Now Playing: JAN. 18, 1962

Opening wide this weekend is a romance picture from Delmer Daves, who had switched from western specialist to women's picture purveyor with 1959's A Summer Place. Daves first teamed Troy Donahue and Connie Stevens in Parrish, and the teaming apparently clicked, as this ad from Salt Lake City indicates.

I like most of Daves's westerns but haven't tried his romances.This trailer, uploaded by TheViewMonster, really exploits the success of Parrish and is a document of its time in its own right.

A different kind of picture opens in Rochester.

It took a little effort to track down something more than basic cast-and-crew info on this picture from the director of The George Raft Story, but here's the dirt on it. And in lieu of a trailer, here's a link to the complete picture -- so long as Congress still allows it. Still more obscure is the second feature, a 60-minute wonder starring Gene Nelson and directed by Jack Leewood. "20,000 eyes could not see this 'perfect crime,'" a poster reads -- and neither can we, online at least.

Opening in Charleston is this manly-seeming action picture co-starring Orson Welles.

At least it gave Welles work and probably helped finance one of his movies.Fortunately, he doesn't play The Pirate Yen; that honor goes to Anglo-Indian professional wrestler and British genre stalwart Milton Reid. Many moviegoers in January 1962 could also see Reid in The Wonders of Aladdin, which was in wide release that month. No trailer available, but vciguy76 uploaded a quick, colorful clip.



Be sure to come back; there'll be more movies yet this weekend.