We Are Movie Geeks

In 1969, the movie business was starting to transition from old, proven formulas to more daring and original films that spoke to a younger demographic. Quentin Tarantino’s ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD sets out capture the spirit of that year and the way the movies and their stars reflected the attitudes of the time.

Here’s a clip from The Jimmy Kimmel show where Quentin talks about the premiere of his new movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, attending a screening with Jimmy, shooting with Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt & Margot Robbie, Inglourious Basterds, naming his own Mad Magazine parody, asking actors to be in his movies, why he is close to ending his filmmaking career. Margot Robbie stops by with an announcement:

There were plenty of great movies made in 1969 celebrating their golden anniversaries this year. Here are 17 of them that the writers here at We Are Movie Geeks recommend watching before you see ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD

ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS

There are a lot of “guy movies” referenced in Tarantino’s movie but not all 1969 movies were all about the men. It was also a time when women’s roles on screen were starting to change. There are few examples as good as ANNE OF A THOUSAND DAYS. Hollywood has long been fascinated by Henry VIII but had always portrayed his wives as colorless victims. This British costume drama turned around that usual cinematic narrative by focusing on Anne Boleyn rather than the king. An unforgettable Genevieve Bujold upends that stereotype in a groundbreaking performance, playing Anne Boleyn in a more modern, fully-rounded portrayal where she is more than a cipher in Henry’s dynastic ambitions. Bijou’s Anne is a feisty, independent young woman caught up in political maneuvering where her wits are the only thing that might keep her alive.

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

Taking a break from producing the Harry Palmer and James Bond spy films that put him on the map, Harry Saltzman set his sights on a real life “David and Goliath” story from World War II. BATTLE OF BRITAIN depicts the unbelievable defeat of the Luftwaffe in 1940, just before the Nazis were about to invade England. The aerial shots of dozens of planes in the sky all at once are still dazzling to this day and were even more so in 1969 considering no other film depicted the intensity and accuracy of these battles quite like this before. Guy Hamilton (who went on to direct four James Bond films, including fan-favorite, GOLDFINGER) brought in over a 100 Spitfires used during the War for these sequences, some of which saw these restored planes daringly flying within feet of the ground! The spectacular action is backed by an all-star cast including Laurence Olivier, Robert Shaw, Christopher Plummer, and Michael Caine, who would later make a vocal cameo in Christopher Nolan’s DUNKIRK out of respect to this classic film. 

BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID

BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID is the blueprint for every buddy movie from the past 50 years. It’s still a beloved film, full of memorable moments: the train robbery with a little too much dynamite, the chase into the rocks (“Who are those guys?”), and the “straight” job working for a mine in Bolivia (and the owner who really loves his tobacco). Robert Redford and Paul Newman were a fantastic double act.

THE COMIC

Filmgoers of that year were in for quite a surprise with this unique
Dick Van Dyke feature from the creator of his beloved sitcom, Carl
Reiner (he directed and co-wrote it with another TV vet, Aaron Ruben).
The tube’s affable Rob Petrie and the big screen’s gleeful Bert the
chimney-sweep shared little (aside from the actor) with this flick’s
focus, silent movie comedian Billy Bright. With the “nostalgia craze”
beginning to hit “high gear” audiences just weren’t ready for a
fictionalized “warts and all” look at Hollywood’s “golden age”. Much
like the similarly-themed SUNSET BOULEVARD, the story (after a bizarre
credit sequence of old Billy wind-up toys falling over each other) is
narrated by a corpse, BB at his sparsely attended burial. The plot
bounces back nearly 50 years to show how young William Simon (DVD)
created the Bright persona, who seems to be a mixture of Stan Laurel
(naturally), Buster Keaton (the scandals), and Harry Langdon (that
puffy cap). Reiner then recreates scenes from the films, in black and
white with ‘speeded-up” motion and “dialogue cards”, proving that Mr.
Van Dyke, if he’s been born 20 years earlier, would’ve been a
celebrated cinema clown along with Chaplin and Lloyd. Soon we see his
sweet romance, and marriage, with leading lady mary (Michele Lee)
destroyed by booze, bimbos, and a monstrous ego. Van Dyke hammers home the ugliness of Billy so that we’ve got little sympathy when the
“talkies” help to take him down. As the years pass, Van Dyke dons a
bald cap (what a comb-over) and gives his voice a gravelly rasp as he
spends most of his days reminiscing with old ‘foil” Mickey Rooney as
Martin ‘Cockeye’ Van Buren, who has one of the film’s best lines
(“When they stopped laughing at my crossed-eyes, they started killing
each other”). Van Dyke even plays Billy’s ‘swishy’ estranged son. It’s
an incredible comic and dramatic performance in a movie that was truly
ahead of its time.

EASY RIDER

EASY RIDER is much more than a 60s relic – it’s still a great movie even today. Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda took Roger Corman material and gave it a European- influenced arthouse approach. Combined with breathtaking visuals, a well-chosen rock soundtrack and some classic, stoned, improvised dialogue EASY RIDER is still an impressive movie all these years later. EASY RIDER reinvented the biker movie (or technically created a new subgenre: the “hippy” Biker Film), and things were never quite the same in Hollywood for the rest of the Seventies. The supporting cast is interesting and includes a great role for the underrated Luke Askew as the “Stranger on Highway”, and cameos from the star’s buddies Robert Walker Jr, Luana Anders and Sabrina Scharf, as well as Karen Black and Toni Basil’s New Orleans hookers, Look for Phil Spector’s coke snorting bit part in this 1960s generation-defining counter-culture classic!

FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED

By 1969, Hammer Studios had been making a long series of Dracula and Frankenstein films but FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED turned out to be so very different and a bit more adult than previous Hammer fare. The oddest thing about this film was that there was no monster.  Instead of focusing on some ugly beast, the ugly one in the film is Dr. Frankenstein himself. This time he was not a well-meaning man of science but an immoral maniac – a truly depraved man indifferent to the pain of others. So focused on recreating his earlier monstrosities, he blackmails, rapes and murders with little apparent moral compunction. Peter Cushing played Dr. Frankenstein seven times for Hammer, but this was his most fascinating portrayal.

THE LOVE GOD?

Yes, in that last year of the 60s the “times, they were a-changin””.
And who got swept up in the sexual revolution? Don Knotts?! Just three
years prior he had walked away from TV’s Mayberry to sign a lucrative
feature film deal with Universal Studios. Thus began a trilogy of
family-friendly flicks with Knotts staying close to his jittery
persona (and in a rural setting, especially in the first outing, the
classic THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN). Now the powers that be decided he
should go for the more adult audiences with something edgier, more
provocative. Writer/director Nat Hiken (creator of the iconic sitcoms
“The Phil Silvers Show” AKA “Sgt. Bilko” and “:Car 54, Where are
You?”), cast Knotts as the nerdy ornithologist Abner Peacock, who
carries on the family business as editor/publisher of Peacock’s
Magazine for bird enthusiasts. All’s well (he’s engaged to his
childhood sweetheart) until the arrival of con-man pornographer Osborn
Tremaine (Oscar winner Edmund O’Brien at his most bombastic). OT lost
his magazine subscription mail permit, so he convinces Abner to go off
in search of a rare bird. Then turns the tame all-ages periodical into
smut. Just as Abner returns, the guardians of decency swoop in, and
the “birdman” must appear to be a “tomcat”. Abner has to live the
“Hef” lifestyle, hitting the clubs with a quartet of babes, and
wearing the most garish 60s fashions (perhaps this was training for
his later TV role as Mr. Furley on “Three’s Company”). Plus he’s got
to evade some scary gangsters and deal with the sultry Anne Francis
(TV’s “Honey West”) as the mag’s “consultant”. There are some great
comic bits here, like a bird-watchers’ anthem complete with Abner
providing the squawks and whistles, and a catchy “theme” song (“Mr.
Peacock, Mr. Peacock, you’re the man our dreams are made of…”), as
part of Vic Mizzy’s bouncy soundtrack. But all these racy “M-rated”
hijinks alienated Knotts’ fan base and the flick flopped. After HOW TO
FRAME A FIGG two years later, Don was done at Universal, but for a
brief moment ole’ Barn’ really swung, baby!

MAROONED

Fraught with an atmosphere filled with claustrophobia, MAROONED is a powerful movie that has no battle with space aliens or ships exploding after a lengthy battle, and yet captured the true perils of space travel. It was released on December 11, 1969 and won an Oscar for Special Visual Effects.Combined with a cast that were big hitters in the 60’s, the film starred Gregory Peck, Gene Hackman, James Franciscus, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, Nancy Novak, Lee Grant and Mariette Hartley. Three U.S. astronauts face a slow death when their rockets fail during a space voyage – its’a thrilling nail-biter that leaves you white-knuckling it to the bitter end. Alfonso Cuarón, director of Gravity (2013), told Wired magazine, “I watched the Gregory Peck movie Marooned over and over as a kid.”Cuarón later included a clip from the movie in his 2018 film ROMA. Watch that HERE.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY

The superb and sad MIDNIGHT COWBOY deserved the Oscar for Best Picture in 1969 and was the first and only “X” rated movie to get the prize. Jon Voight’s performance as the naive Joe Buck made you believe that he believes he can go anywhere. But Dustin Hoffman’s performance as Ratzo Rizzo, the ‘Pimp with a Limp’, was one for the ages. Hoffman transformed into a squalid character that is equal parts repulsive and sympathetic. Bob Balaban and Sylvia Miles were memorable in small roles. The ending showed that everybody has a dream, but it just might not be in your reach.

PAINT YOUR WAGON

This Western musical is an often-overlooked gem from 1969, perhaps just because it is so weird. While SWEET CHARITY tried to dilute the facts about the story, PAINT YOUR WAGON takes a comically matter-of-fact approach to this story of a romantic threesome in a Wild West gold mining boom town, where what is scandalous elsewhere is perfectly normal. Paddy Chayefsky adapted the Lerner and Loewe 1951 musical for the screen, which might explain part of its quirky appeal. Jean Seberg plays a respectable woman who unexpectedly finds herself stranded in the gold mining town, and forms a domestic arrangement with two very different men, Lee Marvin’s scruffy hard-drinking old prospector and the more clean-cut, conventional young Clint Eastwood. Ironically, Eastwood would later play characters that more resembled Lee Marvin’s grumbler, although perhaps with less of the humor Marvin inserts in this role. A bonus to this film is you get to hear Lee Marvin’s comic, tone-challenged warbling in his ode to wanderers, “Wand’rin’ Star,” positive proof that he couldn’t sing but could sell a song anyway.  

ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE

ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE is considered by many (but not all) hard-core James Bond fans as the best in the series. The producers gave this entry a more broad and epic scope, likely to make up for Sean Connery leaving the series and replaced with an unknown, one-time Bond George Lazenby. It’s a combination of elements that make this one stand out: the best soundtrack of any Bond ever, a particularly nasty villain (Blofeld played by the Telly Savalas), (arguably) the best Bond girl ever in Diana Rigg, a great ally Draco, the best villain organization in the Bonds: SPECTRE, and yes, George Lazenby himself who was an outstanding 007 despite never returning to the series.

SWEET CHARITY 

Bob Fosse’s SWEET CHARITY, a poster for which appears briefly in Tarantino’s film, is a kind of trial run for his more fully-realized CABERET, but the film’s near-miss is a good illustration of the changes Hollywood was undergoing as it moved from the era of censors to a new frankness Shirley MacLaine plays a prostitute in this musical but producers were too squeamish fully embrace that, giving the film a sanitized aspect that gives the film a weird dichotomy. Fosse didn’t let that happen again, and audiences reaped the reward for that decision.

THEY SHOOT HORSES DON’T THEY?

THEY SHOOT HORSES DON’T THEY? chronicled a Depression-era dance marathon in Santa Monica in the post-Great. Among the contestants vying for the $1,500 victory are a depressive aspiring actress (Jane Fonda), a wannabe filmmaker-turned-criminal (Michael Sarrazin), another aspiring Hollywood starlet (Susannah York), and a pregnant wife and her husband (Bonnie Bedelia and Bruce Dern). The competition begins to wear on the already- downtrodden contestants, slowly transforming into a series of psychological and physical horrors. Gig Young won the Oscar as the contest’s sadistic emcee. “Yowza! Yowza! Yowza!”

TRUE GRIT

This film was a turning point in John Wayne’s iconic movie character. If the early John Wayne was best represented by his characters in John Ford’s STAGE COACH and THE SEARCHERS, the later Duke was more the craggy bounty hunter in TRUE GRIT. This iconic film is not only an essential Western and example of John Wayne’s later screen persona, but an example of the shift in storytelling that Hollywood was undergoing.

THE VALLEY OF GWANGI

In THE VALLEY OF GWANGI Wild West showmen follow a prehistoric horse to a hidden valley in Spain where they are attacked by dinosaurs. Eventually, the cowboys manage to capture a live Allosaurus, which they turn into the star of their new show. This was a case of high-concept movie-making, old-school style: cowboys vs. dinosaurs (it doesn’t get much more high-concept than that), all brought to life through the use of undeniable charming, cutting-edge movie-magic circa 1969. That would of course be Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion animation in this, one of his best-remembered films.

THE WILD BUNCH

THE WILD BUNCH was a ground-breaking, revisionist western from director Sam Peckinpah, Although violence existed in the cinema before this film, it was Peckinpah’s treatment of violence that opened the gates for every subsequent film-maker to show graphic gunshot wounds, throat-slashing, and the like, with shocking realism. THE WILD BUNCH was beautifully shot by Lucien Ballard and featured memorable performances from William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates, and many others.

THE WRECKING CREW

While the Bond series was undergoing a major cast change that year,
the first American parody film series wrapped up the last of its
quartet of capers (Derek Flint had been retired at Fox two years ago).
Dean Martin was back as Donald Hamilton’s swingin’ secret agent Matt
Helm in THE WRECKING CREW (also returning was the director of the
first Helm THE SILENCERS, Phil Karlson). This time out, Matt was still
undercover as a top fashion photog (and if you think a certain
“international man of mystery” borrowed this, then BEHAVE, baby), sent
out by the US agency I.C.E. to stop the nefarious Count Contini (Nigel
Green) from grabbing enough gold to wreck the global economy. There
was action (Bruce Lee is credited as the “karate advisor” and a
beard-less nearly “baby-faced” Chuck Norris makes his screen debut as
a menacing thug) and zany gadgets galore, but the series’ biggest
draw, aside from Dino’s easy-goin’ playboy persona, was the bevy of
beautiful ladies (sometimes called “Slaymates”). The main fabulous
foursome were most spectacular. Representing the earlier part of the
decade (and a touch of the late 50s) was blonde bombshell Elke Sommer
and radiant redhead Tina Louise (seems the island life agreed with
her). The 60s emerging stars were the exotic Nancy Kwan (as
“Yu-Rang”…really) and the breathtaking Sharon Tate as Helm’s klutzy
aide Freya Carlson. The film ends with the promise that “Matt Helm
will return in The Ravagers”, and supposedly Dean wanted to bring back
Tate and her character, but, as the new Tarantino flick points out, it
was not to be (‘sigh’).