The New York Film Critics Circle, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, has presented its prestigious awards every year since 1935, with the notable exception of 1962.
That year — when a lengthy newspaper strike temporarily put most of the Circle’s members out of work — coincidentally turned out to be one of the very best in the history of movies. And it’s the subject of a 10-film retrospective honoring the Circle that opens tomorrow at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The series runs the gamut from classics such as John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” and François Truffaut’s overshown “Jules and Jim” (introduced by my colleague Kyle Smith) to quirkier choices such as Robert Aldrich’s “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” and Jerry Lewis’ “The Errand Boy.”
An even less obvious pick is George Cukor’s infrequently revived and not-on-video “The Chapman Report,” based on a pulpy best seller about a Kinsey-like sex survey. It focuses on four very unhappy women: a young widow (Jane Fonda) who believes she is frigid, a drunken nymphomaniac (Claire Bloom) who kills herself after being raped at a party, an art dealer’s wife (Glynis Johns) who falls for a football player who likes to play rough, and a middle-aged wife (Shelley Winters) having an affair with a theater director.
“The Chapman Report” is a fascinating reminder of how Hollywood grappled with adult subjects in the last years before official censorship was abandoned. On those grounds, it’s probably more interesting than the World War II epic “The Longest Day,” Darryl F. Zanuck’s other 1962 production, the second-highest-grossing film of 1962.
It’s not in the series, and neither, more inexplicably, are such landmarks as “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Dr. No,” “The Miracle Worker,” “Freud,” “Cape Fear,” “Advise & Consent,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and “Birdman of Alcatraz,” not to mention “Divorce Italian Style” and “Last Year at Marienbad.”
BAM is offering 1962’s top-grossing film and Best Picture Oscar winner “Lawrence of Arabia” on Sunday.
The 1:30 p.m. screening will be followed by a panel discussion with members of the New York Film Critics Circle speculating on who would have won its awards in 1962. Participating are Circle chairman Armond White of the New York Press along with Stephanie Zacharek of Salon, Marshall Fine of Star, John Anderson of Newsday and myself.
Schedule at bam.org. More at 24hbongdda.site/blogs/movies.