THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), HUD (1963)

1963

Steve McQueen and motorcycle in The Great Escape

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.

Hud the book

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!

A Child is Waiting novelization
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!

The Courtship of Eddie's Father
novel by Mark Toby

The Courtship of Eddie's Father
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

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

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...

 The Atomic Brain

 ...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!

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...

THE HUSTLER (1961), SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961),

1961

 

Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman in The Hustler

Robert Rossen's The Hustler, based on Walter Tevis's book, is a  showcase for Paul Newman as a pool hustler trying to harness and exploit his talent for the game. The highlights of the film are Newman (as Fast Eddie) playing against the legendary Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). But there is much else to recommend this film. One is Eddie's relationship with a troubled woman played by Piper Laurie, an unconventional but believable girlfriend for Eddie. Also effective is George C. Scott as Bert the conniving gambler. It's a nice piece with the black and white photography enhancing the feel of the musty pool room. Newman revived his Fast Eddie role years later in The Color of Money in which he won the Oscar he probably should have won for The Hustler.

From the clearly influenced by department: Later in 1961, The Twilight Zone produced one of it's classic episodes called A Game of Pool in which pool hustler Jesse Cardiff (Jack Klugman) played a game against pool legend Fats Brown (Jonathan Winters).

Klugman and Winters prepare to play A Game of Pool

The legend of Minnesota Fats: Growing up in the 70's, I saw a famous pool player named Minnesota Fats on television shows like The Wide World of Sports and in commercials. I was also aware of the movie The Hustler which featured Fast Eddie Felson playing the legendary Fats. I simply assumed the movie was based on the real life pool player. What I didn't know was that is was actually the other way around! The man I saw was actually a pool player named Rudolph Wanderone who changed his name to Minnesota Fats after the movie came out! He was never the pool player that Willie Mosconi was, but it shows what adopting a catchy moniker can do for your enduring legend.

The hustler formerly known as

Rudolph Wanderone

Calling Maxwell Smart: I was also thinking about the game below form the early 70's-Skittle Pool from Aurora. The object of the game was to sling a little pool ball on a little pendulum and try to knock the balls in the hole of what is sort of like a real but shrunken pool table.It wasn't really much of a game, but I loved the commercial. Don Adams came into a room of tough guys with his Skittle Pool game and declares, "I came to play Wisconsin Skinny" and proceeds to challenge him to a game. "You a hustler?" "No, a salesman." "What do you sell?" "Skittle Pool!" Adams wins the match, but ends up with a black eye and some missing teeth...sometimes the commercial is just better than the game.

Skittle Pool: An indoor outdoor game

Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass might be the most famous American film from the 60's that I had never seen before. A coming of age film set in the late 20's, it features Warren Beatty as a football player who falls in love with Natalie Wood, a girl from the other side of the tracks. The plot of the film doesn't lapse into soap opera as much as it might, due largely to the Oscar winning screenplay by William Inge. The film put Beatty on the map, but it is Natalie Wood as the good girl who has to contend with rejection from the man she loves, a near-rape, a suicide attempt and a descent into madness is the one who really shines here the most. Also of note, is Barbara Loden as Beatty's hard partying sister.

 

 Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty in Splendor in the Grass

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Here are a few other movies I've seen released in 1961 that didn't quite have the right stuff to

make the 1001 list...

The Guns of Navarone

1. Guns of Navarone-Actually, the most famous American movie from the 60's I've never seen, might be this film instead of Splendor in the Grass. The 1001 book does not include The Guns of Navarone, but I really thought it was something I needed to add to my viewing resume. It is the story of a team of commandos hired to thwart German intelligence by destroying two German superguns on the Island of Navarone. The mission is dangerous and most, if not all, are likely to survive...Yet, they do survive, getting through scrape after scrape. I do understand in an action film you can't have your main characters being knocked off too early, but one scene where they destroy a German ship and the crew in hand to hand combat may be an exciting scene, but it is one they seem to accomplish a bit too easily.

The film Guns reminds me the most of is The Dirty Dozen, only it's more like The Dirty Half Dozen, with a couple of hard scrabble female fighters they pick up along the way. I do realize The Dirty Dozen came after The Guns of Navarone, but my perception is what it is. The big name cast is headed by Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven. Would it make my book? I think so. It should certainly make any list of top 100 action films.

2. The Absent-Minded Professor- Certainly a long time since I've seen this Fred MacMurray Disney vehicle where Fred invents a strange substance called flubber. Not to be confused with the sequel Son of Flubber or the remake Flubber with Robin Williams. It's also not to be confused with MacMurray's other Disney vehicle, The Shaggy Dog. A sequel to that film was made in the 70's called The Shaggy D. A. with Dean Jones and the original was remade in 2006 with Tim Allen...I digress.

3.  Babes in Toyland- Another Disney film, this one based on the Victor Herbert operetta starring Annette Funicello, Ray Bolger and Ed Wynn. I had a conversation with my brother once when he referred to this film as the original Babes and Toyland and I told him that the original was made in 1934 under the title of March of the Wooden Soldiers with Laurel and Hardy. He scoffed. To see who's right, check Wikipedia...that's all I'm saying.

4. The Children's Hour-William Wyler's take on the Lillian Hellman play about two teachers plagued by rumors of lesbianism. The film stars Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine...this might be worth a revisit.

My prized Town Without Pity poster

5. Town Without Pity-More people are probably more familiar with the title song by Gene Pitney than the movie itself. The above picture is a poster I picked up at a used book store. If you can't love a poster of a giant, angry, red-faced Kirk Douglas, you are no real movie fan!

6. The Pit and the Pendulum-Another of those American International Poe pictures with Vincent Price. Despite the low budgets, I think these films hold up well.

7. Yojimbo-Another excellent Akira Kurosawa Samurai flick starring Toshiro Mifune. This one was remade by Sergio Leone as a Western in A Fistful of Dollars.

The judges deliberate in Judgement at Nuremburg

8. Judgement at Nuremberg- Stanley Kramer's emotionally jarring version of the Nazi Nuremberg trials starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster and Maxamillain Schell. My favorite exchange from the film...

Ernst Janning: Judge Haywood... the reason I asked you to come: Those people, those millions of people... I never knew it would come to that. You *must* believe it, *You must* believe it!
Judge Dan Haywood: Herr Janning, it "came to that" the *first time* you sentenced a man to death you *knew* to be innocent.

9.  A Raisin in the Sun-The definitive film version of the Lorraine Hansberry play about the struggles of a black Chicago family on Chicago's South side.

10.Bloodlust, The Beast of Yucca Flats,Hercules and the Captive Women, Hamlet-Some classic Mystery Science Theater episodes were where I saw a handful of 1961 movies. Bloodlust, a low-budget version of The Most Dangerous Game, The Beast of Yucca Flats, featuring B-movie filmmaker Coleman Francis and starring Tor Johnson, Hercules and the Captive Women, a Hercules movie with no Steve Reeves!, Hamlet, yes even the bard gets the MST treatment in this low budget German TV version with Maxamillian Schell as the Dane.

B-movie legend Tor Johnson in The Beast of Yucca Flats

That's all for 1961..nothing else to see here.