LBJ Landslide

We're now back to 1964 in Jesse Walker's movie lists.

https://jessewalker.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-year-extremism-defended-liberty-we.html

Here's his top ten:

1. Dr. Strangelove

2. Woman In The Dunes

3. Diary Of A Chambermaid

4. The Killers

5. Kwaidan

6. The World Of Henry Orient

7. Onibaba

8. A Shot In The Dark

9. The Americanization Of Emily

10. A Fistful Of Dollars

I heartily endorse Dr. Strangelove--may be my top film of the decade.

I'm embarrassed to admit in previous posts I have confused Woman In The Dunes with another film.  I'm afraid I have to downgrade it out of my top twenty.

Diary Of A Chambermaid may not be top tier Bunuel, but it's good enough for the top ten.

The Killers is fun.  Even if the memory of Reagan as president is receding into the past, his performance here is still quite a kick.

Kwaidan is a good, if overlong, anthology movie.

The World Of Henry Orient is a fun oddity--unlike anything else people such as Peter Sellers and director George Roy Hill ever did.

Still haven't seen Onibaba.

I like A Shot In The Dark.  It's the second of the Pink Panther series and the last that is almost a European crime film intruded upon by Inspector Clouseau--the later ones are just straight Clouseau films.  Jesse dutifully notes it's based on "plays by Marcel Achard and Harry Kurnitz," but really this is Blake Edwards tossing out the play and turning it into a Pink Panther movie.

I'm not a fan of The Americanization Of Emily--yet another one of Chayefsky's overwritten scripts.  And I must take exception to Jesse's claim that unlike Stalag 17, this has the courage of its convictions (though I think Stalag 17 is a superior film regardless of any convictions either has).  First, the movie version of Stalag 17 is tougher than the play--in fact, William Holden unsuccessfully begged Wilder to soften his character.  And he doesn't sell out at the end, he takes advantage of the situation as he always does.  Meanwhile (spoiler alert), Emily seems to kill James Garner, but he ends up alive.  He then pretends to be a hero so he can be with Emily (which may be true to the character but lets the audience off the hook).

A Fistful Of Dollars is okay.

Here are Jesse's honorable mentions:

11. Kiss Me, Stupid

12. I Am Cuba

13. Seance On A Wet Afternoon

14. Nothing But A Man

15. Mermaid

16. The Train

17. Culloden

18. Becket

19. Evil Of Frankenstein

20. My Fair Lady

I've seen 11 several times.  It just doesn't work--casting and plotting are flawed--but the look and the mechanics fascinate me.

12 is certainly great to look at. 13 is pretty good. So is 14.

15 is a short I've never seen. 16 is okay.  17 is a TV-movie I've never seen.

18 is a little too stiff for me taste.  19 is decent Hammer horror. 20, the year's Oscar winner, is a respectable adaptation of something that worked better on stage.

Films that would make my top ten or twenty:

7 Faces Of Dr. Lao

A Hard Day's Night (#2 after Strangelove)

Mary Poppins

The Naked Kiss

The Patsy

Other films I like:

Adventures Of Zatoichi, Gertrud, Goldfinger, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, Mothra Vs. Godzilla, Muscle Beach Party, Pajama Party, The T.A.M.I. Show, Topkapi, The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg


Other films of note:

Bedtime Story, Before The Revolution, Behold A Pale Horse, The Best Man, Black Like Me, The Carpetbaggers, Carry On Spying, The Castle, The Creeping Terror, The Disorderly Orderly, Emil And The Detectives, Ensign Pulver, Fail-Safe, The Fall Of The Roman Empire, Fanny Hill, Father Goose, For Those Who Think Young, Get Yourself A College Girl, Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, Good Neighbor Sam, Goodbye Charlie, The Gospel According To St. Matthew, Hag In A Black Leather Jacket, Hercules Against The Barbarians, Hercules Against The Moon Men, Hide And Seek, The Horror Of Party Beach, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies, Kisses For My President, Kissin' Cousins, Kitten With A Whip, The Last Man On Earth, Lilith, The Luch Of Ginger Coffey, Mail Order Bride, Man's Favorite Sport?, Marnie, Marriage Italian Style, The Mask Of Red Death, McHale's Navy, The Misadventures Of Merlin Jones, The New Interns, Night Must Fall, The Night Of The Iguana, Of Human Bondage, One Potato, Two Potato, Paris When It Sizzles, The Pawnbroker, The Pleasure Seekers, The Pumpkin Eater, The Red Desert, Robin And The 7 Hoods, Robinson Crusoe On Mars, Roustabout, Santa Claus Conquers The Martians, Send Me No Flowers, Seven Days In May, The Seven From Texas, Sex And The Single Girl, Shock Treatment, The Soft Skin, Spartacus And The Ten Gladiators, Surf Party, Two Thousand Maniacs!, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, The Visit, Viva Las Vegas, What A Way To Go!, The Yellow Rolls-Royce, Your Cheatin' Heart, Zorba The Greek, Zulu