The Usual Choices
Alfie (Lewis Gilbert)
Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni)
A Man for All Seasons (Fred Zinnemann)
The Shooting (Monte Hellman)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols)
But how about...
Cul-de-Sac (Roman Polanski)
Roman Polanski's funniest film (yes...of course...there's not much in the way of competition). More absurd than comedic, with an obvious European / Arty sensibility, this tells the story of Lionel the Gangster who, after a failed armed robbery, ends up hiding out at an island fortress occupied by recently-married-couple Donald the Painter & Francoise the Slut. Lionel takes over, holding his hosts hostage and trying his best to point out to Donald some home truths (the power of positive drinking; his wife's infidelity; the necessity of looking out for #1). Being a Roman film, bloody violence is inevitable, but during its gestation period, the film puts these three fools into initially-silly / increasingly-threatening situations, gradually pushing one of them into madness. Not exactly kneeslapping entertainment, but certainly interesting...if you're in the mood for something a little strange.
...and what about...
The Professionals (Richard Brooks)
While it never turns up on anybody's 10 Best Westerns list, this should be on everybody's 10 Most Entertaining Westerns list (more Rio Bravo than The Wild Bunch). It's a men-on-a-mission story: rich bastard (Ralph Bellamy) hires a dream team of 4 hard men (Burt Lancaster & Lee Marvin & Robert Ryan & Woody Strode) to rescue his wife (Claudia Cardinale) from a Mexican bandit (Jack Palance). Guns, arrows and dynamite are the weapons of choice, friendships & loyalties are tested, and the only things that really matter are alcohol, tobacco, horses, money & the love of a good woman. Death is accepted (and is best delivered in-battle over a noble cause) and flawed heroes win despite overwhelming odds. I mean...what is there not to like?
...not to mention...
Seconds (John Frankenheimer)
A near-masterpiece which both sets and answers the question: If you could re-model your life, what would it look like? This obviously means more to me at 58 than it did at 20, but no age is immune to the wondering. Through the miracles of modern medicine and multi-corporate machinations, fuddy-duddy banker John Randolph is improved into carefree painter Rock Hudson. Everything old becomes new again (the groovy chick sure...but a bacchanal? really? why?) but the man's previous life just won't let go its moorings. He discovers that you simply can't have it all...and there is a high price to be paid for such dithering. This climactic recompense is a human horror and one of the most terrifying sequences ever put on film. So, tell me...how crap is your life?
...and one personal unmentionable...
The Witches (Cyril Frankel)
A Hammer film which is closer to horrible than horror. Starts off rather incongruously in Africa with witchdoctors doing their spooky-mask thing, then transfers over to a quaint little English village, where the new schoolmistress arrives, smiling and determined to keep her hair perfectly in place. Forever the optimist, I was hoping this was going to be a witchcraft variation on Village of the Damned (hey...it features the teen version of that creepy blonde kid), but no. Instead, it degenerates into something resembling one of those Monty Python TV skits which didn't work. Absolute nadir is the "climax" where the barefoot-just-like-hippies coven puts on what looks like a nightclub floorshow, complete with carefully choreographed orgiastic thrusting and writhing. Kay Walsh humiliates herself for the ages, and Joan Fontaine was so embarrassed that she never appeared in another movie. Frightful.
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| "For the last time Liz, my name is Richard! Not Conrad, not Michael, not Mike, not Eddie, not John, not Larry, not even bloody Velvet! IT'S RICHARD!!" |
My Top 10 Films of 1966
#01 A Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Nichols)
#02 A Seconds (Frankenheimer)
#03 A- The Deadly Affair (Lumet)
#04 A- The Professionals (Brooks)
#05 A- A Man for All Seasons (Zinnemann)
#06 B+ Cul-de-Sac (Polanski)
#07 B+ The Shooting (Hellman)
#08 B+ Alfie (Gilbert)
#09 B+ 7 Women (Ford)
#10 B+ Khartoum (Dearden)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 B+ The Family Way (Boulting)
#12 B+ The Defector (Levy)
#13 B+ The Fortune Cookie (Wilder)
#14 B+ The Ghost and Mr Chicken (Rafkin)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B A Big Hand for the Little Lady [aka A Big Cast for a Little Story]
> B Torn Curtain [Hitchcock romantic drama spy thriller that would prefer to have Cary Grant & Eva Marie Saint]
> B Nevada Smith [a revenge Western...better than many, but not by much]
> B Gambit [charismatic actors in a caper movie with a bit of charisma]
> B The Trouble With Angels [aka The Naughtiest Girl in the School Finds God...Pleasantly]
> B Batman [near-fatal flaw: Julie Newmar isn't playing Catwoman]
> B This Property is Condemned [clunky Tennessee Williams story barely rescued by two appealing performances]
> B The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming [and they're bringing their renowned sense of humour]
> B Our Man Flint [pretty groovy and better than Austin Powers]
> B- Georgy Girl [just another ugly duckling story with the prerequisite smiling-through-the-tears]
> B- Harper [aka The Medium-Sized Sleep]
> B- Lord Love a Duck [peculiar satiric comedy which becomes awkwardly serious and a little nasty]
> B- How to Steal a Million [charismatic actors in a caper movie with no charisma]
> B- The Sand Pebbles [a wet Sunday 3 hour epic with plenty of opportunities for little naps and toilet breaks]
> B- Fahrenheit 451 [read the book...which, after all, is the moral of the story]
> B- The Chase [aka Small Town Drunk People from the Deep South are Crap]
> B- Alvarez Kelly [American Civil War film about cows (no, really) which looks good but drags its feet]
> B- After the Fox [features a minor Peter Sellers comedic performance and a major one from, er, Victor Mature]
> B- The Bible: In the Beginning [aka The Old Testament's Greatest Hits]
> C Follow Me, Boys! [Disney does the Boy Scouts in 3 chapters...but only the first is any good]
> C Blow-Up [groovy and dull; ambitious and empty]
> C The Quiller Memorandum [aka The Most Boring Spy Story Ever Told]
> C Fantastic Voyage [they don't even do a side trip to the groin...and they're in the neighbourhood...]
> C Born Free [I am not a cat person]
> C A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum [you wait a long time for that one funny thing to happen]
> C Hawaii [Max the Missionary is not a tragic fool...he is an annoying arsehole...for 161 minutes]
> C Arabesque [romantic comedy spy thriller which absolutely screams out for Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn]
> C Maya [occasionally tough but usually stupid kid's jungle movie with a baby elephant that won't stop bleating]
> C Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round [dull-as-dishwater heist movie with an is-that-it ending]
> D The Psychopath [killer thriller ruined by a silly premise and a silly performance]
> D Morgan [what enormously irritating snots...the man, the woman and the movie]
> D Carry on Screaming [one of the more dire of the franchise due mainly to an incomplete gang]
> D The Silencers [smarmy James Bond spoof which is heavy on the sex comedy and light on the class]
> E The Witches [A Personal Unmentionable]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1966 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
The Blue Max (Guillermin); Duel at Diablo (Nelson); Eye of the Devil (Thompson); A Fine Madness (Kershner); The Group (Lumet); Island of Terror (Fisher); Once Before I Die (Derek); One Spy Too Many (Sargent); The Plague of the Zombies (Gilling); Queen of Blood (Harrington); The Reptile (Gilling); Ride in the Whirlwind (Hellman); They’re a Weird Mob (Powell); The Trap (Hayers); The Trygon Factor (Frankel); Walk, Don’t Run (Walters); The Wild Angels (Corman); The Wrong Box (Forbes); You’re a Big Boy Now (Coppola)
Best Performances of 1966
Richard Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Michael Caine in Alfie
Sandy Dennis in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie
Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl
Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons
Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
But how about...
Tuesday Weld in Lord Love a Duck
While the film is a bit of a mess (weird 50's / 60's teen movie all jiggered up with social satire and too much bitterness), Tuesday shows us why she should have had the title role in Kubrick's Lolita. 23 when this movie was made, she comes across as an eternal mid-teen girl, intending to do the right thing, but the temptations of material and carnal delights are just too much for her. Willingly led astray by cipher-character Roddy McDowall, Tuesday turns what could have been an empty symbolic role (representing all vapid bikini-wearers) into flesh...and handles both the comedic demands ("Grape Yum Yum! Peach Putdown! Periwinkle Pussycat!") and the dramatic twists (the scene where she finds out about the death of her mum is one of the great turnarounds in cinema) with perfect command. Oh, and she is gorgeous.
...and what about...
Marjorie Rhodes in The Family Way
After she had nailed the role on stage, the producers wisely shunted Marjorie into the film version too...a classic case of perfection in casting. Playing a no-nonsense / wise to the ways of people / accepting her lot in life / permanently sad and pining for lost love woman, Marjorie shares with us the strength which is needed just to get by in such a dreary situation (factory working class Lancashire housewife and mother). Men have each other and booze; women have gossip and putting up with the men; Marjorie has her memories and a vocal bluntness that chops through bullshit. She puts her husband in his place and yet still sympathises with his frailties. Unflappable, honest and usually spot-on, she is the person we all want to come home to.
...not to mention...
Frank Gorshin & Burgess Meredith & Cesar Romero in Batman
The Riddler: Frank beats Jim Carrey (of course)
The Penguin: Burgess ties with Danny DeVito (both waddle and squawk perfectly)
The Joker: nobody will ever beat Heath Ledger...nobody...ever...(although Cesar's laugh is as good as Mark Hamill's)
The three best-portrayed Bat-Villains from the 60's TV show altogether in a movie? Gotta take this opportunity to acknowledge and reward them for their sterling work...my 9 year old self would never forgive me if I let this go by. Here's cheers gentlemen...and thanks for the memories.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Betty Field in 7 Women
In the grating tradition of Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun and Rosalind Russell in Picnic, we have Betty Field whining her way through John Ford's 7 Women (in which, by the way, I count 8...how come the Chinese woman isn't included?..wait...let me guess...). From the first time Betty opens her mewling mouth, any sane viewer will wish her harm. Yes, yes, her character is supposed to be weak & annoying, but fer chrissakes...couldn't they have made her a mute? Late-in-life pregnant (she refers to herself as "we") and a little nuts with it, Betty bludgeons every scene she is in. She never takes pity on us, not for a moment.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1966
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| Prom Dates from Hell |
#02 James Mason in The Deadly Affair
#03 Frank Gorshin & Burgess Meredith & Cesar Romero in Batman
#04 Donald Pleasence & Lionel Stander & Francoise Dorleac in Cul-de-Sac
#05 Michael Caine in Alfie
#06 Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie
#07 Vivien Merchant in Alfie
#08 Anne Bancroft in 7 Women
#09 Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons
#10 Tuesday Weld in Lord Love a Duck
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Sandy Dennis in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
#12 Marjorie Rhodes in The Family Way
#13 John Huston in The Bible: In the Beginning
#14 Natalie Wood in This Property is Condemned
#15 Charlotte Rampling in Georgy Girl
#16 Harry Andrews in The Deadly Affair
#17 Victor Mature in After the Fox
#18 Rock Hudson in Seconds
#19 Lola Albright in Lord Love a Duck
#20 Don Knotts in The Ghost and Mr Chicken
#21 Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl
#22 Charlton Heston in Khartoum
#23 Mary Badham in This Property is Condemned
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [obviously just a Shelley Winters impersonation]
> George Segal in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [blanded-out by everybody else's big acting]
> Alan Arkin in The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming [underplaying to the point of near-invisibility]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1966 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols)
SILVER: Seconds (John Frankenheimer)
BRONZE: The Deadly Affair (Sidney Lumet)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Richard Burton (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
SILVER: James Mason (The Deadly Affair)
BRONZE: Michael Caine (Alfie)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Anne Bancroft (7 Women)
SILVER: Tuesday Weld (Lord Love a Duck)
BRONZE: Natalie Wood (This Property is Condemned)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Frank Gorshin & Burgess Meredith & Cesar Romero (Batman)
SILVER: John Huston (The Bible: In the Beginning)
BRONZE: Harry Andrews (The Deadly Affair)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Vivien Merchant (Alfie)
SILVER: Sandy Dennis (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
BRONZE: Marjorie Rhodes (The Family Way)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Donald Pleasence & Lionel Stander & Francoise Dorleac (Cul-de-Sac)
SILVER: Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau (The Fortune Cookie)
BRONZE: Burt Lancaster & Lee Marvin & Robert Ryan & Woody Strode (The Professionals)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Mary Badham (This Property is Condemned)
SILVER: Kurt Russell (Follow Me, Boys!)
BRONZE: TBA
The Alternate Razzies for 1966 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
The Witches (Cyril Frankel)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Dean Martin (The Silencers)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Betty Field (7 Women)
