A Very Good Year? (No)

Welcome to 2024.  And what better way to start than to look back 61 years ago to see what Jesse Walker thinks are the best films of 1963. (Boy is that a bad segue.

The Perpetual Three-Dot Column (jessewalker.blogspot.com)

Back in 1963, Hollywood was churning out the same old product it had been doing for years, not keeping up with the times.  Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, they were trying new things. (Hollywood was about ten years later to the party.  Scroll down to Jesse's top ten for 1973 and see what happened.)

Anyway, here's his top ten list for 1963:

1. The Birds

2. Ikarie XB-1

3. The Silence

4. The Haunting

5. This Sporting Life

6. The Leopard

7. The Great Escape

8. Scorpio Rising

9. Judex

10. Muriel, Or The Time Of Return

The Birds is fun, and one of Hitchcock's best-known titles.  But I think by the 60s we're beginning to see his powers waning.

The Silence is getting to the core of what Bergman is about.  If you consider that a good thing (and I do), you'd put it in your top ten.

The Haunting is a well-done horror film--classy, but no classic.

This Sporting Life is yet another example of the exciting things they were doing in England (though a bit too long).  But if I were to choose a British New Wave film from 1963 it would be Billy Liar.

In its day, many found fault with The Leopard and Burt Lancaster's perfomance.  It's now universally recognized as a classic.  I think the truth is somewhere in between.

The Great Escape is an enjoyable movie, but (I'm sure this is getting tiresome) no classic.  Call it "The Good Escape."

Muriel is another one of those not-quite classics.

I haven't seen Ikarie XB-1,or Judex, though I'd like to.  Scorpio Rising is an experimental, influential short.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. Winter Light

12. The Servant

13. Mediterranee

14. Hud

15. Renaissance

16. An Actor's Revenge

17. High And Low

18. Moth Light

19. To Parsifal

20. Charade

11 is part of the same trilogy as The Silence and should probably be in the top ten (and almost is). I've always found 12 to be pretentious.  13 is a (long) short. 14 strains too hard--Pauline Kael's (unfair) review is far more enjoyable.  15 is a short.  Haven't seen 16.  17 is one of Kurosawa's best and should be in the top ten. 18 is a Stan Brakhage short which I thought was one word. 19 is a short. (The early 60s was a big time for experimental shorts.) 20 is fun, and maybe the most influential film of the decade--a ton of one-word mystery/comedy/romances would follow.

Here are some other film from 1963 I like:

Beach Party, Billy Liar (as mentioned above), Bye Bye Birdie, From Russia With Love, Jason And The Argonauts, The Nutty Professor, The Pink Panther, Shock Corridor.

Other films of note:

4 For Texas, 8 1/2, 55 Days At Peking,  Act One, America America, Call Me Bwana, Captain Newman M.D., The Carbineers, The Cardinal, The Caretaker, Clash By Night, Cleopatra, Come Blow Your Horn, Come Fly With Me, Contempt,  The Cool World, The Courtship Of Eddie’s Father, Critic’s Choice, The Day The Earth Caught Fire, Dementia 13, Donovan’s Reef, Flipper, Fun In Acapulco, Irma La Douce, It Happened At The World’s Far, It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, The King Of Kings, Lilies Of The Field, The List Of Adrian Messenger, Lord Of The Flies, Love With A Proper Stranger, The Man From Diner’s Club, Mary Mary, McLintock!, The Mouse On The Moon, A New Kind Of Love, Papa’s Delicate Condition, PT 109, The Raven, The Sadist, Soldier In The Rain, Son Of Flubber, Summer Holiday, Sunday In New York, The Sword In The Stone, Take Her She’s Mine, The Terror, The Three Stooges Go Around The World In A Daze, The Thrill Of It All, Tom Jones (Best Picture Oscar), Toys In The Attic, The Ugly American, Under The Yum Yum Tree, The V.I.P.s, The Wheeler Dealers, Who’s Minding The Store?