Movie-Lover? Try This Quiz on 1960s Films

Aluminum Christmas trees didn’t have a long stint in the U.S., thanks to “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” In the 1965 special, Charlie Brown refused to get a fake Christmas tree, even if it meant opting for a nearly needleless sapling that bowed beneath a single ornament. People followed suit after watching it, and the once-trendy aluminum trees soon fell out of style.

Shot outside Pittsburgh with a very small budget, 1968's "Night of the Living Dead" is considered the origin of the modern zombie film. George A. Romero co-wrote and directed this black-and-white masterpiece, which formed the foundation of later Romero classics such as "Dawn of the Dead" and "Day of the Dead." Romero combined zombie horror with the horrors of modern society to create an instant cult classic that inspires dread to this day.

Within two years, Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae starred opposite each other in two film adaptations of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals: “Oklahoma!” in 1955 and “Carousel” in 1956. Jones first became involved with Rodgers and Hammerstein stage productions in an open casting call during a short trip to New York, and became the first and only person ever put under personal contract to the musical songwriting team.

Paul Newman and Robert Redford joined forces in 1969 for the now-classic film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Many things made this Western stand out from others of the era, including the soundtrack. Burt Bacharach, the film’s composer, infused a distinct 1960s pop sound into the movie, and it struck a chord with audiences. A prime example is the defining track “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” which went on to win an Academy Award.

Walt Disney's adaptation of P. L. Travers’ book series is considered to be his crowning live-action achievement, and "Mary Poppins" was the only one of Disney’s films to earn a Best Picture Oscar nomination during his lifetime. The movie was the highest-grossing film of 1964 and received a sequel called "Mary Poppins Returns" in 2018.

In an iconic scene from 1961’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Audrey Hepburn, as stylish socialite Holly Golightly, sits on her New York City fire escape playing the wistful Henry Mancini tune "Moon River." The studio originally thought it would need to dub Hepburn’s voice since she was not a trained singer, but Mancini penned the song to sit right in the sweet spot of her range. It won that year’s Oscar for Best Original Song.

After cutting parking meters off their poles, Paul Newman's character Luke is sentenced to two years on a chain gang in a prison camp. During his time there, he becomes a local legend, once eating 50 hard-boiled eggs in an hour and bluffing a big poker hand. Eventually, however, he repeatedly tries to escape and is caught and brutally punished, driving him to madness. During one threatening speech, the villainous Captain famously explains to Luke, "What we've got here is a failure to communicate."

In "Dr. No," James Bond arrives in Jamaica to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and discovers the plans of the evil Dr. No on his island, Crab Key. 007 is able to outwit the mad scientist, steal a motorboat, and escape from the island as it explodes behind him. Sean Connery starred in the first Bond movie of the series, which has now spanned nearly 60 years, 25 movies, and seven actors playing Bond.

In the Stanley Kubrick space epic, HAL 9000 is the computer that controls the spaceship Discovery One. While at first HAL follows the instructions of the humans on board, eventually it turns against them, killing several astronauts until its circuits are disconnected. When commander David Bowman tells the AI to "open the pod bay doors," HAL coldly replies, "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

After landing on what they think is an alien planet in the year 3978, a group of astronauts begin to explore. There, they find a civilization of intelligent, speaking primates that run the planet. Eventually, main character Taylor (played by Charlton Heston) is banished to the Forbidden Zone where he discovers the remains of the Statue of Liberty, showing that they were on Earth all along.

In the adaptation of the Broadway musical, which was based on the true story of Maria Kutschera and the Von Trapp family, Maria (Julie Andrews) leaves the convent to become a governess for a naval captain's large family. She is put in charge of seven children — Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl. Taking some movie liberties, the real Von Trapp family actually had 10 children.

Throughout his long career, John Wayne starred in more than 100 movies. During the 1960s, he led the war epic "The Longest Day," won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in "True Grit," and played Davy Crockett in "The Alamo," which he also directed. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter posthumously granted Wayne the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 2005, the American Film Institute ranked "We rob banks" as the 41st greatest film quote in American history. From the 1967 movie "Bonnie and Clyde," the line is spoken to a farmer who lost his house to the bank. Clyde (Warren Beatty) lets the man borrow his gun to let out his frustrations, and then lets him know that they're taking on the institutions that ruined the farmer's life.

In what may be Alfred Hitchcock's most famous film, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) mysteriously refuses to let anyone speak to his mother aka his best friend, who supposedly lives with him at the Bates Motel. When detectives discover that women who visit the stopover are mysteriously disappearing, they begin to investigate Norman and his mother.

Before starring in "The Godfather," "Apocalypse Now," and "The Apostle," Robert Duvall played Boo Radley in the 1962 film adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird." Based on the acclaimed novel by Harper Lee, the movie earned Gregory Peck an Academy Award for his performance as Atticus Finch, and was nominated for seven other awards. In 2007, the American Film Institute named it the 25th best American movie of all time.

In Disney’s 1961 movie "One Hundred and One Dalmatians," when dalmatian owners Roger and Anita fall in love, so do their dogs, Pongo and Perdita. Soon afterward, Perdita becomes pregnant with a litter of 15 puppies, which the villainous Cruella de Vil attempts to buy for a fur coat. She is refused, and later 84 more dalmatian puppies are rescued from her clutches, bringing the film's total to 101.

"Cleopatra," starring Elizabeth Taylor in the titular role, ran for three hours and 12 minutes, cost nearly $400 million in 2021 dollars to make, and starred two actors (Taylor and Richard Burton) who were having a torrid, headline-grabbing love affair. Despite all that, "Cleopatra" was the year’s highest-grossing film, was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won three — although Taylor's performance as the Egyptian Queen was not particularly well received.

In a modern retelling of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," the 1961 movie musical "West Side Story" (based off the Broadway show) pits the Sharks against the Jets as they battle for control of New York City's Upper West Side. The Sharks are a Puerto Rican gang led by Bernardo, whose younger sister Maria falls in love with Tony, co-founder of the white gang, the Jets.

In Sergio Leone's spaghetti western "The Good, the Bad and The Ugly," Clint Eastwood plays "The Man With No Name," who is the titular "Good" character. Lee Van Cleef plays "The Bad" and Eli Wallach plays "The Ugly" in the film, which is the third and final installment of Leone's "Dollars" trilogy, following "A Fistful of Dollars" and "For a Few Dollars More," both also starring Eastwood.

Director Mike Nichols took the songs of Simon & Garfunkel to score his Oscar-winning movie, "The Graduate." "Mrs. Robinson," the biggest hit of the soundtrack, was adapted from a song Paul Simon had written about Eleanor Roosevelt, called "Mrs. Roosevelt." He quickly reworked the lyrics (inspired by Anne Bancroft’s character in the film, who seduces her daughter’s fiancé, played by Dustin Hoffman) and fleshed out a full version after the film's release — launching the tune to No. 1 on the pop singles chart in 1968.

In 1964, Stanley Kubrick released the Cold War satire “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” Actor Peter Sellers played multiple roles in the movie, including the titular doctor. Though it ended up as a satirical comedy, the film was initially conceived of as a drama based on Peter George’s novel “Red Alert.”