sixties

FINALLY SOME RESPECT!

The first review for Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood is in and it almost made me wet my pants. The reviewer referred to me as “starlet scholar Tom Lisanti.” I just love it though those are two words that don’t belong in the same sentence let alone together. Click here for the entire brief review.

Big congratulations goes out to my friend Shaun (another starlet scholar if there ever was one) for passing the bar exam. As a reward I will promise to try to stop knocking those 30s/40s movies though it will be as hard for me as it is hard for you to stop bashing our Francine York.

THE MEN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

Turner Classic Movies is finally taking a break from airing those same ole b/w 30s and 40s potboilers and will be presenting all 8 feature films culled from episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. starring Robert Vaughn as suave Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as sexy Illya Kuryakin and featuring Sixties starlets galore on Nov. 6. Click here for the schedule.

I personally am looking forward to 1968’s Helicopter Spies (4:15PM) featuring Carol Lynley as a dippy blonde with revenge on her mind who keeps accidentally preventing U.N.C.L.E. from capturing mad man Bradford Dillman who has in his possession the thermal prism which he plans to use to conquer the world aided by Thordis Brandt as the salicious Miss Zalamar. Other spy chicks popping up over the course of the day are Luciana Paluzzi, Senta Berger, Yvonne Craig, Diane McBain, Irene Tsu, and Donna Michelle, among many others.

SCHLEMMER!!!

With all the money I pay out per month for cable TV, DVR, and Netflix, I find myself watching the same movies over and over. Once again this week I watched one of my favorite movies from the Sixties and one of the most underrated comedies of all-time, Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three (1961) where Cold War politics are played for big laughs. The brilliant James Cagney is Coca-Cola’s man in West Berlin trying to bring the soft drink to the East Germans and Outer Mongolians. His life is turned upside down when the boss’s nitwit impetious daughter Scarlett Hazeltine (amusingly played by Pamela Tiffin who has the Golden Globe nomination for “Best Supporting Actress” to prove it) visits from Atlanta for a short stay and winds up married to hot-headed Communist card-carrying East German Horst Buchholz who was one handsome guy.

Cagney is a marvel to watch as he barks out orders to his staff (“Schlemmer!!!”) as he first tries to undo the marriage and then undo the annullment after they learn Scarlett is pregnant. The supporting cast impress me more and more on each repeated viewing: curvy blonde-bombshell Lilo Pulver as Cagney’s secretary Ingeborg who takes more than dictation and really can fill out a polka-dotted dress; Hanns Lothar as Schlemmer his heel-clicking obedient right-hand man; and Leon Askin as Peripetchikoff a fat Russian diplomat smitten with Ingeborg the “pretty blonde woman.” Arlene Francis too is wonderful and is a great match for Cagney as his droll fed up wife who longs for the good old U.S. of A.

Billy Wilder directed and co-wrote one of the most fast-paced comedies in all of movie history and delivers the laughs at rapid pace. The action never lets up and his excellent use of “The Sabre Dance” is classic. A must see!!!

BOND. JAMES BOND.

It’s probably no surprise that I am a huge James Bond fan. More so now than ever with Daniel Craig as the new 007. His Casino Royale was one of my favorite Bond films of all-time right up there with Goldfinger. There have been a myriad of books written on the James Bond films but now a new magazine mi6 Declassified debuted on the newsstand devoted to everything Bond. Click here for further details. I definitely will be looking for it.