A TOUCH OF ZEN (1969?, TAIWAN), THE CONFORMIST (1969?, ITALY)

1969

A Touch of Zen

A Touch of Zen is King Hu's creative martial arts film that definitely foreshadowed such later films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. The film was released in November 1971.

Bernardo Bertolucci's tense political drama about a man that finds it easier to go with the flow than to fight against Fascism in 1930's and 40's Italy was released in 1970 in the Italy and the United States.

Did you catch that? This is a blog post about 1969 films featuring two films clearly not released during that year. But 1969 is what the 1001 book lists them as. In every subsequent addition the publishers never feel the need to make the necessary correction. There are several other films in the 1001 book that clearly are listed in the wrong release year. The film Tetsuo was released in 1989 but listed in the book as 1998! I realize it isn't the most pressing issue in the world today, but I reserve the right to bitch about it a little!

The Conformist

The following films that I have previously seen were not listed in the 1001 book under any year. I'm pretty sure they are correctly listed here as 1969 releases.

1. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice-A big hit at the time, I’m sure this rather odd wife swapping movie would  be really dated today, and  I fear not in a good way. And does anyone remember when Elliot Gould was a really big star?

What the world needs now is love sweet love...
Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice

2. Goodbye, Columbus-Based on Phillip Roth’s novella, this feels to me like a more Jewish version of The Graduate. It isn't as good as The Graduate, but not a bad film in its own right. It also get extra credit points for having several library scenes. And does anyone remember when Ali McGraw was a really big star?

3. Winning-The only memorable thing to me is about this Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward racing pic is the theme song, to be forever played in the years that followed during the opening credits of The Wide World of Sports.

4. The Love Bug-How I did love this movie as a kid. Rock on, Buddy Hackett!

5. The Magic Christian-Like Easy Rider, another screenwriting credit to Terry Southern. This strange, trippy move has Peter Sellers adopting Ringo Starr (or something like that) and I remember something about Laurence Harvey stripping and Raquel Welch dressed as a Viking and what was this movie about again? It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it, I guess. What a long, strange trip it’s been.

Ringo and Raquel in The Magic Christian

6. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service- James Bond finally gets married and Bond has to be played by George Lazenby? Sounds like grounds for an annulment to me.

7. Take the Money and Run-Woody Allen’s first starring role, this semi-documentary of a criminal is definitely one of his “early, funny ones.”

8. Doppelganger-There's a mirror earth in this interesting British sci-fi that also taught me what the word doppelganger meant.

9. Paint Your Wagon-Gotta love Clint Eastwood, but I really could do without hearing his rendition of “They Call the Wind Maria.” What next? Charles Bronson singing “The Farmer and The Cowman Should Be Friends?”

10. If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium-Three things I remember about this American tourists traveling by bus through Europe movie: 1) The theme song was catchy. 2) It had a slew of 60’s and 70’s character actors in it (Michael Constantine, Norman Fell etc.) 3) Suzanne Pleshette looked gorgeous.

Suzanne Pleshette in her pre-Bob Newhart Show days in
If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium

11. The Comic-I remember Dick Van Dyke is pretty funny and touching as a former silent screen comedian adapting to old age.

12. A Boy Named Charlie Brown-I'm trying to decide if this is better than Snoopy, Come Home or not. (Thinking...)

13. The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes-Kurt Russell gets a shock or something and turns from a mediocre student to a genius. I'm guessing Joe Flynn is in this Disney flick somewhere.

14, Don’t Drink the Water-Early Woody Allen, but with Jackie Gleason in the lead.

15. Alice’s Restaurant-Arlo Guthrie’s famous twenty-plus minute song translated into a movie. Dare I say this movie might be really dated if viewed today?

Arlo and Patricia Quinn shadowed by a "VW Microbus"
in Alice's Restaraunt

16. Eye of the Cat-Some evil cats and a crazy old lady in a wheelchair is what I remember mostly about this one.

17. The Illustrated Man-Need to watch this movie based on Ray Bradbury's book of short stories all linked to a dude with lots of tattoos again.

18. Medium Cool-Fiction, but semi-documentary in style. It's about a reporter amidst the turmoil of the 1968 Democratic convention. I'm very surprised this one isn't in the book.

18. The Monitors-What the hell was this one about again? I know I saw it once upon a time. Just looked up the details to see that Larry Storch and Avery Schreiber were in it! (You may question whether the last statement deserved an exclamation mark. I say any mention of Larry Storch warrants an exclamation mark!)

20. Number One-Charlton Heston as a quarterback for the New Orleans Saints is just a strange concept to wrap your head around.

Charlton Heston in Number One.
 Yep, still difficult to accept this picture.

I'm pretty sure the moon landing happened in 1969.
Or did it? (Cue dramatic music)

WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966), COME DRINK WITH ME (1966)

1966

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.

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!

Here are a list of some other films released in 1966 that I have seen that didn't quite make the 1001 movie cut.

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.

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!

  

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..

http://1001afilmodyssey.blogspot.com/2016/04/shoot-piano-player-1960-france-jules.html

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.

 

The scantily clad Raquel from A Million Years B. C
hung on many a wall during the 60's and 70's

The more cerebral Raquel from
Fantastic Voyage

11.  Harper-Entertaining Paul Newman police procedural based on the Ross MacDonald novel and adapted for the screen by William Goldman. And with all films written by William Goldman, I recommend getting the commentary track on the DVD featuring the musings of this opinionated screenwriter.

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.

 

Batman: The Movie

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...

 http://1001afilmodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/09/professionals-1966.html

The Professionals

I've seen all the 1966 films from the 1001 list, so it would be
most logical for me to proceed to a different year for my next post.