Films of the 1960’sWith movie audiences declining due to the

dominance of television, major American film companies began to diversify with other forms of

entertainment: records, publishing, TV movies and the production of TV series. For example:

In July of 1961, TWA Airlines began the first regular in-flight movies in first-class during a NYC to LA

flight.In September of 1961, Saturday Night at the Movies

premiered on NBC with the first wide-screen comedy, How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) - it

marked the start of the trend to broadcast Hollywood movies on TV

Movie Business• By mid-decade, the average ticket price was less than a dollar, and the

average film budget was slightly over one and a half million dollars. And by the end of the decade, the film industry was very troubled and depressed and experiencing an all-time low that had been developing for almost 25 years.

• Studio-bound "contract" stars and directors were no longer. And most of the directors from the early days of cinema were either retired or dead. Some of the studios, such as UA and Hal Roach Studios, had to sell off their backlots as valuable California real estate (for condominiums and shopping centers). Some sold props (MGM was selling various film artifacts in 1970, including Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz (1939)), offered tours of back lots (Universal began its famed studio tours in 1964), or created theme parks (DisneyWorld in Orlando, Florida).

• To aid the tourist industry and create another attraction, in 1960, the Hollywood Chamber of Congress inaugurated the Hollywood Walk of Fame (bronzed stars in pink terrazzo and surrounded by charcoal terrazzo squares that were embedded in the sidewalks along sections of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street). The first star, placed on February 9, 1960, was for Joanne Woodward.

The Cleopatra Disaster• The much-heralded Joseph L. Mankiewicz film Cleopatra (1963),

filmed on location in Rome, brought together the explosive pairing of Elizabeth Taylor as the Queen of Egypt and future husband Richard Burton as Marc Antony, who brought more headlines with their blossoming romance than the budget problems.Taylor, already the highest-paid performer in the history of Hollywood at $1 million, had a costume wardrobe budgeted at almost $200,000, and with numerous cost over-runs, extravagant sets and thousands of costumes for the cast, the film was the most expensive up to that time at a record $44 million (in adjusted dollars, about $300 million), from an initial budget of $2 million. It was also the longest, commercially-made American film released in the US - at 4 hours and 3 minutes.

• [Fox was saved from financial disaster only by the release of the fact-based war epic The Longest Day (1963), an all-star re-creation of the events surrounding D-Day, and the blow was also softened by the unexpected success of The Sound of Music (1965).]

The Decade of Stanley Kubrick• He opened the 60s decade with his first Hollywood production: Spartacus (1960), a thrilling,

historical epic about a slave revolt in Ancient Rome Producer and star actor Kirk Douglas promoted the use of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's name onscreen - it was Trumbo's first screen credit in over ten years, now that the blacklist was ending after 13 years (Trumbo became the first blacklisted screenwriter to receive screen credit).

• Lolita (1962), a satirical adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's brilliant novel about a sexually-obsessed academic named Humbert Humbert (James Mason) who married a widow (Shelley Winters) to be close to her "nymphet" daughter (Sue Lyon)

• the Cold War black comedy Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) about a possible nuclear Armageddon at the hands of inept politicians, arrogant scientists, and military figures with lunatic concerns about fail-safe points, hotlines, and Communist plots such as flouridation (Gen. Jack D. Ripper's fear as portrayed by Sterling Hayden). Peter Sellers was memorable as he played three roles (including the title role) in the film, as was Slim Pickens in the role of the bomb-riding pilot who directed the H-bomb to its target - rodeo-style. One of the film's most memorable quotes was the President's admonition: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"

• Kubrick's last film in the 60s was the most successful science fiction film of the decade with a story that spanned all of human history with giant leaps. His film, based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke, was the majestic, Super Panavision 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) with its spectacular visuals, landmark special effects, classical music, psychedelic, light-show ride (that appealed to late 60s 'tripping' viewers) and the memorable, flawed HAL supercomputer (with the uncredited voice of Douglas Rain).

• In the next decade, Kubrick would go on to make the controversial A Clockwork Orange (1971), and a visually-stunning, 18th century England period adaptation of the Thackeray novel about an Irish gambler, Barry Lyndon (1975).

The James Bond Franchise• The highly-profitable series stimulated the production of other

exaggerated and more outlandish secret agent/spy adventure dramas. The Bond film hallmarks were obvious - the charming English gentleman spy Agent 007, great theme music and stylistic credits, high-tech gadgetry and spying, tongue-in-cheek humor, sexy women, exotic locales, and the mortal struggle against fiendish, diabolical, would-be world-rulers.

• The six James Bond films for the decade, all starring Sean Connery (except one), included some of the most popular ever made:

• Dr. No (1962), • Goldfinger (1963), • From Russia With Love(1964) • Thunderball (1965), • You Only Live Twice (1967), • On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969),

Trends in Movies

• Buying book rights for film remakes like Romeo and Juliet (1969)and lots of classics

• War films like Zulu and the Dirty Dozen

• Light comedies like: The Great Race and the Pink Panther

• Gidget films for teens

• Beach Party and Surfing Films

Spaghetti Westerns

• Made in Italy to make them cheaper, these starred Clint Eastwood in simple storytelling.

• Fistful of Dollars(1964)

• A Few Dollars More (1965)

• The Good The Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Huge Musicals

• West Side Story

• Sound of Music

• My Fair Lady

• Camelot

• Gypsy

• All won multiple academy awards and were big box office draws

Disney Theater

• The Wonderful World of Disney moves beyond TV and animated features to do family work:

• The Parent Trap

• The Love Bug

• Flubber

• Mary Poppins

The Youth Generation Goes Back to the movies

• Films are made that attract youth and counterculture in the late sixties

• Butterfield 8-Elizabeth Taylor• Cool Hand Luke- Paul Newman• The Graduate- Dustin Hoffman• Bonnie and Clyde- Beatty and Dunaway• These can have more violence, and sexual

situations as the censorship system is abolished in 1966 and the rating system is used. Movies are G, PG, R, or X.

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