CINEMA '62: THE GREATEST YEAR AT THE MOVIES

1939 has, for quite a while, been referred to as the greatest year in cinema. And for good reason as there were an incredible number of high-quality films released that year which have continued to endure as true classics in movie history; just a few to mention include "Dark Victory", "Goodbye, Mr. Chips", "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "Ninotchka", "Stagecoach", "Wuthering Heights", "Gone With The Wind" and of course, "The Wizard of Oz".

But a new book by film critic, Stephen Farber and exhibition executive, Michael McClellan wants you to consider another year which also featured an exceptional number of amazing feature films that proven to have become just as important in cinematic history. "Cinema ’62: The Greatest Year At The Movies" examines many of the outstanding domestic and international films that came out in 1962. Now I may be biased since I was born in this year but after looking at the list of some of these movies, there is no denying that there was an impressive array of influential works of cinema released.

There was the film adaptions of Harper Lee's enduring novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird" and Nabokov's controversial book, "Lolita" from director, Stanley Kubrick. We had several award-winning Broadway stage-to-screen transfers: the musicals, "The Music Man" and "Gypsy" and dramas, "The Miracle Worker", "Sweet Bird Of Youth" and "Long Day's Journey into Night". Some high-powered dramas arrived like "The Manchurian Candidate", "The Longest Day", "Birdman Of Alcatraz", "Cape Fear" and "Days Of Wine And Roses". The first James Bond action-thriller, "Dr. No" appeared and campy B-movies featuring beloved yet faded Hollywood actresses, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?" and Barbara Stanwyck in "Walk On The Wild Side". The provocative foreign-language films that reached our shores came from filmmakers who would become celebrated, "Jules And Jim" (François Truffaut), "Through a Glass Darkly" (Ingmar Bergman),"L'Eclisse" (Michelangelo Antonioni) and "The Exterminating Angel" (Luis Buñuel). And "Lawrence Of Arabia", David Lean's highly acclaimed, epic historical drama which would win the Best Picture Oscar of this year.

If you're not familiar with these titles, I would highly recommend that you investigate and seek out some of these films from 1962. Here is a small sampling with a few trailers to preview: