DIAMOND HEAD

Yvette Mimieux, Elizabeth Allen, Charlton Heston

DIAMOND HEAD (1962). Director: Guy Green.

Widower King Howland (Charlton Heston) is a wealthy land owner in Hawaii who lives with his sister-in-law, Laura (Elizabeth Allen of Donovan's Reef), and his younger sister, Sloane (Yvette Mimieux of The Time Machine). Sloane is in love with an islander named Paul (James Darren), who returns her feelings, but neither King nor Laura approve of the marriage. "We've never mixed blood," King says, as he tries to enlist Paul's half-brother, Dean (George Chakiris) in breaking up the romance. Dean may have reservations about the union, but he will not speak out against it, although his mother (Aline MacMahon of Babbitt) feels mixed marriages will dilute the Hawaiian minority. Complicating the whole situation is that the hypocritical King is having an affair with an Asian woman (France Nuyen) who is going to have his child. At a party to celebrate the upcoming nuptials between Sloane and Paul, a tragedy occurs ... 

Heston

Diamond Head may take advantage of some gorgeous scenery, but its dramatic value is somewhat lacking. The admirable attempts to denounce racism are half-hearted, especially when you consider that the three main "Hawaiian" roles -- Jimmy, Dean, and their mother -- are played by Caucasian actors. Heston displays his usual charisma, and  his performance is perfectly competent but unmemorable. Elizabeth Allen is okay in the thankless role of the sister-in-law secretly in love with her late sister's widower. Chakiris and MacMahon -- and to a lesser extent Darren -- are notable, and Mimieux gives a fairly strong and sensitive performance, as does Nuyen -- perhaps the best in the picture. Harold Fong makes an impression as King's major domo, Koyama, and Marc Marno is vivid as Nuyen's sleazy brother, Bobby. 

A sub-plot has to do with King planning to run for the state senate, and there are also a couple of obvious hints of his incestuous feelings for his sister. That being said, the movie has an absolutely horrible ending which I believe was tacked on by someone who let their common sense run away with them. 

Verdict: You might have a better time watching reruns of Hawaiian Eye. **1/2. 

THE DOOR WITH 7 LOCKS

Schurenberg, Drache, Arent

THE DOOR WITH 7 LOCKS (aka The Door with Seven Locks aka Die Tur mit den 7 Schlossern/1962). Director: Alfred Vohrer. 

A librarian named Sybil (Sabine Sesselmann) discovers that her life is in danger because she's the next in line to inherit a vast fortune. Inspector Martin (Heinz Drache) tries to protect her while investigating a series of mysterious deaths. Mixed up in all this are a sinister couple named Cody (Werner Peters and Gisela Uhlen); a lawyer named Haveloc (Hans Nielsen); an ex-con -- and Mrs. Cody's nephew -- named Tommy (Jan Hendriks); a hulking horror named Giacco (Ady Berber of Dead Eyes of London); and the very strange Dr. Staletti (Pinkas Braun). As usual, we've also got Siegfried Schurenberg as Sir John of Scotland Yard, and Martin's mincing assistant, Holms (Eddi Arent). There is a lot of talk about a secret door which takes seven keys to unlock, and which various characters possess. 

Ady Berber, West Germany's answer to Tor Johnson

Yes, this is another West German Edgar Wallace adaptation, and while it has a few exciting moments, it's generally mediocre. As usual, the plot comes together at the end. The movie was previously filmed in the UK in 1940 -- it is also known as Chamber of Horrors -- and if anything is far worse than this version, which at least moves at a generally swift pace. Although the identity of the true mastermind isn't revealed until the very end, it is made pretty clear early on that there's something very wrong with Dr. Stiletti, whose experiments with pituitary glands have created the mongoloid Giacco. Stiletti wants to create a race of supermen, but his first idea is to transplant a human head on a monkey's body (the movie might have been more interesting if this actually took place). In a very odd sequence, Martin and Sybil ride down several stories in a elevator with no doors, but then go up in the same elevator for no good reason. Klaus Kinski plays an early victim. Be advised that an alleged torture chamber has very little to do with the 1940 film and there is absolutely no torture chamber in this version, just a weird hidden room where experiments take place. 

Verdict: Some entertaining elements but really nothing special. **1/2. 

JIGSAW (1962)

JIGSAW (1962). Produced, directed, and written by Val Guest. 

A young woman (Moira Redmond) makes the mistake of telling her unseen lover that she is two months pregnant, and perhaps now would be a good time for him to break from his wife. Unfortunately, this gent has a different idea on his mind. Some time later part of the lady's corpse is found in the garage of a rented house. Detective Fellows (Jack Warner of Dear Murderer) and Detective Wilks (Ronald Lewis) are part of a team assigned to not only find out who killed the woman but who she was. Doing dogged police work (although it seems to take forever for them to bring in someone to work with an identikit) leads to mistaken identities and bum steers. Finally they discover the killer has been hiding in plain sight for quite some time. 

Jigsaw is a very absorbing British police procedural with Warner playing an amiable, highly professional detective. Lewis is also good, but he's always more interesting as a bad guy, such as in Stop Me Before I Kill! Yolande Donlan -- who was married to director Val Guest --  really makes an impression as another woman who dallies with the killer, and there's notable work from Redmond, Michael Goodliffe [The Gorgon], John Barron, John Le Mesurier [Jack the Ripper] and others. This is not another British copy of Psycho and focuses much more on the solving of the crime than it does on the crime itself. Guest also directed The Day the Earth Caught Fire. 

Verdict: Suspenseful British mystery. ***.  

THE NOTORIOUS LANDLADY

Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon

THE NOTORIOUS LANDLADY (1962). Director: Richard Quine. 

Newly arrived in London, Bill Gridley (Jack Lemmon) of the U.S. Embassy, looks for a flat to rent and winds up in the beautiful townhouse of Carly Hardwicke (Kim Novak). His boss, Ambruster (Fred Astaire) thinks the name of his employee's new landlady sounds familiar, and he is horrified when someone in the research department reminds him of just who Mrs. Hardwicke really is. It seems that her husband vanished without a trace several months ago, and now everyone is convinced that the "notorious" woman murdered the missing man! Before Ambruster can order Bill to find new quarters, Inspector Oliphant (Lionel Jeffries) importunes him to stay where he is and find out whatever he can about the supposed black widow. 

Jack Lemmon and Fred Astaire

The first half of The Notorious Landlady is delightful, full of suspense, and bolstered by fine performances from the entire cast. Astaire makes his character more likable than he might have been had he been played by another actor. There are also good turns from Estelle Winwood [The Magic Sword], Maxwell Reed [Daughter of Darkness], Henry Daniell [Siren of Atlantis], and Phillipa Bevans. The second half of the film, after certain revelations have been made, goes a bit awry, with perhaps too much running around and the hasty unveiling of tricky plot points, but it recovers at the end with an amusing and exciting chase sequence backed up by the strains of Gilbert and Sullivan. Good show!

Verdict: The picture and the cast have a lot of charm! ***

LADIES MAN (1962)

LADIES MAN (aka Lemmy pour Les Dames/1962). Director: Bernard Borderie. 

Special FBI agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) is on vacation in France, hanging out with his buddy Dombie  (Robert Berri), when a wealthy woman named Claudia (Yvonne Monlaur) asks for his help. Their first meeting in a restaurant is interrupted by the arrival of two men of whom Claudia is obviously frightened, Mirko (Guy Delorme) and Hugo (Lionel Roc). Before Lemmy can consult with Claudia a second time, he finds her corpse at the bottom of a cliff. Nearby is a house inside which Lemmy finds three friends of Claudia's: Sophie, (Eliane D'Almeida), Francoise (Claudine Coster), and Marie-Christine (Francoise Brion). More than one attempt is made on Eddie's life as he tries to figure out which of the women might have had a hand in Claudia's death, as well as might be a part of a blackmail scheme. 

Lemmy Caution first appeared as a character in several novels written by British author Peter Cheyney. Beginning in 1955, the books were adapted into French films starring the very American Eddie Constantine, who had studied voice under Edith Piaf and found some success as a singer! Several Caution/Constantine films were made, the most famous of which is the weird Alphaville, which was not based on a Cheyney novel. Constantine wouldn't be the first or last American actor to achieve more success in Europe than he did in the States. 

Eddie Constantine

Regardless of what country it comes from, Ladies Man is typical private eye stuff. (In the books Caution eventually became a P.I. and, out of his jurisdiction, he basically acts like one in this movie.) We've got all of the usual American private eye tropes -- attempts on the hero's life, bodies turning up, lascivious females trying to get info out of the hero, and so on.  Constantine is by no means conventionally attractive -- he's like a somewhat better-looking Ernest Borgnine -- but he has a certain appeal. It's hard to judge his acting as this is the dubbed version of the film, but the actor dubbing Caution, be it Constantine or someone else, is excellent. The comedic stuff in the film, mostly centering on Lemmy's buddy Dombie, reminds one of similar antics in American PI shows. Pretty standard stuff, Ladies Man is moderately entertaining. Its rough-edged and satisfying conclusion reminds one of Mickey Spillane. An odd aspect of the film is that Caution is treated like a celebrity everywhere he goes, with people hungering for his autograph -- an FBI agent?! 

Verdict: If you want to see a Lemmy Caution movie it might as well as this one. **3/4. 

THE CABINET OF CALIGARI

Constance Ford, Daniel O'Herlihy, Glynis Johns

THE CABINET OF CALIGARI (1962). Director: Roger Kay. 

When her car breaks down, Jane Lindstrom (Glynis Johns of The Vault of Horror) seeks shelter at a sanitarium run by Dr. Caligari (Daniel O'Herlihy of Invasion U.S.A.). But her gratitude turns to fear and outrage when she discovers that there's no apparent way out of the establishment and she is being kept prisoner. The other "guests" don't seem to be much help: old Ruth (Estelle Winwood); romantic young Mark (Richard Davalos); friendly Vivian (Doreen Lang of The Wrong Man); firm and deceptively helpful Christine (Constance Ford); and others. When Jane sees Ruth being assaulted by one of the other patients as the others calmly watch, she determines to find her way out of this nuthouse no matter what she might have to do ... 
 

Johns is "helped" by Constance Ford

Robert Bloch wrote the screenplay for this mess, and it's proof that the man could turn out solid scripts as well as ones that should never see the light of day. This is one of three theatrical films for director Roger Kay, who mostly toiled in television, and he's unable to do much with this terrible story. Heroine Glynis Johns, with her squeaky voice and munchkin-like appearance, seems all wrong for this kind of movie, although one could argue that she is the ultimate masochist. Johns gives a good and committed performance, however, although there must have been times when she and the other actors wished they'd chosen a better project. Daniel O'Herlihy is effective in a supposedly dual role, and the others named are all better than the picture deserves. This is a remake of the silent classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in name only, although some shots try to ape the expressionistic sets of the original. There is  an explanation for the strange goings-on, but the movie is so utterly tedious that you probably won't want to wait until the ending to find out. There are some interesting touches -- Caligari has a revolving door into his office, and there's a glass panel above Johns' bathtub into which people can peek as she bathes -- but they aren't enough to save this from the scrapheap.

Verdict: A waste of talent and celluloid. *1/2. 

THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES

Hercules shows off muscles to Curly

THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES (1962). Director: Edward Bernds. 

The Three Stooges work in a drug store and have befriended a tall if nerdy scientist named Schulyer Davis (Quinn K. Redeker). Davis is working on a time machine, and when the stooges fiddle around with it they, Davis, and his fiancee, Diane (Vicki Trickett), all wind up back in Ithaca in 900 B.C. Greece. Their untimely arrival causes Ulysses to lose the battle against Odius (George N. Neise) with the added help of a rather unpleasant Hercules (Samson Burke). 

The stooges with the phony Herc

The rather brave stooges manage to free Ulysses from prison but for their efforts are turned into galley slaves. This enables Davis to develop muscles that put him on a par with Hercules. After escaping from the ship, Davis masquerades as the demi-god and gives him the reputation of a decent and honorable fellow. But he still has to face the real Hercules in the arena and get his girlfriend away from the odious King Odius. Odius happens to greatly resemble the stooges' boss, Mr. Dismal, back in the 20th century. 

Two-headed cyclops wants to make a meal of Moe

Well, what can you say about The Three Stooges Meet Hercules? You can say that for a full-length Stooges movie it is rather ambitious and has a more complicated storyline than the usual slapstick outing. Moe (Moe Howard) seems even a  bigger bully than usual in this picture, and although Joe DeRita is more than okay in the film, he is not my favorite Curly. Larry Fine (Larry) is as funny as ever, however. Redecker and Trickett are acceptable without making that much of an impression. 6 ft. 4 Samson Burke was a body builder and professional wrestler who turned to acting; he is fine as an unsympathetic and mean-spirited Hercules. George Neise specialized in sleazy and unlikable characters, but he is not notable in this. The movie is not tedious and it has amusing moments, but it couldn't be considered a "laff riot," either. The stooges have been funnier elsewhere, but this flick is not without interest for fans. 

Verdict: If the stooges are not your cup of java, tune out! **1/2.

"BABY JANE" REVISITED

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962). Director: Robert Aldrich.

"I hope you can be kinder to Jane and your father then they are to you."

Former child star Baby Jane Hudson (Bette Davis, pictured) shares a mansion in Hollywood with her crippled sister, Blanche (Joan Crawford), who was a big movie star in her day. When they begin showing her old movies on television, Jane gets the idea of reviving her own act -- but first she has to keep Blanche from selling the house out from under her, leading to grim events and tragedy.

Joan Crawford and Maidie Norman

While the subject matter with its mental illness and physical abuse is distasteful, Baby Jane is still a mesmerizing film, adroitly directed by Aldrich, well-made, and well-acted by the entire cast. Davis is simply superb as Jane (especially good when she collapses into horrified tears in front of her mirror); Crawford is solid but has the less flamboyant role. Victor Buono and Marjorie Bennett are great as Edwin Flagg and his mother. Maidie Norman and Anna Lee are also fine as, respectively, the Hudson's maid, Elvira, and pleasant neighbor, Mrs. Bates. (Davis' witchy religious nut daughter, B.D. Hyman, is barely acceptable as Lee's teen aged daughter; she had no subsequent career as an actress.) Ernest Anderson, who had an important role in In This Our Life, has a brief scene with Davis near the end of the film when he plays a food vendor at the beach. Baby Jane? is beautifully photographed by Ernest Haller. Write-ups of this film always refer to the "decaying" mansion the Hudson sisters live in, but it doesn't seem to be "decaying" -- like Jane's mind -- at all.

2020 UPDATE: Aldrich could have built up more suspense in certain sequences. Crawford doesn't quite pull out all the stops in her final scene, but then we have to remember she's supposed to be at death's door. A bank teller is played by Maxine Cooper of Kiss Me Deadly. Remade as a TV movie with the Redgrave sisters in 1990.

Verdict: Grotesque -- but it works. ***1/2.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1962)

Joyce Taylor and Mark Damon

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1962). Diretor: Edward L. Cahn.

Althea (Joyce Taylor) travels with her father, Count Roderick (Dayton Lummis), to a kingdom presided over by the young and recently coronated King Eduardo ( Mark Damon of The Young Racers). Althea, who is affianced to Eduardo, expects a warm greeting but discovers that her fiance is "indisposed" and there is hardly any staff in the castle aside from his chief aide Orsini (Eduard Franz). Althea sees the handsome Eduardo in the morning, but he tells her that their wedding may have to be postponed. It's worse than that -- a curse was placed upon Eduardo by a alchemist who was sentenced to death by Eduardo's father when he refused to share his secrets. Now each night Eduardo grows fur, claws and fangs and becomes a benign if tormented werewolf (of sorts). If Eduardo's nasty Uncle Bruno (Michael Pate) finds out, his regime may come to a decidedly violent conclusion.

Anders, Pate and Burrke

Beauty and the Beast is a rarity in that it's probably the only TechniColor film directed by B Movie maestro Edward L. Cahn. (This was Cahn's last film, as he died the following year.) Mercilessly skewered for its low-budget and a comparison to Cocteau's 1946 film of the same name, on its own terms Beauty and the Beast is a minor but entertaining film that probably works best for young viewers. Taylor and Damon, especially the latter, give good enough performances; Pate and Merry Anders as his gal pal, Sybil, are fine; Franz and Lummis are credible; and Walter Burke gives the most notable performance as the slimy and scheming Grimaldi, servant to Bruno.

Mark Damon. 

The werewolf design is by Ernie Young and the famous Jack P. Pierce. It doesn't look bad, although an unfortunate side effect of the big teeth is that it comically affects Damon's speech. Hugo Friedhofer's musical score is a plus, especially the theme music. A former pop singer and Howard Hughes discovery, Joyce Taylor appeared in Atlantis the Lost Continent and other genre films; her last feature was in 1971. Mark Damon starred in Roger Corman's House of Usher, did many films overseas, and became a producer. Merry Anders was in Hear Me Good and Ib Melchior's The Time Travelers, among others. Beauty and the Beast has a notable climax when the couple race to get married with Bruno's hate-filled followers in rabid pursuit. Edward L. Cahn directed Zombies of Mora Tau and about a zillion others.

Verdict: More than acceptable children's fantasy film. ***. 

A PAIR OF BRIEFS

Mary Peach and Michael Craig

A PAIR OF BRIEFS (1962). Director: Ralph Thomas.

Tony Stevens (Michael Craig) is a young lawyer hoping to get "briefs" -- cases -- that will pay more money than others. Tony is annoyed when newcomer Frances (Mary Peach) gets a high-paying case right off the bat due to connections, so he importunes a drunken friend of his in the prosecutor's office to let him stand up for the defendant in the same case (a highly unlikely scenario). Frances is representing Gladys Worthing (Brenda de Banzie), a shabby middle-aged woman who is suing her alleged husband, Sidney (Ron Moody of Murder Most Foul), for "restitution of conjugal rights." For his part, Sidney insists that he and Gladys were never married. As the case proceeds, Judge Haddon (James Robertson Justice) nearly has apoplexy dealing with the oddly reticent plaintiff as well as the conduct of the two opposing barristers.

Nicholas Phipps

A Pair of Briefs tries hard to be a hilarious near-farce of a comedy, but it is never as funny as it might have looked on paper. The performances are fine, with handsome Craig managing to actually come off like a nerd through much of the movie. What makes the film worthwhile and memorable are the developments and twists that come in the final third of the film, which are amusing. Also in the cast is Nicholas Phipps, who wrote the screenplay, as he did for the Craig vehicle Doctor in Love, in which he also appeared. A small part is played by Judy Carne, who later went on to fame on Laugh-In and through her combative marriage to Burt Reynolds.

Verdict: Interesting developments and a good cast help put this over. ***. 

THAT TOUCH OF MINK

Doris Day and Cary Grant

THAT TOUCH OF MINK (1962). Director: Delbert Mann.

"When a man donates $200,000, he's entitled to use the facilities."

Wealthy entrepreneur Philip Shayne (Cary Grant) is in his limousine when it splashes mud on out-of-work Cathy Timberlake (Doris Day.) Philip sends his associate, Roger (Gig Young of Hunt the Man Down) to apologize for him, but Cathy insists Philip do it himself. When she meets him, however, she is so instantly smitten that she apologizes to him. Thus begins a difficult romance in which Cathy does her best to maintain her virtue even as Philip flies her off to exotic places and wines and dines her par excellance. A series of comical misunderstandings may or may not lead to the altar ...

A date from Hell: Doris Day and John Astin

That Touch of Mink is a funny movie, greatly abetted by the performances of the two leads. One could quibble that both of them, especially Grant, are a bit too old to be dancing around this whole sex-or-no-sex business, but they make the skirmishes amusing in spite of it. John Astin is also notable as a sleazy man in the unemployment office who has a hankering for Cathy and winds up wishing that he didn't.

Although there's nothing necessarily wrong with Audrey Meadows' performance, I was somehow disappointed by it. Meadows certainly knew how to slap down a line on The Honeymooners, but maybe this part should have been essayed by Eve Arden. Laurie Mitchell, the Queen of Outer Space herself, has a bit part as a showgirl, and John Fiedler is amusing as a confused bridegroom who gets the wrong idea about his wife. That Touch of Mink is typical of many sixties comedies in that it milks some humor out of a misunderstanding over a character's sexual orientation -- in this case Roger's shrink (Alan Hewitt, who is also very good) thinks he is gay. It does lead up to a silly but nevertheless hilarious final sequence.

Verdict: Despite its dated qualities (on so many levels), this is a consistently amusing picture with extremely adept leads. ***. 

DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962)

Bottoms Up! Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick

DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962). Director: Blake Edwards.

"The world looks so dirty to me when I'm not drinking." -- Kirsten.

Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) is a public relations man who likes his liquor. When he first meets Kirsten (Lee Remick), the two don't exactly hit it off, but a persistent Joe finally gets a date with her. Although Kirsten doesn't drink, or even particularly like the taste of alcohol, Joe importunes her to try a Brandy Alexander, and she discovers she likes getting tight. When the two get married and have a daughter, both discover that alcohol is playing too large a role in their lives, only Kirsten won't admit she has a problem.

Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick

Days of Wine and Roses is based on a classic and excellent television play that was presented on Playhouse 90 in 1958. J. P. Miller wrote the script for both the show and the movie, although some questionable elements were added.to "open up" the story (one imagines director Blake Edwards also had a hand in that). The casting of Jack Lemmon [How to Murder Your Wife], who was mostly known as a comedian at the time, apparently necessitated sequences fabricated to let the audience slowly get into the eventually sombre mood by turning the first third of the film into a comedy as Lemmon pursues a disinterested Remick [Anatomy of a Murder]. The movie nearly sinks with an utterly ridiculous sequence in which Joe tries to get rid of the cockroaches in Kirsten's apartment, and her neighbors inexplicably complain about it.

Jack Lemmon and Charles Bickford 

The film eventually settles down into the main story, detailing how Joe loses his job due to his drinking, his recognition that both he and his wife are bonafide alcoholics, their moving in with her father, Ellis (Charles Bickford reprising his role from the TV version), who owns a nursery that Joe nearly destroys during a binge. (In both the TV and theatrical version we're not shown Ellis' reaction when he discovers what his son-in-law has done, which might have made for one intensely dramatic sequence.)

Lee Remick

Days of Wine and Roses is a good picture that is bolstered by fine performances from Lemmon (helping to establish him as a dramatic player as well as a comic one), Remick (possibly her best performance), and Bickford. Jack Klugman [12 Angry Men] is much less impressive as a representative of AA who tries to help Joe. The TV version is generally superior to the movie. In the original teleplay Joe is not responsible for Kirsten starting drinking, which he is in the film, and in the movie he never seems to feel any guilt about it. In the film Lemmon almost immediately takes a drink when Remick, in her lonely motel room, begs him to join her, whereas Cliff Robertson sits contemplating the bottle for awhile before he gives in. All in all, the teleplay is better if for no other reason than that it doesn't waste time with the sitcom-like stuff that the movie does. Both versions sort of gloss over the financial angles of the characters' situation, and other things are a bit prettified as well.

Verdict: Worthwhile picture, although not as good as the original. ***. 

GYPSY

Ann Jillian, Rosalind Russell, Karl Malden

GYPSY (1962). Director: Mervyn LeRoy.

Rose Hovick (Rosalind Russell of Auntie Mame) is the stage mother to end all stage mothers, and she pushes her daughters Louise and June into the theater whether they want to go or not. Baby June* (Morgan Brittany and Ann Jillian) fears that her mother will never let her grow up, and Louise (Diane Pace and Natalie Wood), forced to dress like a boy, fears that she has no talent and will never please her mother. Acting as their manager is Herbie Sommers (Karl Malden of Time Limit), who wants to marry Rose and tries to keep her wilder aspects in check. When circumstances remove June from the act, Rose sets her sights on Louise, who will wind up attaining stardom in a way no one would ever have anticipated.

Paul Wallace as "Tulsa" with Natalie Wood

Gypsy is one of the most successful adaptations of a hit Broadway musical. The basic material, based on the memoirs of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, was already there, along with a fine score by composer Jule Styne and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, but the movie is bolstered by several excellent performances, especially from Russell, Malden and Wood. True, the characters are all etched in very, very broad strokes, but it doesn't detract from the enjoyability of the piece.

"You Gotta Get a Gimmick." Bruce, Dane and Arlen

Along with songs that have become standards, such as "Small World," "Everything's Coming Up Roses," "Some People," and "Let Me Entertain You," there are gems like "You'll Never Get Away From Me," and "If Mama Was Married," among others ("Together" was filmed but cut from the final release). Although he doesn't have a great voice as such, Paul Wallace makes a positive impression as Tulsa, who dances in June's act and who inspires romantic feelings in Louise. "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" is one of the zestiest numbers in the movie, sung by a spirited trio of strippers (Betty Bruce, Roxanne Arlen, and particularly Faith Dane who "bumps it with a trumpet.")

Gypsy Rose Lee struts her stuff

Although Rosalind Russell does do a little singing in this (such as the opening of "Rose's Turn"), most of her vocals were performed by Lisa Kirk (Broadway's Allegro), whose husky voice was probably chosen because it was more of a match to Russell's gravelly speaking voice. Unfortunately Kirk's singing is not especially euphonious in this, so they might just as well have let Russell handle all of it. Wood seems to do her own singing, but her off-key warbling perfectly fits her character. (The real Gypsy Rose Lee did not have much of a voice, and she was never as attractive as Natalie Wood!) Harry Stradling Sr.'s [Parrish] widescreen cinematography is a plus. Watch out for an amusing cameo by Jack Benny!

* "Baby June" grew up to become the successful actress June Havoc (not to be confused with June Haver, who married Fred MacMurray). She and her sister were estranged for many years, mostly over Gypsy, even though her depiction was not that negative. Her latter-day achievements after the events of Gypsy were completely eliminated of course. Her last theatrical film appearance was in Can't Stop the Music.

Verdict: Delightful! ***1/2. 

JULES AND JIM

Henri Serre and Oskar Werner

JULES AND JIM (aka Jules et Jim/1962). Director: Francois Truffaut. Based on a novel by Henri-Pierre Roche.

French Jim (Henri Serre) and German Jules (Oskar Werner) become the best of friends in Paris, and become a trio when they meet the free-spirited Catherine (Jeanne Moreau of The Yellow Rolls Royce). Eventually she marries Jules and all of them are separated by WW 1. After the war they are reunited, and Catherine transfers her affections to Jim, despite the fact that she and Jules have a young daughter. They live together in a kind of strictly heterosexual menage a trois, but Catherine's screwy personality is such that a lasting happiness with either man may be unlikely for her ...

Jeanne Moreau and Oskar Werner

The "New Wave" Jules and Jim was much admired when it was released and still certainly has plenty of fans among foreign film  enthusiasts. The generally fast-paced film is well-acted by the three leads, it boasts a fine score by Georges Delerue [The Conformist] and beautiful cinematography from Raoul Coutard. There is a free-love, supposedly European frankness to the film that certainly differentiates it from a Hollywood soap opera without necessarily improving upon it. In fact, one can imagine the same story being told by a major Hollywood director who could have given it much more impact, although the downside is that the production code might have insisted on the old moralistic "sin and suffer" approach. The trouble is that the characters of Jules and Jim never quite seem like real people, just sketches made with too-broad brush strokes; instead of seeming sophisticated, they just come off as childish. There's too much of the narrator telling us things about these people instead of letting the film show us. The light touch of the movie, with everyone seeming to accept the situation (without really doing so), is at odds with the utterly melodramatic, indeed somewhat farcical,  developments that wind up the picture. Still, it's just these bizarre touches that probably made the picture stand out when otherwise it might have been forgotten. Jules and Jim is too well-made to dismiss, but I can't quite disagree with those people who think it might have better been titled "Two Dopes and a Skank (who can't make up her mind)." A better Truffaut film is The Story of Adele H. 

Verdict: Like a fair-to-middling French Woody Allen movie, for better or worse. **1/2. 

EXPERIMENT IN TERROR

Ross Martin

EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (1962). Produced and directed by Blake Edwards.

Kelly Sherwood (Lee Remick) is a bank teller who lives with her teenage sister, Toby (Stefanie Powers of Die, Die, My Darling). One night a stranger named Red Lynch (Ross Martin) sneaks up behind her in her garage and tells her she has to steal $100,000 from her bank or there will be dire consequences for her and her sister. Kelly manages to contact the FBI, and Agent Ripley (Glenn Ford) is assigned to the case, trying both to find and identify Lynch and to protect Kelly and her sister from harm. Eventually it is decided to let Kelly go along with the plot in an effort to trap Lynch, with the climax occurring in a crowded stadium. Experiment in Terror begins well and has a couple of decent sequences, but Blake Edwards is no suspense specialist, and the film becomes meandering, uninvolving, and rather dull. Remick gives a controlled and competent performance but doesn't offer one iota more for her portrayal; Powers is much better as her sister. Ford plays the "G-Man" with a quiet authority that never quite makes him seem like the best man for the job. Anita Loo and Patricia Huston have flavorful supporting roles as two women who were also in Lynch's life, to the former's advantage and the latter's regret. Ross Martin gives the most notable performance as the criminal "mastermind" who seems to have some sympathy for the little son of a woman he knows and whose hospital bills he is paying, but his character is not very well developed; three years later he gained TV fame on The Wild, Wild West and he was also outstanding in the classic TZ episode Death Ship. Henry Mancini's score is at times quite effective, and Philip Lathrop's cinematography of San Francisco and environs is also good.

Verdict: Paging Alfred Hitchcock. **. 

SIBERIAN LADY MACBETH

Olivera Markovic and Ljuba Tadic

SIBERIAN LADY MACBETH (aka Sibirska Ledi Magbet1962). Director:  Andrzej Wajda

In the Russian district of Mtsensk, Katerina (Olivera Markovic) lives a comparatively bleak existence with her husband, Zinovij (Miodrag Lazarevic), who is usually absent, and her grumpy, awful father-in-law, Izmajlow (Bojan Stupica). One day comes an attractive laborer named Sergei (Ljuba Tadic), who makes a play for Katerina that she only momentarily rebuffs. Trying to hold on to a life together, the couple commit an increasingly terrible series of murders, then discover that the land they thinks belongs to them actually belongs to a child nephew. Just how far will these passionate lovers go to hold on to what they've acquired  ...? Siberian Lady Macbeth is based on a story by Sveta Lukic, which was also the basis for Dmitri Shostakovitch's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. If anything, this Yugoslavian film is even more hard-hitting than the opera, uncompromising, powerful and at times horrifying to the extreme. The performances are excellent, and the film is well-directed and photographed, with a highlight being the climactic prison march. The compelling film is one of those movies, told from the point of view of people devoid of conscience, that almost -- almost -- makes you feel sorry for them at times (the fact that most of the victims are somewhat odious helps in that regard), but you'll ultimately feel that they get their just desserts in a very grim and pitiless finale. Remade as Lady Macbeth in 2016 with the setting transferred to England. 

Verdict: Dark, sombre, fascinating -- a near-masterpiece. ***1/2.  

THE CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS

Robots -- or humanoids? 

THE CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS (1962). Director: Wesley Barry.

"Mankind is a state of mind."

"Your sister is in rapport."

In what purports to be a post-apocalyptic time period, many humans can't reproduce and robots are doing most of the work. Captain Kenneth Cragis (Don Megowan of The Werewolf) is distrustful of the "clickers," who have humanoid faces and bodies but are mere mechanical men, according to him. Cragis belongs to the Order of Flesh and Blood, a society which fears that robots may spell the end of mankind. Then he learns that his sister, Esme (Frances McCann), is "in rapport" with her clicker servant, Pax (David Cross) -- who, presumably, is anatomically correct -- a situation that Kenneth finds repugnant. Meanwhile a secret organization of clickers has been able to create robots that are 96% human by transferring memories and consciousness from recently deceased people and putting them in mechanical bodies that resemble them. The only thing left is to create "robots" who can reproduce. Kenneth falls in love with Esme's friend, Maxine (Erica Elliott), and vice versa, but the two are harboring a secret that neither of them is even aware of ... Creation of the Humanoids is talky science fiction with "science" that may be on the level of an old comic book, but the talk is always interesting and there are plenty of fascinating notions in Jay Simms' screenplay. This is an extremely low-budget production but the use of shadows disguises the fact that there are few real sets, although Esme's apartment is strikingly designed. The actors put over the material quite well, and the picture has a fast enough pace, although there's a scarcity of action. The "twist" ending shocked me when I was a little kid, but nowadays I can tell it doesn't make much sense. The weird musical score doesn't hurt.

Verdict: Thought-provoking science fiction if you take it with a very large grain of salt. ***. 

LIFE FOR RUTH / WALK IN THE SHADOW

Michael Craig

LIFE FOR RUTH (aka Walk in the Shadow/1962). Director: Basil Dearden.

"You put your personal faith before her welfare -- you let her die!

John Harris (Michael Craig) and his wife, Pat (Janet Munro), have an eight-year-old daughter named Ruth (Lynn Taylor). John has to rescue Ruth and a young friend when they go out on a boat in choppy waters to get the girl's ball. The boy is saved, but John is told that only a blood transfusion will save Ruth's life. John's religion, similar to Christian Science (although never named) is against transfusions and medical intervention and fears Ruth will be denied everlasting peace in the next world. Dr. Brown (Patrick McGoohan) is utterly appalled by Harris' attitude -- even Harris' wife eventually asks the doctor to do all he can to save Ruth but it's too late. Brown decides to see that Harris is prosecuted for his actions -- or lack of same -- and he is arrested on a charge of manslaughter under the "cruelty to children" act. Brown wants no more children to die because of simple-minded religious dogma so the whole thing will have to be resolved in a courtroom ... What makes the picture even more interesting is that Harris is not really portrayed as some kind of monster, but genuinely thinks he's doing the right thing, until he has a powerful epiphany in the courtroom. Michael Craig, who could play doctor playboys [Doctor in Love] and Civil War heroes [The Mysterious Island] with equal aplomb, proves his versatility yet again with his excellent portrayal of the simple yet tormented John Harris. Munro, McGoohan and the supporting cast, including Megs Jenkins as Pat's mother, are all excellent as well. Cinematography by Otto Heller [Richard III] and a score by William Alwyn [She Played with Fire] add to the film's quality.

Verdict: Powerful, well-acted, and completely absorbing. ***1/2.

LOLITA

Sue Lyon and James Mason

LOLITA (1962). Director: Stanley Kubrick.

"Shut your mouth, you horrible little psychopath!"


Professor Humbert Humbert (James Mason) takes a room with widowed landlady Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters of The Chapman Report) because he's smitten with Charlotte's teenage daughter, the "nymphet" Lolita (Sue Lyon of The Night of the Iguana). Marrying Charlotte seems like the only way for Humbert to get to the true object of his affection, but he has more than one rival: television personality Clare Quilty (Peter Sellers); and young Dick (Gary Cockrell). Will Humbert's obsession with Lolita be his undoing? I haven't read Vladimir Nabokov's novel since college, but it seems to me that this is a very watered-down version of the book -- Lolita was much younger for one thing -- while basically staying more or less true to its intentions (Nabokov himself wrote the screenplay). Mason, as usual, offers another excellent performance, and in fact is superior to the rather cheesy material. 16-year-old Sue Lyon. who was introduced in this picture, is fine and never seems intimidated by the great Mason. Shelley Winters does a nice job as Charlotte, whom we're clearly not meant to feel much sympathy for. The novel was entertaining and very well-written, but not every book should be filmed. This just comes off as lurid and trashy and its entertainment value runs out early on. Peter Sellers plays a strange character but plays it well.  Sue Lyon was a talented actress but aside from her first two credits her career was relatively undistinguished [The Astral Factor], although she did have several interesting if short-lived marriages. Remade in 1997 with Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert.

Verdict: Mason saves the picture but probably should have turned it down, although it did get a lot of attention upon its release. **.

THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT

Larry Fine, Moe Howard, Joe DeRita

THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT (1962). Director: Edward Bernds.

"The arrow's pointing half-way -- I don't know if it's half full or half empty!"

Needing a place to stay, the Three Stooges (Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Joe DeRita) answer an ad placed by a scientist named Danforth (Emil Sitka). Danforth has invented a kind of combination sub-tractor-copter-spaceship which hardly looks like it could get off the ground but at one point shoots the boys into orbit. A handsome Air Force man, Captain Tom Andrews (Edson Stroll of McHale's Navy) comes to look at the professor's invention, but spends more time looking over his daughter, Carol (Carol Christensen). Then there are a couple of Martians, who resemble Universal monsters, hovering about and planning an attack on the earth. A sub-plot has the boys being told that their cartoon show will be canceled unless they come up with a new approach and arrive at the studio by a certain time. The Stooges are fine, but even they need decent material, and even kids would probably find this a little too silly. Sitka isn't funny at all, so his casting is strange (even stranger is that he later became one of the stooges after Fine's death), Strangely, Sitka reminds one of Dustin Hoffman! Many jokes are repeated too often.

Verdict: Good-natured if really stupid. **.