Sixties rarity: Nine Hours To Rama, 1963

Another of those long-unseen 20th Century Fox Cinemascope "prestige" films, benefiting from exotic locations and a tense story, even if we know the outcome, from a popular bestseller of the time. I caught it at the time before it vanished ...

NINE HOURS TO RAMA depicts the life of Nathuram Godse the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. How Godse planned the assassination is shown in the film. How he became a Hindu activist who (unfairly) blamed Gandhi for the killings of thousands of Hindus by Muslims is revealed in a series of flashbacks.

Directed by Fox veteran Mark Robson (he had more success with the thriller THE PRIZE that year) with a polyglot cast browned up as Indians and set in India, it features German Horst Buchholz as the assassin, and Jose Ferrer as the weary police inspector on his trail, trying to catch him before it is too late. It is startling now to see the likes of Robert Morley, Harry Andrews, Diane Baker, Valerie Gearon, Francis Matthews etc as Indians, alongside Marne Maitland and other natives, J.S. Casshyap is an effective Mahatma as the film tries to make sense of those violent years. 
It is though colourful and tense, and Buchholz more or less looks authentic. It took several decades though for a more realistic picture of Gandhi to emerge, in Attenborough's 1982 film. 

1963 was the year of the Kennedy assassination, and like THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, NINE HOURS TO RAMA was taken out of circulation for a while,. 

Cleopatra out-takes ...

Elizabeth Taylor and veteran actor Finlay Currie on the set of CLEOPATRA. But Finlay wasn't in CLEOPATRA you say - quite right, his part was surgically removed when they were cutting the 6 hour epic down to a more manageable 4 .... pity Finlay didn't make the cut here, he was in so many other epics, from QUO VADIS? to BEN HUR. 

FILMS IN REVIEW is a fascinating little magazine I missed at the time, its good discovering them now, like that 1988 one with a terrific interview with Lee Remick looking back over her career, and this recent acquisition I found on ebay, dated January 1988 with a good feature on CLEOPATRA, going through the original Mankiewicz screenplay for his proposed six hour version, which would be shown in two parts. Zanuck at 20th Century Fox soon put paid to that and the 4-hour version that exists now is as much as we are going to get. 
I don't think there will be any A STAR IS BORN-type restoration here! 

Other deletions, apart from Finlay, included background material on those other characters like Ruffio, Sosigenes, Apollodorus, Octavian, etc. 

I like this particular scene closing the first half, as Cleo sails away, its perfectly written, acted, and scored with that great Alex North score.

Among the supporting players we also like Richard OSullivan (the little boy in DANGEROUS EXILE) as the petulant young Pharoah, Gregoire Alsan as the scheming Pothinus, and Pamela Brown's all-seeing high priestess, and of course we love the opulent sets and costumes, as discussed before, and that great panning shot over the bay of Alexandria as Caesar arrives ....  There is still a lot to enjoy in CLEOPATRA not least Rex as Caesar and as befits a Mankiewicz film, the dialogue is to savour.

Once more: The Leopard, 1963

We have blogged about Visconti's THE LEOPARD from 1963 a lot here, check label - I had another look at it, it is even more staggering on Blu-ray particularly that long ballroom sequence at the climax, which goes on for about 45 minutes. as Burt Lancaster's Prince of Salina and Claudia Cardinale's Angelica (was she ever more resplendant?) dance to that Verdi waltz as Alain Delon's Tancredi watches, as does the other guests. I was watching a documentary on Silicy the other day and the presenter, Alex Polizzi, visited the palazzo which contained that ballroom and adjoining chambers - its all exactly as it was then. I love Lampedusa's book too and have to return to it every few years, which again makes me want to see the Visconti epic once more ... it was of course a huge influence on Scorsese (check out THE AGE OF INNOCENCE), Coppola and others. 

Claudia of course was at her zenith too in Visconti's 1965 operatic melodrama: SANDRA (or OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS). Thankfully thats available again now, I loved it when I was 19. She and Jean Sorel are another jaw-droppingly beautiful couple ...  

1963: A castle in Sweden ...

Here's a rarity: CHATEAU EN SUEDE a French film by Roger Vadim from 1963 that never got aired here. I was in London from 1964 and it never showed up here at all, despite that cast ..... and its from a play by Francoise Sagan (BONJOUR TRISTESSE, GOODBYE AGAIN, A CERTAIN SMILE etc). I have now got an Italian only dvd, so while I miss on a lot of talkiness, its fun watching it from this remove.

We start with police cars arriving in modern Stockholm and then the cops visit the castle - English title is A CASTLE IN SWEDEN or, as IMDB call it: NUTTY, NAUGHTY CHATEAU - but it isn't that risque. 
Everyone seems to wear period clothes at the castle as the bored occupants toy with each other: the owner Curt Jurgens is married to husky Monica Vitti, whose incestuous dandy brother is also to hand- a typical role for Jean-Claude Brialy. Jean-Louis Trintignant is the student who visits and soon he and Monica are exchanging long lingering glances, to the chagrin of Brialy. There is also Suzanne Flon as Curt's sister, and Sylvie as the old grand-mother, and also - though I don't know what she is doing here - is French pop girl Francoise Hardy. 

Now,we like Francoise a lot (see label) but she is hardly acting here. Monica gets to do a bit of comedy after those Antonioni roles. It is set in winter so the castle is surrounded by snow, It is obviously a play though as people sit around and talk a lot. 

Its all rather fitfully amusing, and fills a blank in one's viewing, its at least fun seeing these 60s stars in their early prime here. 

Think pink !

Another old favourite on cable TV: so lets have another look at the original PINK PANTHER, an enduring comedy favourite from 1963, that year of great movies we like, such as CHARADE, THE BIRDS, THE LEOPARD, THE SERVANT, TOM JONES, BILLY LIAR .... THE PINK PANTHER, like COME SEPTEMBER (1961) and CHARADE is a glossy entertainment that should be compulsory viewing every few years. Its follow-up A SHOT IN THE DARK in 1964 was all Clouseau and was reasonably ok, but I never felt the need to see any of the other ones, and certainly not that remake ...

The trademark of The Phantom, a renowned jewel thief, is a glove left at the scene of the crime. Inspector Clouseau, an expert on The Phantom's exploits, feels sure that he knows where The Phantom will strike next and leaves Paris for Switzerland, where the famous Lugashi jewel 'The Pink Panther' is going to be. However, he does not know who The Phantom really is, or for that matter who anyone else really is...

The fun here is seeing that cast going through their paces. Sellers walks away with the film, Clouseau was meant to be a subsidiary character - Niven and Wagner are fine as the real jewel thief and his young accomplice. Claudia Cardinale as Princess Dahla is wonderful in one of her first English roles - she was also in Fellini's 8 and a half, and Visconti's THE LEOPARD that year. Then there is Capucine, doing slapstick with her haughty glamour and wearing Dior. The long bedroom scene with her and Sellers was marvellous on the big screen, as was the long fancy dress party and those cars whizzing around before the very funny courtroom trial at the end, as Clouseau has to explain how his wife can save so much from the housekeeping to pay for her furs .... 

The whole look of the film captures that early Sixites vibe perfectly, at the ski resort of Cortina D'Ampezzo as Brenda De Banzie gushes over the princess and Fran Jeffries sings that "Meglio Stasera" ("It had better be tonight") to the apres-ski crowd. It is one of Blake Edwards' hits and one of  Henry Mancini's best scores. 1965's WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT? from Clive Donner was more of the same, capturing the mid '60s nicely as again Peter Sellers was chasing Capucine, while O'Toole and Romy and the others grooved to a Burt Bacharach soundtrack ...  Like those early Bonds, THE PINK PANTHER is essential early Sixties. 

Sunday in New York + 4 more Jane Fonda flicks

A feast of Fonda, lately - Jane that is. I just got SUNDAY IN NEW YORK, and my pal Jerry passed 4 of hers onto me recently.   Then, KLUTE was on again over the weekend, so we had another look at that too - its a key '70s movie for me, as per my other reports on it here - Fonda label.

I saw SUNDAY IN NEW YORK at the time, on its general release here in the UK in 1964, when I was 18, and more or less forgot it. But seeing it again now, 50 years later, its a bright, shiny artifact of the early 60s and is one of the better comedies revolving around sex of that time - COME SEPTEMBER, SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL and of course the Rock and Doris comedies. It has extensive New York shooting, and an engaging quartet of players, plus An Apartment To Die For - one of those Apartments We Love, which I will have to return to soon.

Its a sparkling comedy from a Norman Krasna stage play (cue lots of doors opening and people arriving unexpectedly) and its amusing to see what was considered daring on screen 50 years ago. Peter Teskesbury keeps it moving nicely and New York circa 1963 looks great in Metrocolor, yup its another great New York movie, like BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S  — we get to see the city just before the decline that caused filmmakers of the late 1960s and 1970s (cue KLUTE!) to use the city as a symbol of urban crime rather than a terrific place for falling in love. There is also a nice jazz score by Peter Nero (who also makes a cameo appearance in a nightclub scene). 

Jane is the 23 year old virgin who refuses to put out for her fiance, and is visiting her airline pilot brother (Cliff Robertson) who swears to her that he does not sleep with girls and respects them, while a running joke has he and girlfriend Jo Morrow (super here) being continually frustrated while trying to get together. Enter amiable nice guy Rod Taylor whom Jane gets attached to - literally - on a bus. Further complications follow when they are both undressed back at Cliff's place when her fiance Robert Culp walks in and thinks Rod is her brother - then her real brother arrives!  Needless to say it is nicely worked out, and we just love that bachelor apartment with its brick walls, sunken kitchen, and the spiral stairs up to the bedroom area, which can be shuttered off at night. Urban bliss indeed.  Mel Torme sings the engaging theme tune and its classy work all round, capturing that early '60s Manhattan single lifestyle - almost an update on Rock and Doris in PILLOW TALK!  Its the perfect Valentine Day treat. 

Rod was fresh from THE BIRDS and THE VIPs, Jane had done THE CHAPMAN REPORT and WALK ON THE WILD SIDE, those two Trash Classics we love from 1962 and would go on to do more films of Broadway plays like BAREFOOT IN THE PARK and ANY WEDNESDAY, as well as her French films LES FELINS and the Vadim's like LA RONDE, and as well as the heavy stuff like THE CHASE and HURRY SUNDOWN, before her hits BARBARELLA, THEY SHOOT HORSE DONT THEY? and back to KLUTE and JULIA. We never really liked much of her work after that and she has of course re-invented herself several times since and is now a very glamorous late Seventies ...

Now, back to her first film: TALL STORY in 1960, where she is directed by father Henry's pal Joshua Logan, and co-starred with Tony Perkins - very tall and gangly here as the ace basketball player and Jane as the girl who is determined to bag him. Its a so-so comedy, rather boring in parts, with too much of the older professors. 

The most amusing scene has Jane following Tony into the mens' changing room and seeeing naked Van Williams emerging from the shower... It also features young Gary Lockwood and maybe Robert Redford in one shot.

I did not like PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT that much either, Tennessee Williams' first comedy from 1962, which makes for a raucous comedy as we follow newly-weds Fonda and Jim Hutton en route to their honeymoon, as they visit another couple Tony Franciosa and Lois Nettleton  who are having problems of their own.  It all gets very tiresome before too long, or maybe I was just not in the mood for it. 

Ditto with Godard's TOUT VA BIEN, a 1972 political tract which sees Fonda (just after KLUTE) and Yves Montand as a couple in Paris, journalists dealing with a factory strike and the capitalist society we live in. It highlighted everything I dislike about Godard films and I just found what I saw of it unbearably tedious. I do want to re-visit Godard's CONTEMPT though, with Bardot in 1963 - which if I remember right is a fascinating treatise on making movies. 

Nice though to finally see THE GAME IS OVER (LA CUREE) again, after all this time. This Roger Vadim piece of exotic erotica dates from 1966 and is a delicious Trash Classic as Jane enbarks on a doomed love affair with her stepson, Peter McEnery. Husband is mercurial Michel Piccoli, and Jane suffers but wears marvellous costumes for each scene, particularly for her mad scene at the climax!. We like McEnery (the first HAMLET I saw on stage, in 1967). It it all delirious nonsense played out in opulent sets which are a scream. 

After all those Janes, we now want to go back to some more Romy Schneider and Catherine Deneuve ... 

Costume drama heaven with Tom and Lady Caroline

What bliss over this bad weather to watch that 1963 hit TOM JONES again, and also to see a rare screening of the 1972 LADY CAROLINE LAMB on television. I have dvds of both, but nice to see them getting an airing. 

TOM JONES of course is utter bliss, a perfect costume version of the huge Fielding novel, but also capturing that early 1960s spirit too, as Tony Richardson's inventive direction deconstructs and re-creates the novel, using all those split cuts, razor sharp editing, characters talking to the camera and so on. Albert Finney is perfect here, and has great scenes with Susannah York delightful as Sophie Western, Diane Cilento, Joyce Redman (that food scene at the inn!) , and Joan Greenwood as the very demanding Lady Bellaston: "Sir, I know not of country matters, but in town it is considered impolite to keep a lady waiting". Indeed! Tom and Lady Bellaston meet at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (below), where as Micheal McLiammoir's fruity narration puts it people go "to do and to be undone".

Then there is the divine casting of Dame Edith Evans and Hugh Griffith at that country estate, where Dame Edith is appalled at the rude country manners, and has short patience with the highwayman holding up her coach with his "Stand and deliver", to which she retorts: "What, sir, I am no travelling midwife"!, Rosalind Knight as Mrs Fitzpatrick, another randy lady, and Peter Bull and young David Warner as Tom's rivals. Young Lynn Redgrave pops up too. Its a constant delight and deserved all the Oscars and applause, and it of course set up Richardson and Woodfall Films to make their less successful films, like those two with Jeanne Moreau: THE SAILOR FROM GIBRALTAR and MADEMOISELLE. 

I have written about LADY CAROLINE LAMB here before - see Sarah Miles label. But I wrote this yesterday on a friend's review of it on Facebook:

Glad you liked it - I looked at it again last night - its marvellously done and maybe the last of the great British costume dramas (well, there's Lester's ROYAL FLASH in 1975). I have always liked Miss Miles (she seems retired now - her last credit, guesting in a Miss Marple was over a decade ago, but I saw her last year with her THE SERVANT co-stars at a special screening for the blu-ray launch of the Losey classic, and she looked fine then, of course as Bolt's widow - they married twice - she probably doesnt need to work now). But I digress (and namedrop), as usual - she also did 2 other iconic 60s movies : Antonioni's BLOW-UP and I WAS HAPPY HERE. Bolt indeed assembles a great cast - 

Leighton has another superb role (after Losey's THE GO-BETWEEN the previous year), Olivier (back with Miles after TERM OF TRIAL), Richardson, Mills etc all shone, and Jon Finch was the man of the moment (starring for Polanski and Hitchcock too then)., handsome sets and score by Richard Rodney Bennett - and Chamberlain an effective Byron. Leighton gets the last word and its perfect! The scene with Caroline as the blackamoor servant to Byron is fun, as Lady Caroline goes over the top and becomes "notorious"; she was surely an early drama queen as her histrionics and capacity for making scenes becomes rather tedious. 

Tom and Pattie ...

Here's a terrific photo from a 1963 fashion shoot with rising young actor Tom Courtenay, for one of those glossy fash mags like VOGUE or the stylish London magazine TOWN -  I used to like that one when I was 16. But who is the girl? No, it is not Julie Christie but teenage Pattie Boyd, who was on film herself the next year in A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, where she met George Harrison ... Tom's BILLY LIAR had probably just opened - its a perfect early '60 shot, which I had not seen before, so thanks to Colin for sending it. No idea who the photographer was. 

Looking at Dr No ...

Those first three Bond films DR NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and GOLDFINGER were amusing again over the holidays as yet once again they are dusted off and shown on television, it seems we never tire of them. These first three though are endessly fascinating - I got rather tired of the Bonds with the next one and didn't bother with most of them, though THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was fitfully amusing at the time, and the Grace Jones one, but Bond was rather passe until Daniel Craig came along in 2006 .....

One always finds a new amusing quote to enjoy in these, as here in DR NO when Bond first meets Honey Ryder collecting shells on the beach: She says: "Are you looking for shells too?" and he casually replies "No, I am just looking" .... as we too gaze at the stupendous Ursula:

The Leopard & Lawrence dazzle in Blu-ray

THE LEOPARD, 1963. Watching Visconti’s opus again on Blu-ray is like seeing it afresh with new eyes. It is even more stunning than ever. Those amazing set-pieces like that long final section at the ball couldn’t be more opulent.  Burt Lancaster of course is quietly marvellous as Don Fabrizio, the Prince of Salina, who observes the changes that will happen to his society, as he embraces and encourages the marriage between his nephew Tancredi and Angelica the daughter of the rising class merchant (Paola Stoppa). Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale shine as the young lovers, particularly that long sequence where they explore that empty old palazzo. Nobody showcased Cardinale so perfectly as Visconti, both here and in his 1965 drama SANDRA (VAGHE STELLE DELL’ORSA). 

There is so much to savour and enjoy here as the unification of Italy, "Il Risorgimento", unfolds in 1860, one could almost say its an Italian GONE WITH THE WIND. Visconti covered the same era in his 1954 romantic drama SENSO (with that great performance by Alida Valli as the Wanton Countess). Don Fabrizo’s family – the wife he no longer finds desirable (Rina Morelli), the plain daughter who loves Tancredi – are shown in detail too, at family prayers and as they travel to their Sicilian summer retreat. 
The classic book by di Lampedusa (which I enjoy reading every few years) is perfectly captured in  Goffredo Lombardo’s production, photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno, costumes by Piero Tosi and the score by Nino Rota, with that great Verdi waltz for that marvellous sequence where the Prince waltzes with Angelica, cinema at its most intoxicating!  With Romolo Valli, Serge Reggiani, Peirre Clementi, Terence Hill. Marvellous that the film is restored to perfection after its initial release in washed-out, cut prints. One can see how this epic has ifluenced the likes of Coppola and Scorsese among others. More on THE LEOPARD at label.

We were also dazzled again too by LAWRENCE OF ARABIA on Blu-Ray, as well as CLEOPATRA, and will be returning to them in due course ...
and I must programme in the Blu-ray of THE GREAT BEAUTY as well ...

Summer views: The Running Man, 1963

Hard up and with a grudge against insurance companies, Rex Black feigns his death and meets up with his wife and the money in Malaga when things seemed to have quietened down. But when the insurance investigator from the claim also turns up Rex starts a game of cat-and-mouse.

THE RUNNING MAN, It now seems difficult to see Carol Reed's thriller from 1963, it is not available to buy - so thanks to pal Colin for sourcing a copy. I had not seen it in years and its a delicious re-view now. That widescreen and colour captures early 60s Spain (and Gibraltar) nicely. Harvey (as unlovable as ever) is the man on he run after pulling off his insurance scam (after the insurance company turning down his original claim as his premium was two days late), with Lee Remick as Stella, his worried wife, particularly when that insurance man Alan Bates turns up - does he suspect them or is he just interested in Lee? 

Bates and Remick are a very attractive pair here, and the plot twists and turns as Harvey and Remick try to work out what Bates is up to. Harvey, with that variable Australian accent, gets more and more unbalanced as the net closes in.  Remick has a wonderful moment when she realises that Bates is no longer in insurance and its her he is after, just as Harvey gets some murderous impulses .... it all comes to a climax in Gibraltar, why though does Stella stick with the increasingly unhinged Rex?, and there is that great last shot of her posed against the Gibraltar skyline. The early scenes were filmed in Ireland, hence Noel Purcell, Eddie Byrne, Joe Lynch etc. and with Felix Alymer, Allan Cuthbertson, John Meillon and Fernando Rey.
Carol Reed makes it all look good, with good use of locations and it keeps our interest, one of the better imitation-Hitchcocks then, as scripted by John Mortimer. Pity Bates and Remick never worked together again, they are a dream team.