Over There And Over Here

In 1961 the film world was seeing exciting, innovative work coming out of France, England, Sweden, Italy, Japan, India, etc.  And Hollywood was mostly churning out the same tired formula.

What does Jesse Walker think were the top ten films of 1961? Wonder no longer.

(https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2021/12/jfk-year-one-ive-posted-my-favorite.html)

1.  Yojimbo

2.  Lola

3.  Yanco

4.  The Fabulous Baron Munchausen

5.  Chronicle Of A Summer

6.  The Hustler

7.  The Innocents

8.  The Exiles

9.  The Ladies Man

10.  Eugene

Yojimbo is definitely top ten, one of Kurosawa's best.

Lola has held up very well, better than a lot of French New Wave.

Haven't seen Yanco or Chronicle Of A Summer.

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (I thought it was from 1962) is fun.

The hardboiled Hustler is top ten material. (Jesse includes a quote from it.  It's a very quotable film, especially George C. Scott's character.  "Do you think I can lose?" "I never saw you do anything else."  Soon after: "This game isn't like football.  Nobody pays you for yardage.  When you hustle, you keep score real simple.  At the end of the game, you count up your money.  That's how you find out who's best.  It's the only way.")

The Innocents and The Exiles are okay (and the latter of anthropological interest), but I wouldn't put them in the top ten.

The Ladies Man is an interesting choice.  Not one of Jerry Lewis's funniest, but probably his most experimental.

Eugene is a brilliant episode of television, so shouldn't be on a movie list.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11.  Blast Of Silence

12.  Viridiana

13.  Il Posto

14.  Underworld U.S.A.

15.  Accattone

16.  Mother Joan Of The Angels

17.  One-Eyed Jacks

18.  Last Year In Marienbad

19.  Killers On Parade

20.  Zoo

I saw 11 for the first time last month.  A very different sort of film, especially for the era, and I can see it making the top 20.  12 should be in the top ten.  13 and 14 I like.  Haven't seen 15 or 16.  17 is a different sort of Western, and should make the top twenty.  18 was maybe the most talked about film of the year, and is still intriguing today.  Haven't seen 19.  20 is a short.

Other films that might make my top ten or twenty:

Divorce Italian Style

The Errand Boy

One Two Three

Paris Blues

A Taste Of Honey

Through A Glass Darkly

Other films of note:

The Absent-Minded Professor, Bachelor in Paradise, Blue Hawaii, Breakfast At Tiffany's, Carry On Regardless, The Children's Hour, The Comancheros, The Connection, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, Don't Bother to Knock, El Cid, Fanny, Flower Drum Song, The Guns Of Navarone, Judgment At Nuremberg, King of Kings, The Last Time I Saw Archie, Lover Come Back, The Marriage-Go-Round, The Misfits, Mothra, Mr. Sardonicus, Mysterious Island, La Notte, The Parent Trap, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Pleasure of His Company, Pocketful of Miracles, A Raisin In The Sun, The Rebel, Reptilicus, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Romanoff and Juliet, Snow White and the Three Stooges, Something Wild, Splendor In The Grass, Summer and Smoke, Town Without Pity, Two Loves, Two Rode Together, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, West Side Story, Wild in the Country, The Young Doctors, The Young Ones, The Young Savages