1968--The Year in Review

An incredible year…maybe my favorite of the decade. Music takes over in a new way, with Head, Oliver!, Yellow Submarine, Monterey Pop, Wild in the Streets, Sympathy for the Devil, Petulia, Funny Girl, and even The Producers. Horror comes into a new age with Targets, Rosemary's Baby, Hour of the Wolf, Night of the Living Dead, Witchfinder General, and The Devil Rides Out. The crime movie is re-imagined with Bullitt, Coogan's Bluff, The Detective, Pretty Poison, The Split, The Thomas Crown Affair, and The Boston Strangler. But one profound, gorgeous movie justifiably towers over all. There are many masterpieces surrounding it–in fact, the first 20 works I list are mandatory viewing. But, for me, this year’s victor will always be the single best film that’s ever been made. There is no question about it. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold. 

PICTURE: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (UK/US, Stanley Kubrick)
(2nd: Once Upon a Time in the West (US/Italy, Sergio Leone), followed by:
Oliver! (UK, Carol Reed)
Targets (US, Peter Bogdanovich)
Petulia (US, Richard Lester)
The Color of Pomegranates (USSR, Sergei Paradjanov)
Head (US, Bob Rafelson)
Rosemary’s Baby (US, Roman Polanski)
if… (UK, Lindsay Anderson)
Yellow Submarine (UK, George Dunning)
Monterey Pop (US, D.A. Pennebaker)
Night of the Living Dead (US, George A. Romero)
Shame (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
High School (US, Frederick Wiseman)
Faces (US, John Cassavetes)
Bullitt (US, Peter Yates)
Planet of the Apes (US, Franklin J. Schaffner)
Stolen Kisses (France, Francois Truffaut)
Hour of the Wolf (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
Romeo and Juliet (UK/Italy, Franco Zeffirelli)
Mandabi (France/Senegal, Ousmane Sembene)
The Lion in Winter (UK, Anthony Harvey)
Witchfinder General (UK, Michael Reeves)
Les Biches (France, Claude Chabrol)
In the Year of the Pig (US, Emile de Antonio)
The Milky Way (France/Spain, Luis Buñuel)
Rachel, Rachel (US, Paul Newman)
The Swimmer (US, Frank Perry)
Pretty Poison (US, Noel Black)
The Producers (US, Mel Brooks)
Dark of the Sun (UK, Jack Cardiff)
Signs of Life (West Germany, Werner Herzog)
The Odd Couple (US, Gene Saks)
Hell in the Pacific (US, John Boorman)
Wild in the Streets (US, Barry Shear)
Play Dirty (US, André de Toth)
Danger: Diabolik (Italy/France, Mario Bava)
Isadora (UK, Karel Reisz)
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (US, William Greaves)
Madigan (US, Don Siegel)
Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba, Tomas Gutierrez Aléa)
The Party (US, Blake Edwards)
Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime (France, Alain Resnais)
Sympathy for the Devil (France/UK, Jean-Luc Godard)
Coogan's Bluff (US, Don Siegel)
The Shooting (US, Monte Hellman)
The Split (US, Gordon Flemyng)
The Thomas Crown Affair (US, Norman Jewison)
The Subject Was Roses (US, Ulu Grosbard)
Funny Girl (US, William Wyler)
The Detective (US, Gordon Douglas)
The Devil Rides Out (UK, Terence Fisher)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (US, Robert Ellis Miller)
Greetings (US, Brian De Palma)
The Great Silence (Italy, Sergio Corbucci)
Where Eagles Dare (US, Brian G. Hutton)
Countdown (US, Robert Altman)
Thérèse and Isabelle (France, Radley Metzger)
The Killing of Sister George (UK, Robert Aldrich)
The Night They Raided Minsky’s (US, William Friedkin)
The Boston Strangler (US, Richard Fleischer)
Barbarella (France/UK, Roger Vadim)
Charly (US, Ralph Nelson)
Psych-Out (US, Richard Rush))



ACTOR: Boris Karloff, TARGETS (2nd: Henry Fonda, Once Upon a Time in the West, followed by: Steve McQueen, Bullitt; George C. Scott, Petulia; Alan Arkin, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; Peter O’Toole, The Lion in Winter; Vincent Price, Witchfinder General; Zero Mostel, The Producers; Malcolm McDowell, if…; Ron Moody, Oliver!) 

 
ACTRESS: Mia Farrow, ROSEMARY'S BABY (2nd: Joanne Woodward, Rachel, Rachel, followed by: Katharine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter; Tuesday Weld, Pretty Poison; Liv Ullmann, Shame; Vanessa Redgrave, Isadora; Julie Christie, Petulia; Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl; Stéphane Audran, Les Biches; Patricia Neal, The Subject Was Roses)



SUPPORTING ACTOR: Gene Wilder, THE PRODUCERS (2nd: Douglas Rain, 2001: A Space Odyssey, followed by: Jack Wild, Oliver!; Roddy McDowall, Planet of the Apes; Harry Secombe, Oliver!; Seymour Cassel, Faces; Jack Albertson, The Subject Was Roses; Kenneth Mars, The Producers; Sidney Blackmer, Rosemary’s Baby; Tim O'Kelly, Targets)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Ruth Gordon, ROSEMARY'S BABY (2nd: Lynn Carlin, Faces, followed by: Kim Hunter, Planet of the Apes; Shirley Knight, Petulia; Estelle Parsons, Rachel, Rachel; Sondra Locke, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; Billie Whitelaw, Charlie Bubbles; Coral Browne, The Killing of Sister George; Kay Medford, Funny Girl; Lee Remick, The Detective)



DIRECTOR: Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (2nd: Sergio Leone, Once Upon a Time in the West, followed by: Richard Lester, Petulia; Carol Reed, Oliver!; Sergei Bondarchuck, War and Peace; Sergei Paradjanov, The Color of Pomegranates; Roman Polanski, Rosemary's Baby; Peter Bogdanovich, Targets; Lindsay Anderson, if...; Bob Rafelson, Head)



NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: WAR AND PEACE (USSR, Sergei Bondarchuk) (2nd: The Color of Pomegranates (USSR, Sergei Paradjanov), followed by: Shame (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman); Stolen Kisses (France, Francois Truffaut); Hour of the Wolf (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman); Mandabi (France/Senegal, Ousmane Sembene); Les Biches (France, Claude Chabrol); The Milky Way (France/Spain, Luis Buñuel); Signs of Life (West Germany, Werner Herzog); Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba, Tomas Gutierrez Aléa); Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime (France, Alain Resnais))

ANIMATED FEATURE: YELLOW SUBMARINE (UK, George Dunning)



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: MONTEREY POP (US, D.A. Pennebaker) (2nd: In the Year of the Pig (US, Emile de Antonio), followed by: High School (US, Frederick Wiseman); Sympathy for the Devil (France/UK, Jean-Luc Godard))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Sergio Leone, Sergio Donati, Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (2nd: Mel Brooks, The Producers, followed by: John Cassavetes, Faces; Ousmane Sembene, Mandabi; Peter Bogdanovich and Polly Platt, Targets) 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (2nd: Roman Polanski, Rosemary's Baby, followed by: James Goldman, The Lion in Winter; Sergei Bondarchuk and Vasily Solovyov, War and Peace; Lawrence B. Marcus and Barbara Turner, Petulia)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: WHY MAN CREATES (US, Saul Bass) (2nd: The Dove (US, George Coe and Anthony Lover), followed by: Pas de Deux (Canada, Norman McLaren); LBJ (Cuba, Santiago Alvarez); The Big Shave (US, Martin Scorsese))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: WINDY DAY (US, John and Faith Hubley) (2nd: Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (US, Wolfgang Reitherman); The Magic Pear Tree (US, Charles Swenson); Mickey Mouse in Vietnam (US, Lee Savage); The Alphabet (US, David Lynch))

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Geoffrey Unsworth and John Alcott, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (2nd: Tonino Delli Colli, Once Upon a Time in the West, followed by: Yu-Lan Chan, Anatoly Petritsky, and Aleksandr Shelenkov, War and Peace; Pasquelino De Santis, Romeo and Juliet; Oswald Morris, Oliver!)

ART DIRECTION: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, Oliver!, Once Upon A Time in the West, War and Peace, The Shoes of the Fisherman

COSTUME DESIGN: OLIVER!, Romeo and Juliet, War and Peace, The Lion in Winter, Petulia



FILM EDITING: BULLITT, Petulia, Oliver!, Once Upon a Time in the West, Head 

SOUND: BULLITT, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Oliver!, Monterey Pop, The Odd Couple



ORIGINAL SCORE: Ennio Morricone, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (2nd: Jerry Goldsmith, Planet of the Apes, followed by: Krzysztof Komeda, Rosemary’s Baby; Lalo Schifrin, Bullitt; Neal Hefti, The Odd Couple)



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: John Green, OLIVER! (2nd: George Martin, Yellow Submarine, followed by: Walter Scharf, Funny Girl)



ORIGINAL SONG: "Porpoise Song" from HEAD (Music and lyrics by Gerry Goffin and Carole King) (2nd: "Springtime for Hitler" from The Producers (Music and lyrics by Mel Brooks), followed by: "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (Music by Michael Legrand, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman); "Circle Sky" from Head (Music and lyrics by Michael Nesmith); "The Shape of Things to Come" from Wild in the Streets (Music and lyrics by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil); "Only a Northern Song" from Yellow Submarine (Music and lyrics by George Harrison); "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman); "It's All Too Much" from Yellow Submarine (Music and lyrics by George Harrison); "As We Go Along" from Head (Music and lyrics by Carole King and Toni Stern); "For the Love of Ivy" for For Love of Ivy (Music by Quincy Jones, lyrics by Bob Russell); "Wild in the Streets" from Wild in the Streets (Music and lyrics by Les Baxter and Guy Hemric); "Barbarella" from Barbarella (Music and lyrics by Bob Crewe and Charles Fox); "Daddy's Song" from Head (Music and lyrics by Harry Nilsson); "Hey Bulldog" from Yellow Submarine (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, Ice Station Zebra

MAKEUP: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, Planet of the Apes, Oliver!

1945--The Year in Review

The American film industry relaxed in 1945 while the rest of the world took a life-giving, newly post-war breath. In fact, this period informed the world of a fully vibrant cinematic cosmos outside of the US studio system (even though, really, on American screens, many of the year's best films wouldn't be seen for years to come). But, for the purposes of this and all subsequent and previous overviews, time and space have been equaled--in other words, we're going by ORIGINAL release years in this ongoing series of articles, regardless of WHERE these movies were first seen. In 1945, Marcel Carne's devastating, gorgeously romantic French epic would outclass nearly equally supreme works from British directors David Lean and Michael Powell, Russian auteur Sergei Eisenstein, and Italy's Roberto Rossellini, whose intimate wartime tale would propel its dynamic star Anna Magnani into the stratosphere. This would also be the first year that no American actors (in my estimation) deserve the top accolades. Britain's Boris Karloff is finally recognized, this time for his eerie, villainous performance in The Body Snatcher. Similarly, Michael Redgrave--the great patriarch of Britain's luminous acting family--is noted for his show as a ventriloquist possessed by his alter ego in the benchmark horror anthology Dead of Night. David Lean's Brief Encounter was a tense but cherished look into a chancy wartime affair, with Trevor Howard and the superb Celia Johnson as leads, while Michael Powell's "I Know Where I'm Going!" further deepened the UK's continually essential contribution to movies. As far as the Oscars were concerned, Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend prevailed (in my opinion, this was a make-up award for not giving due to Double Indemnity the year before). Even so, The Lost Weekend was the first film to attack the scourge of alcoholism overtaking many World War II veterans (this is why, I think, the film won as many accolades as it did). Still, as far as American cinema is concerned, John Ford's complicated, downbeat war drama They Were Expendable is the most mature and elaborate US selection of the year--it's a war film unlike any other. But there's no way it could compete with the developing, enveloping brilliance of world cinema. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: CHILDREN OF PARADISE (France, Marcel Carné)
(2nd: Ivan the Terrible, Part One: Ivan Grozyni (USSR, Sergei Eisenstein), followed by:
Brief Encounter (UK, David Lean)
They Were Expendable (US, John Ford)
Rome: Open City (Italy, Roberto Rossellini)
"I Know Where I’m Going!" (UK, Michael Powell)
Detour (US, Edgar G. Ulmer)
Scarlet Street (US, Fritz Lang)
Leave Her to Heaven (US, John M. Stahl)
The Lost Weekend (US, Billy Wilder)
Spellbound (US, Alfred Hitchcock)
Mildred Pierce (US, Michael Curtiz)
The Southerner (US, Jean Renoir)
Dead of Night (UK, Robert Hamer, Alberto Cavalcanti, Basil Dearden, and Charles Crichton)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (US, Albert Lewin)
The Body Snatcher (US, Robert Wise)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (US, Elia Kazan)
Blithe Spirit (UK, David Lean)
And Then There Were None (US, René Clair)
Anchors Aweigh (US, George Sidney)
Christmas in Connecticut (US, Peter Godfrey)
The Clock (US, Vincente Minnelli)
A Walk in the Sun (US, Lewis Milestone))

ACTOR: Boris Karloff, THE BODY SNATCHER (2nd: Nikolai Cherkassov, Ivan the Terrible, Part One: Ivan Grozyni, followed by: Jean-Louis Barrault, Children of Paradise; Edward G. Robinson, Scarlet Street; Trevor Howard, Brief Encounter; Ray Milland, The Lost Weekend; James Mason, The Seventh Veil; Rex Harrison, Blithe Spirit)



ACTRESS: Celia Johnson, BRIEF ENCOUNTER (2nd: Joan Crawford, Mildred Pierce, followed by: Anna Magnani, Rome: Open City; Wendy Hiller, "I Know Where I’m Going!"; Joan Bennett, Scarlet Street; Ingrid Bergman, Spellbound; Arletty, Children of Paradise; Gene Tierney, Leave Her to Heaven; Judy Garland, The Clock)


SUPPORTING ACTOR: Michael Redgrave, DEAD OF NIGHT (2nd: James Dunn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, followed by: Barry Fitzgerald, And Then There Were None; George Sanders, The Picture of Dorian Gray; Michael Chekhov, Spellbound; Robert Mitchum, The Story of G.I Joe; Frank Faylen, The Lost Weekend)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Angela Lansbury, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (2nd: Eve Arden, Mildred Pierce, followed by: Ann Blyth, Mildred Pierce; Peggy Ann Garner, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Margaret Rutherford, Blithe Spirit; Anne Revere, National Velvet)

DIRECTOR: Marcel Carné, CHILDREN OF PARADISE (2nd: Sergei Eisenstein, Ivan the Terrible, Part One: Ivan Grozyni, followed by: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, "I Know Where I’m Going!"; David Lean, Brief Encounter; Roberto Rossellini, Rome: Open City; John Ford, They Were Expendable; Edgar G. Ulmer, Detour; Billy Wilder, The Lost Weekend)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, "I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING!" (2nd: Sergio Amedei and Federico Fellini, Rome: Open City, followed by: Martin Goldsmith, Detour; Jacques Prevert, Children of Paradise; Sergei Eisenstein, Ivan the Terrible, Part One: Ivan Grozyni)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Noel Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean and Ronald Neame, BRIEF ENCOUNTER (2nd: Frank Wead, They Were Expendable, followed by: Ranald McDougall, Mildred Pierce; Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Dudley Nichols, And Then There Were None)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (Mervyn Le Roy) (2nd: A Story in Choreography for Camera (Maya Deren); Micro-Phonies (The Three Stooges; Eduard Bernds); If a Body Meets a Body (The Three Stooges; Jules White)

ANIMATED SHORT FILM: QUIET PLEASE! (Tom and Jerry; William Hanna and Joseph Barbera) (2nd: Hare Tonic (Bugs Bunny; Chuck Jones), followed by: The Bashful Buzzard (Robert Clampett); Life With Feathers (Friz Freling))
 

BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: John Seitz, THE LOST WEEKEND (2nd: Andrei Moskvin and Eduard Tisse, Ivan the Terrible, Part One: Ivan Grozyni, followed by: Harry Stradling, The Portrait of Dorian Gray; Roger Hubert, Children of Paradise; Robert Krasker, "I Know Where I'm Going!")

COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Leon Shamroy, LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (2nd: Leonard Smith, National Velvet, followed by: Robert Plank and Charles Boyle, Anchors Aweigh)

BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: THE PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY, Ivan the Terrible, Part One: Ivan Grozyni, Children of Paradise, "I Know Where I'm Going!", Mildred Pierce

COLOR ART DIRECTION: LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN, National Velvet, A Thousand and One Nights

BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: CHILDREN OF PARADISE, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Ivan the Terrible, Part One: Ivan Grozyni, Mildred Pierce, Blithe Spirit

COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: A SONG TO REMEMBER, Leave Her to Heaven, Wonder Man, A Thousand and One Nights

FILM EDITING: BRIEF ENCOUNTER, They Were Expendable, Rome: Open City, The Lost Weekend, Children of Paradise 

SOUND: THEY WERE EXPENDABLE, Wonder Man, Spellbound, Leave Her to Heaven, The Southerner



ORIGINAL SCORE: Miklos Rosza, SPELLBOUND (2nd: Miklos Rosza, The Lost Weekend, followed by: Sergei Prokoviev, Ivan the Terrible, Part One: Ivan Grozyni; Max Steiner, Mildred Pierce; Victor Young, Love Letters)

ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Georgie Stoll, ANCHORS AWEIGH (2nd: Miklos Rosza and Morris Stoloff, A Song to Remember, followed by: Alfred Newman and Charles Henderson, State Fair; Ray Heindorf and Max Steiner, Rhapsody in Blue; Ray Heindorf and Lou Forbes, Wonder Man)



ORIGINAL SONG: “Ac-cen-tu-ate The Positive” from HERE COME THE WAVES (Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer) (2nd: "It Might as Well Be Spring" from State Fair (Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II), followed by: "I Fall in Love Too Easily" from Anchors Aweigh  (Music by Jule Stein, lyrics by Sammy Cahn); "Love Letters" from Love Letters  (Music by Victor Young, lyrics by Eddie Heyman); "I'll Buy That Dream" from Sing Your Way Home (Music by Allie Wrubel, lyrics by Herb Magidson))

MAKEUP: IVAN THE TERRIBLE, PART ONE: IVAN GROZYNI, Children of Paradise, The Body Snatcher

My 20 Favorite Actors

Seeing as how the 20 Favorite Actresses meme has taken hold of my film-blogging cohorts so completely, I see no reason to delay in starting a 20 Favorite Actors meme, too. It was tough picking my crew (and remember: they're my faves, not the best), but without delay, here are my choices, with twenty runners-up close behind:

Clint Eastwood (key films: Dirty Harry, The Good The Bad and the Ugly, The Beguiled, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Million Dollar Baby, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, In The Line of Fire, Bronco Billy, Escape from Alcatraz, White Hunter Black Heart, Play Misty for Me, A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Gauntlet, Tightrope, A Perfect World, Paint Your Wagon, Two Mules for Sister Sara, Joe Kidd, Magnum Force, Kelly's Heroes, Unforgiven, Gran Torino, Trouble with the Curve)

James Stewart (key films: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Naked Spur, Winchester '73, Bend of the River, The Philadelphia Story, The Glenn Miller Story, Harvey, Anatomy of a Murder, The Stratton Story, The Man from Laramie, The Shop Around The Corner, The FBI Story, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Destry Rides Again, The Spirit of St. Louis, The Naked Spur, Broken Arrow, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Shootist)

Jack Nicholson (key films: Chinatown, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Five Easy Pieces, Terms of Endearment, Carnal Knowledge, The Shining, The Passenger, The Last Detail, Easy Rider, The Pledge, About Schmidt, Broadcast News, The Border, Prizzi's Honor, As Good As It Gets, The Terror, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Shooting, The Departed, Hell's Angels On Wheels, Tommy, The King of Marvin Gardens, Hoffa, Batman, Ironweed, Blood and Wine, A Few Good Men, The Witches of Eastwick, Ride in the Whirlwind)

Paul Newman (key films: Hud, Harper, The Hustler, Hombre, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Color of Money, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Verdict, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Sting, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, Nobody's Fool, Absence of Malice, The Left-Handed Gun, The Hudsucker Proxy, Road to Perdition, Torn Curtain, Cars, WUSA, Pocket Money, Twilight, Buffalo Bill and the Indians)

John Heard (key films: Chilly Scenes of Winter/Head Over Heels, Cutter's Way, Mindwalk, Heaven Help Us, Heartbeat, Between The Lines, The Sopranos, Home Alone, Big, After Hours, Cat People, The Trip to Bountiful, Beaches, Rambling Rose, C.H.U.D., Waterland, Pollack, In The Line of Fire, Animal Factory, Sweetland, Too Big to Fail, Sharknado)

Robert De Niro (key films: Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, The Deer Hunter, The Godfather Part II, Mean Streets, Raging Bull, GoodFellas, Cape Fear, Casino, Jackie Brown, Awakenings, 1900, Once Upon a Time in America, Analyze This, Copland, Great Expectations, New York New York, Bang The Drum Slowly, True Confessions, Brazil, What Just Happened, Everybody's Fine, Stone, The Mission, This Boy's Life, Heat, Wag the Dog, Bloody Mama, Silver Linings Playbook)

Henry Fonda (key films: Twelve Angry Men, On Golden Pond, My Darling Clementine, Young Mr. Lincoln, Once Upon a Time in The West, Fail-Safe, The Lady Eve, The Wrong Man, Mister Roberts, The Grapes of Wrath, The Ox-Bow Incident, Fort Apache, Madigan, Drums Along the Mohawk, The Tin Star, My Name is Nobody, Gideon's Trumpet, You Only Live Once, In Harm's Way, The Longest Day, The Story of Alexander Graham Bell, Advice and Consent, Jesse James, The Boston Strangler, The Best Man, Jezabel)

Spencer Tracy (key films: Fury, Boys Town, Judgment at Nuremberg, Inherit the Wind, Adam's Rib, State of the Union, Captains Courageous, The Old Man and the Sea, Bad Day at Black Rock, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Desk Set, Father of the Bride, A Guy Named Joe, Pat and Mike, Stanley and Livingstone, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World)

Boris Karloff (key films: Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, Scarface, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Criminal Code, The Mask of Fu Manchu, The Black Cat, The Body Snatchers, Bedlam, The Raven, The Terror, Targets)

Thomas Mitchell (key films: Stagecoach, The Sullivans, Gone With The Wind, Lost Horizon, It's A Wonderful Life, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Make Way for Tomorrow, Only Angels Have Wings, Our Town, Tales of Manhattan, Wilson, High Noon)

Woody Allen (key films: Annie Hall, Broadway Danny Rose, Play It Again Sam, Bananas, Manhattan, The Front, Sleeper, Take the Money and Run, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Love and Death, Stardust Memories, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask, Scenes From A Mall, Zelig, Hannah and Her Sisters, King Lear, Manhattan Murder Mystery, To Rome With Love, Fading Gigalo)

Morgan Freeman (key films: The Shawshank Redemption, Street Smart, Million Dollar Baby, Se7en, Glory, Unforgiven, Driving Miss Daisy, Levity, The Sum of All Fears, Deep Impact, Invictus, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Lean on Me, Teachers, Clean and Sober, Now You See Me)

Groucho Marx (key films: Animal Crackers, Horse Feathers, Coconuts, Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Skiddoo, Monkey Business, A Night in Casablanca, At The Circus)

Jeff Bridges (key films: The Last Picture Show, Bad Company, Starman, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Cutter's Way, The Last American Hero, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Fearless, The Big Lebowski, Iron Man, Tron, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Contender, Crazy Heart, The Fisher King, Seabiscuit, Hearts of the West, Texasville, The Door in the Floor, Heaven's Gate, Stay Hungry, True Grit, Fat City, Rancho Deluxe)

Gene Hackman (key films: The French Connection, Bonnie and Clyde, Scarecrow, The Conversation, Night Moves, Unforgiven, Hoosiers, Mississippi Burning, Superman, Superman II, The Royal Tennenbaums, Twice in a Lifetime, All Night Long, The Poseidon Adventure, Prime Cut, Young Frankenstein, Reds, The Quick and the Dead, Twilight, The Birdcage, I Never Sang for My Father, Cisco Pike)

Peter O'Toole (key films: Lawrence of Arabia, The Stunt Man, The Ruling Class, Becket, Creator, The Lion in Winter, What's New Pussycat, Venus, My Favorite Year, Lord Jim, Caligula, The Last Emperor, Venus, Ratatouille)

Steve Buscemi (key films: Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, Ghost World, Trees Lounge, Boardwalk Empire (TV), Interview, Mystery Train, Parting Glances, Living in Oblivion, Con Air, In The Soup, Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing, Monsters Inc., Airheads, Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, Big Fish)

Lawrence Olivier (key films: Wuthering Heights, Sleuth, Rebecca, Henry V, Richard III, Marathon Man, Othello, The Prince and the Showgirl, That Hamilton Woman, A Little Romance, The Entertainer, Hamlet, Spartacus, Clash of the Titans, The Boys From Brazil, Khartoum)

Michael Caine (key films: Sleuth, Educating Rita, Deathtrap, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Cider House Rules, Zulu, The Man Who Would Be King, Alfie, The Ipcress File, The Italian Job, Get Carter, Noises Off, Children of Men, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Quiet American, Inception, Blood and Wine, Little Voice, Mona Lisa, Gambit, Now You See Me, Play Dirty)

Burt Reynolds (key films: Deliverance, White Lightning, Starting Over, Smokey and the Bandit, Boogie Nights, Sharkey's Machine, Best Friends, The Longest Yard, Breaking In, The End, Citizen Ruth, Gator, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, A Bunch of Amateurs, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, Hustle, Shamus, Evening Shade (TV))

My twenty (incredible, to say the least) runners-up are: Marlon Brando, George C. Scott, Peter Sellers, Daniel Day-Lewis, Albert Finney, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Dustin Hoffman, Johnny Depp, Orson Welles, Robert Duvall, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Chaplin, Bill Murray, Albert Brooks, Max Von Sydow, Charles Durning, Ian Holm, Dennis Hopper, and Tom Wilkinson.

Film #9: Targets

It's time for us to rethink what constitutes a horror film, especially in this time of exquisitely poured-over daily bloodbaths. I know that, in literary circles, the horror genre has split into “fantasy horror”--Frankenstein, Dracula, ghosts and the sort--and “modern horror,” which considers serial killers, madmen and mass murderers. But why doesn’t this distinction exist as strictly for movies? Most viewers don’t feel films about reality-based multiple murderers deserve to be included in the horror genre, even though these monsters are scarier than any ol’ mummy or wolfman. I mean, is Seven a horror movie? Deliverance? Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer? I Stand Alone? Or Funny Games? I think yes.

In Targets, Peter Bogdanovich’s sobering look at the varying distances between fantasy and modern horror, Boris Karloff portrays Byron Orlock, an embittered old screamfest idol who’s announced his retirement from Hollywood because he's sure the real world has become scarier than any of the cheapos he’s been making. While he’s in L.A. for the drive-in premiere of his last film, one of these worrisome true-life horrors is unveiling in another part of the city, as the all-American Thompson family is too busy with the daily grind to notice the breakdown going on inside the head of their Ken-doll son, Bobby (Tim O’Kelly). Byron’s and Bobby’s worlds collide, but not before Bogdanovich stages one startling act of violence after another. No movie, ever, has matched Targets for vile, matter-of-fact depictions of random violence (though there’s very little blood). We quiver, matching Bobby short-breath-by-short-breath at his every pull of the trigger. Adding salt to open wounds, the director shoots this berserking in an unforgettable quasi-documentary style (the scene with Bobby taking potshots at highway-bound cars while munching on a Baby Ruth will make you wince).

Bogdanovich was one of the first to make a film about modern monsters, predating The Honeymoon Killers, Helter Skelter, and the similarly Charles Whitman-based TV movie The Deadly Tower. That the filmmaker did it while simultaneously paying tribute to the great Karloff, who gained his fame playing fantasy monsters, is no mean feat. Plus he's even one of the leads in Targets, unbilled as Sammy, Karloff's put-upon director (it's a sarcastic, showy performance in which sometimes I swear Bogdanovich is doing a Jimmy Stewart impersonation). Here I have to mention my favorite scene in the film: Karloff's recitation of the classic horror tale "A Date with Death." It was performed in one take, in a hotel room setting, as the camera slowly pulls in on the English actor's ancient face. The final moments of this monologue are especially stupendous because Bogdanovich told Karloff to think about his own death at the tale's final line, and it shows.

There are a lot of details to comment on here. The sharp cinematography here is by Laszlo Kovacs, who impresses with scenes of mysterious darkness (as where Bobby is smoking a cigarette, waiting in the night for his wife to get home), blinding brights (sniping on the oil tankers), and pretty chiaroscuro (Byron's hotel room). Kovacs landed his union card because of this film and went on, with most everybody who toiled behind the scenes on Targets, to collaborate with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda on Easy Rider. Next, let's give a shout-out to Polly Platt, Bogdanovich's then-wife and muse; it was she who gave him courage to mount this film, plus she provided its excellent art direction (the cool blues in Bobby's parents' soulless house are appropriately maddening). Let's make note, also, of the fact that the idea for the film really first sprang from the head of legendary director Samuel Fuller, who refused any credit but still gets a "Thank You." And pay attention to the kooky pop songs that play on Bobby's radio--they were provided to Bogdanovich from Sonny Bono's collection of rejected demos. Bono trashed them, giving them away for peanuts, but I think they all have a Nuggets (or at least a Pebbles) compilation-style zing to them.

Of course, Targets famously begins with the ENDING of another film, Roger Corman's Karloff / Jack Nicholson classic The Terror (so weird to see a movie start off with the title THE END flashing up on screen)! As well, there's a long look at an earlier Karloff film, Howard Hawks' mortifying 1932 prison drama The Criminal Code. Then, for drive-in fans, there's some exciting documentary-like footage of a '60s-era LA ozoner's concession stand, playground, box office, marquee, projection room, car park, and even some glimpses inside the drive-in screen itself.

And, by the way, Bogdanovich didn't intend this movie to be about gun control so, while I think the anti-gun, Charles Whitman/Lee Harvey Oswald statements at the film's outset add to the chills, Bogdanovich fought the studio over them and lost. But despite that, Targets from 1968 remains a wonder on many different levels.