Imitation Kurosawa: 1960, Part Eight

In October 1960, JFK floated the idea of a Peace Corps while Khruschev banged his shoe at the United Nations. And at the movies:

Got Me Feeling Like A...: 1960, Part Seven

In September 1960, OPEC is founded, The Flintstones premieres on ABC, and the first-ever televised presidential debate takes place between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. And there was much at the cinema, too, but the big story was Psycho.

Psycho was a bit of a gamble for director-producer Alfred Hitchcock, who insisted on making it, even when his parent studio Paramount balked. But Hitchcock loved a challenge, and making a commercial film out of a particularly nasty horror novel like Robert Bloch's was certainly one of his biggest. Ultimately, he filmed on the Universal lot, using the quick-acting crew from his then-popular television program, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, waving his usual fee in exchange for 60% stake, and financing much of it himself; Paramount would only have to distribute. He broke all the rules: the heroine was a criminal, the most sympathetic character is a serial killer, a toilet flushes on screen...he even broke the rules of exhibition, instilling a policy where, for fear of spoilers, no one was admitted into the cinema once the film had begun (at a time when people would wander freely once they bought a ticket - it's where the phrase, "This is where we came in," originated from). 

The film was, as you must know, a massive hit, which made Hitchcock's "deal" with Paramount a sound financial decision on his part. The sets used for the film are still on display and visited by thousands of tourists daily at Universal Studios Hollywood's Backlot Tour. Bernard Herrmann's iconic score and the shower scene it accompanies are recognizable even by people who've never seen the film, so often have they been referenced and parodied. But the original still entices, and there are retro screenings (like the one I attended back in 2000) all year round, all over the world . There are even action figures and computer games, three sequels and one remake, and a surprisingly well-received television adaptation. Psycho is its own economy, and it all started here, in September 1960 - among these films:

Roger Corman Double Festure: 1960, Part Six

August 1960 saw the continuing liberation of African colonies into their own nations - that was the theme of 1960, which was deemed the Year of Africa, but August saw the largest number: between August 1 and August 17, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Niger, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo (the great 2024 documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat gets into this), and Gabon all became liberated from France, and Dahomey from France and Portugal, joining seven other African nations that had decolonized earlier that year. Seventeen nations in all established independent governments by the end of the year. 

Meanwhile, at American cinemas...:

Genre Pics: 1960, Part Five

July 1960 saw the introduction of the 50-star flag of the United States of America, one year after Hawaii was welcomed as the 50th State. It ended with the Woolworth's counter officially serving its first Black customer and the Republicans naming Richard Nixon their nominee for President of the United States. Meanwhile, at the movies, one of cinema's greatest franchises began its eight-film, four-year run, cementing its star as the King of Horror...

Among other film releases, of course:

Delays: 1960, Part Four

Well, it's been a week, but things get busy in life. Let's return to Summer 1960.

In June 1960, two Best Picture nominees debuted in cinemas. One, The Apartment, would finish at #8 in the Top 10 Box Office Performers of the Year, win Best Picture, and inspire a Neil Simon-Burt Bacharach-Hal David musical called Promises, Promises, which won many Tonys across the decades and gave us "I'm Never Gonna Fall in Love Again." The other, Elmer Gantry, so burrowed into my brain when I watched it in college that I then read the book, gave the book to my mother, got the opera on CD from the library, plotted out a remake, and still quote to this day.

They are but two of the ten releases I want to talk about today:

Eight Years Later, The Year After: 1960, Part Three

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:

Now You Has Jazz: 1960, Part Two

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 Beginning: 1960, Part One

This month, we focus on the films of 1960, including Alfred Hitchcock's final Best Director nomination, the film for which he is probably best known - Psycho.

We'll come to that later this week, and even more detail next week. For today, we focus on the beginning of the year, the beginning of a new decade. It's been fifteen years since the end of World War II. We are in the thick of the Cold War: this is the decade of the Space Race, of the Bay of Pigs and the Missiles of October, of the Vietnam War, though all that comes later. This is also the decade of great social change all over the world, and you see that reflected even just among these eleven films. The grip the studios had on the culture will loosen this decade, as you can see in the below: more independent films, more films willing to take on sex and violence, more films challenging censors and societal norms, and coming out champions! 

Here we begin:

The Last of It: 1945, Part Nine

November and December 1945. By the end of the year, the Nuremberg Trials begin, revolution breaks out in Indonesia, and 51 nations join the United Nations. The year began with a world at war and ended with a world determined to find peace, even as some nations were still struggling to establish their independence from colonial rule (not just Indonesia; India was also trying to get the Brits out, while civil war continued in China).

Hollywood-wise, the heavy-hitters at the Oscars all came from the last two months of the year. Deliberately saved 'til the last minute by the studios, or just recency bias from weary voters momentarily looking up from post-War news? Whatever the reason, eleven of the twelve following films wound up nominated for Academy Awards:

Strike!: 1945, Part Eight

October 1945. Now that the war's officially over, there's some tidying up to do. Remaining Japanese troops in Taiwan surrender, the Nazi Party is officially dissolved, and 29 countries come together to establish the United Nations, making Woodrow Wilson's dream a reality; throughout the year, more will join. 

In Hollywood, a six-month strike by the Set Decorators' union came to a head as a fight broke out between scabs, police, Warner Bros. security, and 300 strikers. The fallout contributed to the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1946, limiting the power of labor unions, and the slow dissolution of the Conference of Studio Unions, which spearheaded the strike.

Though the strike caused delays on films like Duel in the Sun, for the most part, studios had a backlog of films to release. The month Hollywood Black Friday occurred, here's what the output looked like:

Bangers, All: 1945, Part Seven

August and September 1945. This is the end of the War. In August, the atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Emperor Hirohito steps down in acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration. That same month, the British government is lobbied by the Zionist World Congress regarding the creation of Israel, while in Vietnam, the Viet Minh takes over Hanoi, sparking the August Revolution. The French are driven to the South by September, dividing the country in two. September also sees this happening in Korea, where in the North, the Soviets begin trumpeting Kim Il Sung as a war hero, while in the South, an American Military Government is established. The stage is now set for the next century of conflicts. War, it never ends...

Stateside at the movies, meanwhile...: 

Wives and Lovers: 1945, Part Six

July 1945. Berlin is divided between East and West, a situation that will remain in place until 1990. The Philippines are officially liberated. The Japanese begin peace negotiations, and the Potsdam Conference avers that there will be no negotiations, but rather unconditional surrender. And the first atomic bomb is successfully tested in New Mexico, ushering in the atomic age.

And at the cinemas, we were celebrating Christmas in July:

Good and Bad Propaganda: 1945, Part Five

May and June 1945. The War in Europe is over. The enemies have surrendered, high-ranking Nazi officials have killed themselves, prisoners are taken...some, like the rocket scientists, are adopted, their skills being of use to the Allies. But the War in the Pacific is still going, though by June 21, the US scores a victory at Okinawa. It will take some time before the production of war films slows down, and they'll never really go away, not for this war. Still, you can sense that Hollywood saw the end was near, for even considering when things must have filmed before their release dates, only five of the thirteen films below deal with the war, even ephemerally...

Death of a Dictator: 1945, Part Four

April 1945. The Battle of Okinawa begins. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies, and Harry S. Truman becomes President of the United States. Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen are liberated. Mussolini and his intimates are publicly executed. Hitler privately commits suicide in his bunker. That's one month: April 1st, Battle of Okinawa; April 30th, Hitler's suicide. 

And in this single month with all this history...here are the movies we got:

A Director's Debut: 1945, Part Three

February and March 1945. Overseas, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin meet for the Yalta Conference, where they plot not just peace but how to carve up the world to best satisfy their respective empires once the war ends. On his return, Roosevelt addresses Congress for what will be his last time. The Battle of Iwo Jima rages across five weeks, while the Battle of Manila lasts exactly one month and ends in liberation for the Philippines' capital. Secret negotiations between the SS and the CIA for the surrender of Axis areas begin. Tokyo is devastated in a two-day bombing raid that kills 100,000 citizens, the most destructive air attack of the War.

And back in Hollywood? Well, in March, the 17th Academy Awards are held, resulting in Going My Way winning Best Picture (and more, as you know). March also saw the feature film debut of Elia Kazan.

Kazan was no stranger to Hollywood, he already had at least two films under his belt, including Blues in the Night...but as an actor. That's what he studied at Yale, and that's what he pursued when he joined the Group Theatre in 1932 - he continued in that vocation even as he began his career as a stage director. After appearing in the film Blues in the Night in 1941, he directed the legendary original production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, starring Tallulah Bankhead and Fredric March. So, he becomes a greater director than actor, and takes the Hollywood job that still keeps him close to the spirit of New York, even if it's filmed on the Fox soundstages: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. His first film, and it wins an Oscar. But we'll get into that later this month.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn came out amid a Disney anthology, a "prestige horror" production, and Universal programmers for Abbott & Costello and Holmes & Watson. See for yourself:

The Horse and His Girl: 1945, Part Two

January 1945. Seven months after Allied forces land on the beaches of Normandy, the War continues, but the end is nigh. The Nazis are running. France hasn't been overrun by the Vichy collaborators since the previous August. MacArthur's returned to the Phillippines. And halfway through the month, Hitler's in the bunker.

And Hollywood? The entertainment continued, as did the war films, as did the not-war-but-totally-wink-wink-The War films. As you can see:

Crime and Christmas: 1944, Part Nine

Our last batch of reviews before we get into the Oscar categories themselves:

How You Like Me Now?: 1944, Part Eight

We're coming to an interesting point of 1944. The most famous film of today's collection was made three years before its release, did OK at the box office, and received no Academy Award nominations. And yet! It has endured! That and more, just below...

The Long Game: 1944, Part Seven

The final three Best Picture nominees are briefly glanced herein, and one of them, tragically, lost every single one of its nominations. But when I tell you that, and then when I tell you the five nominees were Double Indemnity, Gaslight, Going My Way, Since You Went Away, and Wilson, I bet you won't correctly guess who the sole "loser" was...

Page to Stage to Screen: 1944, Part Six

Mark Twain, Anton Chekhov, Eugene O’Neill: July 1944 was a month of literary giants.