90%  Winner:   My Fair Lady  170 min,  G,  [Drama, Family, Musical, Romance]  [George Cukor]  [25 Dec 1964]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 79%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 96%,   Metacritic: 95%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 8 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 13 nominations.
Actors:  Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White
Writer:  Alan Jay Lerner (book), George Bernard Shaw (from a play by), Alan Jay Lerner (screenplay)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  Pompous phonetics professor Henry Higgins is so sure of his abilities that he takes it upon himself to transform a Cockney working-class girl into someone who can pass for a cultured member of high society. His subject turns out to be the lovely Eliza Doolittle, who agrees to speech lessons to improve her job prospects. Higgins and Eliza clash, then form an unlikely bond -- one that is threatened by an aristocratic suitor.
Rotten Tomatoes:   My Fair Lady is now more "lovelier" than ever with a breathtaking new restoration playing in cinemas nationwide for a limited time only. In honor of its 50th Anniversary, this eight time OSCAR winning musical has been restored frame-by-frame from the original 65mm negative and scanned utilizing start-of-the-art technology under the supervision of Robert Harris (the famed film historian).

74%  Nominee:   Becket  148 min,  PG-13,  [Biography, Drama, History]  [Peter Glenville]  [11 Mar 1964]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 80%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 75%,   Metacritic: 68%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 1 Oscar. Another 13 wins & 23 nominations.
Actors:  Gino Cervi, John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole, Richard Burton
Writer:  Jean Anouilh (play), Lucienne Hill (play), Edward Anhalt (screenplay)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English, Latin, Welsh    Country:  UK, USA
Plot:  Debauched King Henry II installs his longtime court facilitator Thomas Becket as the Archbishop of Canterbury, assuming that his old friend will be a compliant and loyal lackey in the King's ongoing battles with the church. But Becket unexpectedly finds his true calling on the ecclesiastical side, and aligns himself against the king's selfish wishes, causing a rift and an eventual showdown not only between the two men, but also the institutions they represent.
Rotten Tomatoes:   A historical costume drama of the grandest order, "Becket" is the true story of the friendship between King Henry II and Thomas à Becket, a royal courtier and confidant whom Henry appoints as Archbishop of Canterbury. Once proposed for the office, Becket immediately perceives what the King does not: that his job as head of the Church will inevitably bring him into conflict with the King's interests. Until that point, he had been the King's closest friend and beloved companion, serving him faithfully in all things despite Henry's attitude towards the Church. However, he sees that as Archbishop he will be unable to take so nonchalant an attitude, and so vigorously objects to the plan. The basic theme covering separation of church and state reverberates as it did between King Henry VIII and Thomas More, 400 years later [as famously recounted in "A Man for All Seasons"] and still reverberates today. As Becket takes his duties with the church more seriously, their lifelong friendship is strenuously tested. He finds himself increasingly at odds with the King, setting off a chain of events that will culminate in tragedy.

93%  Nominee:   Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb  95 min,  PG,  [Comedy]  [Stanley Kubrick]  [29 Jan 1964]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 84%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 99%,   Metacritic: 96%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 7 nominations.
Actors:  George C. Scott, Keenan Wynn, Peter Sellers, Sterling Hayden
Writer:  Stanley Kubrick (screenplay), Terry Southern (screenplay), Peter George (screenplay), Peter George (based on the book: "Red Alert" by)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English, Russian    Country:  USA, UK
Plot:  Paranoid Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper of Burpelson Air Force Base, believing that fluoridation of the American water supply is a Soviet plot to poison the U.S. populace, is able to deploy through a back door mechanism a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union without the knowledge of his superiors, including the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Buck Turgidson, and President Merkin Muffley. Only Ripper knows the code to recall the B-52 bombers and he has shut down communication in and out of Burpelson as a measure to protect this attack. Ripper's executive officer, RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (on exchange from Britain), who is being held at Burpelson by Ripper, believes he knows the recall codes if he can only get a message to the outside world. Meanwhile at the Pentagon War Room, key persons including Muffley, Turgidson and nuclear scientist and adviser, a former Nazi named Dr. Strangelove, are discussing measures to stop the attack or mitigate its blow-up into an all out nuclear war with the Soviets. Against Turgidson's wishes, Muffley brings Soviet Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky into the War Room, and get his boss, Soviet Premier Dimitri Kisov, on the hot line to inform him of what's going on. The Americans in the War Room are dismayed to learn that the Soviets have an as yet unannounced Doomsday Device to detonate if any of their key targets are hit. As Ripper, Mandrake and those in the War Room try and work the situation to their end goal, Major T.J. "King" Kong, one of the B-52 bomber pilots, is working on his own agenda of deploying his bomb where ever he can on enemy soil if he can't make it to his intended target.
Rotten Tomatoes:   In 1964, with the Cuban Missile Crisis fresh in viewers' minds, the Cold War at its frostiest, and the hydrogen bomb relatively new and frightening, Stanley Kubrick dared to make a film about what could happen if the wrong person pushed the wrong button -- and played the situation for laughs. Dr. Strangelove's jet-black satire (from a script by director Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, and Terry Southern) and a host of superb comic performances (including three from Peter Sellers) have kept the film fresh and entertaining, even as its issues have become (slightly) less timely. Loaded with thermonuclear weapons, a U.S. bomber piloted by Maj. T.J. "King" Kong (Slim Pickens) is on a routine flight pattern near the Soviet Union when they receive orders to commence Wing Attack Plan R, best summarized by Maj. Kong as "Nuclear combat! Toe to toe with the Russkies!" On the ground at Burpleson Air Force Base, Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) notices nothing on the news about America being at war. Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) calmly informs him that he gave the command to attack the Soviet Union because it was high time someone did something about fluoridation, which is sapping Americans' bodily fluids (and apparently has something to do with Ripper's sexual dysfunction). Meanwhile, President Merkin Muffley (Sellers again) meets with his top Pentagon advisors, including super-hawk Gen. Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott), who sees this as an opportunity to do something about Communism in general and Russians in particular. However, the ante is upped considerably when Soviet ambassador de Sadesky (Peter Bull) informs Muffley and his staff of the latest innovation in Soviet weapons technology: a "Doomsday Machine" that will destroy the entire world if the Russians are attacked. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

88%  Nominee:   Mary Poppins  139 min,  G,  [Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Musical]  [Robert Stevenson]  [03 Dec 1964]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 78%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 100%,   Metacritic: 88%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 5 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 17 nominations.
Actors:  David Tomlinson, Dick Van Dyke, Glynis Johns, Julie Andrews
Writer:  Bill Walsh (screenplay), Don DaGradi (screenplay), P.L. Travers (based on: The "Mary Poppins" books by)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  When Jane and Michael, the children of the wealthy and uptight Banks family, are faced with the prospect of a new nanny, they are pleasantly surprised by the arrival of the magical Mary Poppins. Embarking on a series of fantastical adventures with Mary and her Cockney performer friend, Bert, the siblings try to pass on some of their nanny's sunny attitude to their preoccupied parents.
Rotten Tomatoes:   "Practically Perfect In Every Way" Mary Poppins flies out of the windy London skies and into the home of two mischievous children. With the help of a carefree chimney sweep named Bert (Dick Van Dyke), the spirited nanny turns every chore into a game and every day into a "Jolly Holiday."

82%  Nominee:   Zorba the Greek  142 min,  Not Rated,  [Comedy, Drama]  [Michael Cacoyannis]  [14 Dec 1964]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 77%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 88%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 3 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 16 nominations.
Actors:  Alan Bates, Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Lila Kedrova
Writer:  Nikos Kazantzakis (from the novel "The Life and Times of Alexis Zorba"), Michael Cacoyannis (screenplay)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb     Language:  English, Greek    Country:  Greece, USA
Plot:  An aimless English writer finds he has a small inheritance on a Greek island. His joyless existence is disturbed when he meets Zorba, a middle aged Greek with a real lust for life. As he discovers the earthy pleasures of Greece, the Englishman finds his view on life changing.
Rotten Tomatoes:   If ever there was a role that Anthony Quinn was born to play, it was the lusty, life-affirming title character in Zorba the Greek. The scene is the isle of Crete, where English writer Alan Bates arrives in the hopes of realigning his own values and outlook on life. He is "adopted" by the flamboyant Zorba, who determines to educate Bates in the ways of the world-or, to be more precise, Zorba's world. Along the way, Bates is introduced to widow Irene Papas, the unrequited love object of everyone on the island, who comes to a tragic end when she is accused of adultery. The writer is also a spectator to the equally benighted romance between Zorba and venerable courtesan Lila Kedrova. Other disasters follow, but Zorba is able to convince Bates that failure is an inescapable part of life, and that only by constantly tasting defeat can one truly enjoy life's victories. Based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek earned Oscars for actress Lila Kedrova, cinematographer Walter Lassally and art director Vassilis Fotopoulos. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi