Films released between 1960 and 1969, the decade the Production Code collapsed and the studio system went with it. What replaced them arrived from several directions at once: the European art film, the spy cycle, the revisionist western, and a generation of American directors who had watched all of it. The reviews here cover a period where two incompatible kinds of filmmaking were in cinemas at the same time.
1960sRoman Polanski's affectionate Hammer parody is more gorgeous gothic fairy tale than laugh-out-loud comedy. The Fearless Vampire Killers earns its 6.5 as a beautiful, uneven oddity, a horror comedy that is more interested in atmosphere than in jokes and lands…
1960sHammer built a gorgeous sequel without Christopher Lee, and it may be better than the original. Christopher Lee, in a contract dispute, sat this one out, and Hammer built a sequel around a different vampire entirely, a charming young aristocrat…
1960sChristopher Lee returns as Dracula without a single line of dialogue, and the resurrection scene is among Hammer's best. Dracula: Prince of Darkness earns its 7 by bringing Christopher Lee back to the role that made him famous and surrounding…
1960sMario Bava's debut is one of the most visually ravishing horror films ever made and launched Italian gothic. Bava had been a cinematographer, and it shows in every frame.
1960sGeorge Romero's 1968 zombie template. The genre's foundational document.
1960sRoman Polanski's 1968 satanic pregnancy drama. Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes.
1960sAn ambitious insurance clerk lends his apartment to executives for their affairs, until he falls for the boss's mistress at Christmas. The Apartment is Billy Wilder's 1960 American comedy-drama about an ambitious insurance company clerk who lends his Manhattan apartment…
1960sCharlie Brown directs the Peanuts gang in a Nativity pageant after rejecting the commercialism of the season. A Charlie Brown Christmas is Bill Melendez's 1965 American animated television special depicting Charlie Brown's depression at the commercialization of the Christmas season…
1960sBillie Mae Richards voices Rudolph. The special is technically stop-motion puppet animation instead of claymation, executed by Tadahito Mochinaga's animation team at MOM Production in Tokyo.
1960sChuck Jones directs the animated Dr. Seuss special about a sour creature plotting to steal Christmas from the Whos in Whoville. How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
1960sHitchcock's adaptation of Robert Bloch's novel about a woman who steals from her employer and stops at the wrong motel. Psycho is Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 American horror-thriller adapted from Robert Bloch's 1959 novel, depicting a Phoenix real-estate secretary who steals…
1960sAnthony Mann's 1961 Spanish reconquista epic. Charlton Heston as Rodrigo Diaz, Sophia Loren.
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