1962

Billy Rose’s Jumbo

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October 7, 2018September 4, 2022

Billy Rose’s Jumbo (1962), starring Doris Day, Stephen Boyd, Jimmy Durante, Martha Raye, Dean Jagger

Synopsis of Billy Rose’s Jumbo

In Billy Rose’s Jumbo, Pop and Kitty Wonder are the owners of the Wonder Circus. Because of Pop’s gambling addiction, they’re constantly in debt, with creditors very close to foreclosing on them. Their main attraction is Jumbo the Elephant. Their competitor, John Noble, wants Jumbo and to take their show. Out of nowhere, a mysterious new wire walker named Sam Rawlins joins. Kitty is taken with him, but what they don’t know is that he is Noble’s son.

Review of Billy Rose’s Jumbo

by user
March 6, 2018August 24, 2022

Panic in the Year Zero (1962), starring Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon

Synopsis of Panic in the Year Zero

In Panic in the Year Zero, Los Angeles is demolished by a nuclear attack. Looting and robbing run rampant. Seeking shelter from the chaos, a family hides out in an isolated fishing cabin. Only to find that the chief danger comes from a band of violent, crazed juvenile delinquents.

by user
May 25, 2017January 23, 2024

King Kong vs Godzilla, 1962

No one will mistake King Kong vs Godzilla for high art …. And that’s fine; it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than enjoyable silliness. It’s two men in rubber suits, fighting in choreographed style — shades of professional wrestling. The movie has a comically foolish executive decide to use King Kong for advertising. And he decides to bring the real deal to Tokyo. At roughly the same time, Godzilla is released from an icy tomb. He heads back to Tokyo for the inevitable slugfest.

by user
May 7, 2017April 15, 2023

Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962) starring John Agar, Greta Thyssen

Synopsis of Journey to the Seventh Planet

Journey to the Seventh Planet is a campy science fiction movie. It’s set in the “distance future” of 2001. In this utopia, the United Nations now rules the planet. And poverty and war are gone. Humanity now has the resources to explore their solar system. By this time, humanity has explored most of the solar system. Except for the seventh planet, Uranus. So they send a team to explore … But instead of a lifeless world, they find … a Danish village?

by user
May 14, 2016December 7, 2022

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) starring Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Vera Miles, Edmond O’Brien

Jimmy Stewart as the bookish lawyer, with the newspaper editor (Edmond O’Brien) who’s not afraid to take a stand against Liberty Valance — and pays the price for it.

I know that the title ‘finest western of all time’ is sure to be disputed, but I stand by it. In addition to starring three of the great actors of the 20th Century (John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Lee Marvin), it’s a truly great story. It’s told in flashback, as Jimmy Stewart’s character is returning to the western town where he got his start. A bookish lawyer, many years ago he came to this wild west town, where there was no law. But there was a band of thugs led by Liberty Valance (played deliciously by Lee Marvin) running rampant. Jimmy Stewart plans to stop them by legal means … Only to find out that there is no one willing to enforce the law.

by user
May 3, 2016January 7, 2023

Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris

Requiem for a Heavyweight is a very powerful, very hard-hitting movie about boxing. Rod Serling wrote a teleplay that shows the steamy underbelly of professional boxing — and it’s not a pretty picture. In short, Rocky it isn’t. The movie begins with Anthony Quinn, the ‘Heavyweight’ of the title, losing his final boxing match to (a very young) Cassius Clay. Anthony Quinn’s character, Louis ‘Mountain’ Rivera, has become punch-drunk and is on the verge of losing his eyesight in the boxing ring. His corrupt manager (played extremely well by Jackie Gleason, in a very serious role) needs to find a way to pay back the mob … and if that means ruining Rivera’s chance at happiness, then so be it.

by user
April 30, 2016January 19, 2024

Gay Purr-ee (1962) starring Judy Garland, Robert Goulet, Red Buttons, Paul Frees

Gay Purr-ee is often remembered as the animated cartoon with the voice of Judy Garland …. But it’s quite frankly a lot more than that. It takes a simple story: The farm girl who runs away to the big city in search of happiness, only to find that she was truly happy back home after all. And tells it in the setting of a musical, with the main characters all being cats.

by user
April 2, 2016April 19, 2024

Irwin Allen’s Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962), starring Cedric Hardwicke, Richard Haydn, Red Buttons, Barbara Eden, Fabian, BarBara Luna, Peter Lorre

Synopsis of Five Weeks in a Balloon

In Five Weeks in a Balloon, Professor Ferguson plans to demonstrate the practicality of his new hot air balloon design by charting the unknown areas of Africa – but the government wants him to claim the area to prevent slave trading from being established there. His crew consists of his friend Jacques, a retired general, and a journalist — and along the way they pick up two escaped slaves and a slave trader as well.

by user
April 15, 2015March 6, 2024

In short, Advise and Consent is one of the best political intrigue movies that I’ve ever seen. The basic plot involves a very ill President of the United States (Franchot Tone) who wants to nominate for Secretary of State a senator. A man with a small secret in his past (played beautifully by Henry Fonda – a great performance). The Senate Majority Leader (a wonderful performance by Walter Pidgeon) tries to line up the votes. But he’s being undercut by a zealous young senator (Don Murray). And, on the “other side of the aisle” by a Southern senator (played by Charles Laughton in his final performance), a man who views himself as a kingmaker, using the other senators and people like pawns on a chess board.