
A businessman plans to solve his tax problems by financing a film version of “Romeo and Juliet”. He hires Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield to play the title roles, and Akim Tamiroff to direct. The finished film is shown at the Venice Film Festival, where it’s considered a witty parody and awarded a Golden Lion.
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Tag Archives: 1960s
After the Fox / Caccia alla volpe (1966) Vittorio De Sica, Peter Sellers, Victor Mature, Britt Ekland, Comedy, Crime

Peter Sellers plays Aldo Vanucci (aka the Fox), one of the greatest criminals of the world, and master of disguise. After Aldo escapes from the Italian prison he was held in, he meets again with his friends, and plans to retrieve the “gold of Cairo” a large shipment of gold, that waits to be unloaded somewhere in Italy. Aldo devices the perfect plan. Posing as a famous director, he finds the ideal coastal village to unload the shipment, and persuades the entire population that he has chosen their village as the set for his new movie. Everybody, including the idiot chief of the local police is so excited, that they can’t even imagine that in fact they are helping the Fox to get the “gold of Cairo”…
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Akibiyori / Late Autumn (1960) Yasujirô Ozu, Setsuko Hara, Yôko Tsukasa, Mariko Okada, Comedy, Drama

Family and friends of the late Shuzo Miwa have gathered for his annual memorial service, this one marking the seventh anniversary of his passing. Three of his long time friends – married Shuzo Taguchi, married Soichi Mamiya, and widowed Seiichiro Hirayama – have long known and admitted to each other that they have always been attracted to his widow, Akiko Miwa, who they believe has gotten even more beautiful as she has matured. The three friends take it upon themselves to find a husband for the Miwa’s now twenty-four year old daughter, Ayako Miwa, who they believe as beautiful as her mother, and who, as a pure innocent, deserves a good husband. Their self-appointed task is despite them knowing that Ayako does not want them to do so. She doesn’t want to get married, at least not yet, as she struggles with her traditional sensibilities in post-war modern Japan. Her first priority as she sees it is to take care of her widowed mother, who would be alone if she were to get married.
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Carnival of Souls (1962) Herk Harvey, Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery

Mary Henry is enjoying the day by riding around in a car with two friends. When challenged to a drag, the women accept, but are forced off of a bridge. It appears that all are drowned, until Mary, quite some time later, amazingly emerges from the river. After recovering, Mary accepts a job in a new town as a church organist, only to be dogged by a mysterious phantom figure that seems to reside in an old run-down pavilion. It is here that Mary must confront the personal demons of her spiritual insouciance.
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Infanzia, vocazione e prime esperienze di Giacomo Casanova, veneziano / Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence (1969) Luigi Comencini, Leonard Whiting, Maria Grazia Buccella, Lionel Stander, Drama, Romance, History

Through the childhood and the adolescence of Giacomo Casanova (from his memoirs), this is a description of how people live in the Venice of the 18th century: customs, habits, medicine, religion and most of all – the omnipresence of hypocrisy.
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Jigoku no okite ni asu wa nai / Glorious Fights (1966) Yasuo Furuhata, Ken Takakura, Rentarô Mikuni, Yukiyo Toake, Action

A young leader of the Yamazaki family of Nagasaki, Takida (Ken Takakura) is an A-bomb survivor. He fiercely battles violent elements in southern Japan without fear of consequences.
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The Birds (1963) Alfred Hitchcock, Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette, Horror, Mystery

Melanie Daniels is the modern rich socialite, part of the jet-set who always gets what she wants. When lawyer Mitch Brenner sees her in a pet shop, he plays something of a practical joke on her, and she decides to return the favor. She drives about an hour north of San Francisco to Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends the weekends with his mother Lydia and younger sister Cathy. Soon after her arrival, however, the birds in the area begin to act strangely. A seagull attacks Melanie as she is crossing the bay in a small boat, and then, Lydia finds her neighbor dead, obviously the victim of a bird attack. Soon, birds in the hundreds and thousands are attacking anyone they find out of doors. There is no explanation as to why this might be happening, and as the birds continue their vicious attacks, survival becomes the priority.
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Land Raiders (1969) Nathan Juran, Telly Savalas, George Maharis, Arlene Dahl, Action, Western

Ruthless Vince Carden dominates the Arizona-territory town of Forge River and buys the scalps of murdered Indians. He has driven his brother Paul from his home, and this leads to the total disillusionment of his wife Martha. Haunted by the mysterious death of a girl he had loved, Paul ends his wandering and joins a wagon train heading for Forge River; with the train is Kate Mayfield, who is returning home after years of school in the East. Paul and Kate are the sole survivors when Apaches attack the train, in reprisal for a slaughter staged by Vince’s men. Vince uses the Indian attack on the train as an excuse to lead the raid on a defenseless Apache village, which sparks a massive assault on Forge River.
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The Man from the Diners’ Club (1963) Frank Tashlin, Danny Kaye, Cara Williams, Martha Hyer, Comedy

Mobster Foots Pulardos, who operates a health gym as a front, plans to flee to Mexico to evade government tax officials. His girl friend, Sugar Pye, suggests that he first arrange for the cremation of a man having his own peculiar identifying characteristic–feet of different sizes–and then apply for a Diners’ Club card for use in paying his fare. The request for the credit card comes to the desk of Ernie Klenk, a timid clerk. Nervous about his forthcoming marriage to the boss’s secretary, Lucy, Ernie inadvertently okays the application, then, discovering his mistake, rushes to the health gym to recover the club card he has issued.
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Das Geheimnis der Gelben Narzissen / The Devil’s Daffodil (1961) Ákos Ráthonyi, Joachim Fuchsberger, William Lucas, Sabine Sesselmann, Crime, Mystery

A Chinese detective breaks up a drug smuggling ring and tries to find the “Daffodil Killer.” The drug smugglers had devised the ingenious method of smuggling heroin from Hong Kong in the stems of daffodils.
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