Summer Movies of 1968

Much as it was last year the summer movie season opened with a bang the very first Friday of the month of May. Last year Spiderman 3 came roaring out of the gates to bad reviews but good box office. This year Iron Man opened the door to the summer movie season with strong reviews and strong box office.

As I have illustrated in several articles in the past, the summer movie season seems to be opening sooner and sooner. Summer movies were never as crucial to film studios as the fall and Christmas films until Jaws took the world by storm in the summer of 1975 and everything changed. Since then bigger budgeted films directed at younger audiences have had their premieres in the prime summer months.

I always like to take a trip back in time and look at the films that opened in a particular season in a particular year to compare the types of films that played then as opposed to those that play now. Often you find less movies opening in the summer months but often they were critical hits that would go on to Academy Award nominations and, in some cases, bringing home the gold.

For this article I thought it would be fun to look back at the summer movie season of forty years ago, 1968 to see what a totally different generation of people enjoyed that summer. You will note that there were 15 movies released that summer but only one that was specifically directed towards children, something unheard of now. One was a sequel but only because of its use of a popular character's name. Four of these films were remembered at Academy Awards time the following winter and two of them were among the biggest hits of the year.

Here are the summer movies of 1968 listed in alphabetical order. I hope you enjoy the trip back in time and if you happen to have attended some of these movies in first run I hope this brings back pleasant memories.

5 CARD STUD (Paramount; Director - Henry Hathaway) Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum star in the thrilling Western about a card game where a hopeless amateur is caught cheating. While Martin tries to prevent any wrongdoing the others string the cheater up and hang him. Soon after each man in the card game is murdered by hanging one by one and its up to Martin to find the killer with the help of a mysterious preacher who may himself be the killer. This was a genuinely thrilling and entertaining film that was a mild box office hit.

THE DETECTIVE (20^th Century Fox; Director - Gordon Douglas) Frank Sinatra starred in his last true box office hit as a tough New York City detective who investigates the murder of a homosexual and soon stumbles into a path of police corruption while delving deeper into an unknown world of sex and drugs. Sinatra is at his rugged best in this involving, adult thriller co-starring Lee Remick.

FOR LOVE OF IVY (Cinerama Releasing Corp; Director - Daniel Mann) Thanks to the enormous success the previous year with In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? Sidney Poitier could do no wrong and he proved that with this sub-standard, critically bashed romantic comedy/drama that was the sleeper hit of the summer. The film tells the dated story of an African American maid who tells her white employers that she is planning to go back to school thus will soon be resigning and the plan of the son to bring a man ((Poitier) into her life so she will stay.

THE GREEN BERETS (Warner Bros; Director - John Wayne) America's greatest film hero became the first person to tackle the story of the Vietnam War in this tired and very dated look at two missions of a troop of Beret's in Vietnam. Knowing now the real stories and atrocities (something Wayne had NO idea of while shooting) the film comes off more laughable then anything but for action fans Wayne still delivers the goods. The film made an impressive $9 million despite a critical drubbing but the film's budget bloated to almost $7 million thus making it a loser at the box office at the time.

HANG EM HIGH (United Artists; Director - Don Post) Clint Eastwood's first American western post spaghetti westerns tells the tale of a man mistaken for a cattle rustler and murderer who is hung and left for dead. He doesn't die and he comes back to take revenge on the ruthless mob that looked to kill him. Eastwood's star status was already cemented but this film did amazingly well despite mixed reviews. The film cost $1.8 million and grossed over $7 million.

HOW SWEET IT IS (National General Pictures; Director - Jerry Paris) One of a plethora of mild sex comedies the public was inundated with during this time. This one featured James Garner as a photographer who jets with his wife and son to Paris for an assignment and soon finds his and his wife's fidelity severely tested. The film failed both critically and commercially.

INSPECTOR CLOUSEAU (United Artists; Director - Bud Yorkin) Apparently desperate for a hit, United Artists decided to continue with the exploits of the popular French detective without its creator, director Blake Edwards, or its star Peter Sellers. Instead television director Yorkin was brought in and Alan Arkin had the unfortunate shoes of Sellers to fill, which he does so poorly. Not surprisingly people did not turn out for this comedic dud and the character would rest again until Edwards and Sellers resurrected him in 1975.

THE ODD COUPLE (Paramount; Director - Gene Saks) Based on Neil Simon's smash Broadway play about two roommates, one clean and one messy, who begin to drive each other crazy. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau deliver strong performances in the leads and Simon adapts his play into a strong comedic character piece and would receive an Academy Award nomination for his script. The film received good reviews but was a box office smash earning over $20 million.

THE PRODUCERS (Avco Embassy; Director - Mel Brooks) Brooks' first film as writer/director is the now familiar story of a hack Broadway producer (Zero Mostel) who conspires with a meek accountant (Oscar nominee Gene Wilder) to rip off elderly rich people by selling portions of a play that is sure to flop. This comedic masterpiece would earn Brooks the Academy Award for his screenplay and despite terrific reviews the film was a box office flop upon release. Years later the film would be recognized for the classic it is and would inspire one of the biggest Broadway musicals in history plus a remake based on the play. That version also flopped at the box office.

ROSEMARY'S BABY (Paramount; Director - Roman Polanski) Polanski wrote and directed this adaptation of Ira Levin's terrifying best seller about a young couple who move into an apartment building populated by old people. Soon the husband is spending more time then necessary with the neighbors while strange things begin happening to and around Rosemary. And then she becomes pregnant. The film was a box office sensation that summer grossing over $15 million and winning Ruth Gordon an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Polanski himself was nominated for his script.

THE SHAKIEST GUN IN THE WEST (Universal; Director - Alan Rafkin) The one true film for kids that summer was this lightweight but entertaining film with Don Knotts as a dentist in the old west with predictable mayhem ensuing. One of Knott's better efforts and a mild hit in the suburbs.

THE SWIMMER (Columbia; Director - Frank Perry) Burt Lancaster stars and gives one of his best performances as a man coming home after being hospitalized for the summer. He stops at a friend's house for a quick dip in the swimming pool and soon realizes he can map out a route of swimming pools that will take him right to his house. As he stops at each house we learn more about his life and those who love and hate him. This powerful drama was released limitedly due to its art house signature but has become well known through the years. This is one of the best films of 1968.

TARGETS (Paramount; Director - Peter Bogdanovich) Director Bogdanovich made his big screen directing debut with this disturbing look at two lives, one a disturbed young man and the other a horror movie actor sick of the real horrors in the world. The two converge when the young man goes on a killing spree and ends up at a local drive-in where the horror movie actor is set to appear for the premiere of his latest movie. Before that happens the young man takes refuge in the tower behind the screen and begins shooting at patrons. This is a tense, violent look at societal horror and its confusion with movie horror and is well made by the novice director. Unfortunately the film came out when the country was having its fill of violence from the war and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy and the film failed to attract an audience.

THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (United Artists; Director - Norman Jewison) A tense, action filled romantic thriller with Steve McQueen as the mastermind of a huge robbery and Faye Dunaway as the insurance investigator who suspects Crown (McQueen) and begins to see him socially in order to trap him. But who is trapping whom? The scene when the two play chess is a classic scene of eroticism without seeing a thing. Despite the star power the reviews were mixed and the film made only $6 million which wasn't bad but far less then hoped for.

WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT? (MGM; Director - Hy Averback) A lightweight comedy starring Doris Day (as her movie career was slowing down) and Robert Morse in the story of people reacting to the great 1965 blackout in New York. Morse stars as a fed up executive who decides to steal from his company and finds the blackout is the last thing he needed and leads him down a road he never expected. The film's reviews were mostly on the negative side but Day was a popular attraction and the film grossed almost $9 million.