Midnight Lace (1960)

Midnight Lace is an attempt at a Hitchcockian thriller. This film is obviously based on a play, and it feels like the kind of Dial M for Murder/Angel Street-type plot that is satirized in Deathtrap. 

This one stars Doris Day as a woman who starts to lose her mind as her life is threatened and everyone doubts that it's real. Day is not very good as she goes hysterical. I just don't believe her – which is kind of nuts because it's been reported that she went full method for this performance and actually had a hysterical episode!

This film also stars Rex Harrison, John Gavin, and Myrna Loy (who is great! It's so nice to see her in this so late in her career).

Let's Make Love (1960)

Let's Make Love is a sexy comedy starring Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand, whose English dialogue was learned phonetically – I had to put on the subtitles in order to get it.

This feels like pretty typical 1960s musical fare. Almost all of the songs are diegetic because we're in some kind of off-Broadway revue. The funniest bits in this film might be the sections in which Milton Berle teaches Montand to be funny, Bing Crosby teaches him to sing, and Gene Kelly appears to teach him to dance. 

Much of this film is charming, and some of it is actually quite funny. For me the weirdest part of Let's Make Love is British singer Frankie Vaughan, who is very handsome but who seems to me constantly flat in every one of his songs. I can definitely see why he didn't catch on with USAmerican audiences.

I watched this on DVD, but I'm pretty sure it's also on VOD.

Bells Are Ringing (1960)

Judy Holliday was honestly a genius. I don't know how she does it, but the comedic timing, the physical comedy, the hilarious faces. She's just amazing and lovable all at the same time. This is a very cute musical with music by Jule Styne, and some of the songs are simply sublime. Having them sung by Dean Martin also makes these songs really wonderful, but the draw here is Holliday – in her last film – playing a role she made famous on Broadway.

I watched Bells Are Ringing on the Criterion Channel, which was showing a bunch of Judy Holliday's movies.

A Colt Is My Passport (1960)

A Colt Is My Passport (拳銃 コルト は俺のパスポート) is not a film noir. It's more like a Western set in 1960s Japan than anything else. It is, however, a very enjoyable crime film with a central theme of fraternal loyalty that is quite compelling. The editing is excellent, and the acting is great.

As usual, I watched this as part of the Japanese Noir series on the Criterion channel. This is such a great series.

Intimidation (1960)

Intimidation (ある脅迫) is another tight noir from Kurahara Koreyoshi and the Nikkatsu studio. Intimidation's characters are less likable than I Am Waiting's, and that perhaps works against it. But Kurahara's tight storytelling is excellent here. We move from the street to the bedroom or from sober to drunk in the blink of an eye, and this telescoping of time works so well. Then when it wants to draw out its long, central heist sequence, the time of it becomes excruciating. This way of playing with time works great. And the entire thing clocks in at something like 65 minutes.

I am watching a bunch of Nikkatsu crime films as part of a series called Japanese noir on the Criterion Channel. So far most have them have been great.

Take Aim at the Police Van

Take Aim at the Police Van ('十三号待避線'より　その護送車を狙え) is playing as part of a series on the Criterion Channel called Nikkatsu Noir, and I couldn't resist watching one this week even though I have plenty of other stuff I'm supposed to be seeing for 2020. Suzuki's taut crime thriller did not disappoint. It's filmed just like a film noir from the Hollywood of the 1940s, and it is just as mysterious and fun. It's odd, though, the only Suzuki stuff I've seen is the late surrealist work (I only recently watched Zigeunerweisen), and so something like this was quite a delightful surprise. I kind of expect that I will watch every one of these Japanese noir films.

Inherit the Wind (1960)

This is very smart and the script absolutely sparkles with both wit and wisdom. My enjoyment of this picture, however, was a bit tempered by just how much time it gives to religious insanity. This film also forces us to listen to "That Old Time Religion" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" numerous times apiece. It was all just way too much for me. There were some true religious nut-jobs in this movie, and the movie gave them a lot of airtime without – to my mind – really telling us the film itself thought these people were terrible.

Also, this is not about the Scopes Monkey Trial, despite the way that poster foregrounds the chimpanzee and says this is the fabulous 'monkey trial' that rocked America. Fabulous? Really? What the movie is really about is a kind of long-form debate about what Christianity ought to look like in the future.