Movies of 1963

Clips from The Birds, From Russia with Love, The Great Escape and the Tom Jones eating scene

Academy Awards 1963

Picture:
"TOM JONES", "America, America", "Cleopatra", "How the West Was Won", "Lilies of the Field"

Actor:
SIDNEY POITIER in "Lilies of the Field", Albert Finney in "Tom Jones", Richard Harris in "This Sporting Life", Rex Harrison in "Cleopatra", Paul Newman in "Hud"

Actress:
PATRICIA NEAL in "Hud", Leslie Caron in "The L-Shaped Room", Shirley MacLaine in "Irma La Douce", Rachel Roberts in "This Sporting Life", Natalie Wood in "Love with the Proper Stranger"

Supporting Actor:
MELVYN DOUGLAS in "Hud", Nick Adams in "Twilight of Honor", Bobby Darin in "Captain Newman, M.D.", Hugh Griffith in "Tom Jones", John Huston in "The Cardinal"

Supporting Actress:
MARGARET RUTHERFORD in "The V.I.P.'s", Diane Cilento in "Tom Jones", Edith Evans in "Tom Jones", Joyce Redman in "Tom Jones", Lilia Skala in "Lilies of the Field"

Director:
TONY RICHARDSON for "Tom Jones", Federico Fellini for "8 1/2", Elia Kazan for "America, America", Otto Preminger for "The Cardinal", Martin Ritt for "Hud"

Top Box Office 1963

Cleopatra's entrance to Rome is a real WOW! Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison is said to be the movie bomb of all time even though it was top box office of the year.

The Birds - Alfred Hitchcock follows Psycho with another box office hit starring Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World - Madcap 3 1/2 hour hunt for a suitcase full of cash. Starring Spencer Tracy - Milton Berle - Sid Caesar - Buddy Hackett - Ethel Merman - Mickey Rooney - Dick Shawn - Phil Silvers - Terry-Thomas -
Jonathan Winters - Edie Adams - Jim Backus -
William Demarest - Peter Falk - Buster Keaton - Don Knotts - Carl Reiner - The Three Stooges - Joe E. Brown - Andy Devine - Stan Freberg - Jimmy Durante - Jack Benny - Jerry Lewis

Entertainment News 1963

The Whisky a Go Go night club opens in Los Angeles, California. It is the first disco in the United States.

in 1962 Yoko Ono married Christian Fundamentalist Jazz musician and filmmaker Anthony Cox (who found her in an insane asylum in Japan). In 1963 they had the marriage annulled, they remarried later that year and split up in 1964. A busy Ono year.

Good Movies 1963

The Great Escape - Steve McQueen does his own motorcycle stunts in this World War II epic directed by Preston Sturgess and taken from the true story by Paul Brickhill. Also starring James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Coburn, Charles Bronson and Donald Pleasence.

Irma la Douce - The warm hearted prostitute played by Shirley MacLaine with Jack Lemon as the John who falls.

8 1/2 - Critics say it is one of the top ten movies ever made. A surreal film of the life of an Italian director, directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello
Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale.

The Pink Panther -
Director Blake Edwards begins the franchise of bumbling Inspector Clouseau played by Peter Sellers. Also starring David Niven and Robert Wagner.

B Movies 1963

Blood Feast directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, is considered the first "gore" or splatter film, forerunner to Night of the Living Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween. It was produced by David F. Friedman for $24,000. It is about an insane Egyptian caterer who kills people for meals. The film is considered high camp for the especially bad direction and acting. Bad Movie Review

Dementia 13 Producer Roger Corman gave a young Francis Ford Coppola his first directing job to film a Psycho knock off. The film starred William Campbell and Patrick Magee. Coppola also wrote the ax murdering screenplay. More on Dementia 13

Flaming Creatures - this 43-minute featurette by Jack Smith attracted media and public attention after it was seized by NY police and declared obscene by a NY Criminal Court.
The film features an array of transvestites, hermaphrodites, drag shows, a sexually ambiguous vampire and a drug orgy. Flaming Creatures Review

New Movies 1963

Bye Bye Birdie
Charade
Critic's Choice
Fun in Acapulco - Elvis Presley
A Gathering of Eagles
It Happened at the World's Fair
The L-Shaped Room
Matango
The Nutty Professor - Jerry Lewis
Sleep - Andy Warhol
Son of Flubber
The Sword in the Stone
The Wheeler Dealers
Who's Minding the Store? - Jerry Lewis
America, America

More on each new movie of 1963 at Wikipedia