Here are my Top Ten films of 1960, with apologies to The Facts of Life (my #11), Hiroshima mon amour, Jazz on a Summer's Day, Lola Montès, Our Man in Havana, and Spartacus. Beginning with #10…
A Bucket of Blood
dir/pr: Roger Corman
scr: Charles B. Griffith
cin: Jacques R. Marquette
and
The Little Shop of Horrors
dir/pr: Roger Corman
scr: Charles B. Griffith
cin: Archie R. Dalzell (The Little Shop of Horrors)
I don't usually like doing ties, or to reveal any ranking of my Top Ten until I close with the final Hollmann Awards, but in this case, it couldn't be avoided. Tying for the tenth spot are A Bucket of Blood and The Little Shop of Horrors, both Roger Corman productions about nebbish losers suddenly becoming the toasts of the town thanks to their murderous contributions to their places of employment - respectively, a beatnik artists' colony cafe and a Skid Row florist, both aiming for a respectability they cannot afford - with tongues firmly in cheek, their limited budgets obvious, yet strangely effective thanks to their depiction of outsider communities and the people within them...and their off-kilter sense of humor that finds wordplay, absurdism, and gore all equally amusing.
The remaining nine in alphabetical order:
The Apartment
dir/pr: Billy Wilder
scr: Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond
cin: Joseph LaShelle
A superlative piece of adult filmmaking that faces the harsh realities of 20th-century corporate life and sexual politics but does so with disarming humor, a film that still feels relevant in a world that needed #MeToo even as it condemned it for going "too far", and yet, after all the soul-sucking ladder-climbing, abuses of power, and suicide attempts, it still cpntains deep reservoirs of warmth and hope.
Elmer Gantry
dir: Richard Brooks
pr: Bernard Smith
scr: Richard Brooks, from the novel by Sinclair Lewis
cin: John Alton
A focused epic of America's unique relationship with both Religion and Entertainment, depicting the inevitable intertwining of the two in a culture that values commerce, profit, and "return customers" above all else, and yet, even as it looks warily upon the manipulation of the public and the ease with which congregants become stans become enemies, acknowledges that not all participants are cynical charlatans...and maybe that's also part of the problem.
Exodus
dir/pr: Otto Preminger
scr: Dalton Trumbo, from the novel by Leon Uris
cin: Sam Leavitt
Uses its scope to address the thorniness of the still-controversial partition and establishment of the State of Israel, populating the drama not with certainty but with the exact opposite, its ensemble full of contradictory characters who want to live in peace but bomb innocents to achieve it, who believe in the humanity of the Jewish people but wish to convert them to prove it - in short, it says history is made and politics determined by flawed, moody people.
House of Usher
dir/pr: Roger Corman
scr: Richard Matheson, from "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
cin: Floyd Crosby
A movie that’s been with me since before my voice changed, starring my favorite actor, Vincent Price, in the first of many collaborations between him and the aforementioned Roger Corman, presenting an exemplar of what can be achieved when the budget is modest but the talent is not: a familiar work in the public domain, unexpected resources both in and out of the studio space (the haunted road to the titular house was filmed in the aftermath of a wildfire), never skimping on the details that matter, whether its the moody score, atmospheric sets, suggestive sound design, or genuinely demonic artwork.
North West Frontier
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
I love an adventure tale, especially one with a unique setting and conflict - in this case, how to transport a British-backed, pre-pubescent Indian sovereign across the country in a decommissioned wooden train in the middle of a Moslem revolution - with a rousing score, beautiful cinematography, and an ensemble of some of the industry's best (Bacall! More! Hyde-White! Lom!) flexing their muscles.
Psycho
dir/pr: Alfred Hitchcock
scr: Joseph Stefano, from the novel by Robert Bloch
cin: John L. Russell
Any discussion of the cinema of 1960 is required to include this among the defining films of the year, amomg the best films of the year, using the language of cinema - the editing, the structure of the story, the direction of certain performers - to tell a thriller that makes the audience identify with the criminals, whether they're revealed to be predator or prey, while the "heroes" remain anonymous and dull, a film that interrogates how films manipulate our principles.
The Virgin Spring
dir: Ingmar Bergman
pr: Ingmar Bergman / Allan Ekelund
scr: Ulla Isaksson
cin: Sven Nykvist
Beautiful, every shot an arresting image; thematically, I love the tension between the pious Christians and the feral Odinists of olde, a household divided by faiths, that tension further exemplified by the sun-dappled, pastoral beauty where the narrative's horrific rape takes place, that tension and complexity compunded by a vengeance that's just as horrific as the crime - it's a movie that constantly has us questioning how we're reacting to what we're watching.
Where the Boys Are
dir: Henry Levin
pr: Joe Pasternak
scr: George Wells, from the novel by Glendon Swarthout
cin: Robert J. Bronner
A foundational text not just for South Florida cinema but South Florida culture, Spring Break in America, and apparently Harmony Korine in the 2010s; also, I love a romp, and this one brings laughs, drunken fun, and musical numbers while actually respecting its cast of collegiates (if even they are confidently opinionated in their inexperience), engaging in honest conversations about sexual maturity and consent, and allowing Paula Prentiss and Ft. Lauderdale to shine.
Wild River
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
I could mute it and still sit watching without budging, agog at the various shades of blue and tan they find in the landscape of the Tennessee Valley and in the faces and wardrobe of Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick, the former a shining example of how even when the government does do its job, there's still going to be resistance because, well, people are people, and this country especially emphasized the individual's right to live as they please, even if doing so means sabotaging a project that could potentially save hundreds of lives now and thousands in future. It's the great American conflict.
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