Bells Are Ringing (1960)

Ella works for an answering service and simply cannot stop herself from doing what she can to improve the lives of the clients. She has to get creative in order to keep helping without raising the notice of the cops, who are sniffing around on suspicion of unsavory activities. Things get especially sticky when she finally meets her favorite client and they begin to fall in love.

I've seen this at least four times and listen to the soundtrack regularly. It's a spectacular musical: goofy, charming and life-affirming. The songs are also top-notch (fun fact: the one time I auditioned for a local theater musical, I used "It's a Perfect Relationship"). Dean Martin is all rumply charm while Judy Holliday is what a rainbow would be if it were transformed into a person. 

It's a delight.

A

Ocean's 11 (1960)

A group of army buddies, led by Sinatra as Danny Ocean, decide to hit 5 Las Vegas casinos on New Year's Eve. We know how fun the concept of a heist with a big group of perpetrators can be because we've seen the 2001 film. Unfortunately, the filmmakers for this iteration weren't able to see that, so... less fun.

There's a whole lot of talking and some mild ribbing for the first 90 minutes or so. Once the heist actually starts, it somehow doesn't get any more lively. The heist consists of 1) making the lights go out, 2) marking a door in each venue with some kind of invisible paint and then 3) walking through that door to take the money. It's so boring.

C-

Sergeant Rutledge (1960)

It's 1881 and a black cavalry officer is being court-martialed for rape and murder in Arizona. It somehow manages to be both sordid and sanitized with a bunch of stiff overacting and laughable speechifying. Just yeesh.

D+

Tunes of Glory (1960)

Jock has been serving as acting Colonel for his Highland Regiment. His style is loose and familiar and his company enjoys palling around with their commanding officer. When an Oxford man is appointed Colonel, his desire that the regiment adheres to set schedules and protocols is met with resistance from the men. But the real problem is that Jock is butthurt and his men want to be loyal to him.

Alec Guinness is perfect as the loathsome Jock. He's childish and petty but holds such sway that he cannot be easily dealt with. This movie does a great job of exposing the truth that one never really outgrows the effects of bullying. It also makes an effective argument for the army's unquestioning obedience of lower ranks to higher. Once sedition creeps in, control is near impossible to reassert.

B+

Spartacus (1960)

Spartacus is a belligerent slave sold to train as a gladiator -- instead, he becomes the leader of a slave revolt that eventually becomes a full-blown revolution. There are some cheesy bits, but it generally works and, even though it's long, it's never boring.

B

The Alamo (1960)

Surprisingly watchable. There's nothing spectacular going on and the length -- nearly 3 hours -- hurts it (a run time of about 1:45 would have made it lean and meaningful), but it's still OK in a bloodless kind of way. Definitely better than the 2004 telling.

C+

The Hidden Fortress (1960)

Basic premise: brave samurai general must get young princess through enemy territory safely, despite being "helped" along the way by two selfish peasants interested only in the monetary gain they'll enjoy if successful.

There's much to like here. The covert escape story is classic (George Lucas used it as inspiration for Star Wars) and Toshiro Mifune is reliably captivating as the general -- he's charismatic and believably frightening. Gary walked through the room at one point and said "easy to see why he was such a huge star."

But, despite the strong story and exciting escapes, the good is nearly undone completely by the speaking voice of the princess (awesome idea to have her masquerade as a mute peasant girl -- wonder if that was in the original script or just a necessary tweak to save the production thousands in aspirin costs) and the annoying hamming of the peasants.

B

Exodus (1960)

Excruciatingly long and self-important adaptation of the Leon Uris novel based on the founding of Israel post-World War II.

It's filled with stereotypes -- the most annoying of which is the Eva Marie Saint character, whose sole purpose is to gather information for the audience by acting like an ignorant, but well-meaning, American who needs everything patiently explained to her. Even Paul Newman bores as Eva's steely tour guide.

There is a decent early storyline in which the Jewish refugees have banded together in an effort to decide their own fate rather than bowing to the British government's plans for them, but it comes early and is over far too soon.

C-

Hiroshima Mon Amour (1960)

The film opens with documentary-like footage of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombings with a woman providing voice over of how she felt about her Hiroshima experiences. She's gently told that she has no personal experience of Hiroshima. When the speakers finally appear on-screen, we see that they are a French woman and a Japanese man and soon learn that they're at the end of what they supposed would be a one-night tryst. The story gets deeper and more meaningful as the minutes go by -- but it's so stylized that it's difficult to connect with the players.

I feel like I got it -- the woman has memories and shame she can't bear to remember and prefers an attempt at replacing them with false Hiroshima memories. The man feels guilt for escaping the bombings while his family suffered them. They provide a confessional relationship for each other, but the wounds are too deep for them to be salved over the course of a couple of days. But getting it isn't enough. I didn't feel what they felt. Their individual isolation was impenetrable. Which, come to think of it, is probably the point.

B-

Sons and Lovers (1960)

Unhappy lower-class family in a mining town loses a son in a mine collapse which makes mom more determined than ever to make sure that her remaining son, an artist, follows his dreams.

Sounds good in theory, but somehow Mom (Wendy Hiller -- doing a bang-up job) seems to need it more than her son does. Her neediness, combined with his father's disgust, conspire to turn him into a cold and emotionally-crippled man who desires only similarly cold people in his life.

It's not very enjoyable to watch.

C-

Murder, Inc. (1960)

Might have been shocking when it was made, but rather square now. Follows the true life story of mob assassins in the '30s. The voice-over has a school filmstrip vibe…cool-remove monotone.

B-

Never on Sunday (1960)

Reminded me a little too much of church life with the well-meaning guy who knows how everyone should be living and demands their unhappiness if they're not "living right." Kinda funny in that way.

B

The Entertainer (1960)

There was quite a bit I didn't understand (like, why does the entire country CARE about their son as a prisoner of war?) and the parts I did understand I hated. Very shrill and depressing bit of cinema with a lecher as leading man. Ugh.

D

Village of the Damned (1960)

The entire town of Midwich, animals included, falls asleep for a few hours one day. Most of the people are caught in mid-task -- ironing a dress, making a telephone call, walking down the street -- when they keel over. No harm seems to have come to anyone except that every woman capable of bearing a child is now pregnant. This is quite troubling, especially to those who cannot account for their "miracle." But the disturbance of the mass pregnancies is nowhere near as upsetting as the children themselves. After the birth of one child, the doctor says of him, "Splendid. Unusually heavy, though. Ten pounds, eight ounces. Strange eyes...."

I think this movie works so well because it stays simple. Calm, emotionless children? I'd run screaming.

B+