Burn, Witch, Burn (1962)

A popular professor is on the fast-track to promotion when he discovers that his wife has been practicing witchcraft for years. Despite her protestations that continued protection is necessary to combat others' spells against him, he insists that they rid themselves of that ridiculousness. He finds out soon enough that his wife might not be as delusional as he thought.

The acting is strong and it's fairly effective, but I mostly was annoyed at the misogyny of this man dismissing his loyal wife's fears as silliness.

C+

Carnival of Souls (1962)

I was "watching" this with one eye constantly on the Christmas garland I was stringing -- but I was still able to pay enough attention to absorb the extremely creepy vibe. I'm not sure it made a whole lot of sense, and I understood what was supposed to be happening way before the main character did, but the pacing was good and the atmosphere just terrific.

Cool film with most of the cast delivering comically stiff performances.

B

Billy Budd (1962)

Sweet-natured Billy (Terence Stamp) is requisitioned from his merchant vessel to serve aboard a British warship. He's almost laughably agile at winning over the hearts of almost every single man aboard the ship. It's a testament to the story-telling and acting that I didn't laugh at him. He won me over, too! But master-at-arms Claggart isn't like me and all the other men on the ship. Rather than a mascot, Billy's his personal demon: confusingly and maddeningly pure.

Peter Ustinov directed and picked a beauty of a role for himself in Captain Vere and he's simply magnificent. Forced to uphold justice when he knows it shouldn't apply, he's conflicted, steadfast, and undeniably righteous.

Great film.

A

Experiment in Terror (1962)

The opening scene has a bank teller (Lee Remick) pulling into her dark garage and being seized from behind as she exits her car. For several very long, way- too-close-up minutes, her captor whispers and wheezes threats designed to get her to steal for him. The effect isn't terrifying or suspenseful -- just kinda uncomfortable. The whole movie sort of feels that way: menacing eroticism being favored over tension created by the upcoming crime.

There are two really good scenes, in my opinion: 1) Remick being mistaken for a working girl when accidentally picking up the wrong guy at a scheduled meet and 2) a nervous woman waiting for the cops in her mannequin-stuffed apartment. Nothing else is really worth remembering.

I say this experiment fails.

B-

Lonely Are the Brave (1962)

The opening sequence is a beautiful representation of the entire film: a cowboy is stretched out in the desert, hands behind his head, relaxed and rugged. The camera pans up and we see a jet leave its trail across the sky and, with that streak of white across the blue, we understand that the man is an anachronism.

Kirk Douglas is perfectly cast as Jack Burns who, as he says, doesn't "tune [his] life to the numbers on a calendar." He visits civilization to break his pal, who got caught helping illegal immigrants, out of jail. The only way to do this is to get himself tossed in and escape with his friend who, unfortunately, prefers to stay put and do his time. So, for the last half of the movie, Jack's a man alone and on the run with a laid-back sheriff (Walter Matthau) in pursuit.

Good film, though the pre-escape portion is the more beautiful and relatable -- the last half, at times, focusing too much on the pursuers.

B+

Long Day's Journey into Night (1962)

Mom's a dope fiend, dad's stingy, big brother's a malcontent, and little brother's sick. These points are hit -- repeatedly in dramatic monologues by each of the characters -- to the point of tediousness.

There's nothing natural about this movie. Everyone kind of waits for their turn to take the spotlight and then bellows their lines as though auditioning for drama club. Ick.

D-

Eyes Without a Face (1962)

Genuinely creepy film about an experimental surgeon trying to successfully graft a new face onto his horribly disfigured daughter. But where does one get faces? Hmmm...

The most frightening scenes are those of Christiane, wearing a Vanilla Sky mask, drifting through the mansion like a ghost. She freaked me out.

B

Ride the High Country (1962)

The soundtrack almost kills this…it seems to want to make every scene a lighthearted romp. That aside -- good film. A little simplistic, but good.

B

Divorce Italian Style (1962)

The first half hour or so was "dirty old man" set up -- very uncomfortable, uninteresting, and unfunny. Picks up quite a bit once "the plan" goes into action, but I still watched it double time just to get it overwith.

B-

Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)

Surprisingly engaging for a 3 hour plus movie. Brando's portrayal of Christian is hard to get used to…he's foppish to the nth degree…but, the weird thing is, you do get used to it.

B

Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

Preachy and fairly pedestrian account of drunken couple and her disapproving father. More like a public service feature for Alcoholics Anonymous than a good film. I don't even think the acting is that great!

C

Jack the Giant Killer (1962)

Story book adventure that looks silly and old -- but that's what’s so great about it. It's as though the guy profiled in the documentary “American Movie” filmed the original Zelda game in too-bright colors. We all liked it, even though we poked at it (a la MST3K) throughout.

B

Last Year at Marienbad (1962)

Oppressively weird...story? memory? nightmare? I'm not too sure. It folded back on itself, messed around with scenes, and confused me thoroughly. It didn't bore me, but the pleasures of an hour and a half of a brow wrinkled in puzzlement are few. I think the way to watch this is without a view to "figuring" anything out. Just approach it in the same mode in which you'd listen to a poem. Savor the beauty, admire the ambiguity -- don't try to solve anything.

C+

The Longest Day (1962)

A veritable cameo-fest, which actually came in handy: there were so many roles that having some played by readily recognizable stars made it a bit easier to keep track. The first two hours - the waiting, planning, etc. - were awesome. Once the attack actually began, we got into territory I knew somewhat better and it wasn't so interesting (of course, I know that's not quite fair as this was probably one of the first films to undertake the story at this scale, but I can't help it that it's not the first one I saw!).

Really a good film, too bad it was released the same year as Lawrence of Arabia and To Kill a Mockingbird; one year earlier and it probably could have nabbed Best Picture.

A-