Movies of My Life: 1963

After my list for 1962 included two of my favorite movies of all time (To Kill a Mockingbird and Lawrence of Arabia), I was even more surprised when I started on the list for the next year and discovered one of the most important movies in my life.

(1) 8 1/2 (Otto e Mezzo)

When you walk into my office, the first thing you see is a poster for this semi-autobiographical (some would say self-indulgent) film from Italian master Federico Fellini. When you hear me announcing arts events on Ann Nicholson’s “Arts Scene” program, the musical background is the circus theme from this movie. At one time in my life, you would often see me sporting a black fedora my wife bought me, styled after the hat worn by the film’s main character, Guido Anselmi. And to think, the first time I saw this film, I hated it, which is why you should never let the first viewing of a movie be your last. The complexity of Fellini’s creation is what I love so much about this film – moving seamlessly from reality to fantasy to dream sequences and flashbacks (sometimes it’s hard to know which one we’re experiencing); allusions to Pinocchio (notice how Guido touches his nose when he’s lying); themes hidden inside of word play and psychology (Asa Nisi Masa, the secret word revealed by the mind reader is a sort of pig-Latin for “anima,” about the feminine nature in men); and its dark humor (the opening dream sequence seems grim, but I think it’s hilarious). The first time I showed this movie in a college class, they were all unimpressed. The second time, I preceded the screening with a 30 minute lecture on some of the things to watch for, including those I mentioned above. The class broke out in spontaneous applause after it ended.

(2) The Haunting

 This is, by far, my favorite ghost story on film. Like so many movies about ghosts, it’s the story of a group of people who spend the night in a haunted house, and it has a similar title to several of them (see my blog post, “Hell House, Hill House,What the...” for more about this phenomenon). What makes this movie so special is the character of Eleanor, played by Julie Harris. Eleanor is a timid woman with psychic abilities who considers this trip to a haunted house a vacation. After spending years caring for an ailing mother, Eleanor suffers from social anxiety, suppressed rage, and perhaps some delusions. She’s just the kind of “steady” person you need in a haunted house tale.

(3) Lilies of the Field

A beautiful film about a black Baptist handyman (Sidney Poitier) who is hornswoggled into building a chapel for some East German nuns to serve Mexican American Catholics in the Arizona desert. Poitier became the first African American man to win a competitive Oscar for the lead role in this film. While Poitier’s career was filled with strong performances, there’s something so simple and stirring about this role I just love it, especially when he teaches the nuns the song, “Amen.” (Interestingly, Poitier’s singing was dubbed since he can’t carry a tune.)  

(4) The Birds

Trust Alfred Hitchcock to take something as innocent and natural as a flock of birds and turn it into a subject of horror. After viewing this film, you will never see a large group of birds settle in one spot without thinking about the schoolyard scene (or Mel Brooks’ parody of it in High Anxiety). There’s no practical explanation as to why the birds go on a rampage, but the attacks seem to parallel psychological conflict in the characters, making this movie much more than a “nature gone wild” story.

(5) Hud

I haven’t seen this movie in years, but the character of Hud, played by Paul Newman, remains number one in my mind when I hear the phrase “anti-hero.” Hud wasn’t just disillusioned or self-absorbed. He was amoral. And proud of it.

(6) Lord of the Flies

William Golding’s novel (a favorite of high school teachers everywhere) is brought to life in gritty black-and-white. Of the ghosts, killer birds and mad scientists mentioned in the list for this year, the scariest by far are British schoolboys left to their own devices.

(7) X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes

This low-budget Roger Corman sci fi thriller would be just another story of a mad scientist suffering the unintended consequences of his crazy experiments except for the metaphysical nature of Dr. Xavier’s x-ray visions. He describes what he sees as he looks outside: “The city... as if it were unborn. Rising into the sky with fingers of metal, limbs without flesh, girders without stone... A city unborn. Flesh dissolved in an acid of light. A city of the dead.” The ending at a revival tent is unforgettable.

(8) It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

My son says that you should beware of comedies that are longer than 90 minutes, and I tend to agree with him. Usually, you can’t maintain laughs for two hours. This movie is more than three hours long, and while it does get tiresome, it features some of the greatest screen comedians of the 60s, including dozens of cameos, many by comedians from an earlier era. It’s worth it just to see them all in one film.  

(9) Charade

How can you not love a movie with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn? This film is sometimes called, “the best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never made.” The director was Stanley Donen, but the film possesses a lot of the elements you’d find in a Hitchcock picture: characters pretending to be someone they’re not, murder and mayhem, secret agents, a macguffin, and Cary Grant, of course. (You can catch a “Home Fry-ed” version of this film on UALR University Television occasionally.)

(10) The Pink Panther

Peter Sellers created one of the most iconic comedy figures of cinema for this film, Inspector Clouseau. David Niven got top billing as a debonair jewel thief trying to steal the priceless “Pink Panther” diamond, but it was Sellers who stole the show. The character of Clouseau appears in ten more films, the best of which starred Sellers.  

Movies of My Life: 1962

One of my greatest joys over the years has been watching movies. I love all kinds of films – from foreign art films to schlocky horror movies, from the Hollywood classics of the 1930s and 40s to today’s latest releases, from big blockbusters to a movie about a couple of guys having dinner. That love of movies led me to teach film classes as an adjunct professor, to lead discussions at public screenings, to host a movie show on cable TV, and to spend countless hours researching and writing about film.

I got curious a few years ago when I realized that a couple of my favorite movies were released in 1962, the year I was born. I started compiling a list of my top ten movies made that year, and it was fun to see what other favorites had come out in ‘62. I then moved on to the next year, and the next. Some years it was hard to come up with 10, and some years it was a struggle to whittle it down. Regardless, it gave me a sense of just how much fun I’d had discovering these films. Of course, I didn’t see most of them until years after they were released, and the truth is these lists are organic, changing as I see new movies or my tastes change. Regardless, I thought that sharing these lists might be a way to tell you about a wide variety of films and give you some suggestions for your own viewing.

So for the next 52 weeks, I’m going to try to give you a list of my top ten movies from each year since I was born. I’ll post a different year, in sequence, each week, with a few comments. I hope you enjoy it.

Let’s start with one of my favorite years, 1962.

(1) To Kill a Mockingbird

This movie is beloved, not just by me, but by every member of my family. Part of the affection comes from the portrayal of a Southern family in a small town during the Depression. Growing up in a small Southern town in the 1960s and 70s, with a mother who lived through the Depression, I see things here that ring true to me personally. Atticus Finch was always one of my heroes, and I was thrilled when AFI selected him as the number one hero on its list of “100 Heroes and Villains.” This movie makes me weep uncontrollably, and the scene that makes me tear up the most is when Atticus leaves the courtroom, and the black preacher in the balcony tells Scout to “stand up. Your father’s passing.” (I’m getting verklempt just writing about it.) When I finally as an adult read the book, I understood even more deeply why this is one of the best American movies ever made. It portrays the best and the worst of our nation.

(2) Lawrence of Arabia

A restored version of this film was released in 1989, and I got the chance to see this 4 hour classic with my wife, not once but twice, at the Cinema 150 in Little Rock, a theater designed for showing wide screen pictures. I’d grown up seeing the faded pan-and-scan version on television, and while you could get the essence of its greatness, you couldn’t really appreciate how absolutely breathtaking it was until seeing it on the big screen, as it was meant to be seen. The best example is the scene at the well as Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif) comes riding from deep in the background while Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) stands stunned in the foreground at the murder of his guide. Even on widescreen DVD versions seen on an HD television, you can’t match that spectacle. I would rate the viewing of this movie at that theater as one of the best moviegoing experiences of my life.    

(3) Advise and Consent

I had a history teacher in high school who would tell us about important movies that were coming up on television and give us extra credit if we watched them and wrote a précis about them. Wow! Course credit for watching a movie? Unheard of. One of those films Mr. Offut suggested was Advise and Consent, about the confirmation hearings for a fictional president’s nominee for Secretary of State. The political intrigue and backroom negotiations still inform my opinion of what Washington politics are really like.

(4) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

One of only two movies where a couple of Hollywood’s biggest stars, John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart, appeared on screen together. (The other was The Shootist, Wayne’s last picture. Both were in How the West Was Won, but did not appear in any scenes together.) This movie features one of my favorite, oft-quoted lines: “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

(5) The Manchurian Candidate

One of those movies I grew up reading about but didn’t see until I was an adult. Angela Lansbury plays one of the most evil women in cinematic history, a mole for the Chinese government who allows her brainwashed son to become an assassin and kill a presidential candidate. Her incestuous scenes with her son are even creepier when you discover that Lansbury is only three years older than Laurence Harvey, who plays her son.

(6) Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

I loved this movie when I was a kid. It was a modern horror story, with real people rather than supernatural beings as the monsters. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were both struggling to find good parts for middle aged women during this time, and this disturbing story of two embattled siblings was the perfect vehicle, further empowered by the animosity the two screen legends held for each other off screen. And you’ll never forget seeing what Baby Jane has brought her sister for lunch!

(7) The Exterminating Angel

Another movie I grew up reading about but didn’t see until I got a subscription to Facets Video in the 1990s. Like most Luis Bunuel films, it’s a critique of the bourgeoisie, with a group of party-goers who can’t leave the host’s house and go home. They’re stuck there for days, maybe weeks, taking whatever means are needed to survive, including sacrificing their host because maybe he caused the whole thing. It’s beautifully surreal.

(8) Carnival of Souls

Made on the lowest of budgets, this film was barely even noticed when it first came out. Now it’s a cult classic. Its Twilight Zone-like story is okay, but it’s the creepy atmosphere that makes this movie more than just another low budget exploitation film.

(9) Birdman of Alcatraz

It’s one of my favorite Burt Lancaster performances as Robert Stroud, the convicted murderer who becomes an ornithology expert. What makes the performance so interesting is that you so much want to sympathize with Stroud because of his superior intellect, but Lancaster never lets you forget the emotions that put Stroud in federal prison in the first place.

(10) Ride the High Country

In the first few minutes of this western, Sam Peckinpah introduces the transition from the classic western of the 19th century to the revisionist western of the early 20th century, which would become the standard setting for his later films. We see policemen dressed like English bobbies, a horseless carriage, a popcorn machine, and a race between a horse and a camel. I use this clip to show students how genre films are a mix of “novelty and familiarity” – what you expect and what you don’t expect.

Some of the other great films from 1962: Lolita, Jules and Jim, Cape Fear, Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, The Longest Day, Knife in the Water, How the West Was Won, and The Miracle Worker. (Maybe I should have done a top 20!)

Price-Told Tales

Vincent Price is well known for his collaborations with William Castle (The House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler, both in 1959) and Roger Corman (House of Usher, 1960, and Pit and the Pendulum). Two of his lesser-known efforts made with other directors are currently available on Netflix: The Conqueror Worm (aka The Witchfinder General, 1968) and Madhouse (1974).

Price was almost exclusively making horror films in the 1960s and 70s. Many of these were adaptations of works by Edgar Allan Poe. However, calling them "adaptations" is an exaggeration.For the most part, Corman and his cronies at American International would take a Poe title and come up with a mostly unrelated plot that featured Price.When American International agreed to co-finance the British production of The Witchfinder General, they demanded two things. First, the movie would star Price. Director Michael Reeves wanted Donald Pleasance for the role of 17th century "witchfinder" Matthew Hopkins but had to defer to AI, rewriting the script to fit Price's style. Second, AI changed the name of the movie for its U. S. release to The Conqueror Worm, a poem by Poe which bears no resemblance to the film.

The movie follows the exploits of Hopkins and his assistant John Stearne as they accuse, convict and condemn people as witches during the English Civil War. Price is magnificent as the witchfinder, cold and deceitful. The movie has no real supernatural elements to it; rather, it focuses on the torture inflicted by the witchfinders for its horror. The filmmakers had to back off their original script because of the amount of gore and sexual innuendo. The movie seems rather tame by modern standards but still is effective in its fictionalization of this disturbing figure from British history.

Madhouse is a more typical Price vehicle. He plays an aging horror star who is accused (but never convicted) of killing his fiancee. After spending some time in a mental institution, he is asked to reprise his most famous screen role, Dr. Death, for television, and more deaths follow him. Price is joined in the movie by his horror rival Peter Cushing, who plays Dr. Death's co-creator. It was the third of four collaborations between the two horror superstars. The plot is ridiculous (how many times must a suspect be present at the death of another murder victim before he's arrested?), but it's still fun to see Price playing a parody of himself and to see him wearing the Dr. Death makeup, no doubt an homage to The Abominable Dr. Phibes, in which Price had starred in 1971.

Also available on Netflix now, two of Price's most famous films: The House on Haunted Hill (which will also be featured this Halloween on UALR University Television) and The Fly. Why not make it a marathon of "Price-Told Tales" and watch all four this Halloween?

"Legend of Boggy Creek" is an Arkansas cult classic

I will host a screening of "The Legend of Boggy Creek" at the Old State House Museum in Little Rock on Friday, Oct. 10. 
 
In 1971, Texarkana advertising executive and and television personality Charles B. Pierce began reading about several strange incidents taking place in the nearby town of Fouke, Ark. Local residents reported seeing a Bigfoot-like creature terrorizing their homes and killing their livestock. Pierce decided to shoot his first movie, a semi-documentary about the so-called "Fouke Monster." The film interviewed local residents but also cast them in re-creations of scenes they described to authorities. Some locals even portrayed their relatives in the film.

The Legend of Boggy Creek reportedly cost $160,000 to make but earned more than $20 million at the box office. The film was a huge hit at drive-in theaters and was one of the top ten highest grossing films of 1972.

The faux-documentary style, combining dramatization with actual interviews, was unusual for the time period, especially for a horror film. Daniel Myrick, one of the creators of The Blair Witch Project (1999), another horror film shot as a faux-documentary, credited The Legend of Boggy Creek as one of their inspirations. The popularity of Blair Witch led to the "found footage" style becoming one of the most popular techniques for horror filmmakers during the past 15 years.

Despite its somewhat amateur production style, The Legend of Boggy Creek became a cult classic and spawned numerous sequels. Pierce went on to produce and direct several more movies, many shot in Arkansas.

"Hallelujah" - One of the Earliest Movies Shot in Arkansas

Reprinted from KUAR.org. I'm hosting a screening of "Hallelujah" on Feb. 14 at the Old State House Museum.

King Vidor was one of the most successful directors of the silent era. His film The Big Parade (1925) is often cited as the highest-grossing film of the 1920s, and his 1928 picture The Crowd was nominated for "Unique and Artistic Production" and "Best Director" at the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929. For his first sound picture he chose a subject that was bothersome for the studio heads at MGM - a movie set in the rural south with an all-black cast. He chose to shoot the movie on location in Arkansas and Tennessee.

Hallelujah would become only the second Hollywood movie shot partially in Arkansas. (A scene from the 1927 adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin was shot in Helena.) Because MGM was afraid that southern movie theaters would not exhibit the film, Vidor had to waive his usual $100,000 fee for making the picture. The studio only acquiesced because the film would be a musical, which studio heads hoped would appeal to big city audiences like those in New York City who were flocking to Harlem at that time to hear musical performances by African-American performers.

Vidor ran into problems almost immediately when shooting the movie on location. His sound equipment did not arrive on time, and he had to improvise by shooting scenes silently and adding sound later. Vidor used the problem to his advantage by adding sound effects to some scenes. This technique was especially effective in the climax, a chase scene shot in Ten Mile Bayou near West Memphis.

Hallelujah follows the life of Zeke, a sharecropper-turned-preacher who must fight the temptations of a city girl. The cast, composed entirely of African Americans, perform spirituals, field songs, blues numbers and even two songs written by Irving Berlin. The movie's artistry was praised by critics, and many in the African American community saw it as an opening for more black performances in film. Others criticized its images of southern blacks as stereotypical and racist.

Broncho Billy Anderson

Reprinted from KUAR.org. I am hosting a screening of Broncho Billy movies on Jan. 10, 2014, at Arkansas's Old State House Museum. 

Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson was born Max Aronson in Little Rock, Ark., in 1880. His family moved to St. Louis when he was a boy, but Max returned to Arkansas as a young man to work with his brother-in-law as a cotton buyer in Pine Bluff. Max, however, had caught the acting bug and soon moved to New York City, where he changed his name to Gilbert M. Anderson.

Like most young actors in that day, Anderson sought to hone his craft on the stage. Instead, he found work with the Edison motion picture company working for director Edwin S. Porter. One of his first pictures was a one-minute film called "What Happened in the Tunnel" about a young man flirting with a pretty girl on a train who gets a surprise when the train goes through a tunnel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY5B4FRBl0s

The same year he made a movie that would change his life and change motion picture history. Porter's The Great Train Robbery (1903) is often credited as the movie that changed the way filmmakers would put together their movies. Anderson played three different parts in this movie - a bandit, a tenderfoot, and a man who tries to escape the robbers but is shot. After finishing the movie and seeing how audiences reacted to it, Anderson decided the movie business was for him.

Anderson as the tenderfoot in "The Great Train Robbery" (1903).

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Anderson did not only want to act in movies, he wanted to write and direct them as well. Based on what he learned from Porter, Anderson had ideas about what would make a good movie and how the audience would respond. After a couple of false starts, he convinced businessman George Spoor to partner with him and formed the Essanay (S and A) motion picture studio. Essanay would make hundreds of one-reel westerns and comedies between 1907 and 1918, many of them written by, directed by and starring Anderson.

Early on, Anderson developed a persona for himself in his western films that he called Broncho Billy. The character of Broncho Billy was often an outlaw who turns good or sometimes just a cowboy defending the weak. Titles of the films often told the whole story: Broncho Billy and the Escaped Convict, Broncho Billy's Indian Romance, Broncho Billy and the Baby. The character of Broncho Billy became so closely associated with Anderson that for the rest of his life he would be called Broncho Billy Anderson. He  became Hollywood's first western star, ahead of Tom Mix, William S. Hart and Harry Carey. Anderson received an Honorary Academy Award in 1958 for his "contributions to the development of motion pictures as entertainment."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPUnh3I_n9Y