1964

[8] Julie Andrews stars as a magical nanny who swoops into a turn-of-the-century London family’s home to help two neglected children (Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber) reconnect with their busy-body parents. Mary Poppins is often regarded the best of Walt Disney’s live-action efforts, thanks to an effervescent combination of music and fantasy, and charismatic performances from Andrews and co-star Dick Van Dyke, who plays a …

[4] Burt Lancaster stars in this fictionalized account of the Nazis’ attempt to abscond with France’s most treasured paintings before the Allied Forces meet up with them. It’s up to Lancaster, playing a Resistance train station master, to head up an elaborate plan to dupe the Nazis and stop the train from leaving France without damaging it’s precious cargo. I love the idea of Resistance …

[7] Producer/director Roger Corman completes his series of films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe with The Tomb of Ligeia, the story of a man mysteriously obsessed with his late wife, Ligeia. When he remarries, he and his new wife find themselves terrorized by supernatural forces, begging the question — is Ligeia really dead? Vincent Price carries the film as nicely as you …

[7] In the third Bond film, agent 007 (Sean Connery) is trying to stop a nefarious gold tycoon from breaking into Fort Knox. Goldfinger is still one of the most popular entries in the franchise because it has everything we’ve come to expect in a Bond flick. Goldfinger himself is the quintessential Bond villain. He knows it’s not enough just to have a wicked plan. …

[6] Poor Janet. When she was just a little girl, she watched her mommy stab her daddy to death, and she’s been haunted by nightmares ever since. She’s also terrified of inheriting her mother’s mental disorder. To make matters worse, someone is taking advantage of this fact for their own nefarious purpose. Nightmare is one of a handful of black & white psychological thrillers released …

[4] A mummified prince is discovered and brought to England where someone resurrects it to do their evil bidding. Hammer Films follows up their 1959 remake without stars Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing. Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb treads painfully familiar ground with a dull cast and is slow-moving until the last twenty minutes. Composer Carlo Martelli tries to compensate with a musical score too …

[5] Shirley MacLaine plays a jinxed woman whose four husbands meet tragic ends in this satirical comedy about money and passion. There are a lot of great moments in What a Way to Go, but the sum isn’t greater than the parts. The disjointed narrative is made nearly tolerable by screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who also brought together the fractured tales of Singin’ …

[3] A doctor working on a cancer cure in the Caribbean discovers a snake venom that turns his patients into zombies. Beneath the Lewtonesque title is a gitchy rip-off of James Bond meets the Scooby Doo Mysteries. It’s not nearly as bad as it could have been. The script moves remarkably well on its fumes of inspiration, the soundtrack is groovy, and some of the …

[5] Hammer’s third Frankenstein film (following Revenge of Frankenstein) is more of a one-off than a sequel, having little to do with the films before or after it. Despite the return of Peter Cushing to the role of Baron Frankenstein and Hammer Films’ terrific sets (the laboratory sets are especially good here), the story is too much of a re-tread to stand out in the …

[5] I like the premise of this one. Cary Grant plays a beach bum who relays Japanese radio messages to the military during WWII. His life is a solitary one until a plane crashes on the island, introducing him to a school mistress (Leslie Caron) and seven little girls. As you might imagine, at first he hates this estrogen invasion, but soon comes to find …

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