornaments recovered in battle. Its other more poetic meaning comes from the Dani belief that people, because they are like birds, must die."

[BLACHEFAN]

Dog Star Man (1961-64)

Considered a masterpiece of experimental filmmaking, Stan Brakhage's "Dog Star Man" is a silent cosmological epic consisting of four short films and a prelude. Shot in 16mm, the film utilized variable exposure times and the physical manipulation of the film stock, including painting directly on the film and scratching its surface, to produce specific visual effects. With its innovative new techniques, it is considered to have ushered in a new age of experimental film. Brakhage later incorporated it into a longer film titled "The Art of Vision" (1965).

[BLACHEFAN]

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

The edgy satire (as written by director Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, and Terry Southern) and outrageously funny performances (including three from Peter Sellers) have kept "Dr. Strangelove" fresh and entertaining for decades. A U.S. bomber on a routine flight pattern near the Soviet Union receives orders to drop its nuclear payload on the "Rooskies" and turn the Cold War into a hot one. The orders were given by the highly paranoid Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) to stem a Communist plot in which Americans were being sapped of their precious bodily fluids. Meanwhile, the president (Sellers again) seeks guidance from his top Pentagon advisors, including a war-mongering general (George C. Scott). The plot thickens when the Soviet ambassador (Peter Bull) informs the Americans of the latest Soviet weapons technology: a "Doomsday Machine" that will destroy the entire world if the Russians are attacked. But the former Nazi Dr. Strangelove (Sellers yet again) has an ingenious plan for surviving a potential nuclear holocaust. Kubrick, Sellers and the screenwriters were nominated for Oscars, but lost out to "My Fair Lady." The film did bring home several BAFTA Awards in the U.K.

The expanded essay is below this description.

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/dr_strangelove.pdf

[BLACHEFAN]

Empire (1964)

This image of the Empire State Building dates to 1937, more than 25 years before Andy Warhol paid homage to the iconic structure with his film.

"Empire," created by pioneering pop artist Andy Warhol, consists of a single stationary shot of the Empire State Building filmed from 8:06 p.m. to 2:42 a.m., July 25–26, 1964. The eight-hour, five-minute film lacks a traditional narrative or characters. The passage from daylight to darkness becomes the film's narrative, while the protagonist is the iconic New York City skyscraper. By projecting the film at sixteen frames per second instead of the twenty-four at which it was shot, Warhol makes the progression to darkness almost imperceptible, and a blinking light at the top of a neighboring building marks the passage of time. According to Warhol, the point of this film is to "see time go by." Controversial since its release, "Empire" redefines concepts of perception, action and cinematic time. Perhaps Warhol's most famous and influential cinematic work, it continues to elicit critical analysis.

[BLACHEFAN]

The March (1964)

George Stevens Jr., who headed the United States Information Agency (USIA) Motion Picture Service unit from 1962-67, brought in several young talented documentary filmmakers such as Charles Guggenheim, Carroll Ballard, Kent McKenzie, Leo Seltzer, Terry Sanders, Bruce Herschensohn, and James Blue, who directed "The March." This period ushered in the "Golden Era" of USIA films. Examining the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington from the ground-level and focusing on the idealistic passion, joy and synergy of the crowds, Blue's documentary lets us see the event take shape from the planning stage — with sound checks and worries about whether people will attend — to the arrival of enormous crowds on parades of trains and buses. It culminates in Martin Luther King's electrifying "I Have a Dream" speech. These USIA films were rarely seen in America because, fearing propaganda, the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act mandated that no USIA film could be shown domestically without a special act of Congress. These films are being rediscovered because a 1990 act of Congress (P.L. 101-246) authorized domestic screening 12 years after release.

[BLACHEFAN]

Mary Poppins (1964)

Alleged to be Walt Disney's personal favorite from all of his many classic films, "Mary Poppins" is based upon a book by P.L. Travers. With Travers' original tale as a framework, screenwriters Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, with the aid of songwriters the Sherman Brothers (Richard M. and Robert B.), fashioned an original movie musical about a most unusual nanny. Weaving together a witty script, an inventive visual style and a slate of classic songs (including "A Spoonful of Sugar" and "Chim Chim Cher-ee"), "Mary Poppins" is a film that has enchanted generations. Equal parts innocent fun and savvy sophistication, the artistic and commercial success of the film solidified Disney's knack for big-screen, non-cartoon storytelling and invention. With its seamless integration of animation and live action, the film prefigured thousands of later digital and CGI-aided effects. The cast, headed by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, also includes Jane Darwell, Glynis Johns and Ed Wynn, "Mary Poppins" has remained a "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" achievement.

[BLACHEFAN]

Nothing But a Man (1964)

Michael Roemer directed the story he co-wrote with Robert M. Young about a black railroad worker in Alabama (Ivan Dixon) who falls in love and marries the local preacher's daughter (Abbey Lincoln) while trying to maintain his self respect amidst the racism of 1960s America. Roemer said he drew on his experience of growing up as a Jew in Nazi Germany and noted, "If you're unemployed you don't feel like you're a man, at least my generation didn't. That's not black; that's all of us." Its naturalistic almost documentary visual style and soundtrack of popular Motown hits invites the audience into the lives of its characters to feel their angst and perseverance.

[BLACHEFAN]

Parable (1964)

In the 1930s, a number of Protestant groups, concerned about the perceived meretricious effects of Hollywood films, began producing non-theatrical motion pictures to spread the gospel of Jesus. "Parable" followed a filmmaking tradition that has not very often been recognized in general accounts of American film history. One of the most acclaimed and controversial films in this tradition, "Parable" debuted at the New York World's Fair in May 1964 as the main attraction of the Protestant and Orthodox Center. Without aid of dialogue or subtitles, the film relies on music and an allegorical story that represents the "Circus as the World," in the words of Rolf Forsberg, who wrote and co-directed the film with Tom Rook for the Protestant Council of New York. "Parable" depicts Jesus as an enigmatic, chalk-white, skull-capped circus clown who takes on the sufferings of oppressed workers, including women and minorities. The film generated controversy even before its initial screening. The fair's president Robert Moses sought to have it withdrawn. Other fair organizers resigned with one exclaiming, "No one is going to make a clown out of my Jesus." A disgruntled minister threatened to riddle the screen with shotgun holes if the film was shown. Undaunted, viewers voted overwhelmingly to keep the film running, and it became one of the fair's most popular attractions. Newsweek proclaimed it "very probably the best film at the fair" and Time described it as "an art film that got religion." The Fellini- and Bergman-inspired film received the 1966 Religious Film Award of the National Catholic Theatre Conference, along with honors at the 1966 Cannes, Venice and Edinburgh film festivals. It subsequently became a popular choice for screenings in both liberal and conservative churches.

The expanded essay is below this description.

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/parable2.pdf

[BLACHEFAN]

Point of Order (1964)

Emile de Antonio produced and directed this documentary that explores the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings that sought to unveil Communists in the armed forces and other government agencies. What the film unveils is Senator Joseph McCarthy's duplicitous and pompous nature and a case lacking substance and based in conjecture and obfuscation.

[BLACHEFAN]

The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)

This legendary film (the initials stand for "Teen Age Music International") is quite possibly the greatest rock and rhythm-and-blues concert on film. Considered wildly campy with screaming girls and "Shindig"-style go-go dancers, the film captures all the live immediacy of an astonishing line-up in an era when films commonly matched records to lip-syncing. A who's who of musicians creates magic onstage, from the Rolling Stones running onstage and plugging in their guitars to the show-stopping cape routine of James Brown.

The expanded essay is below this description.

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/TAMI.pdf

[BLACHEFAN]

Felicia (1965)

This 13-minute short subject, marketed as an educational film, records a slice of life in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles prior to the rebellions of 1965. Filmmakers Trevor Greenwood, Robert Dickson and Alan Gorg were UCLA film students when they crafted a documentary from the perspective of the unassuming-yet-articulate teenager Felicia Bragg, a high-school student of African-American and Hispanic descent. Felicia's first-person narrative reflects her hopes and frustrations as she annotates footage of her family, school and neighborhood, creating a time capsule that's both historically and culturally significant. Its provenance as an educational film continues today as university courses use "Felicia" to teach documentary filmmaking techniques and cite it as an example of how non-traditional sources, as well as mainstream television news, reflect and influence public opinion.

The expanded essay is below this description.

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/felicia.gordon_field.pdf

Alan Gorg reflects on the making of Felicia

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/felicia.pdf

[BLACHEFAN]

The Pawnbroker (1965)

"The Pawnbroker" was the first Hollywood film to depict in a realistic, psychologically probing manner the trauma of a Holocaust survivor, a subject previously taboo because of the fear of poor box office or offending delicate sensitivities. Rod Steiger's astounding performance — as he tries to repress his memories of the anguish, physical and emotional shame of being an internment-camp inmate — also serves a perfect allegory for American film's own struggles to represent this major tragedy of 20th century history.

The expanded essay is below this description.

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/pawnbroker.pdf