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Fantasy movies of the 1960s are a time capsule of an age of imagination that has gone on to inspire some of the best fantasy movies and performances of all time. While these films blend a variety of genres and story types, many of the most prominent fantasy movies of the decade were produced by Walt Disney Studios. Both animated and live-action films garnered great success for Disney during the '60s, but this family-friendly fare isn't all the decade has to offer. Darker and more adult fantasy films drew older audiences to theaters and are great projects to rewatch today.

One of the reasons it's so fun to look back on works of speculative fiction from the 1960s is because the filmmakers had to be so creative with the use of visual effects. These projects use miniatures and beautifully constructed practical sets and make early forays into the use of animation in live-action projects.

The popularity of the gangster genre originated in the early 1930s, and countless undisputed crime classics were produced in the following decades. As the period just after the Prohibition era and proliferating crime due to the Wall Street Crash of 1929, it made sense that gangster movies took hold of the popular imagination as real-life crime bosses like Al Capone and John Dillinger were fresh in viewers' minds. With acclaimed directors like William Keighley, Raoul Walsh, and Howard Hawks making revolutionary crime films, its a testament to this eras appeal that so many remain beloved to this day.

Many of the best gangster movies of all time were released during the 1930s and 1940s, as major movie stars like Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney dominated the genre with powerful portrayals of crooked cops, gun-wielding gangsters, and treacherous thieves. Through a mix of film noir, heist classics, and intense crime-based melodramas, the...

Near the end of Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution, after the central court case seems all but completely settled, senior barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Charles Laughton) contemplates the surprising evidence that’s just been presented. “It’s a little too neat, too tidy, and altogether too symmetrical,” he remarks. It’s a comment that begs to be read through the lens of Wilder’s own wry approach to filmmaking, which often feels throughout his canon like an alchemic combination of effortless story execution, pinpoint humor, and acting masterclass.

Wilder effects an outward feeling of wily and out of control scenarios that are running like well-oiled machines within. The ending of Witness for the Prosecution exemplifies this by throwing its characters’ preceding buttoned-up decorum out of whack, as they race through a procession of sudden revelations that contain a clear logic and purpose. But per Wilder’s wont, the...

When did murder thrillers become horror pix? This one is horror only by association, and star Basil Rathbone would be a suave leading man if he wasn’t slaying wives left and right. He sets his sights on the rich, conveniently suicidal Ellen Drew, yes (sigh) that Ellen Drew. This atypical Paramount thriller has glamour to spare and also some unexpected sideways sexuality with the sinister Martin Kosleck, who almost steals the movie. But not our hearts — in that department it’s Ellen Forever and Ever.

The Mad Doctor

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1940 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 90 min. / Street Date November 2, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Basil Rathbone, Ellen Drew, John Howard, Barbara Jo Allen aka Vera Vague, Ralph Morgan, Martin Kosleck, Kitty Kelly, Sheila Ryan, Norma Varden, Max Wagner.

Cinematography: Ted Tetzlaff

Art Directors: Hans Dreier, Robert Usher

Film Editor: Archie Marshek

Original Music: Victor Young

Written by Howard J. Green...

Meet the lusty Amber St. Clare, a 17th century social climber determined to sleep her way to respectability. Gorgeous Linda Darnell gets her biggest role in a lavishly appointed period epic; Otto Preminger hated the assignment but his direction and Darryl Zanuck’s production are excellent. And it has one of the all-time great Hollywood movie scores, by David Raksin.

Forever Amber

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1947 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 138 min. / Street Date December 19, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, Jessica Tandy, Anne Revere, John Russell, Jane Ball, Robert Coote, Leo G. Carroll, Natalie Draper, Margaret Wycherly, Norma Varden.

Cinematography: Leon Shamroy

Art Direction: Lyle Wheeler

Visual Effects: Fred Sersen

Original Music: David Raksin

Written by Philip Dunne, Ring Lardner Jr. from the novel by Kathleen Winsor

Produced by William Perlberg

Directed by Otto Preminger

Three years ago,...

Here's a brief look – to be expanded – at Turner Classic Movies' June 2017 European Vacation Movie Series this evening, June 23. Tonight's destination of choice is Italy. Starring Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue as the opposite of Ugly Americans who find romance and heartbreak in the Italian capital, Delmer Daves' Rome Adventure (1962) was one of the key romantic movies of the 1960s. Angie Dickinson and Rossano Brazzi co-star. In all, Rome Adventure is the sort of movie that should please fans of Daves' Technicolor melodramas like A Summer Place, Parrish, and Susan Slade. Fans of his poetic Westerns – e.g., 3:10 to Yuma, The Hanging Tree – may (or may not) be disappointed with this particular Daves effort. As an aside, Rome Adventure was, for whatever reason, a sizable hit in … Brazil. Who knows, maybe that's why Rome Adventure co-star Brazzi would find himself playing a Brazilian – a macho, traditionalist coffee plantation owner,...

Director Steve Sekely’s hardboiled film noir leans heavily on the talents of star-producer Paul Henreid and camera ace John Alton — the three of them whip up the best gimmick-driven noir thriller of the late ‘forties. Strained coincidences and unlikely events mean nothing when this much talent is concentrated in one movie. It’s also a terrific show for star Joan Bennett, who expresses all the disappointment, despair and angst of a noir femme who knows she’s in for more misery.

The Scar (Hollow Triumph)

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1948 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 83 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Paul Henreid, Joan Bennett, Eduard Franz, Leslie Brooks, John Qualen, Mabel Paige, Herbert Rudley, George Chandler, Robert Bice, Henry Brandon, Franklyn Farnum, Thomas Browne Henry, Norma Varden, Jack Webb.

Cinematography: John Alton

Film Editor: Fred Allen

Original Music: Sol Kaplan

Written by Daniel Fuchs from a...

William Castle’s 13 Ghosts (1960), 13 Frightened Girls, Homicidal, and Mr. Sardonicus are coming to Blu-ray in two double features from Mill Creek Entertainment! Both double bills will be released on July 5th.

From Mill Creek Entertainment: “13 Ghosts (1960) – B&W – 85 minutes – Not Rated

Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner, Rosemary DeCamp. Donald Woods, Margaret Hamilton

When an eccentric uncle wills a huge, ramshackle house to his impoverished family, they get the shock of a lifetime. Their new residence comes complete with a spooky housekeeper, plus a fortune in buried treasure and 12 horrifying ghosts.”

13 Frightened Girls (1963) – Color – 88 minutes – Not Rated

Murray Hamilton, Joyce Taylor, Hugh Marlowe, Khigh Dhiegh, Charlie Briggs, Norma Varden

The girls of a Swiss boarding school have one thing in common — they are all daughters of diplomats. One in particular finds out that she has a knack for espionage, and uncovers the murder of a Russian diplomat. Now she...

Ingrid Bergman ca. early 1940s. Ingrid Bergman movies on TCM: From the artificial 'Gaslight' to the magisterial 'Autumn Sonata' Two days ago, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series highlighted the film career of Greta Garbo. Today, Aug. 28, '15, TCM is focusing on another Swedish actress, three-time Academy Award winner Ingrid Bergman, who would have turned 100 years old tomorrow. TCM has likely aired most of Bergman's Hollywood films, and at least some of her early Swedish work. As a result, today's only premiere is Fielder Cook's little-seen and little-remembered From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973), about two bored kids (Sally Prager, Johnny Doran) who run away from home and end up at New York City's Metropolitan Museum. Obviously, this is no A Night at the Museum – and that's a major plus. Bergman plays an elderly art lover who takes an interest in them; her...

Hammer horror fans are in for a treat, as respective collections of five William Castle films and five Hammer horror movies are coming out on Blu-ray in August, and The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant has been set to come out on Blu-ray.

The William Castle and Hammer horror collections will respectively come out on DVD August 18th from Mill Creek. The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant, meanwhile, is slated for release later this year by Kino Lorber. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for further updates.

From Mill Creek: "Iconic horror director William Castle created a simple, but winning formula for his films: a little comedy, a lot of scares, a preposterous gimmick, and a clear sense that fright films should be fun. This even meant Castle would, like Alfred Hitchcock, appear in his trailers and even the movies themselves. Though his career spanned 35 years and included everything from westerns to crime thrillers, he'll...

Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...

Besides making people forever afraid of motel-room showers, Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" continues to have an incalculable impact on popular culture. Though it was released 55 years ago this week (on June 16, 1960), it continues to inspire filmmakers and TV producers. In just the last three years, we've seen the 2012 film "Hitchcock" (based on Stephen Rebello's book "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of 'Psycho,'" and starring Anthony Hopkins as the director and Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh) and the ongoing A&E TV prequel drama series, "Bates Motel."

Still, for all of the "Psycho" trivia revealed in "Hitchcock," the biopic barely scratches the surface of how the film got made, from the men who inspired the invention of Norman Bates, to the trickery Hitchcock used to tease the press while keeping the film's convention-shredding narrative twists a secret, to the film's unlikely connection to "Leave It to Beaver." Here,...

Teresa Wright: Later years (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon.") Teresa Wright and Robert Anderson were divorced in 1978. They would remain friends in the ensuing years.[1] Wright spent most of the last decade of her life in Connecticut, making only sporadic public appearances. In 1998, she could be seen with her grandson, film producer Jonah Smith, at New York's Yankee Stadium, where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.[2] Wright also became involved in the Greater New York chapter of the Als Association. (The Pride of the Yankees subject, Lou Gehrig, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941.) The week she turned 82 in October 2000, Wright attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Somewhere in Time, where she posed for pictures with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In March 2003, she was a guest at the 75th Academy Awards, in the segment showcasing Oscar-winning actors of the past. Two years later,...

Paul Henreid in ‘Casablanca’: Freedom Fighter on screen, Blacklisted ‘Subversive’ off screen Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of July 2013, Paul Henreid, bids you farewell this evening. TCM left the most popular, if not exactly the best, for last: Casablanca, Michael Curtiz’s 1943 Best Picture Oscar-winning drama, is showing at 7 p.m. Pt tonight. (Photo: Paul Henreid sings "La Marseillaise" in Casablanca.) One of the best-remembered movies of the studio era, Casablanca — not set in a Spanish or Mexican White House — features Paul Henreid as Czechoslovakian underground leader Victor Laszlo, Ingrid Bergman’s husband but not her True Love. That’s Humphrey Bogart, owner of a cafe in the titular Moroccan city. Henreid’s anti-Nazi hero is generally considered one of least interesting elements in Casablanca, but Alt Film Guide contributor Dan Schneider thinks otherwise. In any case, Victor Laszlo feels like a character made to order for Paul Henreid,...

Paul Henreid: Hollow Triumph aka The Scar tonight Turner Classic Movies’ Paul Henreid film series continues this Tuesday evening, July 16, 2013. Of tonight’s movies, the most interesting offering is Hollow Triumph / The Scar, a 1948 B thriller adapted by Daniel Fuchs (Panic in the Streets, Love Me or Leave Me) from Murray Forbes’ novel, and in which the gentlemanly Henreid was cast against type: a crook who, in an attempt to escape from other (and more dangerous) crooks, impersonates a psychiatrist with a scar on his chin. Joan Bennett, mostly wasted in a non-role, is Henreid’s leading lady. (See also: “One Paul Henreid, Two Cigarettes, Four Bette Davis-es.”) The thriller’s director is Hungarian import Steve Sekely, whose Hollywood career consisted chiefly of minor B fare. In fact, though hardly a great effort, Hollow Triumph was probably the apex of Sekely’s cinematic output in terms of prestige...

Best Movie to Watch on Netflix This Week:Let Me In (R | 2010)

Flickchart Ranking: #526

Times Ranked: 8021

Win Percentage: 64%

How Many Top-20′s: 20 Users

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Begins streaming on Netflix starting July 1st

Directed By: Matt Reeves

Starring: Chloe Moretz •� Kodi Smit-McPhee •� Richard Jenkins •� Elias Koteas •� Sasha Barrese

Genres: Drama •� Fantasy •� Horror •� Romance •� Romantic Drama •� Vampire Film

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Best TV Show to Watch on Netflix This Week:

A bunch of Star Trek Series come to Instant Streaming on July 1st. Including:

Star Trek (1966-68)Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-93)Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2000)Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-04)New to Netflix Streaming On Wednesday June 29thAmerican: The Bill Hicks Story (Nr | 2009)

Flickchart Ranking: #6383

Times Ranked: 521

Win Percentage: 53%

How Many Top-20′s: 2 Users

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Directed By: Matt Harlock, Paul Thomas

Starring: Bill Hicks •� Kevin Booth •� John Farneti •� Lynn Hicks •� Mary Hicks

Genres: 2010 SXSW Festival •� Biography •� Comedy •� Documentary

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New to Netflix Streaming On Friday July 1stRubber (R...