King Rat (1965)

Academy Awards, USA 1966

Nominated Oscar	Best Cinematography, Black-and-White Burnett Guffey
	Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White Robert Emmet Smith Frank Tuttle

Columbia Pictures

Directed by Bryan Forbes

My rating: 4 stars out of 4

IMDb

(DVD, Columbia TriStar)

American and British soldiers struggle for survival in a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines. American George Segal rises above the fray through black market sales with locals at the expense of his fellow prisoners. An idealistic young provost marshal tries to expose him, but when he uncovers another racket involving his direct commander he runs into a brick wall. An uncompromising portrayal of the daily lives of desperate men in a hopeless situation: the sweltering heat, the omnipresent buzzing of flies, thin and sickly men where death is never far away. It's not all bleak though, with comedy relief provided by Segal and associates from their latest racket involving the numerous rats in the camp.

Ten Little Indians (1965)

Seven Arts Pictures
Directed by George Pollock
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Bros.)

Ten strangers are summoned to a remote Alpine lodge by an unseen host. They quickly realize it's all just a set up for his insane plan to murder each of them for perceived injustices in their past. When the body count starts to mount, a search of the house turns up nothing, and it dawns the killer is posing as one of the survivors. The classic Agatha Christie story is a mildly successful rehash of 1945's And Then There Were None (set on an island instead of a mountain lodge), with some irritating characters (Fabian, thankfully the first to go), and an impossible-to-guess resolution to the mystery.

Primitive London (1965)

Compton-Cameo Films (UK)
Directed by Arnold L. Miller
My rating: BOMB
IMDb
(Blu-ray, BFI)

Documentary purports to expose the deviant lifestyle of London hipsters, but instead degenerates into a live human birth scene, stripteases and animal cruelty in a chicken factory. Just another in the long line of shockumentaries trying to duplicate the success of Mondo Cane.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)

Academy Awards, USA 1966

Nominated Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role Richard Burton
	Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White Hal Pereira Tambi Larsen Ted Marshall Josie MacAvin

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Martin Ritt
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Paramount)

Aging British spy Richard Burton is sent on one last mission to East Germany. He poses as a drunkard and takes a series of demeaning jobs, all in order to entrap a British double agent helping the Germans. Along the way he falls in love with idealistic communist Claire Bloom, whom he tries to protect when the going gets tough. Dialogue-heavy story which Burton chews up and spits out never gets going until the final scene, but it's hardly worth the effort.

Six in Paris (1965)

Les Films du Losange (France)
Directed by Claude Chabrol, Jean Douchet, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Daniel Pollet, Eric Rohmer and Jean Rouch
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, New Yorker)

Six vignettes by leading directors of the French New Wave which are all set in Paris. Most deal with unsatisfied lovers lashing out at their partners in various ways and an ironic moral. The final piece by Chabrol, featuring a boy who wears earplugs to drown out the arguments of his parents, is perhaps the most successful because it avoids the subject matter of the others. All of them are poorly acted and so shoddily photographed as to resemble home movies. A major disappointment considering the talent involved behind the cameras.

Fort Courageous (1965)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Lesley Selander
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Fox)

A cavalry troop escorting a prisoner to New Mexico stops to rescue a woman and her daughter from an Indian attack. The capture the Indian who raped the daughter and bring him to their fort in New Mexico. The escorted prisoner has also been accused of rape, though he denies it, leading to an unusual romance with the older woman with whom he sympathizes. The captured Indian turns out to be a chief's son and his tribe relentlessly attacks the fort to save him. Gritty, tough western has more in common with noirs of the previous decade than western genre films of the 1960s.

Hail! Mafia (1965)

Mercury Films (France)
Directed by Raoul Lévy
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Jack Klugman and Henry Silva are hired by the mob to kill a witness in France. The professional killers strike up a friendship as they pursue their quarry across the French countryside. Silva is reluctant to reveal his private life to the stranger, and his instincts prove correct when the hit turns out to be anything but routine. Klugman and Silva are terrific in their roles, but the film tends to get bogged down in their daily routines before the bravura finale. The jazz soundtrack, while at first adding an air of coolness, is not synced to the action and eventually becomes a nuisance. This could have been a great film in the hands of a better director with a bigger budget.

He Who Rides a Tiger (1965)

British Lion
Directed by Charles Crichton
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Serial burglar Tom Bell, recently released from prison, resumes his old life as a high-class jewel thief. Rolling in money, he picks up a series of women then violently turns on them the morning after. One day he meets his match in art teacher Judi Dench. She falls in love with him, but cannot reconcile her feelings with his criminal lifestyle. With the police closing in, she gives him one chance to go straight. Strong, character-driven film, but Bell's reprehensible character makes it difficult to enjoy.

The Debussy Film: Impressions of the French Composer (1965)

BBC
Directed by Ken Russell
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Vladek Sheybal plays a film director making a movie about Debussy, with Oliver Reed in the title role. The two have long discussions about how Reed is to play the character, inter-spliced with scenes from that film. It is not always obvious how this makes us understand Debussy any better than a straightforward biography would have. As a result, it comes off mostly as a gimmick. That, combined with Debussy's unsympathetic character as a tortured artist and womanizer, makes this early made-for-tv effort from Russell little more than an interesting curio. There are, however, a few tantalizing scenes which foreshadow things to come.

Cat Ballou (1965)

Academy Awards, USA 1966

Won Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role Lee Marvin
Nominated Oscar	Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Walter Newman Frank Pierson
	Best Film Editing Charles Nelson
	Best Music, Original Song Jerry Livingston (music) Mack David (lyrics) For the song "The Ballad of Cat Ballou"
	Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment Frank De Vol

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Elliot Silverstein
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Columbia TriStar)

The transformation of innocent college graduate Jane Fonda into the leader of an outlaw gang is told in flashback on the eve of her hanging. After her father is murdered by a gunslinger wearing a false nose, she talks a hopeful admirer and his pal into hiring their own gunslinger for revenge. Lee Marvin makes the most of his dual role as both gunslingers. Supposedly a spoof of the western genre, it too frequently relies on cliches to keep the plot moving. Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye are entertaining as a pair of minstrels who frequently appear to summarize the plot.

Finger on the Trigger (1965)

Allied Artists
Directed by Sidney Pink
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

In the days after the Civil War, soldiers from both sides fight over hidden gold in a dusty Oklahoma town. Some of them make a bargain with local Indians to steal it, leading to the inevitable shootout. Spanish-made "spaghetti western" is slow, grim and predictable.

Help! (1965)

United Artists
Directed by Richard Lester
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Capitol Records/EMI)

A religious cult wants the ring worn by Ringo for their sacrificial ritual. They follow Ringo and the boys around London, to the Austrian Alps and eventually the Bahamas. Scotland Yard inspectors get involved but are of little help. Threadbare plot is just a way to showcase new Beatles songs interspersed at regular intervals, which are slickly edited and miles beyond anything else coming out in 1965. Their goofy antics are a little too smug and self-aware at times, but always colorful and entertaining.

The Outlaws Is Coming (1965)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Norman Mauer
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Columbia TriStar)

Moe, Larry and Curly-Joe work for the Boston publisher of a wild life preservation magazine. They are sent to Wyoming to try to stop a plan by scheming outlaws to kill the last buffalo and start a new Indian war. Late stooges send up of the western genre has a few good gags, but their age is starting to show and Curly is sorely missed.

Sky West and Crooked (1965)

J. Arthur Rank (UK)
Directed by John Mills
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Teenager Hayley Mills lives with her alcoholic mother in the English countryside. She spends most of her time in the local cemetery, where she buries various small animals. Soon, the children of the village join her in her strange rituals, much to the chagrin of the vicar who chastises them in church. She comes face to face with a tragic event from her childhood and ends up in the care of a friendly gypsy boy and his family. The tone veers uneasily from black comedy to teenage melodrama over the course of the story, but Hayley, directed by her father, handles the difficult role quite well.

Othello (1965)

 

Academy Awards, USA 1966

Nominated Oscar	Best Actor in a Leading Role Laurence Olivier
	Best Actor in a Supporting Role Frank Finlay
	Best Actress in a Supporting Role Joyce Redman
	Best Actress in a Supporting Role Maggie Smith

Warner Bros.
Directed by Stuart Burge
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Bros.)

The vengeful Iago, passed over for a promotion, plants seeds of doubt in his master's ear about his beautiful new bride Desdemona. He backs it up with planted evidence, driving Othello to the brink of insanity with jealousy. Olivier thrives in the flamboyant lead role, unrecognizable under heavy make-up; completely transforming not only his appearance, but his mannerisms. Still, this is essentially a filmed play with little in the way of cinematic embellishment.

High Yellow (1965)

Thunder Pictures
Directed by Larry Buchanan
My rating: BOMB
IMDb
(VHS, Something Weird)

17-year-old Cynthia takes a job as a maid for a dysfunctional wealthy family. Mom sits around in bed all day drinking and arguing with a priest about sex and art. Dad is a movie producer who hangs out with other executives for "screenings". Their teenage son just got kicked out of college for being a homosexual. Their teenage daughter slips away at night for "beach parties". Low budget drama from exploitation director Buchanan emphasizes all the wrong angles just to make a buck.

Darling (1965)

Academy Awards, USA 1966

Won Oscar	Best Actress in a Leading Role Julie Christie
	Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen Frederic Raphael
	Best Costume Design, Black-and-White Julie Harris
Nominated Oscar	Best Picture Joseph Janni
	Best Director John Schlesinger

Embassy Pictures
Directed by John Schlesinger
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM)

Model and aspiring actress Julie Christie begins an affair with married television reporter Dirk Bogarde. They eventually leave their spouses and move in together, but when she sleeps with a film director to get a part their relationship crumbles. She drifts from one man to another, each time seeking to gain something from the encounter, before agreeing to marry a wealthy Italian royal. Unsatisfied and lonely in his mansion, she tries to rekindle the affair with Bogarde, but too much has happened. A very adult story not afraid to tackle controversial themes such as abortion and homosexuality, especially considering it's 1965, but the amoral characters are not always easy to like. Julie Christie is phenomenal in a well-deserved Oscar win.

Convict Stage (1965)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Lesley Selander
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Fox)

A sheriff transporting two murderers to prison via stagecoach stops for the night in a ghost town. The brother of one of the murder victims shows up seeking revenge. One of the passengers on the stagecoach is actually the mother of the prisoners and together with her husband and his gang attempt to free them. It all leads to the inevitable shoot out. Shot on Utah locations but poorly acted and utterly forgettable.

Salto (1965)

Film Polski (Poland)
Directed by Tadeusz Konwicki
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A man jumps off a train and walks to a nearby small town where he claims to have previously lived. The only problem is that no one recognizes him. He spends the rest of the movie trying to convince them otherwise. Dialogue-heavy absurdist drama has virtually no plot; if there is a deeper meaning it is difficult to discern.

Inside Daisy Clover (1965)

Academy Awards, USA 1966

Nominated Oscar	Best Actress in a Supporting Role Ruth Gordon
	Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color Robert Clatworthy George James Hopkins
	Best Costume Design, Color Edith Head Bill Thomas

Warner Bros.
Directed by Robert Mulligan
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Bros.)

Teenager Natalie Wood lives with her aging, eccentric mother on a pier near a California amusement park. One day she records herself singing and sends the record to a movie executive. When he unexpectedly shows up and promises to make her star, her life changes forever. She soon discovers, however, that life in Hollywood is anything but happy. She is swept off her feet, then abandoned, by fellow up and comer Robert Redford and feels the wraith of her producer when it appears she won't complete her movie contract. Insightful portrait of the plastic, fake lives of the Hollywood elite, but getting past 27-year-old Natalie playing a nervous, naive 15-year-old takes quite a bit of effort.

The Cincinnati Kid (1965)

MGM
Directed by Norman Jewison
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Warner Bros)

Poker ace Steve McQueen is in New Orleans to challenge the reigning champ of the underground card circuit Edward G. Robinson. He desperately wants to defeat him fair and square, but must thwart the "help" of his card dealer friend Karl Malden whose side bet threatens to derail him. There is plenty of time for romantic entanglements with Malden's sexy wife Ann-Margret and his own girlfriend Tuesday Weld. Authentic period and local flavor marred by an unnecessarily graphic cockfighting scene.

Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)

Regal Films (UK)
Directed by Gordon Flemyng
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Anchor Bay)

The absent-minded doctor, his granddaughters and one of their boyfriends accidentally travel to a distant planet in his time-space bending machine. They encounter a post-nuke world run by mutants controlling angry robots. They try to help the human survivors, committed pacifists, defeat the robots, without resorting to violence. Peter Cushing overplays his characterization of the aging doctor and is never believable. The sets, while colorful, rarely leave the same sound stage and become boring after awhile. The robots are just plain silly, not threatening. Overall, a disappointing transition to the big screen for the venerable British TV series.

A Patch of Blue (1965)

Academy Awards, USA 1966

Won Oscar	Best Actress in a Supporting Role Shelley Winters
Nominated Oscar	Best Actress in a Leading Role Elizabeth Hartman
	Best Cinematography, Black-and-White Robert Burks
	Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White George W. Davis Urie McCleary Henry Grace Charles S. Thompson
	Best Music, Score - Substantially Original Jerry Goldsmith

MGM
Directed by Guy Green
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Bros)

A naive, blind teenager, sheltered from the world by her overbearing mother, befriends a man in the park. He takes pity on her situation and is determined to help her gain independence. She falls in love with him, not realizing he is an older black man. The situation explodes when her mother finds out what is happening. Sensitive drama based on a complex, but believable, situation is extremely well acted, but melodramatics tend to overwhelm the other, more interesting, theme of race in the turbulent mid 1960s. Shelley Winters garnered an Oscar for her thankless role as the mother, but Hartman and Poitier are just as good.

Winter A-Go-Go (1965)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Richard Benedict
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Teenagers inherit a run down ski lodge in the California mountains and transform it into a hostel and club for the latest bands. Low brow sex comedy that never misses an opportunity to feature girls in bikinis showing off the latest dance moves. The Nooney Rickett 4 and The Reflections lip synch to some songs while The Hondells perform the theme song but unfortunately do not appear.

The Truth About Spring (1965)

Universal Pictures
Directed by Ricahrd Thorpe
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Teenager Hayley Mills and her seafaring father live on a boat in the Caribbean. They invite young lawyer James MacArthur along for a treasure hunt. Hayley experiences her first love and struggles to overcome her tomboy past. MacArthur seems oblivious  but soon figures her out. The treasure hunt leads to a confrontation with a competing crew after the same loot. Innocuous drama mainly for fans of the young leads, with Spain standing in for the Caribbean.

Our Man Flint (1966)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Daniel Mann
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Fox)

James Coburn reluctantly accepts an assignment to root out a gang of criminals with a weather machine blackmailing world leaders. Clues lead him first to Rome and then to a mysterious island where hypnotism is used to control people. Coburn uses various gadgets and an ability to go into a state of suspended animation to prevail. Colorful yet ultimately unsuccessful attempt to spoof James Bond somehow manages to be both boring and unfunny.

Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965)

Magna Corporation
Directed by Joseph Cates
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Record spinner Juliet Prowse is harassed by obscene phone calls. At first she suspects a police detective with an obsession with sexual deviancy, but when when the phone calls continue he is ruled out. Meanwhile, she gets to know mild mannered coworker Sal Mineo, who is taking care of his mentally unstable sister. Their dark past is revealed in flashback and Mineo's true intentions revealed during a fanatical dance scene with Prowse. This disturbing film is explicit even by today's standards. It is bolstered by NYC locations and some experimental editing techniques, but the director indulges in lingering shots of Prowse and Mineo in various states of undress, undermining what could have been a poignant story on the decaying sexual morals of the day as exhibited in the sleazy sex shops on 42nd street or the uninhibited dancing of the teens.

Baby The Rain Must Fall (1965)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Robert Mulligan
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Sony)

Lee Remick travels by bus with her young daughter to reunite with her recently paroled husband Steve McQueen in a small Texas town. He's determined to become famous as the leader of his local rockabilly band, but the new pressures of his wife and child make that more difficult. He is also trying to satisfy a mysterious older mother-figure who lives in a nearby Victorian mansion. Tensions eventually boil over in a drunken episode in the cemetery. McQueen's lip syncing with his band is hilariously awful and almost spoils the film, which while well photographed and acted fails to explain the motivations driving his murky character.

In Harm's Way (1965)

Academy Awards, USA 1966

Nominated Oscar

Best Cinematography, Black-and-White Loyal Griggs

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Otto Preminger
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Paramount)

Aging Navy Captain John Wayne finds new life after blundering a counterattack on the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. After a stint at a desk job in Washington as punishment, he is assigned to lead a secret mission to take control of a remote Pacific island. The final battle with the Japanese fleet, including the infamous battleship Yamato, is a highlight, his romantic involvement with nurse Patricia Neal is not. Preminger paints a broad picture of the lives and loves of Navy seamen at war, with a definite emphasis of love over war. Black-and-white cinematography by Loyal Griggs is strikingly beautiful at times, earning him a well-deserved Oscar nomination.

Major Dundee (1965)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Sony)

In the waning days of the Civil War, Cavalry officer Charlton Heston leads a rag tag group of soldiers into Mexico to avenge the massacre and kidnapping of Texas civilians. Along the way, he tangles with French troops, confronts Richard Harris over their past, has visions of becoming a liberator of the Mexican people and falls in love with local beauty Senta Berger. When none of that pans out, he heads back to the States, but not before confronting the Indians and the French troops at the Rio Grande. Peckinpah makes the most of his big budget with magnificent sets and attention to historical detail, but the plots gets bogged down in the long middle section where they seem to forget the reason they went to Mexico.

The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Henry Hathaway
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Paramount)

Four brothers are reunited at the funeral of their mother in a dusty Texas town. The Duke has been away the longest, and after finding out his father was also recently murdered vows to track down the killers. The trail leads to a local gambler and gunsmith along with his gang, including a hired gunslinger. They plan to ambush the brothers on a bridge, a long set piece filled with action which is the highlight of the film. Otherwise, it too often falls into western cliches.

Mara of the Wilderness (1965)

Allied Artists
Directed by Frank McDonald
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A little girl is left alone in the Alaskan wilderness after her anthropologist father and his wife are killed by a bear. Twelve years later, park ranger Adam West finds her alive and living with wolves. He must stop a big game hunter who wants to capture and sell her to a sideshow for profit. Ludicrous "wild child" plot compensated somewhat by location shooting in Alaska and presence of Lori Saunders, whose hair and makeup are always perfect.

The Wizard of Mars (1965)

American General Pictures
Directed by David L. Hewitt
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

An American mission to Mars crash lands on the planet and the crew has only limited oxygen to survive. They set out for a previously established base but end up in an ancient city ruled by the disembodied head of John Carradine. He gives them a long lecture on the nature of time before sending them on their way. Although it is hampered by a low budget and amateur acting, there is a dreamlike atmosphere which makes it almost hypnotic to watch. Some of the themes and even the photography foreshadow 2001, just not nearly as sophisticated. The print is in desperate need of restoration to determine if the blown out colors were intentional or just an artifact of the neglect it has received over the years. Pair it with 1962's The Creation of the Humanoids for a bizarre double feature.

You Must Be Joking! (1965)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Michael Winner
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Military brass come up with an exercise in "initiative" to decide who among its participants to promote. They send several promising candidates on a scavenger hunt across the country to locate items of cultural significance to England. Madcap antics ensue, some funny, some not so, but its always entertaining. Lionel Jeffries is quite good as a Scotsman who seems to be one step ahead of everyone else, while Michael Callan is irritating as a young, brash American. Terry-Thomas is sadly underutilized.

24 Hours to Kill (1965)

Seven Arts Pictures
Directed by Peter Bezencenet
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

An airline is forced to make an emergency landing in Beirut after engine trouble. The passengers and crew are stranded there for 24 hours. Flight attendant Mickey Rooney becomes paranoid and thinks the locals are following him. He tries to hide his past from the other crew members, but eventually reveals he is involved with gold smuggling and he really is in danger. The others try to help him, but are continually distracted by their romantic entanglements. Potentially intriguing premise stymied by melodramatic subplots and slow pacing. Rooney is relatively restrained.

The Human Duplicators (1965)

Woolner Brothers
Directed by Hugo Grimaldi
My rating: BOMB
IMDb
(YouTube)

Richard Kiel is an alien sent to southern California to start a new colony. He takes over the lab of a prominent doctor experimenting with androids. Soon he is replacing people with their mechanical duplicates to carry out his sinister plans. A pair of bumbling detectives try to stop them, but spend much of their time romancing their dumb blonde secretary. Kiel is awful, the sets comical and the plot far fetched; it doesn't even fall into the "so bad it's good" category.

Pop Gear (1965)

Warner-Pathé Distributors (UK)
Directed by Frederic Goode
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

British personality Jimmy Savile hosts a retrospective of 1964 musical groups and a peak at 1965. It all starts with The Beatles, who bookend the film with live performances in front of screaming teenage girls, after their explosion onto the scene. The other groups mostly mimic them, almost all wearing suits and bowl haircuts. However, a few try to be different: The Animals lead by Eric Burdon aren't afraid to stretch things out with a prominent Vox organ, while The Four Pennies and The Nashville Teens display a harder edge and are a sign of things to come. Mostly though, it's a hilarious look at dated fashion and hairstyles as groups lip synch on sets adorned with modern art.

Our Man in Jamaica (1965)

Paramount Television
Directed by Ernst R. von Theumer
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A British secret agent is sent to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of a fellow spy. The clues lead to a gangster posing as an artist who uses an electric chair to dispose of his enemies! A ludicrous plot in a dated genre, even the Jamaican locations fail to generate much excitement.

The Intelligence Men (1965)

J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (UK)
Directed by Robert Asher
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Flamboyant waiter Eric Moracambe is unwittingly recruited by English intelligence to pose as a recently deceased spy when he accidentally uses a secret code word. Morecambe, along with pal Eric Wise, wreak havoc wherever they go as they attempt to uncover Russian spies posing as a ballet troupe. The British humour doesn't translate well and it is very dated, despite the fact that Moracambe and Wise are British comedy legends.

Rapture (1965)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by John Guillermin
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Twilight Time)

Lonely, slightly disturbed, teenager Agnes (Patricia Gozzi) lives in an isolated seaside mansion with her elderly father (Melvyn Douglas) and his hired housekeeper. Their lives are interrupted by Dean Stockwell, a teenager on the run from the police after a night of drinking leads to his arrest and an escape attempt gone awry results in the death of an officer. Agnes falls deeply in love with him, but first must wrest him away from the pretty, and older, housekeeper. She eventually does, but they must run away to the city to escape from her domineering and disapproving father. Her youth and their extreme poverty eventually force them to return, leading to inevitable tragedy. Expert direction from Guillermin and moody black-and-white cinematography by Marcel Grignon on exotic French loctaions elevate this beyond mere melodrama.