I'd seen only the first two posters, so the others are very welcome. No 3 is my favourite, though no 4 is hilariously inappropriate.
I liked this one, although it takes a long time setting up the plot. Jon Hall is back, playing yet another descendant of the original Griffin. He's made invisible by mad scientist John Carradine, who's only been experimenting on animals so far (some of those are quite funny).
Evelyn Ankers is once again the good girl and the wonderful Gale Sondergaard the bad, so standard stuff there but there's unnecessary comic relief from Leon Errol.
The SFX are OK, and as usual the plot has bugger all to do with HG Wells whatever the credits say. This was the final Invisible Man movie, although Abbott and Costello meet two different ones later.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 31,091Chief of Staff
Another movie that I’ve totally missed 🫣
I’m going to have to have a look for these at some point…
I’ve left the final movie in the series until last because it was the first Universal Monster film I ever watched. It was about 1966 or 1967 and it had a television screening on BBC or ITV (I can’t remember which). This is what hooked me into the horror scene even though it’s a comedy. It’s without doubt A&C’s finest movie and not only that but one of the finest comedy films of all time in any comedic genre you wish to name.
I want to thank @Barbel for his insightful input which was unplanned, it has very much added to the enjoyment of doing this thread and he has agreed to continue with the next series of movies which is called - 60s SPY MANIA. Starts tomorrow!
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Like you, CHB, I love this movie and watch it far too often. I hadn't seen the foreign language posters above, they're all great.
Lou Costello hated the idea. He had to be forced (ie paid more) into doing it, claiming his six year old daughter could write a better script. Changing the title from "The Brain of Frankenstein" (see 6th poster above) also helped.
Lou was wrong. Their movies had been doing poorer and poorer business recently (ie since the end of WW2 when they had been hugely successful) and so had the Universal Monster films. Combining them proved to be a big success and extended A&C's career for some years yet.
As well as financial, the film was a critical success (relatively, anyway) and the script was both clever and funny. The Monsters play their parts mainly straight and don't send themselves up - of course not, that was Bud & Lou's job, but it would have been easy to do.
Chaney is of course Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man. Nobody else played him in his era unlike all the other Universal Monsters. He's obviously excellent in a part he had down pat by now.
Speaking of having a part down pat, Lugosi is naturally perfect as Count Dracula. A little too old, perhaps, being in his mid 60s but that's not a huge problem compared with him being the right man for the job. It's his last time working for a major Hollywood studio; if you don't know what lay ahead for him, see Tim Burton's "Ed Wood" where he is well played by Martin Landau.
Glenn Strange is the Frankenstein Monster for the third time, and his best. He gets a lot more to do here than before and does it well - his interplay with Lou Costello is very funny. He had a hard time keeping a straight face, and in one scene (Lou is on his knee) you can just see a smile starting before it cuts.
You're welcome, CHB, this has been great fun. I think that maybe a bunch of Bond fans will know more about 60s spy movies than old horror films, but I'll try my best.
The success of the first two Bond movies led to a succession of spy movies during the 60s. Beginning with a trickle, before coming a flood and back to a trickle, nearly 300 spy related movies were released in an 8 year period. Ranging from Bond style rip-offs, out and out comedies to serious thrillers, a host of big and not so big stars all had their day as spies and secret agents.
I’ve pruned the list to 50 films and it begins with DR. NO and ends with OHMSS, with a lot more in between.
Barbel is providing commentary (and thanks in advance for his input) but if anyone else has memories of their first viewing of the movies (or anything else) it would be great to read about them.
60s SPY MANIA #1/50 - DR. NO (1962)
I first saw this in the cinema in 1962, aged 6. I loved it and a Bond fan was born.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I'm not going to give any facts about this particular movie, I'm going to take it for granted that you all know the stories behind how it was made, etc.
As ever, I find the foreign language posters interesting since the English ones are so familiar.
This is in my hall, a different version from any of the above.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 31,091Chief of Staff
Aren't those foreign language posters just the business? From no 6 onwards they're atmospheric and alluring, not that the earlier ones are too shabby. I'd guess that Sir M likes to be in a throbbing world of hot-blooded excitement, but could be wrong.
The Bond series has a history of changing gear, going from a sci-fi type story (eg YOLT) to a more earthbound spy story (OHMSS). What is surprising is that Eon did that immediately with this movie following DN.
Or perhaps not so. The book was selling very well in the US after being listed as one of JFK's favourites (some have cast doubt on that list, but it doesn't matter) and the title was on the verge of passing into the language, still used to this day in newspaper headlines and parodies.
Another reason for picking this one would be that although the budget had been increased after the success of DN Harry and Cubby knew that GF would be an expensive production and TB was still in a legal quagmire, LALD would have racial problems (not that it didn't even 10 years later, but it would have been asking for trouble to make it in 63), and so their choices were more limited than they at first would appear.
Terence Young would leave, temporarily as it turned out, after this film for much the same reason as Sean Connery later would. He felt underpaid and asked for a percentage, which was refused.
Johanna Harwood would also leave, much to Richard Maibaum's pleasure, although it has been claimed that she did some uncredited work on GF. I'm guessing she started work while FRWL was still in production and left when Young did.
John Barry had impressed Eon with his work wri - ..., er, arranging the "James Bond Theme" so was asked to write the score for this film. Not the title song, however, which was given to the more experienced Lionel Bart. That would soon change.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 31,091Chief of Staff
FRWL was another massive success for Harry and Cubby and other studios were taking notice of this new secret agent spy trend. There was money to be made, so the first trickle of movies began, which ended with a gentle flow by the end of 1964 with 21 movies which could be categorised in the 60’s spy mania genre.
The Rank Organisation got in early with Hot Enough For June which was titled Agent 8 3/4 in some territories. I’ve only seen this once (a television showing in the early 70s) and I don’t recall much about it. I will leave @Barbel to add all the inside info on this.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
The 2nd and 4th posters look awfully familiar, somehow ....
And so the great spy boom begins. Almost every leading male actor of the time, and quite a few who weren't leading, was to make a spy movie with the hope of getting a series just like Bond.
This one uses what rapidly became the standard plot (though it precedes the 60s, being a favourite of Hitchcock). A civilian gets involved in espionage through no fault of their own, learns the ropes quickly (ie thus letting the audience understand what's going on), and is sent on a potentially dangerous mission. This can be done either for laughs or seriously, or indeed a film often tries to have it's cake for laughs and eat it for thrills.
That's what this movie does. Bogarde is a writer who can speak Czech so is sent on a dangerous mission to Prague, which was then behind the Iron Curtain. The plot structure as above allows for well-known character actors (here Leo McKern and Robert Morley) to play either the bosses within MI6 or whatever they're calling it in a particular movie or villains on the other side.
Throw in a gorgeous European actress (often Elke Sommer) and off you go. This isn't a very funny movie and nowhere near as thrilling as a Bond film. There had been only two at that point so the opportunities for parody were limited.
The Carry On team were never slow to cash in on latest movie trends and this was the first out and out parody of the Bond movies. Chunks of this movie would be re-used in TLD, I’m sure Barbel will expand in his appreciated commentary.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 31,091Chief of Staff
I had this movie on my hard drive for years 😁
The first poster is a brilliant rip-off, err, homage 🤣
The local fleapit did Saturday morning kids' programs including a film + cartoons. This was the 60s and kids' tv was much more limited than it became later. Also I'm sure the parents were v happy to throw their brood into the cinema and then go shopping in peace.
The films were (a) always b&w (b) always UK, so no Disney etc. Those they could charge full price for. And they alternated between British specially made children's movies (if you're old enough you'll know what I mean) and .... the Carry Ons!
So I saw this in the cinema in the 60s. Happy memories. I didn't know that this was Barbara Windsor's first Carry On (they weren't shown in any particular order, and what an asset to the series she was) and I wondered why Dr Crow was so obviously meant to be Hattie Jacques but wasn't (I think Hattie was ill, but not sure). And it was fun seeing Kenneth Williams and Co carrying more of the load and the film not being centred on Sid James, wonderful though he was.
As with the film above, only two Bond films had been released when this was made so there are a lot of story elements and jokes aimed at earlier British spy or noir films, eg "The Third Man". Went right over my head as a kid.
Of course it seems very dated now and I'm sure modern audiences would shrug. And the connection with TLD is that both John Glen and Gerald Thomas worked on "The Third Man" early in their careers and paid homage in TLD and this film respectively (although Glen's film really did go to Vienna while this one didn't).
This was the pilot episode of the television series The Man From UNCLE. It was released as a movie in some overseas territories in late 1964 and was a second feature to The Americanisation of Emily in the UK in April 1965. The UNCLE connection was not known in the UK because the series did not begin to be screened on BBC until June 1965. TTAS was released as a cinema movie in the US in 1966 and got a small run in major UK cities the same year. I didn’t see this until it’s first television showing, whenever that was.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
These posters are coming thick n fast - I can't keep up. Hot Enough For June is a decent little thriller. Maybe a bit too much comedy, but a decent plot and some good espionage intrigues among the relative silliness of the plot. Given the heatwave London is sitting in right now, the password / title feels appropriate. A rewatch may be on the cards....
Like CHB I first saw UNCLE on tv although the same story as "To Trap A Spy" was used for the first episode of the series and IIRC that's what I watched. The film has extra scenes to extend it's length (good thing this isn't a Carry On) and some other changes were made. And the film is in colour while the first season on the TV show was in b&w. I've got two UNCLE boxes, one with the movies and one with the 1st season, which is how I know all that.
The pilot episode also uses the same story and is in the 1st season box, so there are 3 versions.
The initial title was "Solo" before Eon forced them to change it, Mr Solo being a character in GF. Ian Fleming’s connection to UNCLE is often exaggerated (I plead guilty to having done that myself) though he did come up with the names for Napoleon Solo and April Dancer (later the Girl from UNCLE). He would happily have done more and had his name attached until Cubby and Harry got wind of it and pointed out that he would be competing with himself (and them) by having a tv series at the same time as they were establishing a movie one.
David McCallum has only a small part in this film, far from the co-star status he was quickly to enjoy. In much the same way as happened with Spock in Star Trek, he became the unexpected breakout character and a sign of the times.
The good thing is that you can catch up in your own time - I’ve been trying to watch as many of these again as I can, but HotEnough isn’t on my streaming channel ☹️
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
The producers were knocking out a Bond movie every 12 months (those were the days) and the third Bond entry exceeded all expectations in box office takings. Studios, worldwide, were taking notice and this last entry for 1964 would ensure that the following year would turn the gentle flow of spy movies into a torrent. This 8 year old kid was spellbound seeing this in the cinema.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Comments
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS #29 - THE INVISIBLE MAN’S REVENGE (1944)
I'd seen only the first two posters, so the others are very welcome. No 3 is my favourite, though no 4 is hilariously inappropriate.
I liked this one, although it takes a long time setting up the plot. Jon Hall is back, playing yet another descendant of the original Griffin. He's made invisible by mad scientist John Carradine, who's only been experimenting on animals so far (some of those are quite funny).
Evelyn Ankers is once again the good girl and the wonderful Gale Sondergaard the bad, so standard stuff there but there's unnecessary comic relief from Leon Errol.
The SFX are OK, and as usual the plot has bugger all to do with HG Wells whatever the credits say. This was the final Invisible Man movie, although Abbott and Costello meet two different ones later.
Another movie that I’ve totally missed 🫣
I’m going to have to have a look for these at some point…
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS #30 - THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US (1956)
The penultimate movie from the 31 categorised in this list but chronologically the last one produced.
Some of those posters make the poor Creature, who's man-sized and very much the victim here, look like King Kong on a rampage.
Anyway, here's what I said about this film five years ago which I'm too lazy to rewrite here -
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS #31 - ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948)
I’ve left the final movie in the series until last because it was the first Universal Monster film I ever watched. It was about 1966 or 1967 and it had a television screening on BBC or ITV (I can’t remember which). This is what hooked me into the horror scene even though it’s a comedy. It’s without doubt A&C’s finest movie and not only that but one of the finest comedy films of all time in any comedic genre you wish to name.
I want to thank @Barbel for his insightful input which was unplanned, it has very much added to the enjoyment of doing this thread and he has agreed to continue with the next series of movies which is called - 60s SPY MANIA. Starts tomorrow!
Like you, CHB, I love this movie and watch it far too often. I hadn't seen the foreign language posters above, they're all great.
Lou Costello hated the idea. He had to be forced (ie paid more) into doing it, claiming his six year old daughter could write a better script. Changing the title from "The Brain of Frankenstein" (see 6th poster above) also helped.
Lou was wrong. Their movies had been doing poorer and poorer business recently (ie since the end of WW2 when they had been hugely successful) and so had the Universal Monster films. Combining them proved to be a big success and extended A&C's career for some years yet.
As well as financial, the film was a critical success (relatively, anyway) and the script was both clever and funny. The Monsters play their parts mainly straight and don't send themselves up - of course not, that was Bud & Lou's job, but it would have been easy to do.
Chaney is of course Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man. Nobody else played him in his era unlike all the other Universal Monsters. He's obviously excellent in a part he had down pat by now.
Speaking of having a part down pat, Lugosi is naturally perfect as Count Dracula. A little too old, perhaps, being in his mid 60s but that's not a huge problem compared with him being the right man for the job. It's his last time working for a major Hollywood studio; if you don't know what lay ahead for him, see Tim Burton's "Ed Wood" where he is well played by Martin Landau.
Glenn Strange is the Frankenstein Monster for the third time, and his best. He gets a lot more to do here than before and does it well - his interplay with Lou Costello is very funny. He had a hard time keeping a straight face, and in one scene (Lou is on his knee) you can just see a smile starting before it cuts.
You're welcome, CHB, this has been great fun. I think that maybe a bunch of Bond fans will know more about 60s spy movies than old horror films, but I'll try my best.
The success of the first two Bond movies led to a succession of spy movies during the 60s. Beginning with a trickle, before coming a flood and back to a trickle, nearly 300 spy related movies were released in an 8 year period. Ranging from Bond style rip-offs, out and out comedies to serious thrillers, a host of big and not so big stars all had their day as spies and secret agents.
I’ve pruned the list to 50 films and it begins with DR. NO and ends with OHMSS, with a lot more in between.
Barbel is providing commentary (and thanks in advance for his input) but if anyone else has memories of their first viewing of the movies (or anything else) it would be great to read about them.
60s SPY MANIA #1/50 - DR. NO (1962)
I first saw this in the cinema in 1962, aged 6. I loved it and a Bond fan was born.
I'm not going to give any facts about this particular movie, I'm going to take it for granted that you all know the stories behind how it was made, etc.
As ever, I find the foreign language posters interesting since the English ones are so familiar.
This is in my hall, a different version from any of the above.
Haven’t seen this movie in an absolute age - must try and find it soon…love all the posters for this movie too 😁
Had a repro of the first poster, hadn’t seen the second one before - so thanks for that 😁
Hadn’t seen this before either…or your hallway 😁
The wood's gone now 😁
That’s a great picture!
60s SPY MANIA #2/ 50 - FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963)
With the phenomenal success of DN the next in the series followed 12 months later.
Aren't those foreign language posters just the business? From no 6 onwards they're atmospheric and alluring, not that the earlier ones are too shabby. I'd guess that Sir M likes to be in a throbbing world of hot-blooded excitement, but could be wrong.
The Bond series has a history of changing gear, going from a sci-fi type story (eg YOLT) to a more earthbound spy story (OHMSS). What is surprising is that Eon did that immediately with this movie following DN.
Or perhaps not so. The book was selling very well in the US after being listed as one of JFK's favourites (some have cast doubt on that list, but it doesn't matter) and the title was on the verge of passing into the language, still used to this day in newspaper headlines and parodies.
Another reason for picking this one would be that although the budget had been increased after the success of DN Harry and Cubby knew that GF would be an expensive production and TB was still in a legal quagmire, LALD would have racial problems (not that it didn't even 10 years later, but it would have been asking for trouble to make it in 63), and so their choices were more limited than they at first would appear.
Terence Young would leave, temporarily as it turned out, after this film for much the same reason as Sean Connery later would. He felt underpaid and asked for a percentage, which was refused.
Johanna Harwood would also leave, much to Richard Maibaum's pleasure, although it has been claimed that she did some uncredited work on GF. I'm guessing she started work while FRWL was still in production and left when Young did.
John Barry had impressed Eon with his work wri - ..., er, arranging the "James Bond Theme" so was asked to write the score for this film. Not the title song, however, which was given to the more experienced Lionel Bart. That would soon change.
I know that feeling 😟
Yes, sign me up for the “throbbing world of hot-blooded excitement” please 😁 or at least show me to the room where this goes on 🤣
Some truly great posters there @CoolHandBond - I’m particularly fond of the Japanese style…
😅😅😅 oh wait ...
60s SPY MANIA #3/50 - HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE (1964)
FRWL was another massive success for Harry and Cubby and other studios were taking notice of this new secret agent spy trend. There was money to be made, so the first trickle of movies began, which ended with a gentle flow by the end of 1964 with 21 movies which could be categorised in the 60’s spy mania genre.
The Rank Organisation got in early with Hot Enough For June which was titled Agent 8 3/4 in some territories. I’ve only seen this once (a television showing in the early 70s) and I don’t recall much about it. I will leave @Barbel to add all the inside info on this.
The 2nd and 4th posters look awfully familiar, somehow ....
And so the great spy boom begins. Almost every leading male actor of the time, and quite a few who weren't leading, was to make a spy movie with the hope of getting a series just like Bond.
This one uses what rapidly became the standard plot (though it precedes the 60s, being a favourite of Hitchcock). A civilian gets involved in espionage through no fault of their own, learns the ropes quickly (ie thus letting the audience understand what's going on), and is sent on a potentially dangerous mission. This can be done either for laughs or seriously, or indeed a film often tries to have it's cake for laughs and eat it for thrills.
That's what this movie does. Bogarde is a writer who can speak Czech so is sent on a dangerous mission to Prague, which was then behind the Iron Curtain. The plot structure as above allows for well-known character actors (here Leo McKern and Robert Morley) to play either the bosses within MI6 or whatever they're calling it in a particular movie or villains on the other side.
Throw in a gorgeous European actress (often Elke Sommer) and off you go. This isn't a very funny movie and nowhere near as thrilling as a Bond film. There had been only two at that point so the opportunities for parody were limited.
60s SPY MANIA #4/50 - CARRY ON SPYING (1964)
The Carry On team were never slow to cash in on latest movie trends and this was the first out and out parody of the Bond movies. Chunks of this movie would be re-used in TLD, I’m sure Barbel will expand in his appreciated commentary.
I had this movie on my hard drive for years 😁
The first poster is a brilliant rip-off, err, homage 🤣
True but they're all good!
The local fleapit did Saturday morning kids' programs including a film + cartoons. This was the 60s and kids' tv was much more limited than it became later. Also I'm sure the parents were v happy to throw their brood into the cinema and then go shopping in peace.
The films were (a) always b&w (b) always UK, so no Disney etc. Those they could charge full price for. And they alternated between British specially made children's movies (if you're old enough you'll know what I mean) and .... the Carry Ons!
So I saw this in the cinema in the 60s. Happy memories. I didn't know that this was Barbara Windsor's first Carry On (they weren't shown in any particular order, and what an asset to the series she was) and I wondered why Dr Crow was so obviously meant to be Hattie Jacques but wasn't (I think Hattie was ill, but not sure). And it was fun seeing Kenneth Williams and Co carrying more of the load and the film not being centred on Sid James, wonderful though he was.
As with the film above, only two Bond films had been released when this was made so there are a lot of story elements and jokes aimed at earlier British spy or noir films, eg "The Third Man". Went right over my head as a kid.
Of course it seems very dated now and I'm sure modern audiences would shrug. And the connection with TLD is that both John Glen and Gerald Thomas worked on "The Third Man" early in their careers and paid homage in TLD and this film respectively (although Glen's film really did go to Vienna while this one didn't).
60s SPY MANIA #5/50 - TO TRAP A SPY (1964)
This was the pilot episode of the television series The Man From UNCLE. It was released as a movie in some overseas territories in late 1964 and was a second feature to The Americanisation of Emily in the UK in April 1965. The UNCLE connection was not known in the UK because the series did not begin to be screened on BBC until June 1965. TTAS was released as a cinema movie in the US in 1966 and got a small run in major UK cities the same year. I didn’t see this until it’s first television showing, whenever that was.
These posters are coming thick n fast - I can't keep up. Hot Enough For June is a decent little thriller. Maybe a bit too much comedy, but a decent plot and some good espionage intrigues among the relative silliness of the plot. Given the heatwave London is sitting in right now, the password / title feels appropriate. A rewatch may be on the cards....
Me too, I think.
Like CHB I first saw UNCLE on tv although the same story as "To Trap A Spy" was used for the first episode of the series and IIRC that's what I watched. The film has extra scenes to extend it's length (good thing this isn't a Carry On) and some other changes were made. And the film is in colour while the first season on the TV show was in b&w. I've got two UNCLE boxes, one with the movies and one with the 1st season, which is how I know all that.
The pilot episode also uses the same story and is in the 1st season box, so there are 3 versions.
The initial title was "Solo" before Eon forced them to change it, Mr Solo being a character in GF. Ian Fleming’s connection to UNCLE is often exaggerated (I plead guilty to having done that myself) though he did come up with the names for Napoleon Solo and April Dancer (later the Girl from UNCLE). He would happily have done more and had his name attached until Cubby and Harry got wind of it and pointed out that he would be competing with himself (and them) by having a tv series at the same time as they were establishing a movie one.
David McCallum has only a small part in this film, far from the co-star status he was quickly to enjoy. In much the same way as happened with Spock in Star Trek, he became the unexpected breakout character and a sign of the times.
PS. Love those posters! As 1960s as 4 Beatles in a Mini on Carnaby Street.
This is a fabulous poster 🍸
The good thing is that you can catch up in your own time - I’ve been trying to watch as many of these again as I can, but Hot Enough isn’t on my streaming channel ☹️
60s SPY MANIA #6/50 - GOLDFINGER (1964)
The producers were knocking out a Bond movie every 12 months (those were the days) and the third Bond entry exceeded all expectations in box office takings. Studios, worldwide, were taking notice and this last entry for 1964 would ensure that the following year would turn the gentle flow of spy movies into a torrent. This 8 year old kid was spellbound seeing this in the cinema.