Witness for the Prosecution (1957), from a story by Agatha Christie, is of course clever; though the byplay of the convalescent barrister and his nurse is a bit tiresome.
South Pacific (1958). I thought I’d enjoy it more. The plot is a bare sketch of a frame on which to hang the songs, which are stale. (Has time treated Michener’s book any better?) Notable use of color filters for effect, sometimes bizarre; the one point where I find it really successful is where reality crashes into a daydream and the filter suddenly goes away.
Vertigo (1958) lives up to its reputation.
Bell, Book and Candle (1958) is amiable fluff.
The Horse’s Mouth (1958) featured Alec Guinness (age 43, playing sixty-some) as an obnoxious painter. Rather predictable.
Peter Gunn (1958), a tv series about a private eye, remembered mainly for Mancini’s theme. Out of curiosity I put it on my Netflix list. The first disc holds eight half-hour episodes; I watched one and that was enough: nothing I haven’t seen a thousand times. My housemate watched one more episode, and then we packed it up to return.
Gigi (1958), a musical with Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier: disappointingly thin. — I wonder how many movies have three French leads (or two and a half: Caron’s mother was American) speaking only English.