Tag Archives: 1960s

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) Terence Fisher, Peter Cushing, Veronica Carlson, Freddie Jones, Horror, Sci-Fi, Drama

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
Baron Frankenstein travels to a new town to meet Dr. Brandt, with whom he had hoped to collaborate. When he learns that Brandt is in a mental asylum he takes a room in a boarding house run by Anna, whose fiance, Karl, is a doctor who works at the asylum. Blackmailing Anna and Karl into helping him, Frankenstein kidnaps Brandt to learn his secrets.
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Les Biches / Bad Girls (1968) Claude Chabrol, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacqueline Sassard, Stéphane Audran, Drama

Les Biches (1968)
Frédérique is a rich and beautiful woman who picks up a female street artist called “Why”. It is December and they go to her villa in Saint Tropez, which is inhabited by a couple of odd gay men. Both women fall for the local architect Paul Thomas. However Why says that she is not interested in him, so Frédérique invites him to move into the villa.
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Billy Liar (1963) John Schlesinger, Tom Courtenay, Julie Christie, Wilfred Pickles, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Billy Liar (1963)
A young British clerk in a gloomy North Country undertaker’s office, Billy is bombarded daily by the propaganda of the media that all things are for the asking. This transparently false doctrine, coupled with the humdrum job and his wild imagination, leads him on frequent flights to “Ambrosia,” a mythical kingdom where he is crowned king, general, lover or any idealized hero the real situation of the moment makes him desire. His vacillating commitment and post-adolescent immaturity have created situations which make Ambrosia all the more attractive. He’s succeeded in becoming engaged to two different girls, simultaneously, while in love with a third, Liz. He’s in hot water with his employer, having spent a rather large sum of postage money on his personal frivolities. And last, but not least, his dream of becoming a highly-paid, famous scriptwriter in London seems doomed to failure. The only person in his life capable of bringing him down to earth is Liz, and she’s having a difficult …
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Un singe en hiver (1962) Henri Verneuil, Jean Gabin, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Suzanne Flon, Comedy, Drama

Un singe en hiver (1962)
A young man, Gabriel Fouquet, arrives in a coastal town in Normandy to visit his daughter, who is staying in a boarding school. He ends up lodging in a guesthouse run by the aged Albert Quentin and his wife Suzanne. To forget his troubles, Gabriel hits the bottle, not realising that the teetotal Albert was once a heavy drinker. Twenty years ago, the latter pledged never to touch alcohol again if he and his wife survived the war. Through his friendship with Gabriel, Albert becomes nostalgic about his past, recalling his time as a sailor on an expedition to China. To drown their sorrows, the two men embark on a drinking binge which quickly gets out of hand…
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Requiescant (1967) Carlo Lizzani, Lou Castel, Mark Damon, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Western

Requiescant (1967)
In the post-Civil War West, a young boy is rescued from a massacre by Protestants who instill the value of pacifism in the young boy. But it’s only when he chases after his missing step-sister that he discovers a skill for gunslinging, takes on the name Requiscant, and re-enters the world of violence denied to him as a child. This spaghetti Western also includes a cameo from director Pier Paolo Pasolini as a renegade priest.
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Era notte a Roma / It Was Night in Rome (1960) Roberto Rossellini, Leo Genn, Giovanna Ralli, Sergey Bondarchuk, Drama, War

Era notte a roma (1960)
During WW2, in Rome , a trio of escaped Allied POWs find themselves in limbo as they try to avoid re-capture and reach their dispersed units. Michael Pemberton is a British Major, Fyodor Aleksandrovic Nazukov is a Soviet Sergeant and Peter Bradley is an American Lieutenant. A beautiful young Italian woman, Esperia Belli, agrees to give them shelter. She knows that despite Italy’s efforts to break with Nazi Germany and join the Allies there are some Italians who are Fascist sympathizers and would gladly denounce Esperia to the German authorities. Hiding enemy soldiers or escaped POWs is punishable by death. Esperia hopes to get in contact with the Italian anti-Fascist resistance which could help the three escaped Allied POWs rejoin their respective armies. Until then, the fugitives are stuck in Esperia’s attic.
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Common Law Cabin (1967) Russ Meyer, Jackie Moran, Babette Bardot, Adele Rein, Drama, Erotic

common_law_cabin
After stealing a fortune in unclaimed jewelry, ex-detective Barney Rickert arrives at a run-down dude ranch in Arizona to hide out. When the owner, Dewey Hoople, refuses to sell the land to Rickert, he proceeds to win over the female inhabitants by seducing them one by one which leads to one refusing his advances and a dangerous game played out in which Rickert ruthlessly sets out to get what he wants.
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Without a Stitch / Uden en trævl (1968) Annelise Meineche, Anne Grete Nissen, Ib Mossin, Joan Gamst, Comedy, Drama, Erotic

without_a_stitch
When a high-school girl complains of her inability to reach sexual climax, her doctor suggests that she keep a diary of her sexual encounters. She does just that and soon finds herself caught up in a sexual merry-go-round that includes making a hardcore porno film in Sweden, an escapade with a German sadist and a lesbian encounter.
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Premature Burial (1962) Roger Corman, Ray Milland, Hazel Court, Richard Ney, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Premature Burial (1962)
Emily Gault arrives at the Carrell mansion determined to rekindle an old relationship with Guy Carrell, despite the disapproval of his sister, Kate. Guy overcomes his all-consuming fear of being buried alive long enough to marry Emily but soon becomes obsessed again, building a crypt designed to guarantee that he will not fall prey to his most dreaded nightmare. Trying to prove that he has been cured of his phobia, he opens his father’s tomb and is shocked into a catatonic state. His worst fears are realized as he is lowered into a grave and covered over, apparently never to learn that the treachery of someone very dear to him was directly responsible for his predicament.
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The Guns of Navarone (1961) J. Lee Thompson, David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Action, Adventure, Drama

The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Two powerful German guns control the seas past the Greek island of Navarone making the evacuation of endangered British troops on a neighboring island impossible. Air attack is useless so a team of six Allied and Greek soldiers is put ashore to meet up with partisans to try and dynamite the guns. The mission is perilous enough anyway but are the Germans on the island getting further help too?
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The Manchurian Candidate (1962) John Frankenheimer, Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Thriller, Drama

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Major Ben Marco is an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army. He served valiantly as a captain in the Korean war and his Sergeant, Raymond Shaw, even won the Medal of Honor. Marco has a major problem however: he has a recurring nightmare, one where two members of his squad are killed by Shaw. He’s put on indefinite sick leave and visits Shaw in New York. Shaw for his part has established himself well, despite the misgivings of his domineering mother, Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin. She is a red-baiter, accusing anyone who disagrees with her right-wing reactionary views of being a Communist. Raymond hates her, not only for how she’s treated him but equally because of his step-father, the ineffectual U.S. Senator John Iselin, who is intent on seeking higher office. When Marco learns that others in his Korean War unit have nightmares similar to his own, he realizes that something happened to all of them in Korea and that Raymond Shaw is the focal point.
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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) John Ford, James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Western

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
When Senator Ransom Stoddard returns home to Shinbone for the funeral of Tom Doniphon, he recounts to a local newspaper editor the story behind it all. He had come to town many years before, a lawyer by profession. The stage was robbed on its way in by the local ruffian, Liberty Valance, and Stoddard has nothing to his name left save a few law books. He gets a job in the kitchen at the Ericson’s restaurant and there meets his future wife, Hallie. The territory is vying for Statehood and Stoddard is selected as a representative over Valance, who continues terrorizing the town. When he destroys the local newspaper office and attacks the editor, Stoddard calls him out, though the conclusion is not quite as straightforward as legend would have it.
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