1963

Best Movies of 1963
The Usual Choices
America America (Elia Kazan)
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
The Great Escape (John Sturges)
The Haunting (Robert Wise)
Hud (Martin Ritt)
Tom Jones (Tony Richardson)

But how about...
This Sporting Life (Lindsay Anderson)
I am not normally a fan of the British "kitchen-sinkers" (usually independent, B&W downers that look at so-called Truth, heavy on the grim & light on the giggles), mainly because, while Life can be shit, it is rarely ever only that...Real Life is an array, old chum. And yet, this influential 60's film made a lasting impact on me. Richard Harris is a thug who doesn't particularly want to be, but discovers rugby as a way to channel his aggressive physicality to gain money & fame. But he also wants to be loved...enter his landlady, Rachel Roberts, who has been hardened by grief & poverty and just wants to be left alone. The more Richard gets, the more he wants; the more Rachel is given, the more she doesn't trust it. Two reluctant lovers trapped in a struggle of need vs fear. There's no joy in this movie (the ending is as bleak as they come), but the strength of the performance-partnership wins out: the actors make you understand and accept that some people just can't help themselves...the definition of the human dilemma.

...and what about...
The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis)
I never could stand Jerry Lewis...his spastic, nasally-moronic persona has always given me the irrits. "Look at me! Look at me!" his antics screech out, brutalizing everyone into embarrassment...and yet, this movie is a comedic joy, funny & fun from beginning to end. I think Jerry's masterstroke was choosing to play another kind of character(s) and basing the story on something personal and dark: he has a nasty dig at his old partner, Dean Martin. All of the visual & sound jokes work (LOVE the hangover!) and Jerry's propensity to overstay a gag's welcome (which is one of the things I hate most of all) is mostly muted here. Admittedly, the supporting cast tends to overdo their routines (Del Moore is a particular annoyance), but Stella Stevens is a classy love interest. The colour is vibrant, the music is very Rat Packish and the plot craftily scoots things along...so, overall, the great film comic actually managed to be great once on film...on this film. Maybe there's hope for Jim Carrey after all.

...not to mention...
Jason and the Argonauts (Don Chaffey)
Other than Spider-Man comics, Famous Five books, Classics Illustrated and Every Child's Answer Book, my childhood reading material of choice was Ancient Greek myths. It's a shame then that I didn't see this film until I was in my 20's...but it still made me beam with pleasure anyway. While there's not much acting being displayed (the Argonauts themselves come across as a platoon of British WWII POW's and Zeus & his gang as stuffy civil servants with too much time on their hands), and there are draggy bits here & there, it doesn't really matter...Ray Harryhausen is the superstar on show, and he makes everything all right. Truly sensational stop-motion animation that makes modern SFX seem bloodless, from the attack of Talos to the battle of the skeletons...and everything inbetween. Simply great fun and thrilling like so many sword'n'sandal epics claim to be but really aren't. Bolstered by a hefty Bernard Herrmann score that's blessedly light on the harps & flutes, and trimmed back to a breathless running time of 104 minutes, this wins my vote as the best Ancient World movie ever (apart from Life of Brian, of course).

...and one personal unmentionable...
The Day Mars Invaded Earth (Maury Dexter)
This movie's makers had to work really hard to make something with a title like that as cinematically inert as this is. A NASA scientist lands a probe on Mars...it sends back a signal which secretly carries Martian intelligence in its "waves"...the scientist and his family are cunningly replaced by aliens and they set out to infiltrate Earth...now, I ask you...that sounds like it could have turned out pretty good, right? Real sci-fi/horror potential, right? Nah...as dreary as grandma's lingerie instead. The whole saga takes place in some rambling country estate which is more luxurious than eerie + the cast says words and frets a lot, but there's not much acting taking place + the first 40 minutes (out of a 70 minute film) is all about how tough it is on Mum and the kids when Dad works for the government...so all of the intended tension is bundled up into one question: Will their marriage survive a Martian invasion? 

My Top 10 Films of 1963
Audrey explains her fear of dictionaries.
#01  A   The Birds (Hitchcock)
#02  A-  Charade (Donen)
#03  A-  Jason and the Argonauts (Chaffey)
#04  A-  The Servant (Losey)
#05  A-  Hud (Ritt)
#06  A-  The Nutty Professor (Lewis)
#07  A-  This Sporting Life (Anderson)  
#08  B+ The Haunting (Wise)  
#09  B+ Soldier in the Rain (Nelson)
#10  B+ The Great Escape (Sturges)  
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11  B+ From Russia with Love (Young)
#12  B+ Lilies of the Field (Nelson)
#13  B+ 55 Days in Peking (Ray)
#14  B+ Lord of the Flies (Brook)
#15  B+ Billy Liar (Schlesinger)
#16  B+ Murder at the Gallop (Pollock)  

Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
B   America America [emigrant story obviously heartfelt by its director, but he forgot to make me feel the same]
B   The List of Adrian Messenger [more entertaining novelty than thrilling mystery]
B   A Child is Waiting [a thousand tears in this story of intellectually disabled kids and emotionally disabled adults]
B   Kiss of the Vampire [Hammer Horror with hand-kissing, smelly peasants and bats on strings]
B   Ladybug, Ladybug [nuclear-bomb paranoia in a rural primary school...scary, haunting, overdone]
B   The Courtship of Eddie's Father [not bad, but I preferred the uniquely-gentle TV show]
>  B   The Pink Panther [Inspector Clouseau #1; the franchise got better than this, then it got a lot worse]
B   The Stripper [its only surprise is Joanne Woodward being terrific in a Marilyn Monroe role]
B   Sammy Going South / A Boy Ten Feet Tall [kids African adventure film with curious touches of darkness]
B   Twilight of Honour [earnest but salacious David vs Goliath courtroom drama]
B   The Wrong Arm of the Law [mild but pleasant British comedy with pre-tits'n'bums humour]
B-  Nurse on Wheels [lightweight & benign British comedy that could really use some tits'n'bums]
>  B-  Tom Jones [vastly overrated & slackly directed, but saved from total forgettability by the women] 
B-  Carry on Cabby [#7 in the franchise, with Kenneth Williams missing and missed]
B-  X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes [a good sci-fi idea that isn't worked into a particularly good story]
B-  Toys in the Attic [stageplay made heavy-going by two inadequate performances and one blustery one]
B-  The Mouse on the Moon [not as satiric and amusing as it thinks it is]
B-  Irma La Douce [a comedy about prostitution that aims to be convivial & sweet...prostitution...]
B-  I Could Go On Singing [watch it because it was Judy's last...and enjoy her three performances]
>  B-  Cleopatra [I actually watched all of this...all 320 minutes of it...the things I do for this blog...]
  Shock Corridor [mental illness as sleaze, partnered with incest, striptease, rape and nymphos]
  The Comedy of Terrors [a murder-comedy that's about as funny as Vincent Price]
 The Mind Benders [expects you to be more interested in marital disharmony than national security]
C   The Prize [espionage & humour & murder & sex...needed 1950's Hitchcock; got 1960's Robson]
C   It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World [it's a long, long, long, long slapsticky comedy with few laughs]
C   The V.I.P.s [watch this and learn to hate rich people, especially when they talk about their feelings]
D   The Day Mars Invaded Earth [A Personal Unmentionable]

"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1963 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
All the Way Home (Segal); Bye Bye Birdie (Sidney); Captain Newman M.D. (Miller); Captain Sindbad (Haskin); The Cardinal (Preminger); The Caretaker / The Guest (Donner); The Cool World (Clarke); Face in the Rain (Kershner); Flipper (Clark); A Gathering of Eagles (Mann); The Gun Hawk (Ludwig); Heavens Above (Boulting); The Hook (Seaton); The Horse Without a Head (Chaffey); House of the Damned (Dexter); In the Cool of the Day (Stevens); The Incredible Journey (Markle); Johnny Cool (Asher); Love with the Proper Stranger (Mulligan); Move Over Darling (Gordon); A New Kind of Love (Shavelson); Nine Hours to Rama (Robson); Paranoiac (Francis); A Place to Go (Dearden); Private Potter (Wrede); The Raven (Corman); The Running Man (Reed); The Sadist (Landis); Siege of the Saxons (Juran); Sparrows Can’t Sing (Littlewood); Sunday in New York (Tewksbury); The Terror (Corman); The Three Lives of Thomasina (Chaffey); Tomorrow at Ten (Comfort); Twice-Told Tales (Salkow); The Ugly American (Englund); Uncle Vanya (Burge); Unearthly Stranger (Krish); The Very Edge (Frankel); The Victors (Foreman)


Best Performances of 1963
Oft-Mentioned Choices
Melvyn Douglas in Hud
Albert Finney in Tom Jones
Richard Harris in This Sporting Life
Rex Harrison in Cleopatra
Steve McQueen in The Great Escape
Patricia Neal in Hud
Paul Newman in Hud
Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field
Margaret Rutherford in The V.I.P.'s

But how about...
Joanne Woodward in The Stripper
While the movie is only so-so (typical Americana stageplay where sad people meet, change and grow), Joanne gives a stand-out performance. In a role originally intended for Marilyn Monroe (and you can see her in it), Joanne plays a two-bit actress/singer/dancer/performer who doesn't really want anything particularly extraordinary from life...just love, marriage, children, friends...but she is one of those for whom Life says no. The film roles which Joanne has excelled in (I'd offer up The Effect of Gamma Rays... and Mr & Mrs Bridge) have had common attributes: a woman who idealises her past, daydreams about her future and thinks she is keeping her pain hidden...but it's noticeable to anyone who cares to look. Despite having experienced abuse and rejection to the point of attempted suicide, the woman remains hopeful, even buoyant. But you just know she is going to be knocked down again...naive to the point of self-harm; a person who simply needs to hear yes.

...and what about...
Audrey Hepburn in Charade
Jean Arthur in Easy Living, Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth, Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey, Claudette Colbert in Midnight...and Audrey in Charade (and Breakfast at Tiffany's): classy screwball. Such a shame that she only did the two, because Audrey's phrasing, style, physical loveliness and preparedness to be silly all make her perfect for the genre. Stealing the film away from Cary Grant (wow...although, to be fair, he was getting on in years...and the actor knew it...even jokes about it in the movie), Audrey casually catwalks through the conspiracy/double-cross plot with an amusing air of confusion. Making her way past multiple false identities, hoodlums straight out of Dick Tracy, coy'n'chatty flirting, compulsive eating and having to neck an orange, Audrey finally winds up at the usual screwball ending: marriage. Compare this performance to the actress's exemplary dramatic work in 1959's The Nun's Story...that's some range.

...not to mention...
Jackie Gleason & Steve McQueen & Tuesday Weld in Soldier in the Rain
What a combo. Steve & Tuesday, sure...in fact, pretty hot...but Jackie? Jackie Gleason as Steve McQueen's best friend & Jackie Gleason as, gulp, Tuesday Weld's boyfriend?? And, to prove this movie is situated in an alternate universe, the teaming actually works. Like...huh?
A military comedy that has traces of Sgt Bilko and F Troop, this interesting curio turns all serious and touching as it goes along...very MASH. The actors are called upon to move from comedy (which only Jackie is at home with) to action (which only Steve is at home with) to relationship drama (primarily Tuesday's realm). But all three answer the call admirably... none of them overdo it when faced with an acting stretch, and the connection between them is well established and believable. When tragedy hits, everybody underplays it...emotions passed on through silent faces rather than histrionics. I'll state it again...Jackie Gleason + Steve McQueen + Tuesday Weld as friends and lovers. And it works.  

...and one personal unmentionable...
Paul Newman in The Prize
How many actors have tried to be Cary Grant in a Cary Grantish role (handsome to the point of injustice + a little buffoonish at times + romantic & suave & knows just what to say + can do action stuff if need be + makes it all appear totally natural) and failed? Yeah, I've got no idea how many either, but here's another one. And I thought that if any actor had a chance of conquering this Everest, it would be Paul Newman...but, sadly no. In a story of espionage, kidnapping, murder and the Nobel Prize, mixed in with many martinis, playful flirting with Elke Sommer (remember her?) and comic situations (a nudist colony; a vanished corpse), Paul is only really comfortable with the dramatic scenes (like being in physical danger or smooching blondes). As a light comedian, Paul lacks timing and touch...the actor is all stomp. When equipped with hopefully-amusing dialogue, he clearly doesn't know what to do, so does what every other wannabe-Cary has done: Paul says it loud, says it fast and makes a face. Oh well...at least the face looks great.

My 10 Favourite Performances of 1963
Rexona:
Takes the worry out of being close.
#01  Melvyn Douglas in Hud
#02  Richard Harris & Rachel Roberts in This Sporting Life
#03  Dirk Bogarde in The Servant
#04  Patricia Neal in Hud
#05  Paul Newman in Hud
#06  Joanne Woodward in The Stripper
#07  Audrey Hepburn in Charade
#08  Tom Courtenay in Billy Liar
#09  Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor
#10  Diane Cilento in Tom Jones  
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11  Hugh Griffiths in Tom Jones
#12  Jackie Gleason & Steve McQueen & Tuesday Weld in Soldier in the Rain
#13  Lionel Jeffries in The Wrong Arm of the Law
#14  Lotte Lenya in From Russia with Love
#15  Ronny Howard in The Courtship of Eddie's Father
#16  Lynne Sue Moon in 55 Days in Peking
#17  Julie Harris in The Haunting
#18  Nancy Marchand in Ladybug, Ladybug
#19  Shirley MacLaine in Irma La Douce
#20  Sidney Poitier & Lilia Skala in Lilies of the Field
#21  Rex Harrison in Cleopatra
#22  Bruce Ritchie in A Child is Waiting

Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
>  Margaret Rutherford in The V.I.P.s [by playing a druggie, she is merely dotty rather than also exuberant]
>  Steve McQueen in The Great Escape [take away the motorbike and all you've got is a mumbly man with a baseball]
>  Albert Finney in Tom Jones [overshadowed by the supporting cast...especially the women]

And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1963 are:

FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
SILVER: Charade (Stanley Donen)
BRONZE: Jason and the Argonauts (Don Chaffey)

LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Dirk Bogarde (The Servant)
SILVER: Paul Newman (Hud)
BRONZE: Tom Courtenay (Billy Liar)

LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Joanne Woodward (The Stripper)
SILVER: Audrey Hepburn (Charade)
BRONZE: Julie Harris (The Haunting)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Melvyn Douglas (Hud)
SILVER: Hugh Griffiths (Tom Jones)
BRONZE: Lionel Jeffries (The Wrong Arm of the Law)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Patricia Neal (Hud)
SILVER: Diane Cilento (Tom Jones)
BRONZE: Lotte Lenya (From Russia With Love)

ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Richard Harris & Rachel Roberts (This Sporting Life)
SILVER: Jackie Gleason & Steve McQueen & Tuesday Weld (Soldier in the Rain)
BRONZE: Sidney Poitier & Lilia Skala (Lilies of the Field)

JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Ronny Howard (The Courtship of Eddie's Father)
SILVER: Lynne Sue Moon (55 Days at Peking)
BRONZE: Bruce Ritchie (A Child is Waiting)

The Alternate Razzies for 1963 are:

CRAP FILM of the YEAR
The Day Mars Invaded Earth (Maury Dexter)

CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Paul Newman (The Prize)

CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Yvette Mimieux (Toys in the Attic