1963
The Great
Escape has always been one of my favorite movies since I first saw it on
television in the seventies (in two parts over two nights). The story of the
great Allied World War II prison escape from a German P.O.W. is exciting,
historically interesting, has a great cast and has many memorable little
moments, too. And I must also acknowledge that Steve McQueen being chased by Nazis
on motorcycle will never cease to be anything but awesome! My favorite character
has to be Charles Bronson as Danny, the claustrophobic tunnel digger. The movie
is so bloody enjoyable I often lose sight of the fact that most of the
prisoners are either killed or recaptured!
Origin: The movie is based on the non-fiction book
of the same name by Paul Brickhill.
Hud the movie
Hud is a
movie I’ve never seen before. It is about a no-account, but somehow likeable
modern day cowpoke played by Paul Newman. Much of the conflict of the film
revolves around Hud’s relationship with his honorable father (Melvyn Douglas),
idol worshipping nephew (Brandon de Wilde) and attractive housekeeper (Patricia
Neal). Despite Hud being depicted as a bad boy in the film, the description of
the character in the original book Horseman,
Pass By by Larry McMurtry has Hud as a much more unsympathetic character. It’s
beautifully shot in black and white and I would agree it is something to be
seen at least once.
Here are some other films released in 1963 that I've seen that didn't quite have the right stuff to make the 1001 movie book, many of which have book origins of their own.
Grant and Hepburn in Charade
Charade-I
finally got around to seeing this Hitchcock-like thriller featuring the
unbeatable team of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn only recently. Lots of twists
and turns in this fun and recommended Stanley Donen film.
Origins:
Book by screenplay writer Peter Stone. Did the book/story come before the
movie? Apparently that’s complicated.
From the Broadway play
Bye Bye
Birdie-Adaptation of the hit musical with Ann-Margaret, Dick Van Dyke and
Ed Sullivan.
Origins: The Broadway musical is based on an
Elvis-like entertainer that gets drafted. A new version of this show is probably coming soon to a
community theater near you!
Movie poster for Call Me Bwana
Call Me Bwana-The
Bob Hope movie formula had run a little dry by the 1960’s. I remember this had
a few laughs when I saw it as a kid.
Origins: Not sure…but I do recommend Richard
Zoglin’s book Hope: Entertainer of the Century if you are interested in the
life and career of Mr. Hope.
That Muscle Beach Party novelization
you've been waiting for!
Beach Party-The
first of the American International beach movies featuring Frankie Avalon and
Annette Funicello.
Origins: Apparently form the mind of legendary
B-movie producer Samuel Z. Arkoff. No books for Beach Party, but I did find that Muscle Beach Party was deemed worthy of a novelization! That would be an interesting collector's item that your neighbor in all likelihood doesn't have!
by Abby Mann
A Child is
Waiting-Moving film about a school for developmentally challenged children
from director John Cassevetes and featuring Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland.
Origins: This was a originally a teleplay from Abby
Mann in the 1950’s first shown on TV as an episode of Westinghouse’s Studio One
in Hollywood….You can be sure if it’s Westinghouse!
novel by Mark Toby
comic book from Dell
The Courtship
of Eddie’s Father came to the screen this year with Ron Howard as a boy
trying to find a suitable mate for his widowed dad, Glenn Ford.
Origins: Of course, when I think of The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, I think of
one of my favorite childhood television shows with Bill Bixby and Brandon Cruz
in the roles of father and Eddie. The show even spawned a brief comic book
series! I believe the Cracked (or was it MAD?) magazine satire of the show was called The
Cornchip of Oddie’s Father…Anyway, the
actual origin of all of this was a novel of he same name by Mark Toby.
King's Ransom, origin story
for High and Low
High and Low-For those who may think of Akira Kurosawa/Toshiro Mifune films as
only being of the Samurai variety, I would highly recommend this modern day
police procedural with Mifune playing an unusually sympathetic character for
him as the father of a kidnapped girl.
Origin:
Interesting that the origin of this story is from the Ed McBain thriller King’s
Ransom!
Ian Fleming's
From Russia with Love
From Russia
with Love is one of the best of the Sean Connery Bond films. It helped that
this was released while the Cold War was a bit warm and featured Robert Shaw as
a dastardly villain.
Origins: From Russia
with Love was Ian Fleming's fifth James Bond novel and published in 1957. The order of the release of the Fleming novels actually surprised me. Casino Royale was first. Followed by Live and Let Die, Moonraker and Diamonds are Forever.
The rather bland cover of the
Fun in Acapulco soundtrack
(If you have Ursula Andress in a movie,
put her on the damn record cover!)
I remember watching the Elvis Presley film Fun in Acapulco on television the
night that Elvis died.
Origins: Not sure who really came up with those
Elvis movie plotlines. It’s mostly about the soundtrack, anyway.
The definitive Lord of the Flies book cover
Lord of the Flies-The first and probably best adaptation of William
Golding’s book about a group of stranded boys who slowly begin to resort to
their most primitive nature was Peter Brook’s film from this year.
Origins: Who among us wasn’t assigned to read this
book in school at one time or another?
MAD magazine's take on
Stanley Kramer's
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World-Stanley Kramer’s all-star comedy epic about a mad
search for a fortune will always be one of my favorite movies even if a perhaps
less biased eye might think it hasn’t aged too well. Of all the stars in the
movie, I think it’s Dick Shawn as a beatnik mama’s boy that steals the show.
Origins: From the pens of screenwriting couple
William and Tania Rose
A New Kind of Love-Forgettable romantic
comedy with the powerhouse team of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
Origin: It did have a literary origin, a novel of the
same name by Henry Williams…though after further study it appears this is just
a novelization. I wonder if more people read A New Kind of Love the book or Muscle Beach Party, the book?
The Pink Panther-The first (though not the best) in The Pink Panther/Inspector Closeau film series starring Peter Sellers.
Origin: Blake Edwards was listed as the screenwriter as well as being the director. The film led to several films with Peter Sellers in the role of Closeau, one with Alan Arkin, a re-adaptation years later with Steve Martin in the title role, a 1970's cartoon featuring the actual cartoon panther and briefly a cereal in the early 70's (pictured above) that I mostly remember as tasting like Frosted Flakes.
Raven
The Raven-One of many low-budget American International pictures from this era based on Edgar Allan Poe stories. Roger Corman directed horror legends Boris Karloff, Vincent Price and Peter Lorre here.
Origin: The 1845 poem by Poe. All adaptations of Poe's short works require embellishment for feature film treatment.
The Silence-The one film in the Bergman trilogy of films from the early sixties which include Winter Light and Through a Glass Darkly that did NOT make the 1001 book. I think it's as good as the others, so watch it anyway if you are any kind of Bergman fan.
Origins: The dark mind of Ingmar Bergman, I suppose. I really like the poster above for the Danish release of The Silence.
Sword in the Stone-Last Disney animated film made before the death of Walt Disney.
Origins: T. H. White's 1938 novelization of the legend that was published in 1938.
I will also list three of my favorite Mystery Science Theater episodes from that show that features 1963 movies..
The Skydivers, which depicts the goings on at a small skydiving school with hip musical interludes and directed by legendary bad film director Coleman Francis.
Devil Doll, not the best film about a ventriloquist dummy that takes on human features but lends itself well to satire from the MST crew...
...and The Atomic Brain aka Monstrosity, one of the funnest of the brain transplant movies this side of The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant, The Thing with Two Heads and The Brain that Wouldn't Die!
The Skydivers
Devil Doll
The Atomic Brain
One of my favorite works of literature of the 60's is J. D. Salinger's 1963 novella, Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters. So, yes, he did write something other than Catcher in the Rye! Until next time...
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