[JoshuaKaitlyn]

From 1961: part 2

The Curse of the Werewolf - It takes a while for the set up, hungry tramp - tramp at castle - tramp imprisoned - tramp befriended by young girl - young girl becomes buxom girl - buxom girl abused by her master and imprisoned with tramp - tramp rapes buxom girl, buxom girl let out of prison - buxom girl kills master and escapes - buxom girl found half dead and pregnant by kindly gentleman - buxom girl dies in childbirth leaving son cursed because he shares the same birthday as Jesus - son starts having problems with fangs and hairy palms at a young age (no sniggering in the back!) - son grows to be Oliver Reed and so on. It isn't until the last ten minutes that Reed in his rather good wolf make up appears......and after all this time setting it up Ollie-Wolf is all too quickly despatched by the kindly gentleman.....After an hour and twenty minutes of the set up I felt a little cheated that it took as little as ten minutes to kill him! Did I mention there was a buxom girl also?

As Nature Intended - A travelogue / nudie cutie written and directed by George Harrison Marks who made a lot of these type of films. Starring 'The Five Nature Girls' (?) one of whom was Pamela Green who earlier starred in Michael Powell's 1960 movie 'Peeping Tom'. Typical of its type and time, with the travelogue serving only to lengthen the run time and little more than an excuse to justify the ladies getting em' out!

Viridiana - Luis Buñuel's tale of a pious novice nun who tries to be both caring, understanding and charitable but finds that those qualities are lacking in everyone she helps and fatalistically gives in to the corrupting influences around her. The Vatican considered this movie as blasphemous and even Franco's Spainish censors had a problem with the original ending which they claimed had a sexual implication. Buñuel's answer was to reshoot the ending involving Viridiana, her cousin and the maid all sat round the table playing cards......inadvertanly implying a threesome! It didn't work and Spain banned the picture it was eventually released in Madrid in 1977.

Såsom i en spegel (Through a Glass Darkly) - Winner of the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards in 1962. A serious film with non of the Hollywood fluff, it tells the story of a young womans re-descent into mental illness after only just returning to her family. Although it has 8/10 stars on IMDB, (should these ratings really be a good barometer anyway?), it really did bore me.

Judgment at Nuremberg - A Stunning film with some stunning performances, Montgomery Clift in particular just blew me away as did Burt Lancaster. Almost an all-star cast, with Spencer Tracy, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich (in one of her last films), Maximilian Schell (who won Best Actor in a Leading Role at the Academy Awards for his role as the defense lawyer), Judy Garland (also one of her last films) and William Shatner (pre Kirk). This is a film that needs a prestige release on Bluray (MOC). The concentration camps film (real footage), shown during Richard Widmark's turn on the stand has to be some of the most powerful scenes ever filmed, uncensored they are quite shocking even today let alone in the early 1960's.

West Side Story - For me pretty unengaging, I liked some of the music but not a whole lot more. Won Best Motion Picture at the 34th Academy Awards, the last movie to do so as the catagory was renamed Best Picture from 1962.

A Taste of Honey - A kitchen sinker and a picture that won four BAFTA's including Best British Film. The opening montage of various Mancunian sights was fascinating for me as I see these locations on an almost daily basis, Albert Square where Manchester's Town Hall stands, St. Ann's Square and Queen Victoria's monument in Piccadilly Gardens, (as it was before the City Tower, Primark, the Manchester Eye and our version of the Berlin Wall blighted the landscape). Its also a film my old Pa was to have a small roll in as an extra. He and his mates, living in Salford, were suppose to seen kicking a football against a wall, he always claimed the scene was cut from the finished film but there is a scene set in the distance where a group of lads are kicking a ball around so maybe one of them is my Dad! I'd like to think so! He also said Rita Tushingham was one of the ugliest girls he ever saw......so maybe his scene was cut!!

The Misfits - With a movie career that spanned 38 years The Misfits was Clark Gables last picture, it would also be Marilyn Monroes last completed film and one of the last that Montgomery Clift would star in. Monroe hated the film and her performance whilst Gable was glad it was over when filming was done claiming that Monroe almost gave him a heart attack. Unfortunate words as shortly after he suffered a coronary thrombosis and died of a heart attack soon after. A troubled production with some troubled cast and crew but great performances all round.

King of Kings - Finishing off 1961 with a couple of Samuel Bronston epics. Dubbed 'I was a teenage Jesus' when it was originally released this 2h50m epic aint too bad. With a great score from Miklos Rozsa, the battle scene where the rebels attack the Roman barracks is pretty good if you can ignore the wires along which the giant ballista arrows travel although I thought the crucifixion scenes were a little understated and Brigid Bazlens' American accented Salome was kind of jarring.

El Cid - The other Bronston epic features the king of the epic, Chuck Heston. I have to admit I'm a bit of a Heston fan and although this movie is a little slow in parts it never seems to drag. The jousting scene alone is worth the price of the movie, none of the limp wristed sword fights of other lesser Hollywood historical pictures (George Sanders in Solomon & Sheba for instance).