1963 Bonus List: Some Great Movies

1963 blogging, bonus list!

33 Great Movies from 1963

To conclude our festival of 1963, I’ve got a list of recommended movies.  This mini-list is excerpted from the “Doubling the Canon” list (as compiled by participants on the IMDb Classic Film message board) combined with the 1963 list from the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They? list of 1,000 great films.

The They Shoot Pictures list is a 1,000-movie canon of great films;  the “Doubling the Canon” list adds an additional 1,000 movies to the canon.  And now I’m excerpting the 1963 movies.

33 Great Movies from 1963

(Combined list, with They Shoot Pictures picks in caps and Doubling the Canon picks in lower case, all presented in alphabetical order.)

8½ / Federico Fellini 

ACTOR’S REVENGE, AN (YUKINOJO HENGE) / Kon Ichikawa 

AMERICA, AMERICA / Elia Kazan 

Big City, The (Mahanagar) / Satyajit Ray 

Billy Liar / John Schlesinger 

BIRDS, THE / Alfred Hitchcock 

Carabiniers, Les / Jean-Luc Godard 

CHARADE / Stanley Donen 

CONTEMPT (LE MEPRIS) / Jean-Luc Godard 

FIRE WITHIN, THE (LE FEU FOLLET) / Louis Malle 

FLAMING CREATURES / Jack Smith 

GREAT ESCAPE, THE / John Sturges 

HAUNTING, THE / Robert Wise 

HIGH AND LOW (TENGOKU TO JIGOKU) / Akira Kurosawa 

House is Black, The (Khaneh siah ast) / Forugh Farrokhzad 

Hud / Martin Ritt 

I Fidanzati / Ermanno Olmi 

JUDEX / Georges Franju 

Labirynt / Jan Lenica 

LEOPARD, THE (IL GATTOPARDO) / Luchino Visconti 

Lord of the Flies / Peter Brook 

MURIEL (MURIEL OU LE TEMPS D'UN RETOUR) / Alain Resnais 

NUTTY PROFESSOR, THE / Jerry Lewis 

ORGANIZER, THE (I COMPAGNI) / Mario Monicelli 

Passenger (Pasazerka) / Andrzej Munk, Witold Lesiewicz 

Petit soldat, Le / Jean-Luc Godard 

SERVANT, THE / Joseph Losey 

SHOCK CORRIDOR / Samuel Fuller 

SILENCE, THE (TYSTNADEN) / Ingmar Bergman 

This Sporting Life / Lindsay Anderson 

TOM JONES / Tony Richardson 

VERDUGO, EL / Luis G. Berlanga 

VIDAS SECAS / Nelson Pereira dos Santos 

Here’s the full They Shoot Pictures list.  And here’s the  “Doubling the Canon” list.  Special thanks to the two masterminds behind these lists: Bill Georgaris who manages They Shoot Pictures and Angel Gonzalez Garcia who now leads the "Doubling the Canon" project.

I created and launched  “Doubling the Canon” project around half a dozen years ago, ran it for a few years, and then handed it off to Angel’s capable hands where it’s flourished since.

Next blog series:  6 essays on
Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price

Inexhaustible Moments of 1963, Part 5

1963 Blogging, Part 5 of 5
Autumn Mists of 1963

In these long breaks between the signature 21 Essays series, I’m experimenting with a new feature focused on possibilities for future series.  I’ll spin the roulette wheel to pick a year (or set of years) and then brainstorm on some potential essay topics.  This time the wheel spins, gradually slows, then clicks to a stop, pointing at:  1963. 

So here’s my fifth and final 1963 series possibility:  Peter, Paul and Mary singing “Puff, the Magic Dragon.”

I still love that rascal Puff.  Has anyone seen him since he sadly slipped back to his cave?

If I were to do essays on Puff, they would entirely focus on his authentic dragon nature.  There would be no-nada-zilch-absolutely-positively-for-once-and-for-all-time-NO mention of drugs.  This world has too many drug songs and not enough dragon songs.

This is the last of my official 1963 ideas (with no promises that I’ll necessarily be getting to any of them…) but I’ve got one more bonus entry of additional classic 1963 movies that I’ve saved for last.  I’ll post it tomorrow.

Next blog series:  6 essays on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price

Inexhaustible Moments of 1963, Part 4

1963 Blogging, Part 4 of 5
Acme Products of 1963

In these long breaks between the signature 21 Essays series, I’m experimenting with a new feature focused on possibilities for future series.  I’ll spin the roulette wheel to pick a year (or set of years) and then brainstorm on some potential essay topics.  This time the wheel spins, gradually slows, then clicks to a stop, pointing at:  1963.

So here’s my fourth 1963 series possibility:  Chuck Jones’ Road Runner short To Beep or Not To Beep.

Against all odds, To Beep or Not To Beep is my favorite Road Runner cartoon.  It was made while the WB animation department was being disbanded, many of the greatest talents had left, and Chuck Jones and his co-director Maurice Noble were struggling to remain employed and relevant.  Jones’ writing-partner-in-genius Michael Maltese was gone (replaced on this cartoon by John Dunn).  The music isn’t by the great Carl Stalling, nor by the nearly-as-great Milt Franklyn, but by third-stringer Bill Lava instead.  But actually it’s Lava’s music that really pulls this through.  Perhaps it’s time for a reappraisal of Lava (I note that he also did the score for Frank Borzage’s wonderful Moonrise, Howard Hawks’ To Have and Have Not, and the unusual and inspired Abbott and Costello movie The Time of Their Lives).  Anyway, I’d love to wring some essays out of my favorite Road Runner cartoon and this oddball late arrival is it.

Tomorrow, I’ll propose the last of my 1963 ideas (with no promises that I’ll necessarily be getting to any of them…)  But I’m wide open to other suggestions.  Any ideas for 1963 movies, books, short stories, poems, songs, or other cultural artifacts that might inspire a good 21 Essays series?  Please share!

Next blog series:  6 essays on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price

Inexhaustible Moments of 1963, Part 3

1963 Blogging, Part 3 of 5
Wandering Down the Roads of 1963

In these long breaks between the signature 21 Essays series, I’m experimenting with a new feature focused on possibilities for future series.  I’ll spin the roulette wheel to pick a year (or set of years) and then brainstorm on some potential essay topics.  This time the wheel spins, gradually slows, then clicks to a stop, pointing at:  1963. 

So here’s my third 1963 series possibility:  21 essays on Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”

Dylan turned 22 in May 1963 when his second album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan was released.  That’s Dylan’s then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo clinging to his arm in the seemingly unposed photo on the album’s cover.  “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” is their break-up song, written after Suze opted out of the relationship.  In reality, she’s traveling on, not him.  There’s a degree of bluster in the song but that’s okay when it leads to a brilliant toss-off dismissal like “You just kinda wasted my precious time.”  Dylan even manages to find ten additional layers of ironic nuance in that pause between “my” and “precious time.”  That’s genius. 

Over the next two days, I’ll be proposing some more 1963 ideas (with no promises that I’ll necessarily be getting to any of them…)  But I’m wide open to other suggestions.  Any ideas for 1963 movies, books, short stories, poems, songs, or other cultural artifacts that might inspire a good 21 Essays series?

Next blog series:  6 essays on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price

Inexhaustible Moments of 1963, Part 2

1963 Blogging, Part 2 of 5
Wild Things of 1963

In these long breaks between the signature 21 Essays series, I’m experimenting with a new feature focused on possibilities for future series.  I’ll spin the roulette wheel to pick a year (or set of years) and then brainstorm on some potential essay topics.  This time the wheel spins, gradually slows, then clicks to a stop, pointing at:  1963. 

So here’s my second 1963 series possibility:  21 essays on Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.

Fully realized in both words and images, Maurice Sendak’s Max is as real as any human in fiction.  He’s mean then sensitive, wild then controlling, one minute a king and the next a little boy.  When you’re a really great author, you can cut to a character’s essence in a single sentence:  “And Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.”

Over the next three days, I’ll be proposing some more 1963 ideas (with no promises that I’ll necessarily be getting to any of them…)  But I’m wide open to other suggestions.  Any ideas for 1963 movies, books, short stories, poems, songs, or other cultural artifacts that might inspire a good 21 Essays series?  Please share!

Next blog series:  6 essays on
Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price

Inexhaustible Moments of 1963, Part 1

1963 Blogging, Part 1 of 5
Scores of 1963

In these long breaks between the signature 21 Essays series, I’m experimenting with a new feature focused on possibilities for future series.  I’ll spin the roulette wheel to pick a year (or set of years) and then brainstorm on some potential essay topics.  This time the wheel spins, gradually slows, then clicks to a stop, pointing at:  1963. 

So here’s my first 1963 series possibility:  classic film soundtracks.

From the soundtracks of 1963, my first love is the pulse-pounding syncopation that Henry Mancini delivers when Stanley Donen’s Charade kicks into high-gear for its climax.  I can’t show that scene (too many spoilers), so here’s a treat nearly as tasty.  These are the opening titles from Charade, scored by Henry Mancini with an instrumental version of the song “Charade” played over that great percussion track and with a visual design by Maurice Binder, the genius behind the James Bond title scenes.

But Charade is only the beginning of a year rich in magnificent soundtracks.  Other favorites of mine include Michel Legrand’s Bay of Angels, Elmer Bernstein’s The Great Escape, Nino Rota’s The Leopard, Bernard Herrmann’s Jason and the Argonauts, John Barry’s From Russia With Love, and Henry Mancini again with The Pink Panther.  At three essays apiece that should give me 21 essays of favorite soundtracks from 1963.

Over the next four days, I’ll be proposing some more 1963 ideas (with no promises that I’ll necessarily be getting to any of them…)  But I’m wide open to other suggestions.  Any ideas for 1963 movies, books, short stories, poems, songs, or other cultural artifacts that might inspire a good 21 Essays series?

Next blog series:  6 essays on Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929)
as part of the  “For the Love of Film”
Film Preservation Blogathon
May 13-18, 2012

© 2012 Lee Price