Which were the best films of the 1960s? Here are my selections! The 1960s was a diverse decade for cinema. Hollywood was still clinging to the big budget studio productions, a new breed of film-maker was emerging in America on the back of the New Wave in France. So which were the best films of the decade? I make no apologies for my choices or omissions, as these are my favourites, but I hope you get some inspiration to add to your own film collections when you’re shopping for DVDs!
Here are my favourite movies for each year of the 1960s:
1969
“Midnight Cowboy” took the Best Picture at the Oscars but arguably “Easy Rider” has had the longer-lasting impact on pop culture, while “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” is most fondly remembered. My favourite is a beautiful skewering of the 60s middle classes appropriating the “free love” and therapy craze in California. “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” sees Natalie Wood and her husband, Robert Culp, trying to influence their slightly uptight friends, Dyan Cannon and Elliott Gould, to join them and experiment! Brilliant comedy!
1) BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE
(dir: Paul Mazursky, stars: Natalie Wood, Elliott Gould)
2) BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID
(dir: George Roy Hill, stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford)
3) GOODBYE, COLUMBUS
(dir: Larry Peerce, stars: Ali MacGraw, Richard Benjamin)
4) EASY RIDER
(dir: Dennis Hopper, stars: Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson)
5) MIDNIGHT COWBOY
(dir: John Schlesinger, stars: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight)
6) THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY?
(dir: Sydney Pollack, stars: Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin)
7) THE WILD BUNCH
(dir: Sam Peckinpah, stars: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine)
8) Z
(dir: Constantin Costa-Gavras, stars: Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant)
9) ALICE’S RESTAURANT
(dir: Arthur Penn, stars: Arlo Guthrie, Pat Quinn)
10) THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE
(dir: Ronald Neame, stars: Maggie Smith, Pamela Franklin)
1968
1968 was a curious year for film because to me it looks like the last death throes of the “Old Hollywood” with “Oliver!” claiming the top Oscar. My selection for favourite film of the year is a unique piece with Burt Lancaster, a suburban man who has apparently suffered some form of life crisis, deciding one day to make his way across the landscape by leaping fences and swimming through the pools of his friends and neighhours. I don’t think “The Swimmer” is very well-known, but I think is worth watching. Also check out the brilliant “Battle of Algiers” about the French colonial struggle in Algeria.
1) THE SWIMMER
(dir: Frank Perry, stars: Burt Lancaster, Kim Hunter)
2) THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS
(dir: Gillo Pontecorvo, stars: Jean Martin, Brahim Hadjadi)
3) BULLITT
(dir: Peter Yates, stars: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn)
4) THE LION IN WINTER
(dir: Anthony Harvey, stars: Katharine Hepburn, Peter O’Toole)
5) THE PRODUCERS
(dir: Mel Brooks, stars: Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel)
6) ROSEMARY’S BABY
(dir: Roman Polanski, stars: John Cassavetes, Mia Farrow)
7) THE ODD COUPLE
(dir: Gene Saks, stars: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau)
8) FACES
(dir: John Cassavates, stars: Gena Rowlands, John Marley)
9) OLIVER!
(dir: Carol Reed, stars: Ron Moody, Oliver Reed)
10) THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER
(dir: Robert Ellis Miller, stars: Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke)
1967
I think 1967 will long be remembered as a seminal year in cinema history, although masterpieces like “Bonnie and Clyde” and “The Graduate” don’t even make my favourite Top 3 films of the year! Instead I plump for a very clever film called “Two for the Road”, following the non-chronological highs and lows of a relationship between Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn. I also love Neil Simon’s play “Barefoot in the Park” in which Robert Redford and Jane Fonda adjust to the life of newly-weds. For those of you who enjoy scenes involving the consumption of vast quantities of boiled eggs, “Cool Hand Luke” is one of Paul Newman’s best performances. It was “In The Heat of the Night” that was the Academy Awards choice for Best Picture. Check out “In Cold Blood”, and then watch the 2005 movie “Capote” to see how they connect.
1) TWO FOR THE ROAD
(dir: Stanley Donen, stars: Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney)
2) BAREFOOT IN THE PARK
(dir: Gene Saks, stars: Jane Fonda, Robert Redford)
3) COOL HAND LUKE
(dir: Stuart Rosenberg, stars: Paul Newman, George Kennedy)
4) THE GRADUATE
(dir: Mike Nichols, stars: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft)
5) BONNIE AND CLYDE
(dir: Arthur Penn, stars: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway)
6) DIVORCE AMERICAN STYLE
(dir: Bud Yorkin, stars: Dick Van Dyke, Debbie Reynolds)
7) IN COLD BLOOD
(dir: Richard Brooks, stars: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson)
8) IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
(dir: Norman Jewison, stars: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger)
9) GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER
(dir: Stanley Kramer, stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn)
10) WAIT UNTIL DARK
(dir: Terence Young, stars: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin)
1966
Quite simply, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” should be in every serious movie fan’s collection. If you ever want to see a film with two great central performances, with superb dialogue, immensely complex characters, and a riveting and exhausting feel, try this film! When Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor let fly with words, the vitriol wounds deeper than in any other movie I can think of. Another superb performance is given by Paul Scofield in “A Man for All Seasons”, the film awarded the Best Picture at the Oscars that year.
1) WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
(dir: Mike Nichols, stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton)
2) ALFIE
(dir: Lewis Gilbert, stars: Michael Caine, Shelley Winters)
3) A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
(dir: Fred Zinnemann, stars: Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw)
4) THE SAND PEBBLES
(dir: Robert Wise, stars: Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough)
5) THE FORTUNE COOKIE
(dir: Billy Wilder, stars: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau)
6) SECONDS
(dir: John Frankenheimer, stars: Rock Hudson, John Randolph)
7) A MAN AND A WOMAN
(dir: Claude Lelouch, stars: Anouk Aimee, Jean-Louis Trintignant)
8) BLOW-UP
(dir: Michelangelo Antonioni, stars: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave)
9) GAMBIT
(dir: Ronald Neame, stars: Michael Caine, Shirley MacLaine)
10) THE PROFESSIONALS
(dir: Richard Brooks, stars: Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin)
1965
One of my great quests is to find a copy of “A Thousand Clowns” on DVD (or video!). I saw it many years ago when I lived in New York, it’s brilliant and funny, and features a great performance from Jason Robards more than a decade before he won back-to-back Supporting Actor Oscars. I’ll put it at the top of my list for 1965 and keep on hoping it will see a release one day. “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” is another gem from the Cold War era, and again highlights just how good Richard Burton was. One of Terence Stamp’s earliest leading roles was in “The Collector”, a very creepy and atmospheric film about a butterfly collector and voyeur. “The Sound of Music” walked away with Best Picture at the Oscars.
1) A THOUSAND CLOWNS
(dir: Fred Coe, stars: Jason Robards, Martin Balsam)
2) THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD
(dir: Martin Ritt, stars: Richard Burton, Oskar Werner)
3) SHIP OF FOOLS
(dir: Stanley Kramer, stars: Oskar Werner, Vivien Leigh)
4) THE COLLECTOR
(dir: William Wyler, stars: Terence Stamp, Samantha Eggar)
5) DARLING
(dir: John Schlesinger, stars: Julie Christie, Laurence Harvey)
6) THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES
(dir: Ken Annakin, stars: Stuart Whitman, Terry Thomas)
7) DOCTOR ZHIVAGO
(dir: David Lean, stars: Julie Christie, Omar Sharif)
8) THE SOUND OF MUSIC
(dir: Robert Wise, stars: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer)
9) VON RYAN’S EXPRESS
(dir: Mark Robson, stars: Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard)
10) THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX
(dir: Robert Aldrich, stars: James Stewart, Richard Attenborough)
1964
While “Dr. Strangelove” probably ranks at the top of most critics’ Top 10 lists for 1964 due to their Stanley Kubrick appreciation, I’m very taken by the warmth and unique experience of seeing Englishman Alan Bates relax in the company of the exuberant “Zorba”, played by Anthony Quinn. “Becket” is a Hollywood classic in my eyes, detailing a grand piece of British history in the form of
Henry II’s (Peter O’Toole) tussle with his friend Thomas a Becket (Richard Burton) whom he appoints Archbishop of Canterbury, only to find he is not as obedient as he would have liked. A superb film, nominated for 12 Oscars, it lost out on Best Picture to the more popular musical “My Fair Lady”.
1) ZORBA THE GREEK
(dir: Mihalis Kakogiannis, stars: Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates)
2) BECKET
(dir: Peter Glenville, stars: Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton)
3) TOPKAPI
(dir: Jules Dassin, stars: Maximilian Schell, Peter Ustinov)
4) SEVEN DAYS IN MAY
(dir: John Frankenheimer, stars: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas)
5) YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW
(dir: Vittorio De Sica, stars: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni)
6) FATHER GOOSE
(dir: Ralph Nelson, stars: Cary Grant, Leslie Caron)
7) DR. STRANGELOVE
(dir: Stanley Kubrick, stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott)
8) MY FAIR LADY
(dir: George Cukor, stars: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison)
9) THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA
(dir: John Huston, stars: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner)
10) WOMAN IN THE DUNES
(dir: Hiroshi Teshigahara, stars: Eiji Okada, Kyoko Kishida)
1963
Fans of Paul Newman should take note if they have never seen “Hud”. Equally, anyone who has seen “The Last Picture Show”, “Brokeback Mountain”, or “Terms of Endearment” should be interested in it originating from the writing of Larry McMurtry. It’s pure Americana, set in 1950s Texas, and Newman’s character of Hud Bannon is disillusioned and battling with his father. For a touch of British working class drama, either Richard Harris playing rugby league in “This Sporting Life”, or French actress Leslie Caron coming to London to contemplate having an abortion in “The L-Shaped Room” should fit the bill. “Tom Jones” dominated the Oscars in 1963, although Fellini’s masterpiece “8 ½” has the better reputation.
1) HUD
(dir: Martin Ritt, stars: Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas)
2) THIS SPORTING LIFE
(dir: Lindsay Anderson, stars: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts)
3) THE L-SHAPED ROOM
(dir: Bryan Forbes, stars: Leslie Caron, Tom Bell)
4) 8 ½
(dir: Federico Fellini, stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale)
5) THE CARDINAL
(dir: Otto Preminger, stars: Tom Tryon, John Huston)
6) LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER
(dir: Robert Mulligan, stars: Steve McQueen, Natalie Wood)
7) CHARADE
(dir: Stanley Donen, stars: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn)
8) LILIES OF THE FIELD
(dir: Ralph Nelson, stars: Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala)
9) TOM JONES
(dir: Tony Richardson, stars: Albert Finney, Susannah York)
10) THE LEOPARD
(dir: Luchino Visconti, stars: Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale)
1962
Few Hollywood stars engender as much respect as Gregory Peck. He had been nominated for Best Actor four times between 1945 and 1949, but it wasn’t until 1962 when he finally took home a statue for his portrayal of lawyer Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Peck risks unpopularity in a Southern US town for defending a black man falsely accused of rape, and it stands as a classic in American cinema for the quality of the film, the performances, and the message conveyed. “Lawrence of Arabia” took Best Picture at the Oscars, and indeed it is a masterpiece, but I think director John Frankenheimer deserves recognition for making “Birdman of Alcatraz” starring Burt Lancaster, followed by the “paranoia trilogy”, “The Manchurian Candidate”, “Seven Days in May” (see Top 10 for 1964), and “Seconds” (see Top 10 for 1966).
1) TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
(dir: Robert Mulligan, stars: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham)
2) BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ
(dir: John Frankenheimer, stars: Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden)
3) THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
(dir: John Frankenheimer, stars: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey)
4) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
(dir: David Lean, stars: Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness)
5) LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD
(dir: Alain Resnais, stars: Delphin Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi)
6) LOLITA
(dir: Stanley Kubrick, stars: James Mason, Shelley Winters)
7) DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES
(dir: Blake Edwards, stars: Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick)
8) THAT TOUCH OF MINK
(dir: Delbert Mann, stars: Cary Grant, Doris Day)
9) THE LONGEST DAY
(dir: Ken Annakin, stars: John Wayne, Henry Fonda & everyone in Hollywood!)
10) SUNDAYS AND CYBELE
(dir: Serge Bourguignon, stars: Hardy Kruger, Nicole Courcel)
1961
If you’ve seen “The Color of Money”, Scorsese’s mid-80s tale of a young pool player (Tom Cruise) schooled by an aging legend (Paul Newman) then you must get a copy of “The Hustler”. This is the original story of pool hustler Eddie Felson, and features great action scenes between Newman’s lead character, and the brilliant Jackie Gleason as pool marathon man Minnesota Fats. “West Side Story” was a good choice as Best Picture. Audrey Hepburn’s film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” doesn’t age brilliantly, mainly due to the terribly offensive casting of Mickey Rooney as her Japanese neighbour, but is still a beautiful story. Special note goes to Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman, who was quietly churning out black and white masterpieces about the human condition. “Through a Glass Darkly” was one of his best.
1) THE HUSTLER
(dir: Robert Rossen, stars: Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason)
2) BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S
(dir: Blake Edwards, stars: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard)
3) WEST SIDE STORY
(dir: Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins, stars: Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno)
4) THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
(dir: Ingmar Bergman, stars: Max von Sydow, Harriet Andersson)
5) JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG
(dir: Stanley Kramer, stars: Spencer Tracy, Maximilian Schell)
6) LA DOLCE VITA
(dir: Federico Fellini, stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg)
7) SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS
(dir: Elia Kazan, stars: Warren Beatty, Natalie Wood)
8) TWO WOMEN
(dir: Vittorio De Sica, stars: Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo)
9) THE GUNS OF NAVARONE
(dir: J. Lee Thompson, stars: Gregory Peck, David Niven)
10) THE CHILDREN’S HOUR
(dir: William Wyler, stars: Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine)
1960
“Psycho” is perhaps the most famous of 1960’s crop of films, and ‘though the excellent Billy Wilder film “The Apartment” deservedly won Best Picture at the Oscars, having seen “Spartacus” when I was quite young, it really stuck in my mind as a great epic. Little-known in the UK, Fred Zinnemann’s “The Sundowners” is a brilliant film about a family of sheep farmers in the Australian outback. If you want a dose of high-brow cinema, Alain Resnais made “Hiroshima Mon Amour” and “Last Year at Marienbad” (see Top 10 for 1962) which are both very dreamy studies of memory and relationships.
1) SPARTACUS
(dir: Stanley Kubrick, stars: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier)
2) THE APARTMENT
(dir: Billy Wilder, stars: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine)
3) THE SUNDOWNERS
(dir: Fred Zinnemann, stars: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum)
4) THE VIRGIN SPRING
(dir: Ingmar Bergman, stars: Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg)
5) ELMER GANTRY
(dir: Richard Brooks, stars: Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons)
6) HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR
(dir: Alain Resnais, stars: Eiji Okada, Emmanuelle Riva)
7) PSYCHO
(dir: Alfred Hitchcock, stars: Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins)
8) IT STARTED IN NAPLES
(dir: Melville Shavelson, stars: Clark Gable, Sophia Loren)
9) INHERIT THE WIND
(dir: Stanley Kramer, stars: Spencer Tracy, Fredric March)
10) SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO
(dir: Vincent J. Donehue, stars: Ralph Bellamy, Greer Garson)
The 1960s has plenty to offer the contemporary cinema lover. Many of the “classic” Hollywood stars were still operating, although a whole generation of stars and directors who are even making films in the 21st century got their start. To pick a favourite ten movies from the decade is a challenge, but for the record, here they are!
TOP 10 MOVIES OF THE 1960s!
1) WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966)
(dir: Mike Nichols, stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton)
2) THE HUSTLER (1961)
(dir: Robert Rossen, stars: Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason)
3) A THOUSAND CLOWNS (1965)
(dir: Fred Coe, stars: Jason Robards, Martin Balsam)
4) HUD (1963)
(dir: Martin Ritt, stars: Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas)
5) BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE (1969)
(dir: Paul Mazursky, stars: Natalie Wood, Elliott Gould)
6) BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
(dir: George Roy Hill, stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford)
7) TWO FOR THE ROAD (1967)
(dir: Stanley Donen, stars: Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney)
8) ZORBA THE GREEK (1964)
(dir: Mihalis Kakogiannis, stars: Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates)
9) BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (1961)
(dir: Blake Edwards, stars: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard)
10) TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
(dir: Robert Mulligan, stars: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham)
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