Fun Finds: Movies Illustrated Magazine, Dec 1965

Before my recent fall, which rendered me barely mobile and with a damaged finger on my right hand, I'd been foraging at an outdoor antique show and found what promised to be an interesting vintage periodical. As it turned out, it was pretty disappointing, but I bring you the highlights anyway, with commentary as warranted. Just the era itself, the end of 1965 heading into 1966 seemed to be a no-brainer, but the rag fell short of living up to its promises. For example, the blurb "The Truth About Male Sex Symbols" left me waiting for plenty of beefcakey pictures of this hunk or that. Um... Nope! And the color shot of Natalie is the only color to be found apart from the back of the publication which has a camera ad featuring Art Linkletter (!) But, oh well... Let's see if there is anything worth perusing.

Well, this is a good start! Miss Raquel Welch at the dawn of her career success. The curvaceous bombshell was already a mother of two. One Million B.C. (1966) was just around the corner and would cement her as an international sex symbol. (Though, for her, this became something to overcome rather than bask in.)

At first glance I thought it was Vince Edwards who was standing with A-M in this photo. Instead it was singer John Andrea, newly-signed to 20th Century-Fox. After a couple of singles (and a huge publicity push), he was released without ever having appeared as an actor in any of their movies or TV series.

People had such naivete back in the day... writing a fan magazine to see how you could reach Alfred Hitchcock in order to personally pitch him your story idea?! Sounds about as crazy as a 1986 19 year-old calling Los Angeles long-distance to personally tell Richard & Esther Shapiro a "brilliant" plot twist that desperately needed to happen on Dynasty! LOL (Can't imagine who that was....) Circle of Love (1964), by the way, was a Roger Vadim remake of La Ronde (1950) which had color and semi-nudity, but was not considered an improvement on the original. 

You always know in a column like this that the fur is going to fly from obsessed and deranged fans. Ha ha! We all have opinions. I know I do. But I try not to be too fierce in my shredding of most people I'm not into because they are usually someone's favorite.

I hadn't been aware of the tiff between Garner and Franciosa, though I can picture those two disparate types not hitting it off. Kelly didn't direct any Gershwin musical. His next task in that vein was a semi-animated TV version of Jack and the Beanstalk (1967) with music by Sammy Cahn. However, he did direct a 30-minute TV sitcom pilot (!) - An American in Paris (1964) - with Van Johnson and Jan Sterling. It didn't sell. I had no clue that Gene's second wife was named Jeanne (was it pronounced like his or like Jeannie?!) She had previously been the spouse of Kelly's collaborator and frenemy Stanley Donen! It was a big mixed bag of emotions between them and Kelly's prior wife Betsy Blair. Lawford would divorce Pat Kennedy in 1966.

Though Bing Crosby tended to receive what few good reviews Stagecoach (1966) garnered, there was no Oscar nom. My favorite comment from any reviewer of that movie is from the 1987 book The Motion Picture Guide: "Wayne Newton sings 'Stagecoach to Cheyenne' (Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance). It's the kind of song one dislikes upon first hearing and hates upon the second." Welch's planned movie didn't happen (though Travis did a foreign-made rendition of his story in 1972), but she wound up marrying her manager Curtis. (He'd previously been engaged to Linda Evans in the early-1960s!) They divorced in 1972. I had no clue what on earth Kid Rodelo (1966) was, but when I saw Janet garbed up for it... Well, let's say it makes me miss my now-unavailable movie site even more!

Sharif really became proficient at bridge and for a while was one of the world's top competitors. (I think he even wrote a column about it for newspapers at one time!) I love Sands of the Kalahari (1965) and doubt that I'd have enjoyed Peppard in it better than Stuart Whitman. (His movie with Rock Hudson emerged as Tobruk, 1967, and it doesn't appear that the "Don Juan" movie ever came to be. Incidentally, he was paid $400K for Tobruk, not $525K.)

I think we know why not much developed off-screen between Cardinale and Hudson. Trivia Tidbit: During the filming of Hugh O'Brian's Ambush Bay (1966), his costar Mickey Rooney came down with a severe infection/fever and had to be hospitalized upon his return to California. While he was in the hospital, his wife was murdered by her lover, who then killed himself! Connery tried with The Hill (1965) and A Fine Madness (1966) to escape "Bond," but neither movie was a box office success.  

The story of stuntman-turned-actor Bob Morgan was horrific. A mini-avalanche of stacked timber fell on him during How the West Was Won (1962) and cost him a leg. He was slowly nursed back to health by his wife Yvonne De Carlo (of The Munsters), with only a couple of gigs along the way. He did return to the screen, sporadically, but he and De Carlo divorced in 1968. He lived to be 82, passing away in 1999.

The Sandpiper (1965) was one of the hotly anticipated films of new power couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

I don't know if these more revealing shots of the scene in question were ever used in a European cut of the film (I found nothing to that effect) or if they ever saw the light of day anyplace. (Wouldn't the male costar in question have been Charles Bronson!?) Did the scene even make it into the picture at all?

The movie does feature a "nude" wood carving of Taylor, commissioned by the production, but it reportedly toppled over years later, riddled with termites!

A key reason I chose this magazine was for this feature and, wow, was it a let-down!

I mean, it's an okay read, but where are the corresponding "sexy" pictures?

It would be moderately interesting to know who readers wound up selecting as the new King & Queen of Hollywood at this time.

Due to complications with her marriage and her employer, Carroll Baker's Hollywood career was already over, though the world at large may not have realized it. She went to NYC to work on the stage, then to Europe where she won steady employment. It was a decade before she made another movie in America.

I love both Doris Day and Rod Taylor, but this is not considered to be much of a feather in either of their caps.

In 1965, magazines bursting with photos from movies, such as Movies Illustrated, would have been a godsend to fans. It's less so now in our click and find world of the internet, though perhaps there could be some unusual stills found along the way.

Poor Brandon deWilde was killed at only age 30 in an automobile accident. Michael Parks became a familiar face, but never was able to make it to true "star" level, despite many movies and TV appearances. Lana's hair as seen in the photo is my least favorite look on her. Ever.

Child, I thank the Lord that Davis, Sothern and others turned to the horror genre. Some of those offerings are among my favorite cinematic guilty pleasures! I love watching Mary Astor. In fact, during this week's convalescence, I re-viewed Return to Peyton Place (1961) and savored every facial expression and inflection she delivered even more than I had before (which is saying something!) I think you'll be startled by who is the subject of "What Ever Happened To...?" later in this issue. It was 1965.

I don't know how many times I have watched Inside Daisy Clover (1965), though I found it on DVD very cheap several months back and gave it another shot, but I cannot warm to it.

There are many elements in place that ought to make it a fave of mine, but it just isn't.

I do recall enjoying the reed-thin Katherine Bard in a series of sleek get-ups and I always enjoy watching Christopher Plummer. I don't know if the captions here are 100% accurate. I think it was implied that Redford was a homo, though - as has happened more than once - the actor played against what the script called for and resisted that depiction as much as he could. It made for some confusion, story-wise.

This rather daring explosion was referred to earlier in the magazine. Who knew if a dangerous projectile was going to manage to reach the star!?

This blew my mind. I had no idea that in 1965 people would wonder "Whatever Happened to Victor Mature!"

Apart from his resume as a cinematic leading man since the 1940s, he'd been top-billed in 1959's all-star Irwin Allen knock-off The Big Circus and had headlined a couple of early-1960s European-made sagas. 

But, as it turns out, he had indeed retired around 1961 "when it wasn't fun anymore" and had slid from view. At the time of this article, he was at last making another movie opposite Peter Sellers, After the Fox (1966), in which he parodied the image of an egotistical actor.

Regardless of his alleged modesty, there is a famous (and real) photo of Mature out there in the altogether, lying on a bunk reading (and showing off his "Mature-ity.") Interestingly, Mature never acted on TV at all, always remaining a movie performer, until the very last role he ever did. In the 1984 TV-movie Samson and Delilah, he played Samson's father (having essayed the title role himself in 1949's Samson and Delilah!)

I adore all-star casts and am hopelessly drawn to them, yet so often in war-time ones, such as Battle of the Bulge (1965), I wind up feeling pretty cold. Maybe just too many explosions and bleak settings and not enough compelling acting. (And I never thought much of Barbara Werle, pictured here.)

Perhaps this would play better on my new 65" widescreen TV than is did when I watched it the first time.

I feel like I have watched King Rat (1965) and yet I scarcely recall anything about it! 

One would think that all these sweaty, swarthy, shirtless men would have stuck in my memory, but I swear I have no distinct recollection about the movie!

I always enjoy seeing which movies were in theaters around the same given time (sometimes we sort of lump all old/classic movies together and neglect the competition that may have existed for box office receipts.) I mean, I wouldn't think of The Loved One playing at the same time as The Agony and the Ecstacy (both 1965), for example! I found out early on that The War Lord has a strong cult following in Europe, though it was not much of a success here. My God, the reviewer really hyped it up! Based on a Broadway flop, the movie fizzled in theaters as well. I would also like to know who among you ever knew that Mike Connors and Robert Redford ever costarred together in a movie....! (And Mike got higher billing.)

I do believe this one has thus far escaped me. I usually enjoy movies with Rock and/or Claudia, but I may have confused their later teaming in A Fine Pair (1968) with this and then missed it all together!

Lots of changes occurred here! I do believe that "My Last Duchess" arrived in theaters as Arrivederci, Baby! (1966) and "Tale of the Fox" emerged as The Honey Pot (1967.) "13" had Deborah Kerr in Kim Novak's place and was renamed Eye of the Devil (1966.) "There's No Place Like Space" was released as Hold On! (1966) and "10:30 of a Summer Evening" became 10:30 PM Summer (1966.) When The Idol (1966) was released, it was with Jennifer Jones, not Kim Stanley! On a volé la Joconde (1966) was how "The Theft of the Mona Lisa" (a remake of a 1931 film) came to light. "Mother Superior" was retitled The Trouble with Angels (1966) and "Hawaiian Paradise" became Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966.) They merely lopped off part of the title for How to Steal a Million (1966.) "Running Scared" got the new title of The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966!) "Summer Fires" was released as Mademoiselle (1966) and "The Moving Target" became Harper (1966.) Ironically, the movie Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title (1966) kept that title! 

And that click you here is the end of this post. Or is it...?

 

:::BONUS PICS:::

Remember me mentioning the way Janet Leigh was garbed for Kid Rodelo? Get a load of this!

I somehow doubt that the movie is as loopy as these publicity pics, but it was certainly an eye-opener.

I also delved a little bit further into singer John Andrea. He seemed to have all the ingredients one would need for success. Good looks, a reasonable (or better) voice and a pleasant personality. But somehow it just never congealed into a lasting career.

You can see and hear him for yourself on YT via some appearances on American Bandstand and Hollywood a Go Go. His singles were very "studio" with heavy backing vocals and layering, but you could tell that he could at least really sing, just maybe not distinctively enough to separate him from the pack of other, similar personas at the time.

His contract at 20th Century Fox was not kept long (he worked with Reprise afterwards) and that's a shame because if he'd been able to hold on just a skosh longer, he'd have made a PERFECT Tony Polar in Valley of the Dolls (1967), far better than the one who got the part... Another aspect that may have stymied Andrea's teen appeal is that already by this point, he was a married father or two and that can't be underestimated when it came to fan worship at that time.

Neither John Barrymore, nor Rudolph Valentino ever did anything to melt my butter, but if you're going to do an article on their statuses as sex symbols, you might at least use photos that give even a scintilla of why that might be. So I'm adding these in at the tail end.

Valentino was a master at delivering "the smolder."

And now... The End!