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cressida-jayoungr · 4 months

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One Dress a Day Challenge

Anything Goes December

Pocketful of Miracles / Hope Lange as Elizabeth "Queenie" Martin

The story is set in the 1930s, but this gown owes much less to that era than to Elizabeth Taylor's dress from A Place in the Sun. This is unlikely to be a coincidence, as Edith Head designed both garments. The heavy ivory satin looks great, though, and I love the combination of ruching and sparkle on the bodice. The fur-trimmed shoulder cape makes it the perfect thing for a holiday party--appropriately, as the movie does take place around Christmastime. (You can see a bit of a tree in the background of some of the pictures above.)

#pocketful of miracles #anything goes december #hope lange #one dress a day challenge #one dress a week challenge #movie costumes #period film #1961 movies #1961 films #white dresses #white dress #edith head #1960s tries to do 1930s #wonderful capes

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adamwatchesmovies · 3 months

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Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

There are only two good things about Creature from the Haunted Sea. The first is its laughably stupid-looking monster, whose comedic appearance was used in the opening credits of Malcolm in the Middle. It brings back warm memories. The second is that it’s in the public domain. This means you can easily find it for free or packaged together with 49 other horror films for less than $20 - like I did. That price tag is a valuable lesson, which we’ll get to in a bit.

During the Cuban Revolution, American gambler and racketeer Renzo Capetto (Anthony Carbone) is hired by deposed General Tostada (Edmundo Rivera Alvarez) to smuggle the national treasury out of the country. Capetto and his criminal crew, which include his girlfriend Mary-Belle Monahan (Betsy Jones-Moreland), her brother Happy Jack (Robert Bean) and animal impressionist Pete Peterson Jr. (Beach Dickerson) come up with an idea. They will murder the General and his loyalists, then keep the gold for themselves. To avoid suspicion, they will convince the Cubans they are being stalked by a sea monster. Little do they know a real-life monster is following their ship. if the secret agent onboard, XK150 (Robert Towne) had any kind of brains, he’d be able to figure this out quickly and put an end to it.

Even though this is a horror comedy and that much of the criticisms that could be thrown towards Creature from the Haunted Sea were likely intentional, the movie’s not funny so they turn into marks against it anyway. The characters are flat, uninteresting and annoying, with Pete Person Jr. easily winning a gold medal in irritation. Speaking almost entirely in animal noises thanks to a brain injury, his schtick gets old immediately. You’ll spend the brief 75-minute running time wishing he would shut up or get torn apart by the sea monster, which is obviously a scuba diver covered in seaweed (or something that looks like it) with toothpicks glued on the end of their gloves, vampire teeth, and ping pong balls for eyes. Go into any Halloween store on November 1st and you could piece together something better.

Even before the dreadful creature shows up, this premise is just dumb. I know if my shifty shipmates told me two men were just murdered by a sea monster I wouldn’t believe them. No one with their head on straight would. What’s much more likely to happen to Capetto is that the Cubans will see right through his dumb scheme and chop him up into shark bait.

It’s a bad movie and would’ve been bad even in 1961 when the Get Smart comedy thing was popular. If there was any kind of justice in this world, this desert of laughs would’ve been forgotten to the ages. Instead, it made its way into the public domain and regularly finds itself for sale/viewing. The problem is that no one cared about this movie then and they certainly don’t now. Every print you’ll see is scratchy and dusty, with muddy sound that will require you to crank up the volume just so you can understand what the hell is going on. Worse, you won’t find any subtitle option anywhere. You practically have to read the Wikipedia article just to understand what’s happening. It got so bad with the disc I was watching that I actually wound up going on Tubi, hoping that a better print would be available there. I got “lucky”, starting watching again. In no time, I was looking forward to the commercial breaks. At least those were lively, professionally made, colorful and audible.

Suddenly, it hit me. The only reason I was watching this movie is because it came in a box set I bought years ago. I would have to do this 49 more times to “get my money’s worth”. Meanwhile, there are thousands of other movies I could be watching. Even a horrible film like The Snowman or The Love Guru didn’t make me exhausted because I was able to passively absorb them. This was work. A job I wasn’t going to get paid for so I’m cutting my losses. I might've wasted my money, but I'm done wasting my time.

Even if you were sent back in time to see Creature from the Haunted Sea in a top-notch theatre with impeccable audio in the most comfortable seat ever made, I still wouldn’t recommend it. Today, presented like this? It would take all the gold in Cuba to convince me to hit "play". (On DVD, September 13, 2021)

#Creature from the Haunted Sea #Roger Corman #Charles B. Griffith #Antony Carbone #Betsy Jones-Moreland #1961 movies #1961 films

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weirdlookindog · 1 month

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The Nightmare at Elm Manor (1961)

#the nightmare at elm manor #june palmer #stuart samuels #1960s horror #1960s movies #1961 #george harrison marks #nudie cutie #short films #experimental #horrorgifs #gif #my gifs

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velvet4510 · 27 days

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Note: this list references the 1961 version of West Side Story and the 1954 version of A Star Is Born.

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secretceremonies · 4 months

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Mike Nichols and Elaine May photographed in a bowling alley in New York City, 1961

#mike nichols #elaine may #1960s #60s #60s vintage #vintage #photography #old movies #old films #1961 #vintage photography #vintage 60s #60s photography #60s movies #60s style #60s fashion #directors #female directors #female filmmakers

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365filmsbyauroranocte · 9 months

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Critique de la Séparation (Guy Debord, 1961)

#Critique de la Séparation #Critique de la Separation #Guy Debord #Debord #short film #1961 #Critique of Separation #quote #Caroline Rittener #black and white #dream #dreams #memory

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20th-century-man · 7 months

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Sophia Loren / during production of Christian-Jaque's Madame Sans-Gêne (1961) / photo by Mario De Biasi.

#Sophia Loren #Madame Sans-Gêne #Christian-Jaque #1961 #Mario De Biasi #film #1960s

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velveys · 6 months

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Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961)

#audrey hepburn #holly golightly #breakfast at tiffany's #film #1961 #1960s

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old-school-romantics · 1 month

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#blast of silence #1961 #60s #classic movies #film stills #classic film #movie quote of the day #movie quotes #cinephile #cinema #moviegifs #70s movies #classic #spilled words #dark academia #dark aesthetic #oldschoolromantics

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billdecker · 4 months

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A TASTE OF HONEY (1961) dir. Tony Richardson

#a taste of honey #a taste of honey 1961 #rita tushingham #dora bryan #murray melvin #paul danquah #tony richardson #shelagh delaney #film edit #filmedit #filmgifs #film gifs #movie gifs #moviegifs #movieedit #1960s #1960s movies #i made a thing #mine: films

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doubtfultaste · 7 months

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The Mask (1961) dir. Julian Roffman

#The Mask #1961 #horror #classic #classic horror #vintage #retro #60's #60's horror #creepy #skull #snakes #snake #black and white #b&w #canada #gif #cinema #film #macabre #Julian Roffman #3-D

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cressida-jayoungr · 6 months

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One Dress a Day Challenge

November: Oscar Winners

La Dolce Vita / Anita Ekberg as Sylvia

Year: 1961

Designer: Piero Gherardi

It was hard to choose a costume from this movie, well known for its fashion. There's Sylvia's famous strapless black dress, for example, or I also considered highlighting one of Marcello Mastroianni's suits. But I went with this lacy outfit because it's the one I remembered, however hazily, from the one time I saw this movie. I watched it when I went on an art film kick in college or shortly after. I was probably too young to appreciate it properly at the time; I wouldn't mind watching it again, but it doesn't seem to be available for streaming anywhere. Anyway, when I thought back on the look of it, I had a vague image of a woman sitting on a sofa and wearing something really cool in high-contrast black and white.

#la dolce vita #oscar winners #anita ekberg #one dress a day challenge #one dress a week challenge #movie costumes #1961 movies #1961 films #italian movies #italian cinema #italian films #1960s fashion #1960s style #60s fashion #60s style #piero gherardi #the sweet life #20th century costumes #black and white movies

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adamwatchesmovies · 4 months

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Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea has a certain nostalgic quality. You can tell this science fiction story comes from simpler times, that despite its serious plot and high stakes, the objective was to have fun. With solid special effects and a surprisingly sophisticated plot, it’s hard not to fall under its undersea charms.

A meteor shower is causing the global temperature to rise and leading to worldwide cataclysms. Though the UN’s chief scientist believes the problem will resolve itself, Scientific and engineering genius Admiral Harriman Nelson (Walter Pidgeon) isn't convinced. With his state-of-the-art nuclear submarine, he sets a course for the Mariana Islands: the one spot on Earth from which the Seaview's missiles can destroy the asteroids encircling the planet and save the world.

If you take a magnifying glass to the film, the science leans towards the dodgy side and there are several questionable actions from multiple people. The Seaview is the roomiest submarine I’ve ever seen. The interior is so relaxed people are even allowed to smoke - though to the film’s credit, this becomes a plot point later on. Then there’s the question of the global warming in effect. Professor Emilio Zucco (Henry Daniell) says the fire encircling our planet will burn itself out when it reaches 173 degrees. By my count, we’d all be cooked dead by then. Even the movie seems to acknowledge this, as there are many radio reports of polar ice caps melting, bodies of water drying up, entire regions of Europe becoming uninhabitable and Africa’s flora burning up. You might wonder if there will even be a planet to save by the time the Seaview arrives at its destination… but those are details far eclipsed by what the film does right.

While Harriman Nelson disregards the UN’s votes and even the President’s orders, the point is that he’s right. Our world is doomed (not through any fault of our own, mind you) unless the brave men (and women) on the high-tech submarine can make the harrowing journey to the Mariana Islands. Along the way, there are many dangers - outside and inside the submarine. Giant octopuses, land mines and government interference are just the beginning of their troubles. Not everyone aboard the Seaview believes Nelson is correct. Some think his plan will actually make things worse. Others believe this is the end of the world, that they should be allowed to go see their families one last time before it’s too late. Tensions escalate when Harriman clashes with his second-in-command, Captain Lee Crane (Robert Sterling). It all works because the characters are well-written. Even when someone becomes an antagonist or you don’t agree with their actions, you understand why they’re doing them. It might be stress, faith in someone other than their overconfident Admiral, or some saboteur’s plan leading them astray. These all keep the plot racing and the audience wondering what’s next.

Though this film is ultimately about its plot, not the characters, they’re given enough dimension for you to care about them. There are many, but the ensemble creates a nice balance of different views, and everyone serves a purpose at one point or another. Look forward to Joan Fontaine as psychologist Dr. Susan Hiller, Nelson’s on-board friend and fellow scientist, Commodore Lucius Emery (Peter Lorre), the Admiral’s secretary, Lieutenant Cathy Connors (Barbara Eden), one of the cataclysm’s first victims rescued by the Seaview, Miguel Alvarez (Michael Ansara), and more.

As for the special effects, they obviously don’t compare to what we can do with computers today, but the illusions are all fine. Some might even make you wonder how they managed them way back in the 60s. Considering they perfectly convey the information director Irwin Allen wanted them to. I’d say they hold up well.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea maintains steady tension throughout. Some of it might’ve been scientifically disproven since its release but it doesn’t matter too much because the ideas are there. It’s exactly the kind of movie you’d watch as a kid and would never get tired of, then revisit years later and be relieved to see holds up. Even if you’re watching it for the first time, it has a quaint charm that makes you feel nostalgic. (On Blu-ray, September 8, 2021)