In April 1960, the United States launched the first weather satellite, and in May 1960, the Soviets shot down an American plane and captured its pilot, while Mossad tracked Adolf Eichmann to Buenos Aires and kidnapped him. But most importantly, the Oscars for the films of 1959 were held, and we've covered that year...gosh. I thought maybe five years ago, at most, but: turns out it was almost a decade ago. And eight years later, we're here at one year after.
Here's a taste of what April/May 1960 had to offer:
Song Without End
release: April
wins: Best Musical Score (Morris Stoloff / Harry Sukman)
dir: Charles Vidor
pr: William Goetz
scr: Oscar Millard
cin: James Wong Howe
Last month, we covered the 1945 Chopin biopic A Song to Remember. Fifteen years later, we have this one about Franz Liszt, a contemporary and friend of Chopin’s, who also hung out with George Sand and was as respected for his talents as he was plagued by scandal for his cocksmanship. Ken Russell did a loopy biopic with Roger Daltrey on the same subject, it’s great. This? A little too buttoned-up. Dirk Bogarde’s constipated portrayal is a rare misfire for the actor. It at least gives a lot of space to the women in his life, including the countess who destroyed her marriage for his love and the princess who pursued him despite the threat to her crown. Noble effort, just very dull. Vidor died during production, an uncredited George Cukor completed the film.
The Unforgiven
release: April 6
dir: John Huston
pr: James Hill
scr: Ben Maddow, from the novel by Alan Le May
cin: Franz Planer
As Cukor disowned Heller in Pink Tights, so too did Huston express disappointment with this Western about a cattle ranching family brought to scandal when a drifter accuses them of kidnapping the adopted daughter they claimed was a foundling…from her Kiowa tribe family. That’s right, Audrey Hepburn is actually an Indian! Well, that bit isn’t exactly convincing, but the rest of the movie is an interesting look at tribalism in all its forms. The town that’s grown up with this family suddenly sees Hepburn’s prized daughter as untouchable, while the family is willing to eliminate Kiowa and white man alike in order to stubbornly cling to the lies that bind them. Lillian Gish is great, of course, as the family matriarch, a woman who prioritizes her own pain over others', even her family's safety. I even like the ending which, despite the patina of victory and the catharsis of love finally confessed, still sees the family in an isolated patch of land, no friends among neighbors, suggesting an ongoing fight that will continue long, long after. Interesting to chew on.
Ski Troop Attack
release: April 8
dir/pr: Roger Corman
scr: Charles B. Griffith
cin: Andrew M. Costikyan
World War II thriller about an Allied reconnaissance group that finds itself roped into direct action against the Nazis - on skis! Hell, I buy that, why not?: there are mountains in Europe. The setting allows for action atypical from the usual fare in war films, and was apparently undertaken by, if you can believe it, local high school teams from South Dakota. Great scene where our Allies find themselves in a German woman's cabin and, baby, she ain't sympathetic. A more serious-minded effort than the classic idea of a Corman picture, and it works.
The Fugitive Kind
release: April 14
dir: Sidney Lumet
pr: Martin Jurow / Richard Shepherd
scr: Tennessee Williams and Meade Roberts, from the play Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams
cin: Boris Kaufman
Marlon Brando is a drifter who gets work with Anna Magnani, unhappily married to bitter invalid Victor Jory; an attraction arises between them, which is complicated because Jory and the town already seem to hate both of them. Joanne Woodward appears as a real good-time gal with troubles of her own. All over the place: Woodward's good but her character feels like she's from a completely different story, Brando takes three minutes to get through a simple sentence so he can better fit in all his pauses and ums, and the timeline seems off. Yet there's no denying the raw sweat and desire between Magnani and Brando: she's excellent all around, while he summons a sea of emotion just by the way he looks at her - he should shut up more often! Not a disaster, neither a complete success...eccentric is how I would put it. I'm net positive.
Private Property
release: April 24
dir/scr: Leslie Stevens
pr: Stanley Colbert
cin: Ted D. McCord
Criminals set up in an empty house next to a couple in the Hollywood Hills, intent on “seducing” the unhappy wife. One of those mean-spirited transitional films, denoting the loosening grip of the Code and a society - both audience and artist - that is growing a little weary/wary of the world as was. Warren Oates! It's strange that this film was, apparently, considered so scandalous that it wasn't publicly available until 2016. So they say. I don't know that it warrants that reputation.
I'm All Right, Jack
release: April 25
dir: John Boulting
pr: Roy Boulting
scr: Frank Harvey & John Boulting & Alan Hackney, from the novel by Alan Hackney
cin: Mutz Greenbaum (as Max Greene)
Well-to-do young man takes on a blue-collar job at his uncle's missile factory and winds up embroiled in a conflict between the bosses and the union labor. One of two British films from this year that appear awfully skeptical about how modern unions wield their power, this one is at least fun. Peter Sellers plays at least 20 years older than he is, and quite convincingly at that (he won a BAFTA!). Terry-Thomas, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price, Margaret Rutherford, there's even a nude Miles Malleson and Malcolm Muggeridge as himself: quite a stacked cast!
North West Frontier
release: April 29
dir: J. Lee Thompson
pr: Marcel Hellman
scr: Robin Estridge, from a screenplay by Frank S. Nugent, original story by Patrick Ford & Will Price
cin: Geoffrey Unsworth
AKA Flame Over India. In what is now Pakistan, a Hindu prince is secreted aboard a decommissioned train during a turbulent Muslim uprising, alongside some colorful characters who may not be entirely trustworthy. A breathtaking adventure flick filmed in India and Spain: stunning cinematography, exciting action setpieces (a shootout during rail repair! a dilapidated bridge that must be traversed on foot!), rousing score, fine performances from the ensemble led by Kenneth More and Lauren Bacall, a fantastic rickety train set...OK, and, one must admit, so-so politics, at least in a modern context, as it's definitely one of those films that tsk-tsks at Muslim bloodlust and sighs in relief at British presence in India. At least the passengers bother to have conversations about why there are tensions between the Hindus, the Muslims, and the British occupiers. I love it. The BAFTAs nominated this for what they at the time called Best Film From Any Source, and I buy that.
Hiroshima mon amour
release: May 16
nominations: Best Original Screenplay
dir: Alan Resnais
pr: Anatole Dauman / Samy Halfon
scr: Marguerite Duras
cin: Michio Takahashi / Sacha Vierny
A French actress and a Japanese architect carry on a whirlwind affair while she stays in Hiroshima to make an antiwar film. They talk of the devastation of the bomb while in bed, she speaks of what she remembers, what she’s seen (in museums, in documentaries), he tells her she doesn’t remember, she hasn’t really seen (he went to war, his family stayed behind). Of course, she had her own experiences, they had the War in France, too. And they have these conversations in bed, their hands caressing their beautiful backsides; they speak in cafes and clubs; they navigate the crowds (her film extras) by day, wander the streets by night. There is a feeling that nights are endless yet the time together is finite; connection is hurried, desperate, though they are in limbo. It reminded me of my week in Seoul with a man I’d never see or speak to again: I, too, have spent afterglow wandering the streets of a strange place with unknowable signs, as though in a dream. What I haven’t done is try to navigate my war trauma through an affair with a beautiful man (yet).
Pollyanna
release: May 19
wins: Outstanding Juvenile Performance of 1960 (Hayley Mills)
dir: David Swift
pr: Walt Disney
scr: David Swift, from the novel by Eleanor H. Porter
cin: Russell Harlan
An orphaned girl goes to live with her strict aunt in a small town, and her sunny attitude and insistence on finding the good in everyone changes the people forever. At one of my old jobs, they called me Pollyanna, but the tone they used was not very complimentary; now that I’ve seen it, I take it as a badge of honor. This is an inspiring tale of determination, of knowing that, yes, life has responsibilities and tribulations, but that does not give us the right to go through the world with a sneer; let us welcome the weird and unusual, let us find common ground, let us flaunt the rules that restrict our humanity, let us rejoice in Life! I hated the ending, an unnecessary rug-pull that teaches us…what, exactly, that goodness must come with martyrdom (OK, don’t worry, no one dies)? Is this balance, or a cynical demand for tears we’ve already shed? Ah, well, anyway, I suppose I hated it because I believed in Pollyanna and this town like they were my own friends and neighbors. A beautiful movie, maybe the best non-musical Disney live-action I’ve seen. Mills was the last winner of the Juvenile Performer Oscar, and like, yeah, how do you top that?
Sergeant Rutledge
release: May 25
dir: John Ford
pr: Patrick Ford / Willis Goldbeck
scr: James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck
cin: Bert Flennon
Now John Ford takes on racism, in this drama about a Buffalo soldier court-martialed for raping a white woman and murdering her and her father. Woody Strode is Rutledge, but much of the focus, of course, is on his white defender, The Searchers' Jeffrey Hunter. Don't think I was in the right mood when I watched this, it was late and I was tired, and I remember everything being so telegraphed and insistent that it was...I don't know. Just couldn't get into it. Odd running gag sees the court-martial committee sneaking liquor.
Wild River
release: May 25
dir/pr: Elia Kazan
scr: Paul Osborn, from the novels Dunbar's Cove by Borden Deal and Mud on the Stars by William Bradford
cin: Ellsworth Fredericks
An agent of the Tennessee Valley Authority tries to convince a stubborn family to sell their land before the government floods it. Color by DeLuxe, shot by Ellsworth Fredericks, those elements combined are enough to recommend the film. But, someone once said, if the first thing you talk about is the cinematography, it was a lousy movie, and I need to reassure you that this isn’t so. This is about people being told by their government that the land they cultivated across generations, watered with their sweat and blood, isn’t theirs to keep; it doesn’t matter that the alternative is to drown, or to watch their neighbors drown, this is their home, and to own and run and live on your home as you please is supposed to be one of the great freedoms of this nation, etc. That’s Jo Van Fleet’s position, she’s steady and wonderful, and it makes sense, to a point. Montgomery Clift’s position is this: it just isn’t viable to stay, relocating and allowing that area to be flooded will save hundreds of lives, if not thousands, in this generation and others - relocate to save others from displacement! That’s the irony, yes, relocation to prevent displacement, flooding to prevent flooding. But it works, I guess. That’s modernization, and such things are necessary. Clift also has to deal with a town that doesn’t want too much modernizing - one thing to pay folks to leave their land, but to hire workers and pay everyone equally, no matter the color of their skin? Well, as you can see, there’s a lot happening in this movie, I haven’t even gotten to Lee Remick, but all of it is interesting, an incisive examination of government policies and the people they affect.
Tomorrow, a peek at the Best Picture winner!
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