The Usual Choices
Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards)
The Hustler (Robert Rossen)
The Innocents (Jack Clayton)
Judgment at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer)
Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan)
West Side Story (Robert Wise; Jerome Robbins)
But how about...
Whistle Down the Wind (Bryan Forbes)
What a lovely little movie: beguiling, melancholic and as unsentimental as you can get in a film featuring kids. An escaped convict, injured and hiding out in a barn, is mistaken by village children as the returned Jesus. The sheer humdrum-ness of the children's lives (one kid counts every egg he eats for breakfast as he bashes its top in with a spoon) is lightened-up by Sunday School tales of Good Samaritans and astonishing miracles. So along comes the Son of God...and their childhood life has joy. The adults know better of course, and truth wins out, but that doesn't mean that that's preferable. A film that only the British could make: gentle & harsh, uplifting & sad.
...and what about...
Victim (Basil Dearden)
I was initially worried that this was going to be one of those brave movies which were controversial when they were made...and soon became dated and considered amusing or embarrassing in retrospect. But no. The blackmailing of closeted homosexuals was an act of bastardry and this film seeks to slag the criminals rather than slur their targeted victims. Appropriate degrees of claustrophobia, pity and anger crank up the tension, and at no point does the movie slide into the morass of moralising (the closest it gets is with the line "Nature played a dirty trick on me"). Dirk Bogarde is superb as the lawyer for whom enough is enough and he is ably supported by the cast of familiarly-faced character actors of British film.
...not to mention...
The Great Impostor (Robert Mulligan)
So far, I am the only person on the planet who would class this movie as a personal fave. Criticisms I have read mainly focused on its direction: rather than a psychological analysis of a troubled man with identity issues, the movie opts for a lighthearted romp through a series of adventures conducted by an opportunist. While I'd like to see the former version made one day (and until that happens, I've made-do with the 2012 documentary The Imposter), the charm of Tony Curtis makes the romp thoroughly enjoyable. He becomes a Marine, a Trappist Monk, a prison warden, a naval doctor, a teacher, an FBI agent: a collection of vignettes which vary in tone but are consistently interesting. Memo to Warner Bros & DC Comics: not everything has to be Dark to be taken seriously.
P.S. Impostor? Imposter? Potayto? Potarto?
...and one personal unmentionable...
The Children's Hour (William Wyler)
This is the classic example of an original movie having an indefinable "something special" that can't be replicated. The 1936 version (renamed These Three) of Lillian Hellman's play had Merle Oberon, Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrae; this version has Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner... surely a trade-up in acting power, right? Same director for both versions; nasty kid is equally repulsive in both; side characters are equally effective. And yet, nobody will ever dispute that the 1936 version is obviously superior to this. And equally yet, nobody can explain exactly why. Me neither. No, my objections have nothing to do with the switch from hetero to homo, and from what I've read, nobody else cares about that either. It's an artistic mystery waiting to be solved.
My Top 10 Films of 1961
 |
| "So, if you're Jesus, answer me this... What the hell is myrrh?" |
#02 A The Guns of Navarone (Thompson)
#03 A The Hustler (Rossen)
#04 A- The Man in the Back Seat (Sewell)
#05 A- Victim (Dearden)
#06 A- The Mark (Green)
#07 A- Blast of Silence (Baron)
#08 A- The Innocents (Clayton)
#09 A- Greyfriars Bobby (Chaffey)
#10 A- Cash on Demand (Lawrence)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 A- Judgment at Nuremberg (Kramer)
#12 B+ Murder, She Said (Pollock)
#13 B+ The Great Impostor (Mulligan)
#14 B+ The Pit and the Pendulum (Corman)
#15 B+ The Parent Trap (Swift)
#16 B+ Breakfast at Tiffany's (Edwards)
#17 B+ The Day the Earth Caught Fire (Guest)
#18 B+ Fanny (Logan)
#19 B+ No Love for Johnnie (Thomas)
#20 B+ The Curse of the Werewolf (Fisher)
#21 B+ A Taste of Honey (Richardson)
#22 B+ One, Two, Three (Wilder)
#23 B+ Homicidal (Castle)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B The Misfits [all that star-power and somehow it's still a little boring]
> B A Cold Wind in August [a sleazy little film which has something worthwhile to portray]
> B A Raisin in the Sun [yet another filmed play which wants to be a movie]
> B Underworld USA [Cliff Robertson in a Jimmy Cagney story(!!)]
> B The Curse of the Werewolf [typical Hammer Horror: a monster, folklore, pastoral in feel...and a little soft]
> B West Side Story [I'm told it's actually pretty good...if you like that kind of thing]
> B The Pleasure of His Company [inconsequential fluff with Fred Astaire dancing a little bit]
> B The Young Savages [today's urban youth crime, yesterday]
> B- Very Important Person [barely OK WWII POW comedy which fortuitously stars James Robertson Justice]
> B- Something Wild [an Arty film about the aftermath of rape...uh oh...]
> B- Paris Blues [great jazz; shame about the romance stuff]
> B- The Greengage Summer / Loss of Innocence [AKA I was a Teenage Tart]
> B- The Devil at 4 O'Clock [a spiritual quest disaster movie which drags its feet]
> B- El Cid [looks magnificent; too bad about the story...and Charlton Heston of course]
> B- The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone [if Tennessee Williams isn't done just right...]
> B- A Weekend with Lulu [has its British-comic moments, but not enough]
> B- The Children's Hour [A Personal Unmentionable]
> C Master of the World [aka Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Up in the Air]
> D The Long and the Short and the Tall / Jungle Fighters [how did Laurence Harvey ever become a movie star?]
> D Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea [poses the question: would a secretary wear hi-heels in a submarine?]
> E The Errand Boy [Jerry Lewis strikes again]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1961 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Best of Enemies (Hamilton); The Comancheros (Curtiz); Flame in the Streets (Baker); House of Mystery (Sewell); King of Kings (Ray); Lover Come Back (Mann); Night Tide (Harrington); One-Eyed Jacks (Brando); The Outsider (Mann); Payroll (Hayers); Pit of Darkness (Comfort); The Secret Partner (Dearden); The Secret Ways (Karlson); The Shadow of the Cat (Gilling); Summer and Smoke (Glenville); Taste of Fear / Scream of Fear (Holt); The Third Alibi (Tully); What a Carve-Up! (Jackson)
Best Performances of 1961
George Chakiris in West Side Story
Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's
Sophia Loren in Two Women
Rita Moreno in West Side Story
Paul Newman in The Hustler
Maximilian Schell in Judgement at Nuremberg
George C. Scott in The Hustler
But how about...
Charles Boyer & Leslie Caron & Maurice Chevalier in Fanny
The Big 3 of the Hollywood French in the only movie where they all starred together. All the cliched traits of the French which the movies have promoted as being real are on show here: lots of wine-drinking; indolence; accordion music always on play; every emotion gesticulated and exaggerated; and, of course, sex sex sex. Charles is the wise old man who loves his son; Leslie is the beautiful girl who drives men crazy with desire; Maurice is the dirty old man who fancies young girls. Aren't stereotypes crap? And yet, if we accept this fact and move on, all three actors play their allotted templates very effectively and endearingly, preventing the movie from slipping into blandness.
...and what about...
David Niven in The Guns of Navarone
Never been much of a David fan - in fact, I thought he was the luckiest bastard who ever lived in Hollywood. Reading his autobiographies ("The Moon's a Balloon" and "Bring on the Empty Horses"), he comes across as a nice-but-naughty guy who made friends easily and quickly, strolling into acting as casually as most people get wet in the rain. One minor issue: he couldn't really act much. Can't name one film where he was more than adequate (and plenty where he was close to useless). But in TGoN, he outshines Peck, Quinn and a bunch of British thespians by simply accepting supporting actor status and subtly stealing each scene. Nothing major, but...give the man a cheer: he finally did it once.
...not to mention...
Peter Finch in No Love for Johnnie
Bloody politicians: all ambition and no principles, can't lie straight in bed, all talk and no action. Peter plays such a fellow, as shallow as a puddle, saying and doing what is necessary to help himself climb upwards, ever upwards. The film kicks in when the man is having a worrying bout of human feeling: his unloved wife has left him, women he fancies don't fancy him back, and his fellow members have got it in for him. For the man, it all comes down to one question: "Is there nobody for me?" With the expected mixture of an English stiff upper lip and a borderline breakdown, Peter perfectly portrays a politician who has assumed that life is geared towards serving him, but discovers otherwise. Should be made essential viewing in the halls of Canberra.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Montgomery Clift & Judy Garland in Judgment at Nuremberg
Yep, everybody else absolutely raves about these two out-of-character performances by two great stars, but I don't believe that either work. Even Monty declared that he thought Judy "did it all wrong"; if only his astute criticism stretched to include himself. Monty's character seems to be all in his bad haircut: it is clear that he is making up his lines as he goes along; he is still working out his accent as he speaks; and he seems to be more hungover than mentally-defective. Judy has a similarly-awkward accent; appears to be self-conscious about her frumpiness; and resorts to mimicking Maximilian Schell's yelling-is-acting style to show emotional turmoil. And the encouragement of both actors to use their personal troubles (drugs / drink / mental illness) to produce these performances is highly questionable, doncha think?
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1961
 |
| Suddenly, the music virus which is "Ebony & Ivory" pops into Paul's head. |
#02 George C. Scott (The Hustler)
#03 Deborah Kerr (The Innocents)
#04 Hayley Mills (Whistle Down the Wind)
#05 Peter Finch (No Love for Johnnie)
#06 Dirk Bogarde (Victim)
#07 Margaret Rutherford (Murder, She Said)
#08 Ruby Dee (A Raisin in the Sun)
#09 Clark Gable & Marilyn Monroe & Montgomery Clift & Eli Wallach & Thelma Ritter (The Misfits)
#10 Natalie Wood (Splendor in the Grass)
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Lola Albright (A Cold Wind in August)
#12 Myron McCormick (The Hustler)
#13 Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast at Tiffany's)
#14 Charles Boyer & Leslie Caron & Maurice Chevalier (Fanny)
#15 James Cagney (One, Two, Three)
#16 David Niven (The Guns of Navarone)
#17 Hayley Mills (The Parent Trap)
#18 Jackie Gleason (The Hustler)
#19 Peter Cushing & Andre Morell (Cash on Demand)
#21 Tony Curtis (The Great Impostor)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Maximilian Schell in Judgment at Nuremberg [yet another member of the Mr. Shouty Club]
> Anthony Quinn in The Guns of Navarone [Ham Alert]
> Piper Laurie in The Hustler [some people just shouldn't drink]
> Burt Lancaster in Judgment at Nuremberg [miscasting at its most perplexing]
> Rita Tushingham in A Taste of Honey [British kitchen-sink realism usually means that the actors are unappealing, y'know...just like real people]
> Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's [funny as a fit...and just as uncomfortable to watch]
> Vivien Leigh in The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone [I kept waiting for her face to move]
> Stuart Whitman in The Mark [well-intentioned and courageous but merely serviceable]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1961 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: Whistle Down the Wind (Bryan Forbes)
SILVER: The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson)
BRONZE: The Hustler (Robert Rossen)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Paul Newman (The Hustler)
SILVER: Peter Finch (No Love for Johnnie)
BRONZE: Dirk Bogarde (Victim)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Deborah Kerr (The Innocents)
SILVER: Margaret Rutherford (Murder, She Said)
BRONZE: Natalie Wood (Splendor in the Grass)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: George C. Scott (The Hustler)
SILVER: Myron McCormick (The Hustler)
BRONZE: David Niven (The Guns of Navarone)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Ruby Dee (A Raisin in the Sun)
SILVER: Fay Bainter (The Children's Hour)
BRONZE: Dora Bryan (A Taste of Honey)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Clark Gable & Marilyn Monroe & Montgomery Clift & Thelma Ritter & Eli Wallach (The Misfits)
SILVER: Charles Boyer & Leslie Caron & Maurice Chevalier (Fanny)
BRONZE: Peter Cushing & Andre Morell (Cash on Demand)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Hayley Mills (Whistle Down the Wind)
SILVER: Hayley Mills (The Parent Trap)
BRONZE: Alan Barnes (Whistle Down the Wind)
The Alternate Razzies for 1961 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
The Errand Boy (Jerry Lewis)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Laurence Harvey (The Long and the Short and the Tall)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Barbara Eden (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)
