20th Century Films: 1960 to 1964

British New Wave

The first film of our selection seems more in tune with the previous decade when compared with our second choice from the same year. What began with Room At The Top (1958 qv) was taken forward by a number of British films that startled the audiences of the early 1960s. Contemporary writers, authentic locations, working class characters and the abandonment of received pronunciation combined to present immediately recognisable portrayals of a society on the threshold of change. A clutch of British actors and directors found their feet in these mainly northern dramas; and in the meantime David Lean was reaching the height of his powers.

The League of Gentlemen / Basil Dearden

1960. BW. UK. 114 mins. DVD.

Bryan Forbes wrote the script and delivered a supporting performance (along with wife Nanette Newman) in this occasionally comic thriller, before moving on to less traditional material as a director. Jack Hawkins plays his typecast ‘officer and gentleman’ role with a cynical twist as an ex-CO who, embittered by his treatment in a post-war Britain, encourages his former comrades-in-arms to turn their military skills to criminal ends. The denouement casts something of a shadow over what would otherwise have been a cheerful caper. Roger Livesey is outstanding as always, and plays alongside Richard Attenborough, Terence Alexander, Nigel Patrick and Kieron Moore, amongst others.

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Saturday Night and Sunday Morning / Karel Reisz

1960. BW. UK. 85 mins. DVD.

Alan Sillitoe adapted the screenplay from his novel about the Nottingham factory worker whose weekends are a saga of drink and assignations with the wife of a workmate. The earthy and totally authentic feel owes much to Albert Finney’s performance as Arthur Seaton and to the use of actual locations from the semi-autobiographical original — the shop floor is real (Raleigh Industries), the pubs are real, the Saturday nights are real and much of the film (including the air rifle sequence) is based on actual incidents. Saturday Night And Sunday Morning gave Albert Finney his first starring role, alongside Rachel Roberts as the married woman and Shirley Anne Field as his feisty new girlfriend.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning / Alan Sillitoe

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Tunes of Glory / Ronald Neame

1960. Colour. UK. 103 mins. DVD.

Major Jock Sinclair (Alec Guiness) had risen from the ranks and had been made Acting Commanding Officer of his Highland regiment in World War ll. Contrary to the regiment’s expectations, on its return to it’s Scottish base Sinclair is passed over in favour of Lt Colonel Basil Barrow (John Mills). Sinclair is a working class soldier’s soldier, liked and respected by all ranks and not averse to rumbustious mess nights. The ex-POW Barrow is brought in from the staff and takes a distanced and disciplinarian approach to his new command. Tunes of Glory revolves around Sinclair’s resentment and his attempts to undermine the new colonel’s authority, with the result that the regiment is divided as both men manifest the darker sides of their personalities. Very strong performances from the main characters, Guiness especially; and the sub-plots are supported by Dennis Price, John Frazer, Susannah York, Kay Walsh and Gordon Jackson.

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A Taste of Honey / Tony Richardson

1961. BW. UK. 96 mins. DVD.

Tony Richardson collaborated on Saturday Night And Sunday Morning (qv) before directing Shelagh Delaney’s stage play for the big screen. The setting is the back-to-backs, factory chimneys and tow paths of Salford and Manchester. A young girl falls pregnant to a black lover and moves in with a caring homosexual. The film thus tackles, in a single offbeat comedy drama, many of the prejudices of the time. Rita Tushingham is perfect as the naïve unmarried mother-to-be and Murray Melvin is the sensitive and vulnerable live-in friend. An added bonus is an exuberant performance by Dora Bryan as the errant interfering mother. Richardson co-wrote with Delaney.

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Whistle Down the Wind / Bryan Forbes

1961. BW. UK. 95 mins. DVD.

Bryan Forbes directs a script by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall to produce a rural counterpoint to the usual industrial northern scene. Three motherless children find a murderer hiding in their barn and mistake him for Jesus Christ. The adult world comes face to face with childhood innocence in a charming piece that is never cloying. Alan Bates joins the emergent band of British New Wave stars, but the film really belongs to the children. Hayley Mills, whose mother (wife of John Mills) wrote the original novel, is the eldest of the trio. Diane Holgate is the naïve younger sister and a frighteningly knowing Alan Barnes the youngest child.

Whistle Down the Wind / Mary Hayley Bell

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Darling, The L-Shaped Room / John Schlesinger/ Bryan Forbes

1965/1962. BW. UK. 142 mins. DVD.

The L-Shaped Room was written and directed by Bryan Forbes, from the novel by Lynne Reid Banks about a contrived mishmash of characters living in seedy London bed-sit land. Leslie Caron is a French girl contemplating an abortion who benefits (?) from the advice of a dysfunctional black man, a brace of prostitutes, a lesbian actress and an unpublished writer. A Taste of Honey (qv) did this sort of thing much better. Darling is a dreary exploitation of the London swinging sixties scene in which a shallow fashion model deserts her mentor and lover to marry an Italian aristocrat. The self-consciously sensational screenplay was written by Frederic Raphael and starred the always delectable Julie Christie, both of whom received Oscars. The cast also includes Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey. Still regarded as a milestone in many quarters, our own view is that all that talent could have been much better employed.

The L-Shaped Room / Lynne Reid Banks

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A Kind of Loving / John Schlesinger

1962. BW. UK. 112 mins. DVD.

The agonized suburban domesticity of John Schlesinger’s debut northern drama was much more convincing than the superficiality of the later Darling (qv). Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse adapted Stan Barstow’s novel about a draughtsman who is forced to marry his pregnant girlfriend and move in with his mother-in-law. Alan Bates plays the reluctant husband to June Ritchie, and Thora Hird is truly terrifying as Ritchie’s mother. Some good cringe-making comic moments add to the horror.

A Kind of Loving / Stan Barstow

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Lawrence of Arabia / David Lean

1962. Colour. UK. 227 mins. DVD.

David Lean hits his full epic stride with the best film of his career. A great script by Robert Bolt, stunning photography by Freddie Young, awe-inspiring locations in the Jordanian desert and a monumental score by Maurice Jarre give the star cast every opportunity to shine — and they do. Peter O’Toole as T E Lawrence is especially effective in portraying the oscillations between gangling British officer and graceful silk-robed desert leader; and there are moments when he comes very near to the ambivalence and torment of the enigmatic hero. Anthony Quinn exudes banditry as the magnificent Auda abu Tayi. Alec Guinness plays a dignified and world weary Prince Feisal (for Feisal read Hussein) and Omar Sharif smoulders as Sherif Ali (for Ali read Feisal). Claude Rains and Jack Hawkins weave webs of political intrigue in the background. The film is by no means an accurate presentation of Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom (see our Bookshop) and the book was itself more the journal of a personal odyssey than an objective history of the Arab campaigns. But forget the historical carping: sit back, relax and enjoy. The double DVD version was fully restored in 1989 under the supervision of Martin Scorcese and Steven Spielberg, and the special features have lots of fascinating background detail.

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The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner / Tony Richardson

1962. BW. UK. 100 mins. DVD.

Tom Courtenay enters the field (literally) to join the new generation of British actors, in Alan Sillitoe’s adaptation of his own short story. A Borstal boy is chosen to run against a public school and reviews his bleak past life as he trains for the event and plans a grand gesture against authority. Michael Redgrave and James Bolam are among the supporting cast.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner / Alan Sillitoe

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Victim / Basil Dearden

1962. BW. UK. 96 mins. DVD.

An extremely bold film that contributed to the decriminalisation of homosexuality through its depiction of a sub-culture that was vulnerable to abuse and extortion. Dirk Bogarde is a barrister who tracks down the blackmailer that caused the suicide of Boy Barrett, played by Peter McEnery. In doing so he jeopardises his career and marriage by revealing his own proclivities and his relationship with the dead Boy. Dirk Bogarde gives a fine performance, as does Sylvia Sims as the wife who is stunned by his revelations. The special features include a half-hour interview with Bogarde, recorded just before the film’s release.

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Billy Liar / John Schlesinger

1963. BW. UK. 94 mins. DVD.

Tom Courtenay’s Billy epitomised the yearnings of youngsters in the north of England who saw themselves trapped in mediocrity while the burgeoning excitement of the 1960s was happening elsewhere. Billy Fisher is an undertaker’s assistant whose Walter Mitty fantasies are the release for his frustrations and, ultimately, his substitute for action. Billy is torn between a soppy fiancée and a free-spirited Julie Christie, the last in a role that attracted much attention and kick-started her career. Christie offers an escape route but Billy sinks back into his safe imaginary world of Ambrosia. Written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall and based on Waterhouse’s novel, the film was later turned into a TV series and a stage musical. Ironically (given the fantasy/comedy elements) this was probably the most realistic representation of the swinging sixties, which were for many people a rumour dimly heard of from a self-absorbed and self-satisfied London.

Billy Liar / Keith Waterhouse

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Dr. Strangelove / Stanley Kubrick

1963. BW. UK. 91 mins. DVD.

Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. A timeless satire on mutually assured destruction in the hands of witless fanatics. A mad US general (Sterling Hayden) sends a bomber wing to attack the USSR. The Soviet ambassador informs the American president (Peter Sellers) that his country has installed a Doomsday Device that will automatically respond to a nuclear attack. British Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) tries to prise the recall code out of Hayden and eventually all of the aircraft — but one — are recalled or shot down. Sellers triumphs in his roles, and especially as ex-Nazi presidential adviser Dr. Strangelove. George C Scott plays a posturing general and Slim Pickens is the pilot who slips through the net and bronco-busts his bomb to oblivion. Very, very funny and still very, very scary.

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The Servant / Joseph Losey

1963. BW. UK. 110 mins. DVD.

Harold Pinter and Joseph Losey make for a powerful combination in this highly concentrated drama of power games and sexual exploitation. Dirk Bogarde evolves from obsequious valet to contriving degenerate as he insinuates himself into the household of ineffectual aristo James Fox. Sarah Miles adds to the dissipation as Bogarde’s supposed sister.

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This Sporting Life / Lindsay Anderson

1963. BW. UK. 93 mins. DVD.

Uncompromising performances from Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts, as the miner turned rugby star and his bitter widowed landlady. Physical violence erupts on the pitch and in the bedroom, and the emotional violence is barely sublimated. The dramatic impact is intensified by stark black and white photography and bleak industrial landscapes. An engrossing, disturbing and consistently joyless tour de force from Lindsay Anderson.

This Sporting Life / David Storey

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Tom Jones / Tony Richardson

1963. Colour. UK. 117 mins. DVD.

John Osborne wrote the loose adaptation and Tony Richardson abandoned the contemporary industrial north for the 18th century of Henry Fielding’s novel. A lush and extravagant production that features Albert Finney and Susannah York and an outstanding supporting cast: Hugh Griffith deserves special mention as the rustic Squire Weston. The sexually charged meal in the tavern has been imitated many times.

Tom Jones / Henry Fielding

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Becket / Peter Glenville

1964. Colour. UK. 148 mins. DVD.

Epic vehicle for Richard Burton as Thomas Becket and Peter O’Toole as Henry II, adapted from the stage play by Jean Anouilh. The philandering friendship between the king and his chancellor begins to crack at the seams when Henry, pretty much on a whimsy, appoints Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury and is shocked when the new head of the church takes his position seriously. But there are personal frictions, including more than a hint of homosexual tension, that underlie the ostensible theme of the separation of church and state in this slightly revisionist presentation of history. The impressive cast includes John Gielgud as Louis VII, Donald Wolfit as Bishop Folliot, Martita Hunt as Queen Matilda and Pamela Brown as Eleanor of Aquitaine. O’Toole reprised his role as the Angevin king in The Lion in Winter (1968 qv). There is more on the period, including Frank Barlow’s Becket, on the Early Medieval page of our Bookshop.

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Guns at Batasi / John Guillermin

1964. Colour. UK. 100 mins. DVD.

Intelligent and nicely observed commentary on the traumas and complexities of colonial withdrawal, set on a British army base in an African backwater. An old school ramrod-stiff Regimental Sergeant Major (Richard Attenborough) rules over ritualistic nights in a Sergeants’ Mess populated by Graham Stark, David Lodge, Percy Herbert, Bernard Horsfall and John Meillon. The state is on the threshold of independence, and the base is in process of handover to its African commandant (Earl Cameron). The Mess hosts a visit from left-ish MP Flora Robson, a sympathetic observer of a transfer of power that is disrupted by a coup organised by her one-time protégée Errol John. The rebels invest the camp, arrest the commandant and demand the surrender of its armoury. The RSM organises the defence of the Sergeants Mess in the face of a couple of Bofors guns and some background political manouevring. When the new regime is officially recognised Attenborough is forced to surrender, but exits magnificently with dignity intact and duty, as he sees it, done.

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Zorba the Greek / Michael Cacoyannis

1964. BW. UK. 136 mins. DVD.

Based on the novel by a Cretan author (Nikos Kazantzakis), with music by a Cretan composer (Mikis Theodorakis) and filmed on location on the island. Alan Bates is a young English writer who meets a life-loving Greek and becomes involved in an ill-fated enterprise. The scenes following the death of Lila Kedrova’s widow were badly received by Greek audiences; and within a few years the leaders of the colonels’ coup had banned Theodorakis’s music throughout Greece because of his left wing leanings. The book is overly philosophical to translate well to the screen, but the music helps conjure up the atmosphere of wine soaked tavernas and the wine dark sea. Anthony Quinn stars in good form as the gregarious Zorba.

Zorba the Greek / Nikos Kazantzakis

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Zulu / Cy Enfield

1964. Colour. UK. 133 mins. DVD.

Stanley Baker co-produced and co-starred in this heroic epic of the defence of Rorke’s Drift. The film shot Michael Caine to stardom in an uncharacteristic (with hindsight) role as an aristocratic officer. Unflinching support is supplied by Nigel Green as the firm but fair sergeant major, Patrick Magee as the company surgeon and James Booth as the malingering Private Hook. Massed Zulu extras provide a convincing opposition. The ominous score is from John Barry. Richard Burton narrates the dignified envoi. For those interested in the wider history of the Zulu nation, Donald R Washington’s The Washing of the Spears is highly recommended and is available from our Bookshop.

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American Cinema

While Britain went through a creative revolution, Hollywood followed a more straightforward evolutionary path. Drama, comedy, an innovative musical and an unusually intelligent historical epic are included in our selection.

The Apartment / Billy Wilder

1960. Colour. USA. 120 mins. DVD.

An ineffectual minion lends out his apartment for extra-marital liaisons in order to gain promotion. Emotional conflicts ensue when the object of his secret affection turns up in suicidal mood. A cynical peek into the amoral urban void, with a contrived happy ending. Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray.

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Elmer Gantry / Richard Brooks

1960. Colour. USA. 141 mins. DVD.

Burt Lancaster at his smiling sinister best as a charismatic but hypocritical evangelist who milks gullible punters for all he can get, assisted by a not quite pure-as-driven-snow revivalist played by Jean Simmons. The scam works until a former lover threatens to reveal his womanising past. Oscars went to Lancaster, and to Shirley Jones as the ex-lover turned prostitute. A barnstorming expose of commercialised religion based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis.

Elmer Gantry / Sinclair Lewis

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The Magnificent Seven / John Sturges

1960. Colour. USA. 125 mins. DVD.

Re-working of Akira Kurusowa’s Seven Samurai (1954 qv). Mexican villagers hire a bunch of impoverished gunslingers to protect them from bandits. Horst Buchholtz has the Toshiro Mifune role that was an original key plot device, but this is now subordinated to a strong all-star cast. Yul Brynner takes the lead with style and James Coburn, Charles Bronson and Eli Wallach are among the heavyweights that contribute further stylish if typecast characterisations. Many inferior sequels followed, but the only thing they have in common with the original is Elmer Bernstein’s stirring theme.

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Spartacus / Stanley Kubrick

1960. Colour. USA. 186 mins. DVD.

Hollywood forsakes the plodding religiosity of the Biblical epics of the 1950s with this intelligent blockbuster based on Howard Fast’s novel. Kirk Douglas takes the title role as the rebellious Thracian, trained in Peter Ustinov’s school for gladiators, who led the Roman slave revolt of 73 BCE. Lawrence Olivier represents the oppressive patrician party, with Charles Laughton as his political opponent. Tony Curtis and Jean Simmons also feature among the supporting cast. Douglas brought in Stanley Kubrick to direct after Anthony Mann was fired after the first week of shooting. The double DVD has a number of interviews and other special features.

Spartacus / Howard Fast

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Birdman of Alcatraz / John Frankenheimer

1961. BW. USA. 142 mins. DVD.

Burt Lancaster delivers a noteworthy and restrained performance as the truculent murderer who becomes a self-taught expert ornithologist while serving a life sentence. Thelma Ritter is his over-protective mother, Karl Malden a surly and obstructive prison warden and Betty Field the object of Lancaster’s affection. Edmond O’Brien plays Tom Gaddis, who wrote the biography of the real-life Robert Stroud.

Birdman of Alcatraz / Thomas Gaddis

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Breakfast at Tiffany's / Blake Edwards

1961. Colour. USA. 115 mins. DVD.

Glossy and somewhat over-sentimentalised adaptation of Truman Capote’s short novel. Audrey Hepburn is the perpetually socialising playgirl Holly Golightly who attracts the curiosity and romantic interest of a struggling writer, played by George Peppard. Sub-plots include Peppard’s involvement with wealthy Patricia Neal, Hepburn’s prison visits to a gang boss and her real history as revealed by Buddy Ebsen as Doc. Hepburn delivers a memorable rendition of the theme tune ‘Moon River’; and Mickey Rooney gives a demented and totally un-PC performance as the Japanese neighbour driven to distraction by Hepburn’s partying.

Breakfast at Tiffany's / Soundtrack Album

Format: 1 Disc. 24 Tracks.

Breakfast at Tiffany's / Truman Capote

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The Hustler / Robert Rossen

1961. BW. USA. 129 mins. DVD.

An unmissable performance by Paul Newman in the role that made him a star. ‘Fast Eddie’ Felson hustles seedy backstreet pool halls en route to challenge New York pool king Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). Beaten and penniless, he starts a relationship with a troubled Piper Laurie and is taken under the wing of malignant backer George C Scott. Newman failed to get an Academy Award for this performance but received his first Oscar 25 years later playing the same, older and wiser, character in The Color of Money! (1986 qv). Features include a guide to some of the trick shots used in the film.

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West Side Story / Robert Wise / Jerome Robbins

1961. Colour. USA. 145 mins. DVD.

Romeo and Juliet is translated to the turf wars of 1950s New York in an extravagant musical. Leonard Bernstein’s music, together with Robbins’s choreography and dance direction, lifts the movie above the sometimes mundane non-musical sequences directed by Robert Wise. Similarly the nominal stars (Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer) are eclipsed by Rita Moreno, George Chakiris and Russ Tamblyn. Hugely innovative at the time, and still regarded as a classic of the musical genre. With inimitable lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

West Side Story / Soundtrack Album

Format: 1 Disc. 16 Tracks.

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Advise and Consent / Otto Preminger

1962. BW. USA. 140 mins. VHS.

Good performances all round from a star cast in this tale of corruption and blackmail in high places. Henry Fonda needs his appointment as Secretary of State to be confirmed by the US Senate but a key voter with a secret (Don Murray) holds back and is subjected to underhand pressure from George Gizzard. The film caused something of a sensation in its portrayal of dirty dealing in Washington well before America received a wake-up call from Watergate. Charles Laughton is outstanding in his last film role as a cantankerous Southern senator, with Walter Pidgeon, Franchot Tone and Lew Ayres lending support.

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How the West Was Won / Hathaway / Ford / Marshall

1962. Colour. USA. 165 mins. DVD.

Episodic and rambling epic tracking the development of the American West through the experiences of three generations of the same family. An impressive portfolio of directors and an all-star cast that includes Henry Fonda, Caroll Baker, Lee J Cobb, Gregory Peck and Debbie Reynolds results in something of a curate’s egg. Spencer Tracy narrates.

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The Manchurian Candidate / John Frankenheimer

1962. BW. USA. 121 mins. DVD.

Intricate exposition of Cold War paranoia that gives an unnerving insight into the American political psyche. Laurence Harvey plays the hero returning from the Korean War, programmed for assassination. Frank Sinatra is the CO whose nightmares provide the pieces of a jigsaw that reveal the capture and brainwashing of the whole platoon. Angela Lansbury gives a totally chilling performance as Harvey’s mother, re-married to a right wing politico but in reality a communist agent and her son’s stateside control. A terrific political thriller — Oedipus Rex meets the Oresteia. The film was held back from release following the assassination of President Kennedy.

The Manchurian Candidate / Richard Condon

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To Kill a Mocking Bird / Robert Mulligan

1963. BW. USA. 129 mins. DVD.

An intelligent and haunting rendering of Harper Lee’s only novel, with Gregory Peck in one of his best roles as the upright and incorruptible widowed lawyer Atticus Finch. Atticus struggles to defend a black man accused of rape while cultivating his own humanist virtues in his two children. In the meantime Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Phillip Alford) pass a mischievous summer absorbed with their unseen and supposedly crazy and captive neighbour. The story of innocence triumphing over prejudice is told from the viewpoint of 6-year-old Scout. Robert Duvall makes a brief but telling debut appearance as the reclusive Boo Radley.

To Kill a Mocking Bird / Harper Lee

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The Night of the Iguana / John Huston

1964. BW. USA. 125 mins. VHS.

Screen adaptation of the award–winning play by Tennessee Williams. Richard Burton is a defrocked priest turned tour guide, escorting a party of schoolteachers in Mexico. A convoluted series of relationships develop as the party is stranded in Ava Gardner’s rundown hotel through Burton’s machinations. The complexities build as Burton sinks into decline. Sue Lyon and Deborah Kerr contribute to the spasmodic fascination.

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Foreign Cinema

Europe invades an American domain ...

A Fistful of Dollars / Sergio Leone

1964. Colour. It/Sp/Ger. 96 mins. DVD.

It took an Italian director, a lifted Japanese plot (from Akira Kurosawa), an American star, an international supporting cast and Spanish locations to re-invigorate the Western for the last decades of the 20th Century. Clint Eastwood’s first outing as ‘The Man With No Name’ was initially dismissed by critics as a low budget peculiarity, but this film and the remainder of Leone’s trilogy introduced a new grittiness into the genre and were (and are) immensely influential. Ennio Morricone’s score underlines the grim humour that permeates the action.

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