1966
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| Liz and Dick as Martha and George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf |
In my warehouse of
famous plays that I’d like to direct in local theater, I’ve always thought that
Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? would be at the top of my wish
list. After viewing the famous movie version for the first time in years, I’m
not so sure that would be a good idea. It’s so damn dark...this story of a
middle-aged couple and younger couple caught up in a web of collegiate politics,
emotional denial, bitter regrets and all-around drunkenness. Albee’s play is
brilliant, and the film is a great way to become acquainted with it, if you
can’t see it on stage. It also features what might be a career performance by
Elizabeth Taylor going against type and Richard Burton, playing a part
seemingly tailor-made for him. I loved the way Mike Nichols filmed this with
it’s starkness and black and white photography. I'd still rate it a favorite, but after viewing, I’m
currently too depressed to ever consider trying to put on a
community theater version.
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| Pei-Pei Cheng fending off an army in Come Drink With Me |
King Hu’s Come Drink With Me
is one of the classics of Hong Kong cinema from this period of releases by
the prolific studio run by the Shaw Brothers. This film involves a lot of cleverly
stated fight scenes, some surprisingly placed mysticism, cool set designs
featuring an ancient monastery and a rowdy local tavern, a sexy but deadly
female lead warrior, and a drunken beggar who turns out to be a martial arts expert. You can also see the obvious influence this film had on Quentin Tarantino.
I’m not sure
it’s quite as good as Hu's A Touch of Zen, but is much better than some of the flicks I use to watch on late night telly during the 80's on Kung Fu classics!
1. King of Hearts-This film about a
World War I soldier that gets separated from his unit and gets stuck in a town
where everyone has evacuated except residents of the local mental institution
has always been one of my favorite cult movies. It seems to have
lost favor over the years, but maybe that’s because there have been so many
movies that could be seen at your theoretical midnight movie screen in the last
three decades that this one might have gotten lost in the shuffle. That’s a
shame because it’s really worth checking out.
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| Alan Bates running the asylum in King of Hearts |
2. The Bible-This epic story of
Genesis has some pretty dramatic scenes but also seems to go on
indefinitely at times. I give this evaluation without having seen this in many
years, but there you have it. You do gotta love the concept of John Huston as
Noah.
3. Born Free-Movie about life among the lions was
certainly popular in its day and one you could actually take a kid like me to
see when it was fairly new...and now I've got to rev up the theme song because now it's bouncing around my head.
4. Morgan-Those wild sixties dark Brit comedies...I
need to have a marathon of these films and see Morgan!, The Knack and
How to Get It and Bedazzled for starters. I’ll take
suggestions on where to go from there.
5. Thunderbirds Are Go!-I just loved me them exciting
space exploring puppets! Apparently so did the creative team behind the comedy Team
America!
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| Thunderbirds are always Go! in my book |
6. Cul de Sac- This early Polanski is a pretty
good psychological drama.
7. Farhrenheit 451- For more Truffaut appreciation..
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| Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 |
8. The Fortune Cookie-Matthau, Lemmon and
Billy Wilder. Sounds like a plan.
9. The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini-I noticed I've
listed a lot of movies on this blog that I’ve seen that would be categorized as
"beach movies." I think the reason for this is that Ted Turner's Superstation
use to show these all hours of the night back when I'd want to watch something…even
a Tommy Kirk/Deborah Walley movie.
10. One Million Years B. C., Fantastic Voyage-During
the year of Welch, 1966 A. D., we had a choice between Raquel in her fur bikini
battling dinosaurs in One Million Years, B. C or the more
conservatively dressed Raquel in the cerebral sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage.
Which do I prefer? Depends on which part of my brain you are asking.
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| The scantily clad Raquel from A Million Years B. C hung on many a wall during the 60's and 70's |
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| The more cerebral Raquel from Fantastic Voyage |
12. The Wild Angels-Hippie motorcycle movie
with Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Nancy Sinatra, Michael J. Pollard and directed by
Roger Corman. Sounds groovy to me, man!
13 A Man Called Flintstone-Yet another spy
spoof featuring America's favorite Stone Age family. I know when I think of
espionage films, the first names I
think of are definitely Hanna and Barbera!
14. After the Fox-Criminal intrigue comedy with Peter Sellers
that had a catchy title song from The Hollies. I was surprised to see that this
film was directed by Vittorio De Sica.
15. Batman, Munster Go Home-These two shows
were popular enough during their two-year runs for a feature films to be made
from them. I've probably seen every episode of both these series. Judge me how
you will. Now I just have to figure out if I prefer the Beverly Owen or Pat Priest interpretation of Marilyn Munster. When, I'm done with that, I can try to figure out if I prefer the Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt or Lee Meriwether version of Catwoman.
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| Batman: The Movie |
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| Munster, Go Home |
16. The Silencers, Murderers Row-There were
two Matt Helm spy pictures starring Dean Martin released in 1966 to popular
appeal and critical indifference. I've seen all the films in this series and do
remember The Silencers as probably being my favorite.
17. Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!-Bob
Hope's later film selection left a lot to be desired, but I guess Phylllis
Diller is good for a few laughs if you’re in the right frame of mind. I do recommend Richard Zoglin's book Hope: Entertainer of the Century where the author makes a good argument that Hope was indeed the entertainer of the century.
18. You’re a Big Boy Now-Pre-Godfather directoral
effort from Francis Coppola that is basically a coming of age story and one
that I remember really liking when I saw it years ago. This may be one to not
watch again in fear of losing my good feelings about the film.
19. Way, Way Out, Birds Do It-If you couldn't
get your fill of Jerry Lewis movies like Way, Way, Out (With Jerry flying into
space) you might try the Soupy Sales vehicle Birds Do It (With
Soupy just flying.)
20. The Professionals-For full review...
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The Professionals
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