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Posts from the ‘1966’ Category

Jun 15

The Face of Another

Hiroshi Teshigahara, known for his deliveries of Kōbō Abe works, returns to the well with 1966’s The Face of Another. Based on Abe’s 1959 novel of the same name, The Face of Another is a stylized look at identity and human nature as it exists behind various masks. Some consider the film to be part of a trilogy of Teshigahara pictures, with the other two being 1962’s Pitfall and 1964’s Woman in the Dunes.

Interestingly, The Face of Another was considered to be a financial and critical failure at the time of its release. It still hasn’t quite been all that accepted in Western culture, either, which is surprising considering the picture’s haunting themes and stylish presentation. I found it to be a fantastic and eerie meditation on the meaning of identity and on how we can conceal ourselves emotionally and mentally.

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Oct 13

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

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Mike Nichols’ career as a film director began with 1966’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a dazzling character-driven piece based on the play of the same name by Edward Albee. Its depiction of domestic chaos in the 1950s is shocking and biting, even with today’s standards, and its story of cruelty remains agonizing to watch at times despite the brilliant performances and awe-inspiring screenplay.

Ernest Lehman was in charge of the adaptation of Albee’s play and he does an excellent job bringing this complex work to the screen. With Nichols simple black-and-white direction and Haskell Wexler’s cinematography, the film has a close feel that really draws the intimacy of the situations and conversations to the fore. It’s a tough film to watch because it feels deeply personal and deeply painful. There is a sense that we, as an audience, are observing something we shouldn’t be.

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Sep 20

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This Property is Condemned

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Based on a one-act play by Tennessee Williams, This Property is Condemned uses a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola to tell a steamy story about lust and romance in Mississippi. The Williams input here is minimal, as the film splits the play in two and uses it as the prologue and epilogue. The long flashback, which forms the majority of the movie, is built from bits of dialogue in Williams’ play.

Williams, notorious for his non-involvement in many film adaptations of his work, had originally offered This Property is Condemned to Richard Burton with hopes of using Elizabeth Taylor, Burton’s wife, in the lead role. That didn’t pan out as planned, of course, and the project found its way to Paramount where it was scooped as a vehicle for the one and only Natalie Wood. And it is Wood who makes this movie sizzle, without a doubt, as she plays the girl everybody wants.

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Feb 12

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What’s Up, Tiger Lily?

What’s Up, Tiger Lily?

What’s Up, Tiger Lily? is the first film directed by Woody Allen. It is a film like no other in his storied and amusing career. Allen took a Japanese film, Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi, and dubbed over it with completely original dialogue that he had written. The results are often hilarious, often strange, and mostly goofy. Allen’s new dialogue had nothing to do with the context of the original film, which looks goofy enough on its own. Allen added new scenes and tinkered with the order of the original scenes, changing the tone of the film from a James Bond-type thriller to a comedy about egg salad.

What’s Up, Tiger Lily? is often cited as being one of the primary influences for subsequent films that would come out with the same idea. Television shows like Mystery Science Theatre 3000 owe quite a bit to Allen’s techniques in What’s Up, Tiger Lily?, but Allen’s film was not the first to play with the idea of overdubbing dialogue. Fractured Flickers, a 1963 television show, dubbed comedic dialogue on top of silent films as a part of their half-hour syndicated series.

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Jan 28

El Dorado

El Dorado

Howard Hawks directed El Dorado, the 1966 western released by Paramount Pictures. The film was written by Leigh Brackett and based on the novel “The Stars in Their Courses” by Harry Brown. Hawks has said that El Dorado fits in the middle of a trilogy about variances of the theme of a sheriff trying to defend his office against outlaw elements in his town. Rio Bravo, which is the film for which Hawks is probably best known, was the first film in the series and Rio Lobo was the last to close it out. All three films starred John Wayne. El Dorado is the film in the trilogy to represent a variation on the theme, however, as Robert Mitchum plays the sheriff who becomes a drunk and needs to rely on the kindness of others to defend his town.

The legendary John Wayne stars in El Dorado as Cole Thornton, one of the fastest draws in the West and a legendary gun-for-hire. He opens the film with his old friend, Sheriff J.P. Harrah (Robert Mitchum), as Thornton reveals he has turned down a job which would have required him to fight Harrah. As Thornton heads back to confront the man who hired him for the job, the corrupt Bart Jason (Ed Asner), he encounters a family in some trouble and accidentally shoots one of their boys. After a chain of events and the passing of a few months, Thornton finds out that his friend, Harrah, is on the bottle after a falling out with a woman. To add to the complications, a top gunfighter is on his way into town to help Bart Jason fight the sheriff. Knowing Harrah is in no condition to fight alone, Thornton rushes to his side with the help of Mississippi (James Caan), a knife-wielding friend with a huge shotgun, and sets things straight.

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