Some laughs, some scares, some futuristic visions, and... who's that guy swimming in my backyard pool?
(1) The Producers
Mel Brooks’ directorial debut is still hilarious, indicated
by the fact that he could add a few songs to it and make it a Broadway hit more
than 30 years later. “Springtime for Hitler” is not only ridiculous, it’s a
really catchy tune! (NOTE: When I first did this list, the movie’s release date
was set as 1968. Apparently, someone on IMDB discovered a brief theatrical run
in 1967. I started to move it to that year but realized it would be much
further down on the list so I kept it at the top of 1968.)
(2) The Odd Couple
My favorite Neil Simon comedy and my favorite pairing of
Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. My wife and I quote lines from this movie to
each other endlessly: “Here... here, I knew I was winning too much”... “It’s
either very new cheese or very old meat”... “Now it’s garbage”... “Took me
three hours to figure out F.U. was Felix Unger”... and ON AND ON.
(3) Night of the
Living Dead
The movie is so raw and unapologetic, it tops my list of the
scariest movies of all time. George Romero and his friends created the modern
idea of the zombie and changed the horror movie forever with its use of gore.
(4) Rosemary's Baby
Roman Polanski’s twist on gothic horror would also be near
the top of my scariest movies list. Thankfully, the studio insisted Polanski
direct, rather than B-movie director William Castle, who became the film’s
producer. Favorite chilling line: “He has his father’s eyes.”
(5) Planet of the Apes
The movie is iconic, of course, with four sequels, a
television series, and two remakes, the last one having spawned its own sequel
and another one planned. It has memorable lines (“Take your stinking paws off
me, you damned dirty ape!”) and ironic images (the orangutan tribunal taking
the “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil” pose in the courtroom), but I
love the spookiness of the first several minutes of the movie before the apes
show up as the astronauts explore the Forbidden Zone, punctuated by Jerry
Goldsmith’s avant-garde score.
(6) Barbarella
Campy, sexy, ridiculous – the movie is so much fun and
represents the late sixties so well.
(7) 2001: A Space
Odyssey
I might be criticized for putting Planet of the Apes above this movie, but I grew up watching Apes and love it more. I had to watch
this one three times before I made it all the way through, and then I found
myself saying, “Wha???” However, it’s one of the most important science fiction
films of all time, with dazzling special effects and a sense of humor.
(8) Targets
Peter Bogdanovich’s first directorial work symbolizes the
transition from traditional gothic horror to modern tales of terror based on
real monsters. Boris Karloff plays a retiring horror actor who confronts a
character based on the University of Texas sniper Charles Whitman. The final
scene is awesome!
(9) Finian's Rainbow
I really like this musical with Fred Astaire in one of his
last musical roles, a leprechaun, a magical pot of gold, and a racist played by
Keenan Wynn, who gets his comeuppance.
(10) The Swimmer
I enjoyed watching this crazy movie when I was a kid, even
though I didn’t understand it until I read John Cheever’s original short story
years later. Burt Lancaster swims across one backyard pool to another in his
suburban neighborhood, encountering conflict after conflict.
