Tagged: 1960s
Sweet Bird of Youth: Paul Newman’s Cream Silk Sport Jacket
Paul Newman as Chance Wayne in Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
Vitals
Paul Newman as Chance Wayne, charismatic gigolo
Mississippi, Easter Weekend 1962
Film: Sweet Bird of Youth
Release Date: March 21, 1962
Director: Richard Brooks
Costume Designer: Orry-Kelly
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy Easter! Early in his screen career, Paul Newman reprised his stage role as Chance Wayne from Tennessee Williams’ play Sweet Bird of Youth, set across Holy Saturday into Easter Sunday in Chance’s fictional hometown of St. Cloud, Mississippi. Continue reading
Bullitt: Paul Genge as “Ice Pick Mike”
Paul Genge in Bullitt (1968)
Vitals
Paul Genge as Mike, silent syndicate hitman
San Francisco, Spring 1968
Film: Bullitt
Release Date: October 17, 1968
Director: Peter Yates
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 113th birthday of actor Paul Genge, born March 29, 1913. A U.S. Army Air Corps veteran, Genge’s screen career began after his return from World War II, almost always playing uncredited bit parts as cops, crooks, and the occasional coach. Despite these tough-guy roles, Genge was an advocate for regional theater whose penchant for performing Shakespeare included appearing in—and ultimately directing—stage productions of Hamlet and starring in the title role of King Henry IV when he was 26.
Bullitt provided Genge with one of his few credited movie roles, even though his character’s name isn’t uttered on screen—only referred to as “Ice Pick Mike” in the track listing for Lalo Schifrin’s jazzy soundtrack. Mike is arguably one of the most pivotal characters in this slick crime classic, as the slick triggerman whose execution of the witness known as Johnny Ross sets the action into motion. Continue reading
Steve McQueen’s Denim in Baby the Rain Must Fall
Steve McQueen in Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965)
Vitals
Steve McQueen as Henry Thomas, irresponsible musician and ex-convict
Columbus, Texas, Fall 1963
Film: Baby the Rain Must Fall
Release Date: January 23, 1965
Director: Robert Mulligan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Screen and style icon Steve McQueen was born 96 years ago today on March 24, 1930. After his breakthrough success in The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), and the TV series Wanted Dead or Alive, McQueen was plucked out of westerns and war movies into more dramatic fare like Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) and Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965).
Adapted by Horton Foote from his own play The Traveling Lady, the latter film was more aligned with McQueen’s rougher and tougher screen image. He stars as Henry Thomas, a small-time rockabilly singer estranged from his wife Georgette (Lee Remick) and their six-year-old daughter Margaret Rose (Kimberley Block), whom he’s never met… until the gals surprise him in his hometown of Columbus, Texas, where he’s recently been released from a jail stint. Continue reading
Duane Jones in Night of the Living Dead
Duane Jones in Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Vitals
Duane Jones as Ben, resourceful zombie-hunter
Rural Western Pennsylvania, Spring 1968
Film: Night of the Living Dead
Release Date: October 4, 1968
Director: George A. Romero
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Especially here in western Pennsylvania, George A. Romero’s masterclass in economical filmmaking Night of the Living Dead has risen to mythic status among cinephiles. Though born in New York City, Romero graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1960 and remained local to Pittsburgh where he filmed short productions including a segment for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood before his directorial debut that became a landmark in independent film, horror cinema, and movies at large.
Night of the Living Dead premiered at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh on October 1, 1968, three days before its wider release that drew controversy due to its violence and bleakness—simultaneously exemplifying what was increasingly permissible in American cinema in the wake of the crumbling Production Code that had restricted filmmakers for more than thirty years.
Despite this harsh reception from critics and audiences not prepared for its content, Night of the Living Dead developed a growing cult following to become one of the most profitable movies ever made. It recouped at least $30 million against its $125,000, which Romero had kept modest through guerrilla filmmaking techniques and casting local actors and friends like legendary Pittsburgh TV presenter “Chilly Billy” Cardille as himself, allowing Romero to reserve most of the modest budget for special effects.
While many rightly include this iconic horror flick among their spooky season watch-lists in October, Night of the Living Dead also qualifies as the rare “Daylight Saving movie”. The action is quickly established to be set on the Sunday in spring when clocks spring forward an hour—much to the chagrin of the cynical Johnny (Russell Streiner), who lost an hour of sleep on the morning he accompanies his sister Barbra (Judith O’Dea) to their father’s grave site, said to be “200 miles into the country” though actually filmed in Evans City… just 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh.
After one of the titular living dead attacks the siblings and knocks Johnny unconscious, Barbra manages to escape in his ’67 Pontiac LeMans and find refuge in an isolated farmhouse, where she comes face-to-face with Ben (Duane Jones)—a serious, resourceful man of action who quickly takes command of the situation… and their survival. Continue reading
Johnny Cash at San Quentin, 1969
Johnny Cash performing at San Quentin State Prison, February 24, 1969. Photo by Jim Marshall.
Vitals
Johnny Cash, country rock superstar
San Quentin State Prison, California, February 1969
Film: Johnny Cash in San Quentin
Release Date: September 6, 1969
Director: Michael Darlow
Background
Today would have been the 94th birthday of Johnny Cash, born February 26, 1932 in Arkansas. After his initial success recording hits like “Folsom Prison Blues” and “I Walk the Line” for Sun Records, Cash began his tradition of performing concerts at prisons with a New Year’s Day 1958 gig at San Quentin State Prison, with a 19-year-old Merle Haggard among the inmates in attendance.
A decade later, Cash was retaking control of his life and career after both had been stalled by his narcotic addictions. It was a fortuitous time for his self-rehabilitation as Columbia Records had recently hired visionary producer Bob Johnston, who was more eager to entertain Cash’s unorthodox collaborations—including the singer’s long-expressed desire to record an album inside a prison. Folsom State Prison responded first after Johnston called them and San Quentin, resulting in Cash recording his now legendary concert there on January 13, 1968.
Despite little promotion from Columbia, At Folsom Prison revitalized Cash’s career as it rose to the top of the U.S. Top Country Albums chart and won a pair of Grammy Awards. A year later, Cash returned inside the walls of a California state prison to record yet another live album to an audience of inmates—this time returning to San Quentin, just north of San Francisco and 100 miles southwest of Folsom.
This was Cash’s first album recorded without longtime lead guitarist Luther Perkins, who died following an August 1968 house fire, so guitarist Bob Wootton joined bassist Marshall Grant and drummer W.S. “Fluke” Holland in Cash’s Tennessee Three backing band. Additional acts included Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, and the Carter Family—including June Carter, who had married Johnny the previous March, just weeks after his on-stage proposal in Ontario. The entire group arrived at San Quentin for a performance on February 24, 1969—two days before Cash’s 37th birthday. Continue reading
Mark Frechette’s Revolutionary Rags in Zabriskie Point
Mark Frechette and Daria Halpern in Zabriskie Point (1970)
Vitals
Mark Frechette as Mark, revolutionary college dropout and forklift driver
Los Angeles to Death Valley, California, Summer 1968
Film: Zabriskie Point
Release Date: February 5, 1970
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Costume Designer: Ray Summers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Michelangelo Antonioni refocused his existential “Antoni-ennui” lens onto the American campus counterculture for the offbeat drama Zabriskie Point, which premiered 56 years ago today on February 5, 1970, four days before its wider release. Poorly received by critics and audiences upon its release, Zabriskie Point earned a cult following in the decades to follow as newer audiences appreciate the raw style and performances, the deeply human story photographed by cinematographer Alfio Contini against the vast California desert, and a contemporary rock soundtrack featuring Pink Floyd, Jerry Garcia, The Rolling Stones, and The Youngbloods.
“Who the hell is he?” someone asks of our protagonist in the opening scene. Indeed, the moviegoing public may have wondered the same thing. After directing the likes of Alain Delon, Richard Harris, David Hemmings, Marcello Mastroianni, and Monica Vitti, Antonioni anchored Zabriskie Point with non-professional actors Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin in its leading roles. Casting director Sally Dennison discovered Frechette at a bus stop during the 20-year-old carpenter’s shouting match with a man leaning out of a window three stories above them. “He’s twenty, and he hates,” Dennison tersely explained in her recommendation to Antonioni. Continue reading
Our Man Flint: James Coburn’s Tuxedo
James Coburn in Our Man Flint (1966)
Vitals
James Coburn as Derek Flint, bon vivant superspy
New York City to Marseilles, Spring 1965
Film: Our Man Flint
Release Date: January 16, 1966
Director: Daniel Mann
Costume Designer: Ray Aghayan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
James Coburn originated the character of Derek Flint in Our Man Flint, one of the many spy spoofs in the wake of ’60s Bondmania, released sixty years ago today. Technically, the film premiered a month earlier in St. Ann’s Bay in Jamaica, though it wasn’t widely in theaters until the American release on January 16, 1966. It would be followed the next year by a sequel, In Like Flint—which also happens to be Austin Powers’ favorite movie… and, indeed, you can see plenty of shagadelic DNA in the Flint series. Continue reading
My Night at Maud’s: Jean-Louis Trintignant’s Sheepskin Jacket
Jean-Louis Trintignant in My Night at Maud’s (1969)
Vitals
Jean-Louis Trintignant as Jean-Louis, serious-minded engineer and conflicted Catholic
Clermont-Ferrand, France, Christmas 1968
Film: My Night at Maud’s
(French title: Ma nuit chez Maud)
Release Date: June 4, 1969
Director: Éric Rohmer
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Considered one of the best French actors of the post-war era, the late Jean-Louis Trintignant was born 95 years ago today on December 11, 1930. Trintignant worked with many prolific directors but his sole collaboration with Éric Rohmer was the Nouvelle Vague drama My Night at Maud’s—the fourth-released of Rohmer’s “Six Moral Tales”.
My Night at Maud’s premiered at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival and would be nominated for two Academy Awards. Trintignant portrays the ambitious engineer Jean-Louis, deeply in love with the young biology student Françoise (Marie-Christine Barrault) he has seen at his church, until just before Christmas when his friend Vidal (Antoine Vitez) introduces him to the eponymous Maud (Françoise Fabian). The night of their first meeting features intense discussions ranging from ethics to existence until, at Maud’s existence, Jean-Louis spends an awkward—and initially platonic—night in her bed, acting only on his newfound attraction by kissing her before he leaves in the morning.
Through their subsequent interactions, Jean-Louis’ faith conflicts with his growing attraction to the outspoken, divorced atheist as he and Maud recognize the tragic unlikelihood of lasting love between them. Continue reading
Salt and Pepper: Sammy Davis Jr. in Green Suede
Sammy Davis Jr. in Salt and Pepper (1968)
Vitals
Sammy Davis Jr. as Charles Salt, nightclub singer and co-owner
London, Spring 1968
Film: Salt and Pepper
Release Date: June 21, 1968
Director: Richard Donner
Costume Designer: Cynthia Tingey
Tailor: Charles Glenn
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Multi-talented entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. was born 100 years ago today on December 8, 1925. Davis started performing on stage at only three years old when he joined his father and godfather in a touring act named after the latter: the Will Mastin Trio. After serving in the Army during World War II and maintaining his stardom through the ’50s, Davis developed an informal but enduring association with fellow entertainers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford that has become immortalized as the “Rat Pack”. (It was reportedly at Davis’ insistence that Sinatra changed the group’s initial name from “the Clan” to “the Summit”.)
The Rat Pack’s heyday was through the early 1960s, consisting primarily of stage shows and feature films like Ocean’s 11 (1960), playing a group of Army vets teaming up to rob five Vegas casinos. But as Dino’s character declares in that flick, “old times are only good when you’ve had ’em,” and the group’s cultural domination began to sizzle within a few short years. Sinatra had spent a small fortune to renovate part of his Palm Springs estate in anticipation of a visit from Lawford’s brother-in-law—who happened to be then-President John F. Kennedy—until Attorney General RFK advised his brother to limit his association with the mob-connected Ol’ Blue Eyes… so both JFK’s visit and Lawford’s upcoming role in 4 for Texas went to Bing Crosby instead.
Ever the diplomat, Davis maintained professional ties with Lawford as the two pallies starred in three more films through the end of the ’60s, adapting their Rat Pack personas to the times in Salt and Pepper (1968) and the Jerry Lewis-directed sequel, One More Time (1970).
Salt and Pepper was the second film directed by Richard Donner, who would more successfully revisit the black-and-white buddy comedy subgenre two decades later with the Lethal Weapon series. Davis and Lawford play swingin’ London nightclub operators-turned-spies Charlie Salt and Christopher Pepper, respectively, who uncover a plot to overthrow the British government. Continue reading
Marriage on the Rocks: Dino’s Red Sweater and Green Slacks
Dean Martin in Marriage on the Rocks (1965)
Vitals
Dean Martin as Ernie Brewer, playboy advertising executive
Los Angeles, Fall 1965
Film: Marriage on the Rocks
Release Date: September 24, 1965
Director: Jack Donohue
Costume Designer: Walter Plunkett
Background
As we’re gliding through December, my playlist is increasingly loaded with Christmas classics—often sung by the great mid-century entertainers like Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, and Rat Pack icons Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
After the Rat Pack’s heyday in the early ’60s had all but ended, the latter two pallies co-starred in Marriage on the Rocks, released sixty years ago in September 1965 amidst their career highs that included Sinatra recording September of My Years and appearing in an Emmy-winning documentary about his life and career, while Martin had just debuted his long-running variety show on NBC after knocking the Beatles from the top of the charts with “Everybody Loves Somebody”. Continue reading
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