5 Movies I Must See This Month...

I'm an old movie junkie. Have been all my life. Even so, there are so many great films I've yet to see. I come across them all the time, mainly on youtube. Quite honestly, that's where I discover the best forgotten ones. Some random person will post some random trailer for some random drive in movie and I'll just as randomly stumble on it. The whole process is just as exciting as vintaging and usually just as rewarding. Here are a few I've tripped on in the past few days....



Beat Girl(1960)-Released in the US as 'Wild For Kicks'. Basically a teen/youth going to hell flick so common in the fifties and early sixties. The main reason I want to see it is the cast...Christopher Lee, who I'm shamelessly in love with...a very young, very pre-Bill Sykes Oliver Reed, who got better looking as he got older...yé-yé, Gillian Hills...and best of all, scored by the great John Barry.




A Kind of Loving(1962)-A kind of love story. Takes place in, as the Pythons put it, "The Third World"...Yorkshire. One of those working class muddling through life films of the sixties. Young couple fall in love...or more aptly put, in lust. Girl comes up preggers and the boy proposes. They then have to deal with the consequences of both those choices. I like these plain, unadorned, real British life dramas of the decade so I'm sure I'll enjoy this one!




The Wild and the Willing(1962)-Two words: Jeremy Brett. The man who would later play the absolute best Sherlock Holmes in history is another crush of mine. How I adore seeing great actors when they were young and just starting out. It's a university drama who's plot sounds a bit like Dead Poets Society meets Oxford Blues with a bit of Animal-House-teacher's-wife-hanky-panky thrown in for good measure.



The Innocents(1961)-My favourite genre, gothic horror...and 60s gothic horror at that. Based on The Turn of The Screw. Creepy, possessed children, young governess, ghosts....sounds lovely, even if maybe a bit predictable. I remember seeing the 1990s remake of this, The Haunting of Helen Walker with Valerie Bertinelli and it was actually quite good, so this original version must be utter perfection! I'm most excited about this one. Can't wait!



You're A Big Boy Now(1966)-I feel I simply must have a good laugh with all this drama and horror! In truth, I've seen the first half hour of this film once before and it was just getting good when I was interrupted and never got to finish it. Early Francis Ford Coppola. The main premise is a bumbling, clumsy boy searching for the man he will become. His father wants him to take responsibility for his life and settle down, his mother is neurotic and treats him like a baby. Soundtrack by The Lovin' Spoonful...BING!