1963: Not a Bad Year for Movies

[deadmoviestar]

I had never investigated the state of film the year I was born (1963) but I gotta say, it's pretty good. There are a lot of different threads going on. Great films from the foreign arthouse guys (Fellini's 8 1/2, Visconti's The Leopard, Godard's Contempt, Kurosawa's High & Low, Bergman with the deeply depressing two-fer of The Silence and Winter Light). Lots of really good British movies like This Sporting Life, Billy Liar, Lord of the Flies, Tom Jones. Loads and loads of horror-cheese (X, King Kong vs Godzilla, the incomparable Blood Feast, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who...., The Raven, etc.) and sex-cheese (Promises! Promises!, Nude on the Moon). Crazy violent stuff (Johnny Cool, Girl Hunters). Plus James Bond, the first Frankie/Annette movie, some really cool indie stuff (Shock Corridor, Leather Boys). And some Hollywood movies, both great (Hud, The Birds, Nutty Professor) and, well, nice try (How the West Was Won, The Victors).

And of course it was the year my namesake became a household word (two months AFTER my birth) in The Great Escape.

Here's my list of some notable 1963 movies:
8 ½
Beach Party
Billy Liar
The Birds
Blood Feast
Charade
Contempt
Dementia 13
From Russia with Love
Fun in Acapulco
The Girl Hunters
The Great Escape
High and Low
How the West Was Won
Hud
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living & Became Mixed-Up Zombies
Johnny Cool
King Kong vs. Godzilla
The Leather Boys
The Leopard
Lord of the Flies
The Nutty Professor
Point of Order
Promises! Promises!
The Raven
Shock Corridor
The Silence
They Saved Hitler’s Brain
This Sporting Life
Tom Jones
The Trial
The Victors
Winter Light
X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes