1960 - CIRCUS OF HORRORS, what passed for a horror film in the early 1960's.

Well they really went for it with Circus of Horrors.  Or went for it as about as much as they could for an early 1960's horror film,  A maniacal plastic surgeon has developed a new surgical technique that unfortunately has a side effect of disfiguring one of his patients.  He goes on the run and ends up at a defunct circus.  He gets the brilliant idea of performing plastic surgery on criminals to hide them from the police.  Lots of plot later the circus ends up in London where the plastic surgeon who now runs the circus kills off anyone who might reveal him to the police.

We get lots of scenes of women getting transformed into beautiful babes before that are knocked off by the surgeon.  For good measure there is a nasty bear in the circus who occasionally gets out of his cage so he can maul someone.  There's also a knife throwing act that doesn't end well for the woman on the receiving end of the knives.  

The film has quite a cast.  Perennial bad guy Anton Differing plays the plastic surgeon.  Donald Pleasence plays the original owner of the circus and he's not around very long.  Yvonne Romaine was in a lot of Hammer films.  She's a lion tamer who doesn't have much luck taming one of the lions.  Yvonne Monlaur played the daughter of Donald Pleasence.  I remember her as one of the future brides in Brides of Dracula.    

Circus of Horrors was photographed in very bright colors by Douglas Slocombe.  Slocombe went on to work with Steven Spielberg on the first three Indiana Jones films.  He was a major factor in the success of that series.

The screenplay was by George Baxt, the running time is 87 minutes.

1960 - STOWAWAY IN THE SKY, aka LE VOYAGE EN BALLON

A rare family film that's actually good for a change.  Stowaway in the Sky has a very light touch like the air balloon that our protagonists use to travel across France and eventually the Alps.

The story is a very simple one, a young boy, Pascal manages to stowaway on his grandfather's latest air balloon. They fly over the French countryside and narrowly miss church steeples and towers and that's about it for a plot.

 

What this film has going for it is spectacular aerial footage taken with a specially developed camera by the director Albert Lamorisse called "Helivision." This camera was sort of an early version of the "steady cam."  

 

The photography in Cinemascope is remarkably clear and steady this is wide screen camera work at it's finest.  The film took 3 years to complete and was apparently a very difficult production but the resulting film is very impressive.  A really marvelous film.

This film was written by Albert Lamorisse, the running time is 85 minutes  

1960 - THE SUNDOWNERS, a "Meat Pie Western."

A well made but almost plot free film set in the outback of Australia around the 1920's.  The story concerns a roving family of sheepherders moving flocks of sheep from one location to another. The mother wants a place to call home but the father is a free spirit who doesn't want to be tied down and that's about it for a plot.

The entertainment value comes from the director Fred Zinneman one of Hollywood's best storytellers and the excellent cast.  Robert Mitchum is the father and he does a decent job with his Aussie accent.  The mother is played by Deborah Kerr and their son is Michael Anderson Jr. the son of unsurprisingly the director Michael Anderson.  Kerr was one of Mitchum's favorite people to work with and he amusingly said "she was the only leading lady I never slept with."  

 

Zinnemann was a very meticulous filmmaker he carefully cast the supporting cast with some excellent actors.  Peter Ustinov, Glynis Johns and an actual Australian actor Chips Rafferty who I think showed up in about every Australian film I've seen.

 For a story with an almost nonexistent plot Fred Zinnemann's story telling skill was so good The Sundowners is a very entertaining film.  Some of Zinnemann's other films worth checking out, High Noon, Act of Violence, The Seventh Cross, The Search and The Nun's Story.  

The film was written by Isobel Lennart, the running time is 133 minutes.

1960 - SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON - one Disney's best live action films

When the Walt Disney company put their minds to it they could make very entertaining live action films.  Swiss Family Robinson is one of their best films with most of the film shot on location in Tobago using Disney's go to English film crew and a mixed group of American and English actors.  

English actor John Miles is the head of the Swiss Family Robinson who end up being deserted on a tropical island.  American actor Dorothy McGuire is his wife.  Disney regulars James MacArthur and Tommy Sands play his grown up sons and the very annoying child actor Kevin Corcoran who like a bad cold constantly showed up in a lot of Disney TV shows, is their youngest son.  British actor Janet Munro is MacArthur's love interest and Bridge on the River Kwai actor Sessue Hayakawa is the pirate captain.  A real mishmash of acting talent.

 

The screenwriter and director threw out the original story and devised a plot that emphasized constant action and adventure.  Once the family ends up on the island the plot kicks into high gear with lots of clever and exciting scenes.  The Disney technicians slo devised an exciting action climax during the final pirate battle essentially a live action cartoon.

 

Swiss Family Robinson is quality family film making at a high level, a very entertaining film. 

 

The film was written by Lowell S. Hawley, the running time is 126 minutes. 

1960 - THE WITCH'S MIRROR, aka EL ESPEJO DE LA BRUJA

Mexican horror at the beginning of the 1960's,  Mexican horror is almost a genre on it's own going from interesting films to completely ridiculous films.  The Witch's Mirror sort of straddles this range of frequently interesting to at times ridiculous plot turns.  The English dubbing on this DVD definitely doesn't help contribute to the serious aspects but it's what it is.

Our story, it seems a plastic surgeon has decided he no longer loves his wife and plans to kill her off and marry someone else.  This turns out to be a very big mistake as the wife's stepmother happens to be a witch who is out for revenge by evoking the powers of Satan.  The film mixes tradition horror scenes with an odd borrowing from the plot of the french film Eyes Without A Face.

 

The Witch's Mirror is filmed in black and white and apparently entirely on studio sets.  It's got nice photography and great gothic atmosphere with the cast prowling around creepy castle sets.  Time has kind of chipped away at the plot of this film and obviously horror has gotten a whole lot more graphic.  Still for a early 1960's film the film has some interestingly disgusting scenes.  The film is short and doesn't drag out the plot.  It's worth a look.

 

The film was written by Alfredo Ruanova and Carlos Enrique Taboada, the running time is 75 minutes.

1960 - KIDNAPPED, Disney adventure film is a muddled mess

Filmed in England where the Disney organization had fairly decent luck with their English films, Kidnapped from a book by Robert Lewis Stevenson would seem to fill the bill as at very least as a good action/adventure film.  The problem was as usual that old bugaboo, the script. Kidnapped is about a young man David Balfour who is heir to a British estate.  Balhour is shanghaied by his greedy uncle and ends up as a cabin boy on a ship serving a crooked sea captain played by "M" Bernard Lee no less.  Balfour and a survivor of another shipwreck, Alan Stewart who is played by Peter Finch at the beginning of his career as a leading man I believe, team up to take over the ship and prevent the captain from killing them for their money.

Here's where things get very complicated.  David Balfour is a supporter of the King of England.  Alan Stewart is a Jacobite a member of a highland Scottish clan and a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie .  The low land clans of Scotland the Campbells, were supporters of the King and dominated Scotland for some time to come. If you went into this movie thinking you were going to enjoy some sword fights, a ship crashing into some rocks and exciting chases across Scotland, well you get that stuff.  But following this plot is a real challenge.  I've actually explained this story better than the movie does.  There is so much time devoted to politics and infighting among Scottish clans after a while you haven't a clue what's going on.

The production is a handsome one, the photography, sets and location settings are good.  The cast beginning with American James MacArthur at least attempting an English accent and Australian Peter Finch as a Scotsman certain are sincere.  Peter O'Toole in his first film role plays a Scottish bagpipe player who has a contest with Finch on the bagpipes instead of fighting him with swords or something.

 

This could have been a good adventure film but I would challenge anyone outside of Scotland or England to explain what is going on.  Certainly the popcorn munching crowds in Cleveland would be scratching their heads at this story.

The screenplay was by the director Robert Stevenson, the running time is 97 confusing minutes.

1960 - MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN, Italian Giallo Film.

 For a horror film and especially an Italian horror film Mill of the Stone Women looks very nice with colorful sets and very bright and pretty photography.   The cast has a lot of good looking women and men although the bad guy is fairly easy to spot since he gives off that mad scientist vibe fairly early in the film.

The film owes a lot and I mean a lot of its plot to the old Warner Brother's film, Mystery of the Wax Museum.  In that film people are disappearing but eventually seem to  turn up in a wax museum posed as historical figures.  Frankly I wished I had been watching that film instead of this one.

 

This film is set in a windmill that has been converted into a museum and surprise surprise missing women possibly seem to be turning up as models in this museum.

The film was directed by Giorgo Ferroni who made a lot of spaghetti and gladiator movies for most of his career.

Written by Remigio Del Grosso, Ugo Liberatore, Giorgio Stegani and Giorgio Ferroni, that's a lot of writers for a fairly ordinary horror film.  The running time is 96 minutes.

1960 - THE HUMAN VAPOR, oddball science fiction stuff

 Ishiro Honda, Toho's original Godzilla director took on this strange hybrid of a film.  The Human Vapor is as the title says, about a man who is given the ability by a scientist  to turn himself into a gaseous cloud.  He uses this vapor power stuff to rob a a series of banks in order to bankroll a performer of ancient Japanese dance. Simultaneously, the police are after this vapor guy as they try to figure out a way to stop him. So what we have here is a film that combines science fiction with a love story and a crime thriller.

Ishiro Honda directs and I guess he gets the job done in his own way.  Honda never brought a lot of  so called directorial touches to his film.  Honda was a very pedestrian filmmaker, no fancy angles or editing for him.  Honda was always the good company man.  The strange mix of these different genres would probably have intimidated any director.  But Honda soldiers on and gets the job done I guess.

 

Since this is a Toho film, the colors are bright, the special effects are interesting and the love stories between the various characters are very chaste.  The Human Vapor is mostly for Toho science fiction film fans, a regular viewer will probably find the film kind of boring for the most part.  

 

The screenplay was by Takeshi KImura an old hand at writing Toho science fiction films, the running time is 91 minutes.

1960 - HOLIDAY IN SPAIN, Cinerama film without the "Smell -O-Vision."

 Holiday In Spain a film produced by Mike Todd Jr. and presented by Cinerama is partially a travelogue and partially a chase/thriller film.  The legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff signed on as the director of the film and considering all the challenges of filming in the widescreen format the film looks very good. Filmed in 70 mm instead of the three camera Cinerama system you can't even tell the difference in widescreen formats.

 The story is essentially a chase film with Denholm Elliott playing a British mystery writer attempting to protect an American heiress from being killed by a gang led by Paul Lucas as the heiress races around the Spanish countryside.  Assisting Elliott is the very welcome presence of Peter Lorre as a taxi driver.  A decent cast for the most part.  Holiday In Spain was filmed entirely on location and the film does make Spain look like a great place to take a vacation.

 

It's difficult to review a film like this, it's not really a conventional entertainment in the standard sense.  The film was originally released in a process called "Smell-O-Vision" which was essentially a process where odors were pumped into the theater during the film to enhance the viewing experience for some reason as if a gigantic widescreen film photographing British blonde bombshell Diana Dors wasn't enough of an experience.

 

The film is entertaining in an odd sort of way. It's certainly a great looking film probably due to Cardiff. The running time is 102 minutes.  The film was written by Gerald Kersh.

1960 - SINK THE BISMARK! - the stiff upper lip of the British Navy film

This is one of those films where navy officers, in this case the British, push little models around a table top map while the audience tries to figure out what is going on and who is doing what to whom.  Sink The Bismark is in the tradition of the British stiff upper lip school, where nobody is allowed to show any emotions and everything is very proper and dignified.

 

Kenneth More is the lead stiff upper lipper, he doesn't dare show any emotion because he thinks it's a sign of weakness.  Of course by the end of the film he is a sobbing crybaby. Dana Wynter is his hot British assistant.  The rest of the case is the usual bunch of British actors found in these types of movies. Laurence Naismith, Michael Horden, Esmond Knight etc.  

 

The film stays fairly close to the facts as the British Navy hunts down the pride of the Nazi navy,  battleship Bismark. The model and miniature work is at a very high caliber.  The director Lewis Gilbert does a good job of moving the story along.  Overall, a fairly decent war film.

 

Written by Edmund H. North, the running time is 97 minutes.

1960 - THE TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS, Le testament d'Orphée

 Jean Cocteau's final film is sort of a rehash or best hits of his past films. The film is loaded with his trick camera work, actors he has worked with from previous films and god only knows what obsessions he had been carrying around with him during his lifetime.

As always to look for any type of plot or meaning in a film like this is pretty worthless. It's best to sit back and absorb the film's visuals and Cocteau's musing on art and life.

In the cast I spotted Charles Aznavour, Yul Brynner,  Jean-Pierre Léaud, María Casares, Jean Marais and I think Francois Truffaut peeked his head around the corner of a building at one point.

 

The film was written by Cocteau and runs 80 minutes.

1960 -SEVEN THIEVES, a good heist film.

The big selling point in this film were Joan Collin's sexy striptease dance numbers.  There's actually only two of them but they are pretty hot.  Once you get past this you get a pretty good crime caper film.

Edward G. Robinson is the mastermind behind the robbery of a casino in France.  Rod Steiger is his right hand.  Joan Collins, Eli Wallach and the rest of his assembled group are the remaining thieves which gets you up to the number 7.  The film was well made by tough guy director Henry Hathaway and the script is by a good crime writer Sydney Boehm who wrote the classic The Big Heat.

 

The acting is uniformly excellent and it's very unusual to see Rod Steiger as the romantic leading man.

102 minutes.

1960 - SERGEANT RUTLEDGE - John Ford takes on racism

John Ford's film about racism in the United States Cavalry has got a few issues to put it mildly.  The screenplay is a hodgepodge of murder mystery, western and a comment on racism in the United States.  The film also has a lot of actors really chewing the scenery along with Ford's goofy humor.

 

Another issue is the casting of African American actor Woody Strode as Sergeant Rutledge who is accused of raping and murdering a white girl.  Strode looks great but he really struggles to act.

 

Setting all of that aside, it's still a good film.  It brings up a number of interesting points about racism in the United States and Ford frequently marshals his visual skills particularly during the court martial trial sequences to keep the film moving along.

 

Finally, this is a John Ford film and the majority of his films are for the most part interesting and worthwhile viewing.  He was one of the old masters of film making.

James Warner Beliah and Willis Goldbeck wrote the original screenplay the film runs 111 minutes

1960 - THE LOVES OF HERCULES, whacky Italian Hercules movie

See the two famous love birds Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay star together in another goofy Italian Hercules movie.  Mansfield is 4 months pregnant at the time of filming so we don't get to see a lot of her famous figure.  Hargitay runs around in a short skirt for the length of the film.

See Hargitay as Hercules knock down an Iron gate with a big phony tree which he can barely hang on to.  Watch as Hargitay does battle with the Hydra a life sized monster that can barely keep it's heads in motion much less move. Be astounded as Hargitay fights a gorilla monster with really bad teeth as it slobbers all over Mansfield. 

See the viewer try to decipher this ridiculous plot which has something to do with Mansfield's evil father killing Hercules first wife and Hargitay as Hercules almost immediately falling in love with Mansfield while his wife is barely in the ground.  It all ends with Hargitay leading some kind of revolution in the end.

See this writer trying to give this film some sort of rating is it camp or is it just plain bad?  Only the gods on Olympus will have that answer.

98 minutes.

1960 - BREATHLESS - or À bout de souffle

Goddard's first film in his peculiar choppy style is sort of a takeoff on a cheap American gangster film.  In fact, Francois Truffaut has a story credit on the film.  However Goddard essentially improvised the film so I doubt the film and Truffaut's story have much in common.

Considering the direction Godard's film career was to take this is a very watchable film.  The locations in Paris which are fun to look at were filmed by Raoul Coutard who specialized in on location photography for the French "New Wave." 

Jean-Paul Belmondo is the petty gangster who acts like Humphrey Bogart and Jean Seberg is his American girlfriend.  Breathless has a very long scene with these two actors which involves Belmondo trying to persuade Seberg to sleep with him.  There is also an appearance by Jean-Pierre Melville as an author spouting lots of trite musing about women and the nature of love.  Godard was a big fan of Melville who was essentially an independent filmmaker before they invented the word. 

I enjoyed Breathless a lot because believe me it gets to be a real chore watching Godard films as his career rolls along.

90 minutes, written by Jean-Luc Godard story by Francois Truffaut.

1960 - SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER, aka Tirez sur le pianiste.

Truffaut makes a film in the American thriller noir style for the first time.  Shoot the Piano Player is filmed in a rather free wheeling style which is to be expected from one of the New Wave directors.  There are a lot of little film jokes and tricks with film editing that really call attention to itself.  But Truffaut was smart enough to keep this film around 90 minutes because a little of this stuff goes a long way especially from a French film nut.

The film has some notable photography from Raoul Coutard who was an expert when it came to making something out of nothing.  Coutard knew who shoot with almost no supplemental lighting and was an expert with the hand held camera.  At times the film has a real documentary flair to it.

92 minutes.

1960 - THE TIME MACHINE, a good George Pal film.

Considering the modest budget that George Pal had to work with, The Time Machine is a pretty impressive film.  This film looks good, the sets, photography and special effects have a real charm to them.  Most importantly the time machine itself is one cool looking prop.

The film has a small but interesting group of actors.  Character actors such as Whit Bissell, Alan Young, Sebastian Cabot and Tom Helmore are fun to see.   Rod Taylor is perfectly cast as the scientist who can jump into action when the Morlocks are ready to start chomping on his pretty Eloi girlfriend played by the very pretty Yvette Mimieux. 

This was a film that made a big impression on me when I was a kid and it still holds up pretty well.  A good cast and story can carry a film a long way and make for a very entertaining viewing experience.

103 minutes.

1960 - THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR. MABUSE, Fritz Lang's final film.

Fritz Lang returns to the thriller genre after his Indian adventure films.  Lang brings back the Mabuse character and more importantly the criminal mastermind plots that usually involve Dr. Mabuse.   The Mabuse thrillers were important films for Lang and helped make his reputation as a master of the crime thriller.

This is a good film with some major issues, primarily the extremely low budget his German producer gave him to work with.  The film has a very cheap look to it.  The crummy sets look like crummy sets. The actors look like they could knock them down if they aren't very careful.

However, this is still and interesting and exciting film.  Lang may have been working with a small budget but he's still Lang and he knows how to create an atmosphere of menace.  The film also has an exciting climax with a shootout and car chase.  The James Bond producers borrowed some of the "gags" from this scene for Goldfinger.

The film is a nice end to Lang's career.

103 minutes written by Fritz Lang.