Last Summer - 1969 - USA

Last Summer - 1969 - 6/10 

 
Mean spirited story based on equally sour tasting book (bestseller by Evan Hunter).
Vacationing at the beach, two males and a female bond over a rescued seagull.
They mess around with alcohol, reefer, and flirt.  Sexual tension mounts.
A second girl arrives, tries to ingratiate herself with the increasingly jaded, callous trio.
Coming of age film, and rather a cruel one.
Unpleasant, yet achingly resonant.  Avoid PG cut.

The Testament Of Caleb Meeke - 1969 - Ireland

The Testament Of Caleb Meeke - 1969 - 6/10

 
A generous uncle leaves Caleb his mansion (crumbling ruins) and adjoining hills (with buried, restless things).
After exploring a bit, Caleb finds books, including “Account Of The Old Ones” and “Necronomicon”.
Reading draws him deeper into the strange grimoires.
Then the diary from 1756, full of warning about fiends from the bogs and pools and depths of the woods.
Gothic horror from Roy Spence is one of his best efforts.  Well thought and realized.
Like to see the Irish Film Institute give this a full restoration.

Hello, Dolly! - 1969 - USA

Hello, Dolly! - 1969 - 5/10

 
The widowed matchmaker attempts to find a match for an “almost millionaire”.
Then there’s the rich man’s niece and her impoverished boyfriend.
Which the rich man properly says “No’ to.  (Except in films, artists rarely make money.)
All sorts of stratagems and subterfuges follow.
With way too many characters and an over-complicated plot
Add a batch of songs, most highly unmemorable, and you have a musical turkey.
This is one of those films that killed musicals back when.
I was, and remain a Streisand fan which is why I watched this back in the day.
Recent rewatch – just as bad.  And the vinyl ST, it ain’t “Funny Girl”.

Kiss Me Monster - 1969 - Spain

Kiss Me Monster - 1969 - 5/10
AKA - Küss mich, Monster

 
Relaxing after adventures, the Red Lips are interrupted by a dying messenger.
Something about Doctor Beltran, which, well, he’s dead, let’s dump his body.
Soon enough they are recruited, coerced, hired to locate Beltran’s missing invention.
Perhaps in Abilene, or out on a remote island.
There are five (at least) different factions after this, which adds confusion.
The plot is already scatter-brained.
Spoof of Euro-Spy movies is gauche and awkward, not so funny.

Otley - 1969 - UK

Otley - 1969 - 6/10

 
Gerald Otley, actually.  Deadbeat, sponger, moocher, crashing in friends’ homes, casually stealing objects.
Well and good, although increasingly his requests are rebuffed with a firm “No.”
Until one of those who put him up is murdered.
Otley is wanted for questioning, and several factions hunt him as well.
A comedy, perhaps a spoof of espionage films (tenuous, as best).
Tom Courtney plays the befuddled quarry.  He lacks charisma, which aids his ordinariness.
There is a questionable female ally; Romy Schneider, what is she doing in this?
For fans of Brit telly, a slew of faces, most younger that you are familiar with.
Obscure 1960’s gem is fast-paced and silly.

The Bridge At Remagen - 1969 - USA

The Bridge At Remagen - 1969 - 6/10

 
Closing months of WWII, German officers receive conflicting orders.
1 – Destroy the Ludendorff Bridge, the last one standing across the Rhine.
2 – Maintain the bridge as long as possible, to allow Wehrmacht troops to return home.
Meanwhile, American troops race to capture the bridge intact, no matter casualties.
What would normally have been a gung-ho flag waver in an earlier era, here reflects the late 60’s antiwar sentiment.
Both sides are disillusioned, hardened and cynical.  Plenty of action, yet the tone is soured.
Based on a book by a local Congressman, which was required reading in our area.

What’s Good For The Goose - 1969 - UK

What’s Good For The Goose - 1969 - 4/10

 
Norman, fifty-something bank clerk, picks up two free-spirit female hitchhikers.
After a quickie fling with Nikki, he imagines he is in love, and his life unravels.
Swinging 60’s film mixes silly farce with nudge-nudge innuendo.
Norman would NEVER pull any hot girls of the time.  Too old, no money, no power.
Benny Hill would have better luck, at least he had a sense of humor.
Speaking of which, as a comedy, this is a dismal failure.

The Ultimate Degenerate - 1969 - USA

The Ultimate Degenerate - 1969 - 4/10  

Maria, bored with her lesbian exhibitionism, answers a classifieds for sex-work.
Soon she is involved in nude go-go dancing, whipped cream, striptease, cigar stuffing.

 
The “boss” is a wheelchair confined nutjob, into sadism and accidental murder.
Lots of photographs are taken, inventive usage of corncobs, bondage, I lost track.
Full nude throughout, although not necessarily arousing.

 
The music consists of classical chamber, bachelor pad lounge, bump ‘n grind.
Smutty peep show concludes with an orgy of sadism.
Note:  My opening titles read “The Degenerate”.  No “Ultimate”.

I Love This Dirty Town - 1969 - UK

I Love This Dirty Town - 1969 - 6/10

 
Margaret Drabble bemoans the transition of the city into suburbia.
One realizes the city, for her, is dozens, if not hundreds, of small villages.
Freestanding green-grocers and butchers, instead of Tesco and Marks & Spencers.
Independent chemists, rather than Boots.  Pedestrians over the motor car.
Her complaints likely resonated when Romans organized Londinium.
Ever the battle between developers and residents.
James Mason explored this topic in The London Nobody Knows (1969).
Suggs turned the lens towards places on the verge of extinction in Disappearing London (2006).

The Wild Bunch - 1969 - USA

The Wild Bunch - 1969 - 7/10

 
“If they move, kill ’em.”  With that opening line, the theater erupted.
This was one of those rare occasions when film and audience were perfectly matched.  When we arrived, the theater parking lot was packed with 300-500 motorcycles.  Half the audience were bikers.
End of an era finds the once Wild West setting into the sunset.
The gang’s last big haul is a fiasco, and the survivors hightail it to Mexico.
There, they make a deal with a brutal generalissimo.
Extremely violent Western, elegiac in tone, poignant moments broken with splatter.

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium - 1969 - USA

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium - 1969 - 6/10

 
Americans climb aboard the bus for a package tour of Europe.
Nine countries, eighteen days.  Did I mention bus?  Shoot me now.
The tourists are an odd assortment, easier to tag them, I guess.
The core is a romance between the jaded, womanizing tour operator (Ian McShane) and a fetching American tourist (Suzanne Pleshette).
The plot plays like stitched sitcoms, but the photography is remarkably good.
Proverbial “picture postcard” likely played well to armchair wannabee travelers, or aging WWII vets who always wanted to go back and visit.
Along with the gags (the good and the awful), there is an innocent charm about this.

The Color Of Pomegranates - 1969 - Arrmenia

The Color Of Pomegranates - 1969 - 8/10
AKA - Sayat Nova

 
Biography of Armenian poet, Sayat Nova, told primarily through images.
Dialogue is extremely spare in this, compensated with extraordinary visuals.
First time viewers may be adrift (I was the first time), if they know nothing about the artist or period.
In essence, the poet’s life, experiences and death are displayed in arresting chapters.

 
While you can feast on one composition after another, the experience remains a hypnotic mystery.
A commentary (such as on Criterion) is essential for understanding.
Second Sight (UK) offers alternative commentaries, as well as a subtitled commentary.

What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? - 1969 - USA

What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? - 1969 - 6/10

 
Aunt Alice?  Oh, she called herself Mrs. Dimmock and hired on as companion to Mrs. Marrable.
How many companions has Mrs. Marrable gone through already?  Four?  Five?
Good help is so hard to find.  Funny how they all left in the middle of the night.
Of course they had no relatives, poor dears.  No friends.  Nobody missed them.
And Mrs. Marrable (above)?  Despite her airs, she is poor.  And rather mad.
Desert mystery shines a mean edge and cruel tone.
Odd how the general populace is so easily deceived by surface charm and platitudes.

Japan Organized Crime Boss - 1969 - Japan

Japan Organized Crime Boss - 1969 - 6/10
AKA - Nihon boryoku-dan: Kumicho // 日本暴力団 組長

 
As the Danna Organization from Osaka expands and grows stronger,  the Tokyo families form an alliance.
In the middle is the territory around the port of Yokohama.
The major factions exploit the smaller Yokohama groups as proxies, thereby sparing their own men.
(Anyone who cannot see modern day parallels is blind.)
After the boss is murdered, Tsukamoto becomes the new head of a small Yokohama group.
Trying to protect his men, he charts a careful unaligned course.
Moody, Kinji Fukasaku yakuza film mixes explosive violence with tactical lulls.
Doom laden, watching the small firm caught between powerful belligerents.

English subs = https://subscene.com/subtitles/japan-organised-crime-boss-nihon-boryoku-dan-kumicho/english/3076748

The Over The Hill Gang - 1969 - USA

The Over The Hill Gang - 1969 - 5/10

 
The town is lawless, the mayor corrupt, sheriff incompetent.
Pa, visiting his daughter and son-in-law, sizes things up and decides to oust the outlaws.
Mind you, Pa is an ex-Texas Ranger, and he enlists more of his grizzled buddies to help.
This looks like a TV movie, with decent production values.
Main reason to watch this Mild Western is the irresistible cast.
Pat O’Brien, Walter Brennan, Andy Devine, Jack Elam, Chill Wills, Edgar Buchanan, Gypsy Rose Lee.
Hardly a classic, though harmless fun and a treat to see a posse of character actors.
Brazos!

The Happy Ending - 1969 - USA

The Happy Ending - 1969 - 7/10

 
Surprisingly biting woman’s film follows stifled wife (Jean Simmons) of successful attorney (John Forsythe).
Opportunities are opening for young females that were unavailable to her generation.
Work is not an option.  Shopping is, as is bitching at the salon or spa.  And numbing house parties.
Sixteen years into marriage, she drinks, pops pills, loses herself.
Multiple timelines interweave flashbacks, present, future.  Deliberately confusing to mirror the character.
Great cast, especially in Nassau, includes Shirley Jones, Lloyd Bridges, Bobby Darin.
Song “What Are You Doing With The Rest Of Your Life?"  is evocative.
Opening sequence of Simmons & Forsythe as 20 somethings was completely false.
Simmons also looks older than Jones, though they were supposedly classmates.

 
Despite this being a woman’s story, I know numerous souls like her.
Most are retired or permanently unemployed.  They have lost their bearings.
Boredom or disappointment tempt them into affairs, or narcotics.

Temptress Of A Thousand Faces - 1969 - Hong Kong

Temptress Of A Thousand Faces - 1969 - 6/10
AKA - Qian Mian mo Nu  //  千面魔女

 
Energetic Hong Kong crime spree finds the above villainess robbing the elite.
“The world is full of rich and powerful people, who devise and exploit loopholes.  They are no better.”
A nice little dig, that the filmmakers deliver then return to action.
And Lordy, this film has the action.  Shootouts, Kung fu fights, girl fights. thrilling escapes.
Other times, our femme fatale deals with do-gooder women who try to stop her.
True to her name, she dons a face mask of her rival, then beds the boyfriend, squeezing him dry, all the time letting the goody two-shoes watch.
Truly crazy film with an army of female warriors, the top secret base, all manner of tortures.
More than anything, what this reminds me of is Danger: Diabolik (1968).

Take A Girl Like You - 1969 - UK

Take A Girl Like You - 1969 - 6/10

 
British romantic comedy of cavalier bachelor Oliver Reed meeting Hayley Mills (AKA - Miss Virgin).
Story is scant more than flirting, groping, blue-balled frustration.
Noel Harrison plays rich playboy hoping to save his manor from council airport expansion.
He also displays a lighter touch with the ladies, most of whom (with the exception of Miss Mills) are eager for the impromptu romp, no matter the settings.
Very Swinging 60's attitude pervades, though Reed seems way too old for the role.
To be fair, this was probably filmed in '68 and Reed would have been 30.  He looks 45, however.
Watch for Penelope Keith as - surprise - a Tory poll worker. 

A Very Curious Girl - 1969 - France

A Very Curious Girl - 1969 - 6/10
AKA - La Fiancée du Pirate

 
Revenge film about the maltreated village slag.
After Marie’s mother is killed by a hit n run, and her pet goat comes to a bad end, she methodically gets even.
No more kissing and cuddling with menfolk to warm the nights.  Now it’s,  “Money first.”
Village men pay.  And pay.  Marie may not be easy on the eyes, but she is easy - - when cash is offered.
When irate wives refuse to give husbands money, the men barter watches or possessions.
When elders try to persuade her to cease, she offers a little persuasion of her own.
Even though this is likely set in the late 1960's (a poster with Belle de Jour is in one scene), one gets a feeling this could have been set in Medieval France.
Look quick for Louis Malle as the penniless Spaniard, “no tengo dinero,” who scores, nevertheless!

Marlowe - 1969 - USA

Marlowe - 1969 - 6/10

 
Once (If) you get past the idea of James Garner as Philip Marlowe, this will be a solid mystery.
Marlowe is hired by a corn fed, Kansas farm girl, looking for her wayward brother.
$55.00.  It ain’t worth it.  He refunds her money, tells her the brother should return in a month.
Just as well, as he is soon engulfed in a Hollywood scandal, gangsters, an icepick murderer.
Not to mention drugs, buxom women, and explosive cops.
Glossy, California Noir boasts piercing dialogue, as well as a neatly tangled script.
Wait around to watch Rita Moreno do a striptease number.
And midway in the film, holy moly, Bruce Lee is a study in controlled annihilation.