Favorite Films of 1961
by bertramsharp | created - 10 Jul 2011 | updated - 16 Aug 2022 | PublicUpdated: 08/16/2022
I have watched 29 films with a 1961 release date. I have listed them here ranked from best to worst (in my opinion).
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1. Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Approved | 115 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building, but her past threatens to get in the way.
Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen
Votes: 192,198
2. West Side Story (1961)
Approved | 153 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.
Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise | Stars: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
Votes: 121,221 | Gross: $43.66M
3. The Hustler (1961)
Not Rated | 134 min | Drama, Sport
An up-and-coming pool player plays a long-time champion in a single high-stakes match.
Director: Robert Rossen | Stars: Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott
Votes: 86,806 | Gross: $8.28M
4. The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Not Rated | 158 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A team of Allied saboteurs is assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle
Votes: 55,414 | Gross: $28.90M
5. Wild in the Country (1961)
Not Rated | 114 min | Drama, Musical
A troubled young man discovers that he has a knack for writing when a counselor encourages him to pursue a literary career.
Director: Philip Dunne | Stars: Elvis Presley, Hope Lange, Tuesday Weld, Millie Perkins
Votes: 2,084
6. The Shadow of the Cat (1961)
Approved | 79 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A house cat sees her mistress murdered by two servants under orders from her husband , and becomes ferociously bent on revenge.
Director: John Gilling | Stars: André Morell, Barbara Shelley, William Lucas, Freda Jackson
Votes: 1,567
7. Night Tide (1961)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
A young sailor is attracted to a mysterious mermaid performing at a carnival, but soon suspects that the girl is actually a siren who draws men to their watery deaths during the full moon.
Director: Curtis Harrington | Stars: Dennis Hopper, Linda Lawson, Gavin Muir, Luana Anders
Votes: 4,101
8. Homicidal (1961)
Unrated | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
The brutal stabbing murder of a justice-of-the-peace sparks an investigation of dark family secrets in a sleepy small town in Southern California.
Director: William Castle | Stars: Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich, Alan Bunce
Votes: 3,782
9. Blue Hawaii (1961)
Approved | 102 min | Comedy, Musical
After arriving back in Hawaii from the Army, Chad Gates (Elvis Presley) defies his parents' wishes for him to work at the family business and instead goes to work as a tour guide at his girlfriend's agency.
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman, Angela Lansbury, Nancy Walters
Votes: 7,502 | Gross: $10.44M
10. One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
G | 79 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
When a litter of Dalmatian puppies are abducted by the minions of Cruella De Vil, the owners must find them before she uses them for a diabolical fashion statement.
Directors: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Wolfgang Reitherman | Stars: Rod Taylor, Betty Lou Gerson, J. Pat O'Malley, Martha Wentworth
Votes: 182,289 | Gross: $144.88M
11. The Innocents (1961)
Not Rated | 100 min | Horror
A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins, Michael Redgrave
Votes: 33,073 | Gross: $2.62M
12. The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
Approved | 97 min | Comedy, Family, Sci-Fi
A college professor invents an anti-gravity substance which a corrupt businessman wants for himself.
Director: Robert Stevenson | Stars: Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk
Votes: 9,283 | Gross: $25.38M
13. Mr. Sardonicus (1961)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A mysterious and cruel Baron, whose face has become frozen in a horrifying grin, demands that a prominent London physician apply experimental treatments on him to restore his face.
Director: William Castle | Stars: Oscar Homolka, Ronald Lewis, Audrey Dalton, Guy Rolfe
Votes: 3,642
14. The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
Approved | 93 min | Horror
In eighteenth-century Spain, an adopted boy becomes a werewolf and terrorizes the inhabitants of his town.
Director: Terence Fisher | Stars: Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain, Catherine Feller
Votes: 6,834
15. Scream of Fear (1961)
Approved | 81 min | Horror, Thriller
A wheelchair-bound young woman returns to her father's estate after 10 years, and although she's told he's away, she keeps seeing his dead body on the estate.
Director: Seth Holt | Stars: Susan Strasberg, Ann Todd, Ronald Lewis, Christopher Lee
Votes: 5,499
16. Gorgo (1961)
Unrated | 78 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Greedy sailors capture a giant lizard off the coast of Ireland and sell it to a London circus, inciting the wrath of the creature's mother.
Director: Eugène Lourié | Stars: Bill Travers, William Sylvester, Vincent Winter, Christopher Rhodes
Votes: 4,234
17. Babes in Toyland (1961)
Approved | 106 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Mary Contrary is set to marry Tom Piper when he is kidnapped by Roderigo and Gonzorgo, two goons working for the evil Barnaby who wants to marry Mary for her inheritance.
Director: Jack Donohue | Stars: Ray Bolger, Tommy Sands, Annette Funicello, Ed Wynn
Votes: 4,818 | Gross: $10.22M
18. Mysterious Island (1961)
Not Rated | 101 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
During the Civil War a group of Union soldiers, a Confederate and a civilian escape the stockade using a hot-air balloon and end up on a strange Pacific island.
Director: Cy Endfield | Stars: Michael Craig, Joan Greenwood, Michael Callan, Gary Merrill
Votes: 8,545
19. Valley of the Dragons (1961)
Approved | 82 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
In 1881, in Algeria, Michael Denning and Hector Servadac are fighting a duel when a comet brushing Earth takes the two men to the Moon where they discover a prehistoric civilization.
Director: Edward Bernds | Stars: Cesare Danova, Sean McClory, Joan Staley, Danielle De Metz
Votes: 762
20. Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory (1961)
Approved | 83 min | Horror, Mystery
At a girls' school, several students are murdered by a snarling, wolf/man-like creature. Suspicion falls upon a newly-arrived teacher.
Director: Paolo Heusch | Stars: Barbara Lass, Carl Schell, Curt Lowens, Maurice Marsac
Votes: 1,312
21. Anatomy of a Psycho (1961)
PG-13 | 75 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The crazed brother of a condemned killer sent to the gas chamber swears vengeance on those he holds responsible for his brother's execution.
Director: Boris Petroff | Stars: Ronnie Burns, Pamela Lincoln, Darrell Howe, Judy Howard
Votes: 627
22. Master of the World (1961)
Approved | 102 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
In 1868, an American scientist and his team become hostages of fanatical pacifist Robur who uses his airship Albatross to destroy military targets on Earth.
Director: William Witney | Stars: Vincent Price, Charles Bronson, Henry Hull, Mary Webster
Votes: 3,521
23. Bloodlust! (1961)
Approved | 68 min | Horror, Thriller
A crazed hunter kidnaps people and turns them loose on his private estate, where he hunts them for sport.
Director: Ralph Brooke | Stars: Wilton Graff, June Kenney, Walter Brooke, Robert Reed
Votes: 2,588
24. Honeymoon of Terror (1961)
62 min | Horror, Thriller
A couple honeymoons on a deserted isle called Thunder Island. When the husband leaves the island to go for supplies, the wife finds that the island isn't as deserted as they thought it was.
Director: Peter Perry Jr. | Stars: Dwan Marlow, Anton von Stralen, Doug Leith, Peter Perry Jr.
Votes: 128
25. The Terror of the Tongs (1961)
Approved | 76 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
In 1910, Hong Kong members of a secret Tong crime syndicate protect their identities by murdering the daughter of a British sea captain who vows revenge.
Director: Anthony Bushell | Stars: Christopher Lee, Yvonne Monlaur, Geoffrey Toone, Marne Maitland
Votes: 1,183
26. The Mask (1961)
Approved | 83 min | Horror, Thriller
A young archaeologist thinks he is cursed by an Aztec mask that makes him have strange nightmares. Before committing suicide, he sends the mask to his psychiatrist, who soon plunges into the mask's nightmarish world.
Director: Julian Roffman | Stars: Paul Stevens, Claudette Nevins, Bill Walker, Anne Collings
Votes: 1,045
27. Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961)
Unrated | 63 min | Comedy, Horror
A crook decides to bump off members of his inept crew and blame their deaths on a legendary sea creature. What he doesn't know is that the creature is real.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Antony Carbone, Betsy Jones-Moreland, Robert Towne, Beach Dickerson
Votes: 3,302
28. Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961)
Approved | 107 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
An ice-skating Snow White finds refuge from the Wicked Queen with the Three Stooges.
Directors: Walter Lang, Frank Tashlin | Stars: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Carol Heiss, Joe DeRita
Votes: 1,183 | Gross: $2.62M
29. The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)
Unrated | 54 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A defecting Soviet scientist is hit by a nuclear explosion near Yucca Flats and roams around as a beast.
Director: Coleman Francis | Stars: Douglas Mellor, Barbara Francis, Bing Stafford, Larry Aten
Votes: 10,431
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