70 Fun Facts About 60s Movie

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

Its shower scene became one of the best-known sequences in cinema and it is often called an early slasher film.

Jack Lemmon lends his flat to philandering bosses in which Billy Wilder film, Best Picture for 1960?

Shirley MacLaine plays the elevator operator; the film later inspired the Broadway musical Promises, Promises.

Kirk Douglas removed director Anthony Mann from which 1960 epic and replaced him with Stanley Kubrick?

It was the only Kubrick film where he lacked full artistic control, and its credit for blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo helped end the blacklist.

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

Marilyn Monroe was among the actresses considered for Holly Golightly before Audrey Hepburn.

Which 1961 musical won 10 Academy Awards, still the record for a musical?

Co-director Jerome Robbins also received a special award; Spielberg remade it in 2021.

Who directed Lawrence of Arabia?

It introduced Peter O'Toole and won seven Oscars including Best Picture; the AFI later ranked it among the five greatest American films.

Which character, played by Gregory Peck, did the AFI name the greatest movie hero of the 20th century?

To Kill a Mockingbird earned more than six times its budget and won Peck the Best Actor Oscar.

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

It was the sixth of Fleming's novels but the first filmed, and Maurice Binder's gun-barrel opening debuted here.

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

Tippi Hedren made her film debut and won a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year.

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

The film earned 13 nominations, still a Disney record, and was shot entirely in Burbank with painted London backdrops.

How many different characters does Peter Sellers play in Dr. Strangelove?

He is the President, the title scientist and an RAF exchange officer; George C. Scott plays the general.

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

Harrison reprised his stage role, while Audrey Hepburn replaced Broadway's Eliza, Julie Andrews.

A Corgi toy of which car became the biggest-selling toy of 1964 thanks to Goldfinger?

Goldfinger was also the first Bond film to win an Oscar, for Sound Editing, and the first to top $100 million.

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

It held the record for five years and sold an estimated 283 million admissions worldwide.

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

Pasternak's novel was banned in the USSR for decades; the film won five Oscars from ten nominations.

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

Clint Eastwood is 'the Good' and Lee Van Cleef 'the Bad'; the film was shot in Spain with a score by Ennio Morricone.

Who plays Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate?

Simon & Garfunkel's soundtrack song 'Mrs. Robinson' became a hit and the film topped the 1967 box office.

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

Its bloody ending broke taboos and helped launch New Hollywood; Estelle Parsons won the Supporting Actress Oscar.

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

Rod Steiger won Best Actor and the film took Best Picture; 'They call me Mister Tibbs!' is AFI's 16th greatest quote.

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

Disney rejected an early darker script closer to Kipling; 'The Bare Necessities' was written by Terry Gilkyson.

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

He won for directing the visual effects; the film's soundtrack is built from existing classical pieces.

Who won Best Supporting Actress for Rosemary's Baby?

Though set in Manhattan, most of the film was shot in Los Angeles in late 1967.

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

Makeup artist John Chambers received an honorary Oscar for the ape prosthetics.

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

Made for about $100,000 in Evans City, Pennsylvania, it earned more than 250 times its budget.

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

Choreographer Onna White received an Honorary Award; Ron Moody won a Golden Globe for playing Fagin.

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

William Goldman's script pairs Paul Newman and Robert Redford, with Katharine Ross as Etta Place.

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

Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman play the two hustlers; the X is roughly today's NC-17.

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

Shot for $400,000, it earned $60 million and gave Jack Nicholson an Oscar nomination.

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

He plays Marshal Rooster Cogburn, thought to be modelled on real deputy marshal Heck Thomas.

Elizabeth Taylor signed on to Cleopatra for a record-setting salary of how much?

Production costs hit $31 million, making it the most expensive film ever at the time and nearly bankrupting Fox.

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

Steve McQueen's motorcycle jump is regarded as one of the greatest stunts ever performed.

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

The film was released in October 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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

News photographer Paparazzo, played by Walter Santesso, lent his name to intrusive photographers everywhere.

Who won Best Supporting Actor for Cool Hand Luke?

The Florida prison camp was recreated in California's San Joaquin River Delta.

Bullitt's landmark car chase races through which city?

Steve McQueen's own Solar Productions made the film, which won the Oscar for Film Editing.

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

It remains the only tie in the category's history; Hepburn won for The Lion in Winter.

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

David Niven's Phantom is the thief; Peter Sellers's Clouseau chases him to Cortina d'Ampezzo.

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

The Magnificent Seven's Elmer Bernstein score sits on the AFI's list of the top 25 American film scores.

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

It became the first animated feature to earn over $10 million in its initial release.

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

It covers a fictional 36 hours in the band's life and inspired the Monkees' TV show.

Who plays Minnesota Fats opposite Paul Newman in The Hustler?

Newman finally won his Oscar 25 years later, playing Fast Eddie again in The Color of Money.

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

Maximilian Schell and Werner Klemperer played the same characters in both versions.

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

Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis won; the film was nominated in every category for which it was eligible.

Spencer Tracy died how many days after completing his role in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

It was his ninth and final film with Katharine Hepburn, who said she never watched it.

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

They were behind-the-lines demolition specialists; the film was shot at MGM's British studios.

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

It premiered at the Cinerama Dome at 192 minutes before United Artists cut it to 163 against his wishes.

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

The Palme d'Or winner defied the Production Code and helped bring in the MPAA ratings system in 1968.

Which 1963 British comedy starring Albert Finney won Best Picture?

Tony Richardson directed from a John Osborne script adapting Henry Fielding's 1749 novel.

The Longest Day set which box-office record on release?

Several cast members, including Richard Todd and Henry Fonda, had actually served in the war it depicts.

A Fistful of Dollars was ruled an unofficial remake of which Kurosawa film?

Kurosawa earned more from the settlement than from his own film.

Which future James Bond made his film debut in The Lion in Winter?

Peter O'Toole earned his second nomination for playing Henry II, having done so first in Becket.

Who plays the title role in Barbarella (1968)?

Director Roger Vadim, her husband at the time, cast her after considering several other actresses.

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

Its climax ranks tenth on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

Who directed The Wild Bunch?

Its quick-cut slow-motion violence was revolutionary in 1969 and the AFI ranks it the sixth-best Western.

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

The film ends on a famous unresolved cliffhanger and gave Michael Caine his 'bloody doors' line.

How many skeleton warriors fight the heroes in Ray Harryhausen's famous Jason and the Argonauts scene?

The film flopped at first, and Bernard Herrmann wrote the score.

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

Its Hitler-themed musical plot was controversial from the start; Brooks later turned it into a hit Broadway show.

For which 1963 film did Sidney Poitier become the first Black actor to win the Best Actor Oscar?

He plays a handyman who ends up building a chapel for a group of East German nuns in the Arizona desert.

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

Hitchcock's editor George Tomasini and composer Bernard Herrmann both worked on the thriller.

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

SPECTRE uses Tatiana Romanova as bait to avenge Bond's killing of Dr. No in the previous film.

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

Laurence Olivier spoke the prologue, and the film won Oscars for cinematography and costume design.

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

Roald Dahl co-wrote the screenplay, Bond producer Albert Broccoli produced, and the Sherman Brothers wrote the songs.

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

Isaac Asimov was hired to write the paperback novelisation of Harry Kleiner's Cold War-tinged screenplay.

Which singer made her film debut in To Sir, with Love (1967) and took its title song to number one in the US?

The single spent five weeks at the top and was 1967's best-selling US single; the film earned $42 million on a $600,000 budget.

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

Richard Brooks adapted Truman Capote's nonfiction novel, adding only a fictional reporter character.

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

Stunt legend Yakima Canutt directed most of the action, including the famous cable-car fight shot on location in Austria.

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

Adapted from Muriel Spark's novel, the 1969 film was a box-office disappointment despite her acclaimed performance.

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

Gene Kelly directed Barbra Streisand as matchmaker Dolly Levi opposite Walter Matthau's Horace Vandergelder.

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

Rex Harrison starred as the doctor who talks to animals in the troubled, much-delayed musical.

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

Bill Naughton adapted his own 1963 play, and the Paramount release helped define Swinging London cinema.