Tuesday, October 31, 2017

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1963

.
We had to take some time off from our "Siri Says" series - where I ask my phone to pick a number between 1 and 100 and then choose my five favorite movies from the corresponding year - because the New York Film Fest had me pretty busy and these posts are a bit of a commitment. But now we're trying to get back into the ol' routine and so here we are - today's number is "63" and so let's take a look at the Movies of 1963!

And 1963 is a great year to get on Halloween, because 1963 was a crazy busy year for Horror. As if the filmmakers could sense what was going to happen that November scares were everywhere - Alfred Hitchcock saw terror dropping out of the sky, three-name wunderkinds Hershell Gordon Lewis and Francis Ford Coppola were hacking everybody to bits in the US while Hammer hooked the UK and Bava bathed Italy in red, and Vincent Price had no fewer than six movies in theaters (most of them with Roger Corman, who had his own factory of fright going). My faves aren't entirely thrills and chills but it's a hefty percentage...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1963

(dir. Robert Wise)
-- released on August 25th 1963 --

(dir. Stanley Donen)
-- released on December 5th 1963 --

(dir. Mario Bava)
-- released on August 23rd 1963 --

(dir. Luchino Visconti)
-- released on March 29th 1963 --

(dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
-- released on March 29th 1963 --

-----------------------------------

Runners-up: 8 1/2 (dir. Fellini), Dementia 13 (dir. Francis Ford Coppola), Hud (dir. Martin Ritt), The Raven (dir. Corman), X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes (dir. Corman), Jason and the Argonauts (dir. Don Chaffey), The Haunted Palace (dir. Corman), The Girl Who Knew Too Much (dir. Bava), Contempt (dir. Godard)

Never seen: The Great Escape (dir. John Sturges), Bye Bye Birdie (dir. George Sidney), Lilies of the Field (dir. Ralph Nelson), The Prize (dir. Mark Robson), Diary of a Madman (dir. Reginald Le Borg), Tom Jones (dir. Tony Richardson), Paranoiac (dir. Freddie Francis), Irma La Douce (dir. Billy Wilder), Shock Corridor (dir. Samuel Fuller), Blood Feast (dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis)

What are your favorite movies of 1963?
.

4 comments:

Pierce said...

With regards to what you haven't seen, The Great Escape is a good action film; Bye Bye Birdie is fun, Lilies of the Field is poetic; The Prize is boring. Never seen Diary of a Madman; Tom Jones is delightful. Never seen Shock Corridor or heard of Blood Feast.
8 ½, a great film
Beach Party, loads of fun
Billy Liar, Tom Courtney and Julie Christie. Enough said.
The Birds, brilliant!
Charade, my favorite Cary Grant movie
A Child is Waiting, directed by John Cassevetes, great acting.
From Russia With Love, my favorite Bond movie
I Could Go on Singing, Judy Garland's last film
Jason and the Argonauts, Ray Harryhausen's masterpiece
Love with the Proper Stranger, tough to see, but an important movie
Move Over Darling, this is what came of the Marilyn Monroe film, Something's Gotta Give, but Polly Bergen is fun in it.
The Pink Panther, great comedy
The Servant, a British classic
The Sword in the Stone, delightful

joel65913 said...

Oh yay! I’ve missed these and 1963 is a year that many films I love came out so an auspicious return.

Top 11 (I just couldn’t get it lower):

The Birds
I Could Go On Singing
The Prize-I saw that Pierce thought it was boring but I love it. It has a Hitchcock feel and an amazing cast. I doesn’t hurt that Paul Newman is at the peak of his beauty and the scene leading up to that snap you posted is his escape from some villains in a nudist colony. No actual nudity but he spends a great deal of time in a tiny towel.
The Running Man
Love with the Proper Stranger
Mary, Mary
The Thrill of It All
The Courtship of Eddie’s Father
The V.I.P.S
Wives and Lovers
A Child is Waiting

Next 10:
All the Way Home
Hud
Toys in the Attic
The Great Escape
My Six Loves
A Ticklish Affair
McLintock!
Contempt
The Servant
The Haunting

Other runner-ups:
The Pink Panther
The Sword in the Stone
Move Over, Darling
For Love or Money
Captain Newman, MD
The Three Lives of Thomasina
Sunday in New York
The Wheeler Dealers
The Stripper
The Caretakers-Not really a good film but a hoot and a half with Joan Crawford playing a doctor in a nuthouse overseeing a bunch of women gone round the bend.
Papa’s Delicate Condition
Come Fly with Me-Dolores Hart’s final film before entering a convent is a cute romp about three stewardesses looking for love in the friendly skies.
The Yellow Canary
The Mind Benders

larry said...

Nobody mentioned "This Sporting Life" with young Richard Harris and nude locker room scenes, (the first time I ever saw naked men in a movie at the local cinema)... It's a good, if bleak, b&w film. Harris and Rachel Roberts were both nominated for lead acting oscars. Roberts soon commited suicide (drinking acid) over her divorce from Rex Harrison.

larry said...

Meant to say that my best of the best (along w/ This Sporting Life) are: The Birds, The Haunting, and Hud.