Actress of the 60's-A Decision By Me Has Been Made!

Almost a week ago, I gave you the opportunity to pick out what was the actress of the 60's. And so far, no one has responded. Now I must make the decision myself. So here is my pick for the actress of the decade (brace yourselves American hawks): Jane Fonda. I picked her because like Paul Newman (my previous pick for actor of the 60's) and the other actresses such as Julie Christie and Shirley MacClaine, Fonda was looking for ways to become successful on their own while being new at the same time. After failing miserably at becoming a secretary Fonda following in her famous father's pathway by going into acting. She enrolled in the famous Actor's Studio in New York where Fonda was taught by their founder Lee Strasberg (who had already teached Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, and Eli Wallach). In 1960 Fonda made her acting debut on-screen in Tall Story; a cheap comedy (it was filmed in black and white to give an idea) that co-stared Anthony Perkins.

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After her Broadway debut the next year, Fonda returned to the big screen in a big way in 1962 by appearing in three movies: The Chapman Report,

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Walk on the Wild Side,

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and Period of Adjustment.

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In 1963 Fonda co-stared with Peter Finch in the drama In the Cool of the Day.

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That same year Fonda stared with Cliff Robertson and Rod Taylor in the comedy Sunday in New York.

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Then in 1964 two turning points occurred in Fonda's career: The first came when she stunned Hollywood by going to France to do the movie Joy House. Fonda followed it up with Circle of Love. It was this movie that Fonda met the director-Roger Vadim.

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The French born director had already married and divorced Brigette Bardot and had a fling with fellow French actress Catherine Denuevre (not even the birth of their son Christian couldn't save the relationship). Then in 1965 Fonda hit the big time by playing the title role in Cat Ballou.

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Shortly after the film was released Fonda married Vadim in Las Vegas (and again in France and it was Vadim that visited her on the Cat Ballou set and that caused co-star Lee Marvin to have a fit).

Shortly after the honeymoon Fonda went back to work on the action drama The Chase.

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Released early in 1966, she played Anna Reeves-who is the wife of Bubba Reeves (Robert Redford) who has escaped prison so that he can return to her and also plot revenge on the town sheriff (Marlon Brando) that put him there. That same year Fonda went back to France where husband Vadim directed her in The Game is Over

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and when it was released in America, it was only shown in art house theaters because of a couple of nude scenes Fonda did in the film. Then she followed that movie with Any Wednesday-a romance comedy also released in 1966 in which she plays Ellen Gordon;

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who is invited by John Cleeves (Jason Robards) to stay at his executive suite condo and is there that she falls in love with one of Cleeves' clients (Dean Jones). Then in 1967 Fonda co-stared with Michael Caine,

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John Phillip Law (remember his name), and Faye Dunaway in the period film directed by Otto Preminger Hurry Sundown and then she co-stared again with Robert Redford in the film version of the Neil Simon comedy Barefoot in the Park.

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Ironically enough Fonda was offered the role of Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde but turned it down to do this movie and it must of been to her amazement that it went to her Hurry Sundown co-star Faye Dunaway!

The next year Fonda did two more movies with husband Vadim: First doing a sequence in the horror movie Spirits of the Dead (which featured Fonda's brother Peter!).

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And then came the sci-fi movie that became (for my money) the watershed moment of pop culture in the late 60's: Barbarella.

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The movie co-stared John Phillip Law again and Swedish model Anita Pallenberg. There will be a further discussion of this movie and Cat Ballou later on but I can tell you Fonda's presence playing the title of Barbarella in one of the many reasons why the origins of pop culture came together in the last years of the 60's. Finally in 1969 Fonda stared in the drama They Shoot Horses, Don't They? in which she played Gloria-

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a young woman who competes in the dance contest in the 1930's until (spoiler for those who haven't seen it) she dies. With that she received her first Oscar nomination. She would lose to Maggie Smith and according to Ethan Morrden in his 60's-on-film book "Medium Cool" Fonda lost the Best Actress Oscar because of her impending protests on Vietnam.

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When asked once about what is the important factoid of acting Fonda said, "I'm an assistant storyteller. It's like being a waiter or gas station attendant. But I'm waiting on six million people a week if I'm lucky." Jane Fonda showed why in the 1960's film acting took on a new meaning.

(Don't forget to watch TCM's "Private Screenings" in which host Robert Osborne interviews Jane Fonda on Thursday)

Musicals of the 60's: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

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Of all the years that took place in the 60's from a movie standpoint, 1967 was among the most pivotal. And especially for the musical. Because it was in that year the foundation of the Broadway musical and the concept of the show tune began to crack. It was cracking because of three words: Rock and Roll. That leads me to my next movie which is How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Based on the huge Broadway musical from Frank Loesser (Bob Fosse did the choreography) Robert Morse stars as Jay Pirepoint Finch-

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a young man who discovers a book at the library that bears the film's title. He starts out as a window washer for a organization called the World Wide Wicket Company.

One day while taking a break, Finch enters an office buiding and it is there he meets J.B. Bigley (Rudy Vallee) the company's boss. Liking his character Bigley lets Jay stop his duty as window washer and promotes him to personal department.

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It is here that Finch meets Mr. Bratt (John Mhyers) and he gives him the job of working the mailroom. Before long, Jay gets the job of corner exceutive and meets a young girl named Rosemary Pilkington (Michelle Lee). What he doesn't know is that he could be risking his chance for a good career.

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The movie was directed by David Swift while some believe Morse's role was a prelude to what Michael J. Fox would play 20 years later in The Secret of My Success. While in recent years the play would become a Broadway revivial with Matthew Broderick playing Finch.

Foreign Affair

Hey there. Still waiting for e-mail responses in regards to whom I should pick as the actress of the 60's. In the meantime, I continue on. Another piece of the 60's movie legacy was the foreign film. It had been building in the last half of the 1950's and most of all, in Europe. When the 60's began and progressed movies from Europe exploded. The French called their new brand of cinema "The New Wave". So here now is a brief look of the best European movies of the deacde (that excludes British films). It starts from the beginning of the decade to the end and I want to focus in on some of these important films:

La Dolce Vita
Jules and Jim
8 1/2
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Juliet of the Spirits
Viva Maria!
A Man and A Woman
Persona
Belle De Jour
Fellini Satyricon
Z

In the coming weeks, I'll be reviewing one movie at a time. That is all for today. Again, please e-mail me with your vote on who I should profile for movies of the 60's.

Actress of the 60's (It's a Crowded One!)

Earlier in this blog I posted who I thought the male actor of the 60's. My choice was Paul Newman. Now it is time to pick the actress of the decade. And incredibly, this is a hard one! But before I explain why here is a fact: Film historian Molly Haskal in her book "From Revelence to Rape" said that the 1960's was the worst decade for movie actresses. Really? How can you not admire some of the things they did? Now on to this. There are so many to pick from. If there's anyone out there that is reading this, I'm giving you a contest. This contest is pick one actress from the list as the 60's female performer. Here are the candidates:

Julie Christie

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Catherine Deneuve

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Jane Fonda

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Audrey Hepburn

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Sophia Loren

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Shirley MacClaine

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Vanessa Redgrave

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All you need to do is e-mail me at Nonihead7038@aol.com. Then give me your vote for 60's female actress among the seven. After three days I'll close the voting and whoever got the most votes is the one that I'll profile in the next posting. Is that easy? I pick male actor of the 60's; now it's your turn to choose actress of the 60's for me.

Horror Movies of the 60's: 13 Ghosts

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While Psycho

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and Peeping Tom

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caught attention, another horror/suspense movie was released in 1960: 13 Ghosts. The movie was the work of producer-director William Castle. During the early-60's Castle took the B-movie to another level and unlike Roger Corman (more about him later) Castle used the horror genre by using props (for this movie patrons were given special 3-D glasses called "Illusiono"). The movie's protagionists are the Zorba family: Cyrus (Donald Woods) a doctor who is married to Hilda (Rosemary DeCamp) and they have a teenage daughter named Medea (Jo Morrow) and a younger son named Buck (Charles Herbert).

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They are poor and things turn bad when a company takes away their furniture on the same day of Buck's birthday! Because Cyrus couldn't pay his university bills. As Buck blows out his birthday candles he wishes for no one to take away their furniture. A few moments later a man arrives at the door with a telegram stating that Cyrus' uncle Plato has died and has inherited the house. The Zorba family jumps at the chance and goes to the house south of Los Angeles. As fate seemed to have it, the house is beautiful and they soon meet Plato's caretaker Ellen Zacharias (Margret Hamilton). But what they don't know is that Plato was an expert of talking to ghosts. The family then uses an Ouija board.

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When Buck uses the board he asks if there are ghosts. The answer is yes and the number is 13. To make it worse the Zorbas must stay in the house or it will be sold to the state of California. As that were not enough the family discovers Plato's journal and reads that he is one of the thirteen ghosts and he is #12. Number 13 hadn't been discovered. Who is it? Could one of the Zorba's be next?

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Director Castle used a feature in which the ghosts would appear in different colors. The movie was remade in 2001. It's also important to know that the 1960's marked the end of the B-movie and underground film.

The Imitators of Bond-Part 2

Sorry for the delay. My last posting was a real bitch. Not only did I had to write it down, but paste all the photos and videos as well. To make it worse, me and my father's computer processor broke down and had to buy a new one. Anyway, we continue on as I look at some of the other spy films of the decade. This time around here are the movies that didn't play for laughs. Instead, they were the ones in Bond's range.

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold

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Released in 1965 and based on the novel by John Le Carre, Richard Burton gives an incredible performance (he was nominated for an Oscar but lost) as Alec Leamas

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-a British spy who comes out of retirement to take the job at a desk position in Berlin.

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But when several other British agents are caught Alec is summoned by a general-only known as Control (Cyril Cusack), for what would be his last mission before he could retire again (and for good): To go past the Iron Curtain. Before he could that, Alec gets drunk. And even before he knows it he meets Nan (Claire Bloom) a British woman who is for Communism in England. With her along for the ride Alec begins his mission. He wants to know who was behind the bust of the several British agents. Alec then finds the truth: It was Jewen Fielder (Oskar Werner and wearing a beard that made him look like George Carlin!)

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and he comes face to face with him.

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Now it's up to Alec and Nan to get back to The Berlin Wall safely.

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(a scene from the movie that leads to the ending)

The movie was produced and directed by Martin Ritt and for those who are going to see this, a little reminder: Don't expect a happy ending.

Arabesque

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One year later another spy film came out (with some humor): Arabesque. Produced and directed (another one) by Stanley Donen, Gregory Peck stars as David Pollock-an American professor who meets Yasmin Azir (Sophia Loren) while in London

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(which as you know the city and country was "swinging"). He has come there so that he can find a secret Egyptian hieroglyphic code and crack it because it could lead to gold.

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Instead David discovers the code to assassinate a Middle Eastern leader. It's up to them to stop the plot because someone could control the oil system.

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The movie teamed Donen again with composer Henry Mancini and the same for Maurice Binder; who did the opening credits.

The Quiller Memorandum

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Released that same year The Quiller Memorandum was based on a novel from Adam Hall called "The Berlin Memorandum". The story begins with Quiller (George Segal), an American agent who has come to Berlin after when two British agents are killed. When he meets a middle-aged man only known as Pol (Alec Guiness),

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he tells Quiller than the murders may be caused by a organization that is trying to resurrect the Nazi system. Going as a reporter Quiller meets Inge (Senta Berger); who had been working with the agents.

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They start to like each other but then, Quiller gets drugged up. When he wakes up he meets a mysterious man named Oktober (Max Von Sydow) and is running the Nazi movement.

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He then straps Quiller and asks him what he knows of the British agents.

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Quiller refuses to answer and escapes. He returns back to Pol but Oktober catches him again. When he sees Quiller again, Oktober ups the ante: Give him the information on who killed the agents or his girlfriend Inge gets killed.

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The movie was directed by Michael Anderson and written by Harold Pinter while John Barry (the movie composer of the decade) wrote the music that was stripped down from his Bond work and his sound for this film was more eerie than the score he did for The Ipcress File.

The Chairman

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Three years after Arabesque Gregory Peck starred in another spy film: The Chairman. As far as 60's storylines go (forget about spy films) this is by far the strangest. Peck plays John Hathaway-a doctor who then meets a nervous American general (Arthur Hill). He's nervous because he just heard that Soong Li (Keye Luke), a professor from China has created a liquid that could lead to the worst food poisoning epidemic the world may ever experience. Now Hathaway must take the general's mission and that is: Go to China, meet Chairman Mao Tse Sung (Conrad Yama), and kill him with a nuclear bomb (!) that is no bigger than a key. When he comes home he tells his wife (Anne Heywood) that he is going on a secret vacation.

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He then begins his journey

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and is warned that if he can't start the nuclear bomb the U.S. military will.

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As that weren't enough when rumor breaks out that he is coming to kill Mao, the Chinese people threaten to kill Hathaway and to compicate matters, the British military has set up a computer that will set off the minibomb aimed at killing...Hathaway! (and this is the very same one that Peck's character uses in his attempt to blow up "The Chairman")

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The movie re-teamed Peck with director J. Lee Thompson (their third movie after The Guns of Navarone and Cape Fear) and it featured a great music score from Jerry Goldsmith.

Well, that is it for today.