Movie Marathon: The '60s

Breakfast at Tiffany's, directed by Blake Edwards, starring Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Mickey Rooney. Released in 1961.

Despite numerous changes made to the novella by Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's remains a classic film about a vulnerable call girl and her sensitive writer neighbor, who is a call boy in his own way. Patricia Neal plays his benefactress, Mickey Rooney is the often-irked neighbor.

Hepburn is incandescent as always, stunningly beautiful. Her performance of "Moon River" accounts for its vast popularity. Peppard is not to be overlooked as Paul, or "Fred baby". The "sensitive bookish type" also shows a lot of spirit and strength, most notably in his final speech to Holly, when he tells her, "You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, 'Ok, life's a fact. People do fall in love. People do belong to each other. Because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness.' "

Holly Golightly- I've just got to do something about the way I look. A girl just can't go to Sing-Sing with a green face.

Holly- You can always tell what kind of person a man really thinks you are by the earrings he gives you. I must say, the mind reels.

Paul Varjak- And I've always heard people in New York never get to meet their neighbors.

Holly- It's useful being top banana in the shock department.

Holly- You know the terrible thing of it all, Fred? I am still Lula Mae. 13 years old, stealing turkey eggs and running through a briar patch. Only know I call it having the "mean reds".

Holly- It should take you exactly four seconds to cross from here to that door. I'll give you two.

Paul- I don't think I've ever drunk champagne before breakfast before. With breakfast on several occasions, but never before, before.

Holly- I'm like cat here, a no-name slob. We belong to nobody, and nobody belongs to us. We don't even belong to each other.


West Side Story directed by Jerome Robbins released in 1961. Starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno

Far and away my favorite musical. The songs are excellent, the story, of course, is wonderful, being based on a Shakespearean play, and all. The highest compliment I can probably pay West Side Story is to confess that I saw it many, many times throughout my childhood, but it wasn't until college that I actually realized the story is taken from "Romeo and Juliet". Even after I read the play in high school, it never really occured to me. I give this as a great compliment, because it means the story is bigger than its big-name benefactor. The characters and the situation, the slang and the songs transform it into something new and exciting, but with a story that feels so familiar and timeless.

Riff- Boy, am I a victim of disappointment in you.

Action- When you was my age? When my old man was my age, when my borther was my age. . . You was never my age, none of ya! And the sooner you creeps get hip to that, the sooner you'll dig us!


Casino Royale, directed by Val Guest, released in 1967. Starring Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr, William Holden, lots of cameos.

I wouldn't recommend this spoof on the Bond movies. Not that it isn't funny. I found it hilarious, also long, convoluted and drenched in Bert Bacharach songs. Which means you have to really be in the mood for it. But, if you ever are, you'll find a gem of one-liners, big-star cameos, beautiful girls, and that cheeky seductive quality that only flies in '60s flicks.

Piper- Are you Richard Burton?
Evelyn Tremble- No, I'm Peter O'Toole!
Piper- Than you're the greatest man that ever breathed!

Sir James- It's depressing that the words "secret agent" have become synonymous with "sex maniac."

Miss Moneypenny- I have to note your qualifications.
Cooper- Height, six feet and two inches, 184 lbs. Trophies for karate and judo, holder of the Kama Sutra black belt.

Vesper Lynd- Mr. Evelyn Tremble?
Evelyn- Yes, that's right.
Vesper- Isn't Evelyn a girl's name?
Evelyn- No, it's mine, actually.


The Lion in Winter, directed by Anthony Harvey, released in 1968. Starring Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry, Timothy Dalton, Jane Merrow

There simply are not words to describe the excellence of this film. The writing is superb, on a level I like to call Shakespeare, simply because I cannot imagine a human being actually having the talent to write it. The performances are excellent, not just from O'Toole and Hepburn, but new-comer Hopkins (in his first movie role) and relative new-comers Dalton, Castle and Terry. The emotions are so hidden, the motivations so veiled, that you spend the movie wondering how each character really feels about the others, and why they behave as they do. A wonderful film that should be watched much more than it usually is.

Eleanor- In a world where carpenters get resurrected, everything is possible.

John- "Poor John." Who says "poor John"? Don't everybody sob at once! My God, if I went up in flames, there's not a living soul who'd piss on me to put the fire out.
Richard- Let's strike a flint and see.

Eleanor- I even made poor Louis take me on Crusade. How's that for blasphemy. I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn. . .but the troops were dazzled.

Eleanor- One son is all I've got and you can blot him out and call me cruel? For these ten years you've lived with everything I've lost and I am cruel? I could peel you like a pear and God himself would call it justice.

John- A knife! He's got a knife!
Eleanor- Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives. It's 1183 and we're barbarians.

Eleanor- Shoulder it yourself. Don't put it on my back. Pick it up and carry it. I can. My losses are my work.
Henry- What losses? I'm the one with nothing.
Eleanor- Lost your life's work, have you? Provinces are nothing. Land is dirt. I could take defeats like yours and laught, I've done it. If you're broken it's because you're brittle.

Eleanor- There's everything in life but hope.
Henry- We're both alive. And for all I know that's what hope is.
Eleanor- We're jungle creatures, Henry, and the dark is all around us. See them, in the corners? you can see the eyes.
Henry- And they can see ours.

Henry- You know, I hope we never die.
Eleanor- So do I.
Henry- Do you think there's any chance of it?