1960s American films

2891 quotes found

"[To Raymond] It's been decided that you will be dressed as a priest to get away in the pandemonium afterwards. Chunjin will give you a two-piece Soviet Army's sniper's rifle that fits nicely into a special bag. There's a spotlight booth that won't be in use. It's up under the roof on the 8th Avenue side of the Garden. You will have absolutely clear, protected shooting. You are to shoot the Presidential nominee through the head. And Johnny will rise gallantly to his feet and lift Ben Arthur's body in his arms, stand in front of the microphones and begin to speak. The speech is short, but it's the most rousing speech I've ever read. It's been worked on here and in Russia on and off for over eight years. I shall force someone to take the body away from him. And Johnny will leave those microphones and those cameras with blood all over him, fighting off anyone who tries to help him, defending America even if it means his own death, rallying a nation of television-viewers into hysteria to sweep us up into the White House with powers that will make martial law seem like anarchy. Now this is very important. I want the nominee to be dead about two minutes after he begins his acceptance speech, depending on his reading time under pressure. You are to hit him right at the point that he finishes the phrase, "nor would I ask of any fellow American in defense of his freedom that which I would not gladly give myself - my life before my liberty." Is that absolutely clear?"

- The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)

0 likesAction films1960s American filmsConspiracy filmsDrama filmsNeo-noir
"[Atticus' closing argument in the trial against Tom Robinson] To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place... It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses, whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. Now, there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten - savagely, by someone who led exclusively with his left. And Tom Robinson now sits before you having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses: his right. I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the State. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance. But my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. Now I say "guilt," gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She's committed no crime - she has merely broken a rigid and time-honoured code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. But what was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was to her a daily reminder of what she did. Now, what did she do? She tempted a Negro. She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that, in our society, is unspeakable. She kissed a black man. Not an old uncle, but a strong, young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards. The witnesses for the State, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption, the evil assumption, that all Negroes lie, all Negroes are basically immoral beings, all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women. An assumption that one associates with minds of their calibre, and which is, in itself, gentlemen, a lie, which I do not need to point out to you. And so, a quiet, humble, respectable Negro, who has had the unmitigated temerity to feel sorry for a white woman, has had to put his word against two white people's! The defendant is not guilty - but somebody in this courtroom is. Now, gentlemen, in this country, our courts are the great levellers. In our courts, all men are created equal. I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system - that's no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality! Now I am confident that you gentlemen will review, without passion, the evidence that you have heard, come to a decision and restore this man to his family. In the name of God, do your duty. In the name of God, believe... Tom Robinson."

- To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

0 likes1960s American filmsComing-of-age filmsCrime filmsDrama filmsFilms based on novels
"You know a place back down the road called Beekman's? Beekman's Diner? Anyhow, that's where I found that truck I have out there. There's a radio in the truck. I jumped in to listen, when a big gasoline truck came screaming right across the road! There must've been ten, fifteen of those things chasing after it, grabbing and holding on. Now, I didn't see them at first. I could just see that the truck was moving in a funny way. Those things were catching up to it. Truck went right across the road. I slammed on my brakes to keep from hitting it myself. It went right through the guard rail! I guess - guess the driver must've cut off the road into that gas station by Beekman's Diner. It went right through the billboard, ripped over a gas pump, and never stopped moving! By now it was like a moving bonfire! Didn't know if the truck was going to explode or what. I still hear the man... screaming. These things, just backing away from it! I looked back at the diner to see if - if there was anyone there who could help me. That's when I noticed that the entire place had been encircled. There wasn't a sign of life left, except... by now, there were no more screams. I realized that I was alone, with fifty or sixty of those things just... standing there, staring at me! I started to drive, I - I just plowed right through them! They didn't move! They didn't run, or... they just stood there, staring at me! I just wanted to crush them! And they scattered through the air, like bugs."

- Night of the Living Dead

0 likes1960s American filmsCult filmsIndependent filmsPost-apocalyptic filmsFilms about zombies
"Well, she had to be between 12 and 13 at the beginning, but between 16 and 17 at the end—I mean one girl who could play both parts—and we did look at quite a few young girls, some of them very young indeed. It was amazing how many parents would write in, you know, from Montana and so on, saying: "My daughter really is Lolita!"—that sort of thing. But we looked at them all, and of course, Sue Lyon was just one of them—but the moment we saw her, we through 'My God, if this girl can act—because she had this wonderful, enigmatic, but alive quality of mystery, but was still very expressive. Everything she did, commonplace things, like handling objects or crossing a room, or just talking, were all done in a very engaging way...and, incidentally this is a quality which most great actors have, it's a strange sort of personal unique style that goes into everything they do—like when Albert Finney sits down in a chair and drinks a bottle of beer, and, well, it's just great and you think "God, I wish I could drink a bottle of beer like that," or the way Marlon, you know, pushes his sun-glasses on his forehead and just leaves them there instead of putting them in his pocket...and, well, they all have ways of doing everyday things that are interesting to watch. And she had this, Sue Lyon—but of course, we still didn't know whether she could act. Then we did some scenes, and finally shot a test with Mason, and that was it—she was great."

- Lolita (1962 film)

0 likesDrama filmsFilms based on novels1960s American films1960s British filmsFilms based on works by Vladimir Nabokov
"SIR, I must confess I was greatly puzzled and less than amused by the Lolita New York premiere story printed in The Observer (June 17). Michael Davie, who is not a film critic, nevertheless saw fit to write a film review of Lolita four months before the film was to be Press-shown in Britain for its September première. Aside from the professional ethics involved here, his piece was viciously flippant and rude at the expense of Mr. Nabokov, Mr. Mason, Miss Winters, Mr. Sellers, Miss Lyon and myself. An anonymous spectator was quoted as saying, "Well, anyway, no one can say look what they did to Nabokov, the poor slob. The poor slob did it to himself." I suppose it is fortunate that Mr. Nabokov was blissfully unaware of his new status as a poor slob when he said to me after the premiere, "This is a great film. Sue Lyon is marvellous; she is Lolita. There are even some things in it I wish were in the book." Mr. Davie also wrote, "In life Sue Lyon is said to be 16, In the film. she looks older. Mason, in lite, is in his fifties. He, on the other hand. looks younger. At tunes, they look the same age. At one point, she looks older than him." I shall leave it to your readers to ponder that bit of witty prose. In fact. Sue was 14 years and 4 months when we began shooting and 14 years and 9 months when we finished. Lolita was 12 years and 8 months when Humbert met her and 17 years plus at the end of the noveL Humbert was 39 when he met Lolita."

- Lolita (1962 film)

0 likesDrama filmsFilms based on novels1960s American films1960s British filmsFilms based on works by Vladimir Nabokov
"[briefing RAF senior officers assigned to oversee ground control stations] Or, in other words, beware of the Hun in the sun- who, for reasons best known to himself, has confined his recent attacks to our Channel convoys. However, this won't last forever. But it has given us time to pull ourselves together and train people like you. Now, as fighter controllers, you'll be joining an organization which, thank the good Lord, was not rushed up hastily yesterday. It'll be a pain in the neck to the enemy when he comes. It's the joker up our sleeves. [points to chalkboard] Now, the RDF chain shows us where they are. The information is passed to Group. Group scrambles the necessary squadrons, and you, at Sector level, guide our chaps to the interception. It's been tried and tested. It works, so don't blame the system if you're no good. [details map] Now, clearly, 11 Group here will bear the brunt of the battle, as those of you who are posted there will find out, to your discomfort. Twelve Group is our second line of defense, and covers the industrial Midlands and the North. Thirteen Group, Scotland and the Northeast, and 10 Group, the west of England. More than half the Fighter Command squadrons are stationed here at 11 Group, near the coast, where we expect the invasion, and also able to protect London, which is as far as the bombers can get with fighter escort. But I think we can leave strategy to those with egg on their hats."

- Battle of Britain (film)

0 likes1960s British filmsWorld War II films1960s American films
"Mercy for them. The killers. How fortunate that their amicable attorneys were not present at the Clutter house on that fateful evening. How very fortunate for them that they were not present that evening to plead mercy for the doomed family, because otherwise, they would have found their corpses too. If you allow them life imprisonment, they will be eligible for parole in 7 years. That is the law. Gentlemen, 4 of your neighbors were slaughtered like hogs in a pen by them. They did not strike suddenly in the heat of passion, but for money. They did not kill in vengeance, they planned it for money. And how cheaply those lives were bought. $40. $10 a life. They drove 400 miles to come here. They brought their weapons with them. [picks up a shotgun] This shotgun. [picks up a knife] This dagger. '[picks up a rope] This is the rope they hogtied their victims with. [picks up a vile of blood]]] This is the blood they spilled. Herb Clutter's. They who had no pity, now ask for yours. They who had no mercy, now ask for yours. They who shed no tears, now ask for yours. If you have tears to shed, weep not for them, weep for their victims. [picks up a copy of the Holy Bible] From the way the Holy Bible was quoted here today, You might think the word of God was written only to protect the killers, but they didn't read you this: Exodus 20:13: "Thou shalt not kill." Or this: Genesis 9:12: "Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.""

- In Cold Blood (film)

0 likes1960s American filmsCrime drama filmsFilms based on novelsFilms based on works by Truman CapoteFilms about psychopaths
"Prologue Narrator: [opening lines] Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea have given birth to many myths and legends of war and adventure. And these once-proud stones, these ruined and shattered temples bear witness to the civilization that flourished and then died here and to the demigods and heroes who inspired those legends on this sea and these islands. But, though the stage is the same, ours is a legend of our own times, and its heroes are not demigods, but ordinary people. In 1943, so the story goes, 2000 British soldiers lay marooned on the tiny island of Kheros, exhausted and helpless. They had exactly one week to live for in Berlin the Axis high command had determined on a show of strength in the Aegean Sea to bully neutral Turkey into coming into the war on their side. The scene of that demonstration was to be Kheros, itself of no military value, but only a few miles off the coast of Turkey. The cream of the German war machine, rested and ready, was to spearhead the attack, and the men on Kheros were doomed unless they could be evacuated before the blitz. But the only passage to and from Kheros was guarded and blocked by two great, newly designed, radar-controlled guns on the nearby island of Navarone. Guns too powerful and accurate for any allied ship then in the Aegean to challenge. Allied intelligence learned of the projected blitz only one week before the appointed date. What took place in the next six days became the legend of Navarone."

- The Guns of Navarone

0 likesAdventure films1960s American filmsBritish filmsEpic filmsFilms based on novels
"If there is God—and I ask you, why not?—I imagine him to look just like me, Zorba. Only bigger, stronger and crazier. And more permanent. His house is the sky. The walls are clouds and the floor is covered with sheepskins. And there he sits, very comfortable, like a pasha. In his right hand he holds something which is not a sword and not a pair of scales either. Only killers and grocers have any use for such things. No sir. He holds a big sponge, dripping with water like a raincloud. On his right side, there is Paradise. On his left, Hell. ... Suddenly, a soul arrives. Naked poor thing and shivering with cold. God looks at the soul and smiles under his big moustaches. But he plays tough. "Come here," he says, putting on his special deep voice. "Come here, you no good tramp, you miserable worm. Confess!" "Have a heart, dear God," the soul cries, "Be merciful." And off she goes. She tells him one thing, then another, then another. And still there is no end to the bloody sins. Talk, talk, talk, talk. God gets bored. He yawns. "Shut up!" he shouts. "You give me a headache." And flop, flop with a sponge... and he wipes out all the sins. "Enough! Clear out, to Paradise. Quick! Hey, Peter, here's another one for you! ... [smiles and strokes beard] Poor little soul." ... That's God for you: a king, a great big king. And you know what it means to be a king?"

- Zorba the Greek (film)

0 likes1960s American filmsGreek filmsComedy-drama filmsFilms based on novelsFilms set in Greece