In February 1960, my dad turned one, the famous Woolworth’s sit-in occurred in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the first stars were officially established on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a bizarre sidewalk tourist trap that still continues. In March, Korda’s famous portrait of Che Guevara was taken, the United States sent 3500 troops to Vietnam, and my mom turned one. And in cinemas, you had these offerings:
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond
release: February 3
nominations: Best Costume Design - Black-and-White (Howard Shoup)
dir: Budd Boetticher
pr: Milton Sperling
scr: Joseph Landon
cin: Lucien Ballard
Gangster films blew up this year, especially of the docudrama variety. Yes, Legs Diamond was a real person, a thief and heist man whose ambitions brought him money, power, and a reputation for being unkillable. Whether we should count this biopic as giving him the glamour treatment or just being too cheap to properly convey the era, I’m not sure, all I know is that this 1920s NYC is empty and spotless, no personality in the streets or in the apartments where these people supposedly lived. The movie never really rises above this patina of phoniness, an experience worthier of a shrug than applause.
Visit to a Small Planet
release: February 4
nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Black-and-White (Hal Pereira / Walter H. Tyler / Sam Comer / Arthur Krams)
dir: Norman Taurog
pr: Hal B. Wallis
scr: Edmund Beloin / Henry Garson, from the play by Gore Vidal
cin: Loyal Griggs
Jerry Lewis does his grating little boy voice and stupid faces once again, here as a silk pajama’d alien who comes to Earth and learns what it means to be human. Apparently, the source play is much feistier in its criticism of Cold War paranoia and American society; the movie, despite some fine effects and a surprisingly hilarious episode at a beatnik cafe, is neither feisty nor interesting.
Jazz on a Summer’s Day
release: February 11
dir/pr: Bert Stern
scr: Albert D’Annibale / Arnold Perl
cin: Aram Avalon / Raymond Phelan / Bert Stern
Concert documentary takes in the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, with excursions to hotel room rehearsals, locals chilling, and the regatta. Bliss from the very first note. One thing I’ve always liked about concert documentaries is the anthropological study they make of the audience and the times. Lots of cigarettes, sure, it’s 1958, but you also sense that this a society in the cusp of change: shirtless, sweaty rehearsals in hotel rooms; open necking between the youths at the windows; interracial couples openly expressing affection in their safe space, just nine years before Loving v. Virginia. Louis Armstrong performs live one of my favorites, “Rocking Chair,” giving me goosebumps; Mahalia Jackson performs live “The Lord’s Prayer” as the sun rises, moving me to tears. Riches abound.
Sink the Bismarck!
release: February 11
dir: Lewis Gilbert
pr: John Brabourne
scr: Edmund H. North, from the novel The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck by C.S. Forester
cin: Christopher Challis
Documents the British attempts to take out Nazi Germany's most formidable battleship in 1941. Kenneth More grounds things as the all-business Captain Stephens, who commands operations from a clandestine underground facility in London - but, of course, this is a movie, so it is not enough that the world is at risk, his son is also a pilot who goes missing following an encounter with the Bismarck. That’s fine, that’s war, and it chips at Stephens’ otherwise cold demeanor, but add to that the sensitive female assistant… Well, anyway, it’s tasteful enough, and such narrative elements don’t distract from the real excitement of seeing operatives on land and at sea collaborating to bring down the un-bring-downable. History marvelously told.
The Last Voyage
release: February 19
nominations: Best Special Effects (Augie Lohman)
dir/scr: Andrew L. Stone
pr: Andrew L. Stone / Virginia L. Stone
cin: Hal Mohr
A boiler explosion dooms a luxury liner, and we experience in real time (I think?) the race to survive. Few frills, many thrills, the heart provided by a young family, with Mom and daughter trapped in separate locations. Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone, who played siblings in Written on the Wind, play the couple. George Sanders feels oddly too big a name for his subdued role as the captain, but it works. The direct approach mostly works, buoyed by the effects work and cinematography. I doubt there’s a Poseidon Adventure without this movie!
Heller in Pink Tights
release: March 1
dir: George Cukor
pr: Marcello Girosi / Carlo Ponti
scr: Dudley Nichols / Walter Bernstein, from the novel Heller with a Gun by Louis L’Amour
cin: Harold Lipstein
A theatrical troupe travels the West, one step ahead of creditors. Edith Head did the costumes, which I mention because, well, they’re worth mentioning, gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. Eileen Heckart and Margaret O’Brien provide comic relief, though I suppose it already is a comedy. Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren are very good in the lead roles, but I don’t know if he’s exactly the right choice, y’know? Widely regarded as a misfire, including by director Cukor, but I had a good time.
Can-Can
release: March 11
nominations: Best Musical Score (Nelson Riddle), Best Costume Design - Color (Irene Sharaff)
dir: Walter Lang
pr: Jack Cummings
scr: Dorothy Kingsley / Charles Lederer, from the musical play written by Abe Burrows
cin: William H. Daniels
A young judge tries to enact the ban on the notorious can-can, but falls for the dancer who’s making it a sensation. I think that’s the best way I can describe the plot, though it makes it sound like Louis Jourdan’s judge is the leading man, when actually he shares those duties with Frank Sinatra, who plays the boyfriend of the dancer, played by Shirley MacLaine. Maurice Chevalier is also here, of course. When Vincente Minnelli’s Meet Me in St. Louis was a hit, Walter Lang made the fair-and-family-themed musical State Fair; two years after Minnelli’s Oscar-winning Gigi, Lang presents a Parisian musical-sex comedy featuring two of that film’s stars. And once again, Lang does not merely imitate or cash in, but delivers a fine, fun film. It helps, of course, that it’s a Cole Porter musical: Chevalier does “Just One of Those Things,” Sinatra does “It’s All Right with Me,” Jourdan does “You Do Something to Me,” MacLaine and Sinatra do “Let’s Do It” … it’s a hit parade!
Seven Thieves
release: March 12
nominations: Best Costume Design - Black-and-White (Bill Thomas)
dir: Henry Hathaway
pr: Sydney Boehm
scr: Sydney Boehm, from the novel by Max Catto
cin: Sam Leavitt
Group plans a casino heist in Monte Carlo. Suspenseful, entertaining. Rod Steiger an unlikely but effective lead here. Joan Collins and Eli Wallach are pretty good. The opening credits are groovy. A lark.
The Cranes Are Flying
release: March 21
dir/pr: Mikhail Kalatozov
scr: Viktor Rozov, from his play
cin: Sergey Urusevskiy
A familiar narrative, in which young lovers are separated by War and its consequences. This one looks specifically at the effect of World War II on Russia, with our heroine moved from Moscow to Siberia and back, and characters that can evoke noble suffering or ignoble exploitation. Striking imagery: every scene, whether it’s an epic crowd scene or an intimate romantic clutch, is uniquely staged; no “shot-reverse shot” construction here, but genuine artistry in lighting and angles, editing that captures the chaos of crowds, the unbound flight of dreams, moments of pleasurable peace and of unfathomable violence! It reminded me of Cuaron’s Roma, in that it appeared to be so thoughtfully constructed visually, you almost don’t notice how calculated it is emotionally, how hollow it winds up feeling as it insistently wrings your tears. There’s no doubting the technical craft on display, but in service of what?
Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
release: March 31
dir: Charles Walters
pr: Joe Pasternak
scr: Isobel Lennart, from the book by Jean Kerr
cin: Robert J. Bronner
The dynamics of a family change when they move out to the country; the matriarch renovates the house and tries to maintain domestic bliss while the patriarch pursues his new career as drama critic. I don’t know that I particularly buy David Niven’s critic being such a shit when his wife Doris Day does community theatre, it’s that extra morsel of Too Much in his whole Losing One’s Soul To Cocktail Party Stardom arc. Niven and Day do such a fine job establishing this couple that the central conflict just doesn’t work. Charming together, of course, and I laughed and enjoyed myself, I’d even watch it again, but it’s a formula at work.
Tomorrow: John Ford, Elia Kazan, and a Sidney Lumet/Tennessee Williams combo!
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