70 Fun Facts About 60s Movie

Which 1960 Hitchcock film cost under $1 million, was shot by his TV crew, and earned $50 million?

Psycho was sold to US theatres on a strict rule that no one could be admitted after the film had started.

Jack Lemmon's clerk abets his bosses' affairs in which Billy Wilder film, Best Picture for 1960?

The Apartment later became the Broadway musical Promises, Promises, with songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and a book by Neil Simon.

Which 1960 epic did Stanley Kubrick take over after director Anthony Mann left the production?

When Spartacus was restored in 1991, Anthony Hopkins re-voiced his late mentor Laurence Olivier in a scene whose soundtrack had been lost.

Which Oscar-winning song from Breakfast at Tiffany's was written by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer?

Moon River's songwriters won the Oscar again the very next year, for Days of Wine and Roses.

Which 1961 musical won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture?

West Side Story's co-director Jerome Robbins was fired partway through filming, yet he still shared the Best Director Oscar with Robert Wise.

Who directed Lawrence of Arabia?

David Lean's first choice for Lawrence, Albert Finney, passed his screen test but refused a long contract, so the role went to Peter O'Toole.

Which character topped the AFI's list of the greatest movie heroes, ahead of Indiana Jones?

Atticus Finch, Gregory Peck's Oscar-winning role, was based on Harper Lee's father, an Alabama lawyer who once defended two Black men accused of murder.

Which 1962 film was the first in the James Bond series?

In Dr. No, every line Ursula Andress speaks as Honey Ryder was dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl, because of Andress's thick accent.

Hitchcock's The Birds unleashes its attacks on which California town?

The Birds' attacks on Bodega Bay were partly inspired by a real 1961 episode when seabirds dive-bombed homes and cars in Capitola, California.

Julie Andrews won the Best Actress Oscar for her feature film debut in which 1964 film?

Julie Andrews was pregnant when Walt Disney offered her Mary Poppins, and he agreed to postpone filming until she had given birth.

Peter Sellers played three roles in which Stanley Kubrick film?

Dr. Strangelove's Peter Sellers was also meant to play B-52 commander Major Kong, until an injury forced him out and Slim Pickens took over.

Who plays Professor Henry Higgins in the 1964 film of My Fair Lady?

Rex Harrison won Best Actor reprising his Broadway role as Higgins, but his stage co-star Julie Andrews lost the film's Eliza to a bigger name.

A Corgi toy of which Goldfinger car became one of the best-selling toy cars ever made?

Corgi's Aston Martin DB5 copied the film car's gadgets, including an ejector seat that fires out through a roof panel.

By November 1966, which musical had overtaken Gone with the Wind as the highest-grossing film in history?

The Sound of Music ends with the von Trapps hiking over the Alps, but the real family left Austria by train, pretending nothing was happening.

Doctor Zhivago could not be shot in the Soviet Union, so it was filmed mostly in which country?

Doctor Zhivago was shot mostly in Spain because Pasternak's novel was banned in the Soviet Union, where it wasn't published until 1988.

Who plays "the Ugly" in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

Eli Wallach nearly died more than once playing Tuco: he accidentally drank acid left beside his soda, and a train's jutting steps almost decapitated him.

Who plays Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate?

Anne Bancroft was only about six years older than Dustin Hoffman when she played Mrs. Robinson, the older woman who seduces his character.

Which actress plays Bonnie Parker opposite Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde?

Faye Dunaway won Bonnie Parker over contenders such as Natalie Wood and Tuesday Weld, and the role earned her a first Best Actress nomination.

In the Heat of the Night sends Philadelphia detective Virgil Tibbs into a small town in which state?

In the Heat of the Night is set in Sparta, Mississippi, but most of it was actually filmed in Sparta, Illinois.

Which 1967 film was the last animated feature Walt Disney personally produced before his death?

Walt Disney thought Bill Peet's first version of The Jungle Book was too dark, and after a heated argument over its tone, Peet quit the studio.

Stanley Kubrick's only competitive Academy Award came for which film?

2001: A Space Odyssey won for its visual effects, and Kubrick threw out Alex North's commissioned score in favour of existing classical music.

Who won Best Supporting Actress for Rosemary's Baby?

Ruth Gordon won at 72 as next-door neighbour Minnie Castevet, having earlier been Oscar-nominated three times as a screenwriter, including for Adam's Rib.

The desert sequences of Planet of the Apes were shot around which lake?

Planet of the Apes' spacecraft crash was partly filmed at Lake Powell, a reservoir that only began filling behind Glen Canyon Dam in 1963.

Why did Night of the Living Dead fall into the public domain?

No copyright notice was on the prints its distributor sent out, and in 1968 US law required one for a film to keep its copyright.

Which British musical won Best Picture at the Academy Awards for 1968?

Oliver's title star couldn't sing, so his songs were dubbed by Kathe Green, daughter of the film's music arranger Johnny Green.

To which country do Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid flee from the posse?

Butch sells Sundance on Bolivia as a robbers' paradise, boasting, 'Boy, I got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals.'

Which 1969 film is the only X-rated movie ever to win Best Picture?

Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated film ever to win any Oscar, and its rating was changed to R in 1971 after the MPAA revised its criteria.

Easy Rider's two bikers ride across America carrying money made from what?

Easy Rider opens with the cocaine deal, and the buyer the bikers sell to is played by record producer Phil Spector.

John Wayne won his only Academy Award for which 1969 Western?

True Grit's one-eyed marshal Rooster Cogburn won John Wayne Best Actor, and he joked he'd have put on the eye patch 35 years earlier had he known.

Elizabeth Taylor became the first star paid $1 million for a role in which film?

Cleopatra was 1963's highest-grossing film, yet its huge costs meant it still lost money on its first release.

The Great Escape dramatises a mass breakout from which German POW camp?

Stalag Luft III's mass breakout was real, but Steve McQueen's famous motorcycle fence jump was performed by his friend and stunt double Bud Ekins.

Which actress earned an Oscar nomination as the scheming mother in The Manchurian Candidate?

Angela Lansbury played Laurence Harvey's scheming mother though she was only three years older than him, and it earned her a third Oscar nomination.

Which Fellini film gave the world the word "paparazzi"?

La Dolce Vita's photographer Paparazzo was reportedly named after a restaurant owner in a George Gissing travel book, though Fellini said the name suggested a buzzing insect.

Who won Best Supporting Actor for Cool Hand Luke?

George Kennedy won as Dragline, the convict who beats Luke in a boxing match but comes to idolise him because Luke refuses to stay down.

Bullitt's landmark car chase races through which city?

Steve McQueen drove the close-ups in Bullitt's San Francisco chase himself, but stunt drivers took the wheel for the high-speed stretches.

Barbra Streisand's Best Actress win for Funny Girl was a tie with which actress?

Katharine Hepburn never attended the Oscars to collect her awards, so The Lion in Winter's director Anthony Harvey accepted her half of the tie.

In the 1963 comedy The Pink Panther, what is 'the Pink Panther'?

The Pink Panther is a priceless diamond with a flaw shaped like a leaping panther, and the cartoon cat began in the film's opening titles before starring in an Oscar-winning short.

John Sturges's 1960 Western about gunfighters guarding a Mexican village remade which Kurosawa film?

Seven Samurai became The Magnificent Seven, whose Elmer Bernstein score ranks eighth on the AFI's list of the top 25 American film scores.

Which cost-saving technique did Disney use for One Hundred and One Dalmatians?

Xerography let Disney photocopy animators' drawings straight onto cels, so nobody had to hand-ink all those puppies and spots.

Who directed the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night?

Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night is credited with inspiring pop music videos, and MTV later sent him an award as 'Father of the Music Video'.

Who plays Minnesota Fats opposite Paul Newman in The Hustler?

Jackie Gleason had played pool since childhood and made all his own trick shots as Minnesota Fats.

Judgment at Nuremberg began life as a 1959 episode of which TV anthology series?

Playhouse 90's Judgment at Nuremberg already starred Maximilian Schell and Werner Klemperer, who played the same roles again in the 1961 film.

Which 1966 film was the first to have its entire credited cast nominated for Oscars?

For Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Elizabeth Taylor gained weight to play the fifty-ish Martha, and she won Best Actress.

Which was Spencer Tracy's final film?

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner finished filming Spencer Tracy's role just 17 days before he died, and it earned him a posthumous Best Actor nomination.

The Dirty Dozen was inspired by a real 101st Airborne unit nicknamed what?

The Filthy Thirteen weren't convicts, just hard-drinking brawlers, and before D-Day they shaved mohawks and daubed on war paint.

Which director of heavy social dramas made his first comedy with It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?

Stanley Kramer's comedy premiered at the brand-new Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, where it ran for 66 weeks.

Which rock band is seen performing "Stroll On" in Antonioni's Blowup?

The Yardbirds' 'Stroll On' is 'Train Kept A-Rollin'' with new lyrics, and Antonioni had Jeff Beck smash his guitar in imitation of The Who's Pete Townshend.

Which 1963 British comedy starring Albert Finney won Best Picture?

Tom Jones is the only film with three Best Supporting Actress nominees, and all three lost to Margaret Rutherford for The V.I.P.s.

Richard Todd fought at Pegasus Bridge on D-Day, then played the officer who led its capture in which 1962 film?

The Longest Day cast Richard Todd as Major John Howard, whom Todd had actually met on Pegasus Bridge during the D-Day fighting.

A Fistful of Dollars copied which Kurosawa film so closely that Sergio Leone had to settle a lawsuit?

Yojimbo's makers sued because Leone never secured the remake rights, and the case was settled out of court before Fistful's US release.

Which future James Bond made his big-screen debut in The Lion in Winter?

Timothy Dalton played King Philip II of France, while Peter O'Toole returned as Henry II, the king he had already played in Becket.

Who plays the title role in Barbarella (1968)?

Jane Fonda's Barbarella gave a band its name: Duran Duran took theirs from the film's villain, Durand Durand, after seeing it on TV in 1978.

Which 1967 thriller was Audrey Hepburn's final film before her semi-retirement?

Wait Until Dark earned Audrey Hepburn an Oscar nomination, and she then stepped back from films to devote more time to her family.

Who directed The Wild Bunch?

Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch stayed so shocking that when Warner Bros. resubmitted it for a 1990s re-release, the ratings board gave it an NC-17.

In The Italian Job (1969), Charlie Croker's gang steals gold bullion in which city?

The Italian Job's gang escapes Turin with the gold, only for their coach to end up teetering over a cliff edge in a famous unresolved ending.

Ray Harryhausen's skeleton army fights in which 1963 film?

Jason and the Argonauts' skeleton warriors sprang from a Hydra's teeth, multiplying the lone sword-fighting skeleton of Harryhausen's earlier Sinbad film.

Mel Brooks won an Oscar for the screenplay of which film, his directorial debut?

The Producers was first titled Springtime for Hitler, but many distributors wouldn't carry a film with that name, so Mel Brooks renamed it.

Sidney Poitier became the first Black Best Actor winner for which 1963 film?

In Lilies of the Field, Sidney Poitier's singing of the gospel song 'Amen' was dubbed by Jester Hairston, who also arranged it.

Who plays the vengeful ex-convict Max Cady stalking Gregory Peck's family in Cape Fear (1962)?

Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck both returned for the 1991 Cape Fear remake in new roles, with Mitchum playing a police lieutenant.

In From Russia with Love (1963), Bond is sent to which city to help a Soviet clerk defect?

From Russia with Love filmed in Istanbul at the ancient Basilica Cistern, Hagia Sophia and Sirkeci station, before Bond escapes on the Orient Express.

Which director's 1968 Romeo and Juliet was the first to cast actors close to the characters' teenage ages?

Franco Zeffirelli's film won Oscars for cinematography and costume design, and Laurence Olivier spoke its prologue.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) was adapted from a children's novel by which spy-fiction author?

Ian Fleming's children's story was co-scripted by Roald Dahl, who had also written the screenplay for the Bond film You Only Live Twice.

In Fantastic Voyage (1966), a shrunken submarine crew travels inside a scientist's body to repair what?

The crew had to remove a blood clot in his brain, and Isaac Asimov wrote the paperback novelisation.

Which singer debuted on film in To Sir, with Love (1967) and took its title song to US number one?

Lulu's To Sir with Love spent five weeks at number one and was America's best-selling single of 1967.

In Cold Blood (1967) was partly shot at the real home of which murdered family in Holcomb, Kansas?

Robert Blake and Scott Wilson played the Clutters' killers in Richard Brooks's adaptation of Truman Capote's book.

Where Eagles Dare (1968) sends Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood to a fortress named what?

Schloss Adler was played by Austria's Hohenwerfen Castle, and stuntman Yakima Canutt shot most of the action scenes.

Maggie Smith's Oscar-winning Miss Jean Brodie (1969) teaches at a girls' school in which Scottish city?

Miss Jean Brodie was based partly on Christina Kay, who taught Muriel Spark at an Edinburgh girls' school.

Which jazz legend, who had a 1964 number one with the title song, appears in the film Hello, Dolly! (1969)?

Louis Armstrong's recording ended the Beatles' 14-week run at number one, and in the film he sings it with Barbra Streisand.

Which lyricist was fired from Doctor Dolittle (1967) and replaced by Leslie Bricusse?

Alan Jay Lerner's replacement Leslie Bricusse wrote Talk to the Animals, which won the Oscar for Best Original Song.

What storytelling device does Michael Caine's womaniser use throughout Alfie (1966)?

Alfie keeps speaking directly to the camera to justify himself, and the role earned Michael Caine a Best Actor Oscar nomination.