Last week I focused on Hollywood films released in the period from 1941 through 1947 which covered World War II and its immediate aftermath. This week, I’m concentrating on another seven-year period, 1960 through 1966, the years in which there was a definite crack in the Production Code that had ruled Hollywood since mid-1934, leading to its crash in 1967.

My favorite films of the period include The Apartment, Elmer Gantry, Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, La Dolce Vita, Victim, Tom Jones,Seven Days in May, Alfie, and Georgy Girl, of which only half are Hollywood productions, while four are from the United Kingdom, and one is from Italy.

1960’s The Apartment on 4K UHD from Kino Lorber, was the crown jewel in Billy Wilder’s comic trilogy of 1959-1961 that began with Some Like It Hot and ended with One, Two, Three. An expose of the sex-and-money culture of corporate America, it focuses on enterprising Jack Lemmon, a clerk in an insurance company headquartered in New York who climbs the corporate ladder by lending the key to his apartment to his bosses, waking up only when he finds out the girl he loves (Shirley MacLaine) is the mistress of his boss (Fred MacMurray) who tried to commit suicide in his apartment on Christmas Eve. It won 5 Oscars out of 10 nominations.

1960’s Elmer Gantry on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, based on Sinclair Lewis’ satirical 1927 novel about an evangelical preacher of the 1920s played by Burt Lancaster who is attracted to drinking, chasing women, and making easy money even as he renounces tobacco and alcohol. He meets his comeuppance when he becomes involved with a true believer based on real-life preacher Aime Semple McPherson played by Jean Simmos and is set-up by prostitute Shirley Jones with whom he had a past dalliance. Lancaster and Jones both won Oscars as did director Richard Brooks for his screenplay The film and Andre Previn’s score were nominated but lost to The Apartment.

1960’s Inherit the Wind on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, is Stanley Kramer’s film version of a 1955 Broadway play, a fictionalized account of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, which resulted in John T. Scopes’ conviction for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to a high school science class, contrary to a Tennessee state law. Fredric March’s prosecutor is based on 3-time U.S. Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan while Spencer Tracy’s defense attorney is based upon noted attorney Clarence Darrow. Both actors were nominated for BAFTAs but only Tracy was nominated for an Oscar.
The film’s theme is the risk inserting religion into the U.S. Constitution.

1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, is Kramer’s film version of Abby Mann’s 1959 teleplay, a fictionalized version of the military tribunal of the Judges’ Trial of 1947, one of twelve trials conducted under the auspices of the U.S. military in the aftermath of World War II.
Scenes of huge piles of naked corpses laid out in rows and bulldozed into large pits shocked audiences of the day. Spencer Tracy led an all-star cast as the principal judge while Maximilian Schell, repeating his TV role as the defense attorney, won the Oscar for Best Actor over Tracy. Montgomery Clift and Judy Garland received nominations for their supporting roles as did the film and Kramer.

1961’s La Dolce Vita on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection, introduced the word “paparazzo” into the language as Marcello Mastroianni plays an amoral philandering tabloid journalist living in Rome. Writer/director Federico Fellini invented the term for pesty reporters. The word “paparazzo” means “sparrow” in Italian; “paparazzi” is the plural of “paparazzo”. The film features such iconic scenes as Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain at dawn, the Christ statue dangling from an overhead helicopter, and Mastroianni looking out from the Pope’s window in the Vatican. Nominated fro 4 Oscars, it won for Best Foreign Language Film.

1962’s Victim not currently available, was previously released on DVD by the Criterion Collection and on Blu-ray as an import. Basil Dearden’s thriller about a closeted gay lawyer who risks his career to bring a blackmailer to justice was the first English language film to use the word “homosexual” and led to the Sexual Offences Act 1967 (citation 1967 c.60) in which homosexuality between consenting males over the age of 21 was decriminalized. Dirk Bogarde was nominated for a BAFTA for what many consider his greatest performance as the attorney. Sylvia Syms as his wife, Dennis Price as the blackmailer, and Peter McEnery as one of the victims also do outstanding work.

1963’s Tom Jones on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection, is Tony Richardson’s Oscar winning film based on Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, a 1749 novel about what the film called the romantic and chivalrous adventures of adopted bastard Tom Jones in 18th-century England. Tame by today’s standards, the film was shocking in its day with its winking use of double entendres uttered by everyone in the cast including Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh Griffith, Edith Evans, Joan Greenwood, Joyce Redman, Diane Cilento, and Lynn Redgrave. Nominated for 10 Oscars, it won 4 including Best Picture and Best Director.

1964’s Seven Days in May on Blu-ray from Warner Archive, is John Frankenheimer’s film version of Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey’s 1962 bestseller in which United States military leaders plot to overthrow the President because he supports a nuclear disarmament treaty and they fear a Soviet sneak attack. Burt Lancaster played the maniacal military leader with Kirk Douglas as his former adjutant, who supports the president played Fredric March in the film’s best performance. Oscar nominated Edmond O’Brien is also outstanding as March’s friend, a sympathetic U.S. Senator. It was one of several controversial political thrillers released this year.

1966’s Alfie on Blu-ray from Imprint, is Lewis Gilbert’s film version of Bill Naughton’s play about an unrepentant ladies’ man who gradually begins to understand the consequences of his lifestyle in 1960s London. The controversial film was nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture, Actor (Michael Caine), Supporting Actress (Vivien Merchant), Adapated Screenplay, and Song. Caine got the role after just about every British star his age turned it down including his roommate, Terence Stamp. Shelley Winters had second billing as one of Caine’s girlfriends, but it was Merchant as his married girlfriend who undergoes an abortion that everyone remembers best from the film.

1966’s Georgy Girl on Blu-ray from Imprint, is Silvio Narizzano’s film based on Margaret Forster’s 1965 novel. The film was about a haphazardly dressed London girl’s juggling of an unwanted suitor’s advances with her desire for an exciting life, envying her free-spirited roommate’s social whirlwind. Lynn Redgrave tied with Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for the New York Film Critics’ Best Actress award, and was nominated for an Oscar, losing to Taylor. James Mason was also nominated for an Oscar as her unwanted suitor. Charlotte Rampling was her roommate, and Alan Bates was Rampling’s boyfriend who also becomes involved with Redgrave.

Happy viewing.