Christmas Movies of 1967

With the Christmas movie season now upon us, studios will be unleashing many movies in the next few weeks in the hopes of obtaining your entertainment dollars. Many of these films are expected to be remembered when the Academy Award nominations are announced next month.

Last summer I did a retrospective article on summer movie releases from the past and I thought it would be fun to take a look back at Christmas movie releases from the past as well.

These days the Christmas movie season begins in early November but, for the most part, Christmas movie releases from years ago generally opened in December. As you will see in this list there were exceptions when a film would open around Thanksgiving thanks to industry buzz on the movie.

I thought I would take you back forty years ago to 1967. Back then suburban malls were beginning to pop up while big city movie palaces were still flourishing. In most instances the movie palaces would open the film exclusively while the mall theaters would not get them until a second run began some time later depending on the success of a particular movie. This would explain why there are only 8 movies released at Christmas, 1967. The mall theaters were playing movies that had their runs downtown and had branched out, likely making their bookings successful as well. This list is concentrating purely on those movies released first run that Christmas season.

If you can remember these movies being released then I hope this article is a fond remembrance of those days. The movies are listed alphabetically.

THE AMBUSHERS (20th Century Fox - Director: Henry Levin) - At this time James Bond movies were extremely popular but so were spoofs of James Bond, particularly James Coburn as Derek Flint and Dean Martin as Matt Helm. The plot? Who needs a plot? The film features a suave Dean Martin, beautiful women, chases and explosions. This was the third film in the Helm series to come out in just 18 months. The first, The Silencers, was an unexpected smash hit that led the studio to rush Murderer's Row into production for Christmas of 1966. The film was another hit though its quality compared to the original had dipped some. For this third outing the studio elected to wait a full year in the hopes a slower pace would make the film better. Sadly things didn't work out that way as The Ambushers is the weakest film in the series. The film still made enough money to warrant a fourth film in the series but The Wrecking Crew would not debut until February of 1969. The film's failure at the box office forced the cancellation of a fifth Helm movie, The Ravagers, whose announced coming attraction is seen at the end of this film.

COOL HAND LUKE (Warner Bros - Director: Stuart Rosenberg) Perhaps the most beloved prison film ever made and a favorite of every Paul Newman fan features Newman as a restless small town nobody who goes to jail for cutting the heads off parking meters and refusing to conform to any system but his own. Luke actually opened Thanksgiving week of 1967 but was a big enough hit in limited release that it played through Christmas at the theaters it was booked. The film, however, was still not a smash hit making $11 million despite four Academy Award nominations and one win for George Kennedy, Best Supporting Actor. It played well in its exclusive big city runs but, interestingly, the film failed to catch on in wide release.

DOCTOR DOLITTLE (20^th Century Fox - Director: Richard Fleischer) A big budgeted musical children's movie that became the first in a trilogy of movies (followed by Star! and Hello Dolly) to nearly bankrupt one of the greatest of all film studios. Rex Harrison stars in the title role as the renowned veterinarian who has the ability to communicate with animals as no other can. The film is filled with mostly forgettable songs and cheap visual effects and ran a needlessly long three hours in its original release. Fox spent almost $4 million on this picture only to see it make back just under $9 million despite a shocking 9 Academy Award nominations including one for Best Picture of the year. Truman Capote, who's In Cold Blood was overlooked for a nomination stated, "This finally proves once and for all that the Academy doesn't base their awards on merit but on who's your friend. I mean, really, what in the hell is a dolittle?" The film would win 2 awards for its special effects (!) and for Best Song for "Talk To The Animals."

ELVIRA MADIGAN (Cinema V - Director: Bo Winderberg) An unexpected hit was this sexy Swedish art house romantic drama about a famous circus ropewalker who falls in love with and runs off with an Army deserter who is married with children. Sub-titled with a no name cast, Elvira broke the mold and gave serious moviegoers the type of movie they required and turned this little known film into a solid art house hit that played for months.

FITZWILLY (United Artists - Director: Delbart Mann) This was the only other family film for the holiday season and neither managed to avoid being box office flops over the Christmas season. Dick Van Dyke stars as a faithful butler to a once rich woman who is unknowingly destitute. The butler, with the aid of the rest of the house staff, pulls off capers to avoid the woman discovering her financial situation. This mildly amusing film might have proved a capable diversion for children and more serious minded films but failed to attract an audience.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (United Artists - Director: Sergio Leone) Director Leone, best known for his spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood, unleashed an epic western that Christmas that has become a classic. Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach star in the title roles as men each of whom has a piece to a puzzle leading to a graveyard where gold is buried. Each man, however, must put up with the other two in the hopes of securing the treasure for himself, leading up to one of the longest final shootout build ups in the history of films. By this time Eastwood had become popular so fans came out in droves to see this popular film. Leone's masterpiece cost $1.2 million to make and grossed over $19 million.

THE GRADUATE (Embassy Pictures - Director: Mike Nichols) The sleeper hit of the Christmas season and for all of 1967 made stars of Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross and brought the music of Simon and Garfunkle to the forefront of popular music. Young adults swarmed to this film multiple times and adults went to see what all the fuss was about after the film received mostly glowing reviews and would be nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress (Anne Bancroft) and Best Supporting Actress. Nichols would collect the film's only award for Best Director. Little Embassy Pictures put up $3 million when no other studio would touch and was rewarded with a hit that grossed over $44 million.

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (20^th Century Fox - Director: Mark Robson) For as long as there have been books and movies about rich people whose greed, lust and hunger for more causes their downfall, there has been a huge audience for it. This was proven with Valley of the Dolls, considered by most to be one of the worst films of 1967. Despite this people who bought and adored the novel by Jacqueline Susann on which the film is based, flocked in droves to see the film adaptation and ate it up. The film covers the life of a woman trying to make it big in films and the other women she befriends along the way. The film is filled with sex (though no nudity as this was still frowned upon), drugs, booze and betrayal, all the ingredients for smash hit movie - critics be damned. Made for a budget just shy of $5 million, Valley of the Dolls grossed an amazing $45 million and would be nominated for its Original Score by a young John Williams.