The decade began with Doris Day and Rock Hudson as America's most beloved sweethearts. And it ended with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda as the nation's most beloved chopper-riding druggies. What a long, strange trip, indeed. Along the way, the 1960s were as tumultuous at the movies as they were on the streets, with the counterculture battling the mainstream for predominance on the screen (Hello, Dolly! versus The Wild Bunch, True Grit versus Midnight Cowboy). Of course, if you actually remember partaking of the decade's psychedelic cinema explosion, then you didn't truly experience it. Now that you've sobered up, check them out on video.
Janet Leigh showers in PSYCHO JUNE 16, 1960
Today, it would be so easy: Strip the actress down, chuck her into the tub, and stab away. But when Alfred Hitchcock filmed Janet Leigh's Psycho shower scene 40 years ago, any trace of nudity or weapon penetration was forbidden. Psycho's most impressive trickery -- beyond the shock of killing a big-name star 47 minutes into the movie -- was in Hitchcock's camera and editing work during the sequence (perhaps the most analyzed in history), creating a mind-blowing What did I just see? effect that forever changed the way movies scare us. ''That is where Mr. Hitchcock was such a genius,'' says Leigh. ''He had the ability to lead the audience to the point where they took over and actually finished the creation. A friend and I were talking at this dinner recently and she said, 'Oh, I'll never forget the knife going in and the blood spurting all over.' And I said, 'I rest my case.' '' Leigh remains spooked to this day as well. ''I've never taken a shower since,'' she says. ''Literally.''
#2 MOMENT WEST SIDE STORY's Natalie Wood -- and audiences -- weep for a dying Tony OCT. 18, 1961
Does it take a peeled onion to make you cry? See how long you stay dry-eyed during the reprise of the heartbreaking ''Somewhere,'' Maria's farewell to her beloved Tony in West Side Story, one of the last truly great movie musicals. Unfortunately, some of the cast weren't up to the rigorous score, including Natalie Wood, so Marni Nixon (who dubbed Deborah Kerr in The King and I and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady) was called in to sing for Maria. ''They didn't tell Natalie at first that I was dubbing her, because they were scared she'd walk off the set,'' says Nixon, who found the score as moving as the audience did. Well, almost: ''I was ordered to cry when we sang 'One Hand, One Heart.' It was a little hard to sustain so much sadness.'' Rank 47
America embraces Italy's sexual revolution 1961-63
Back when Roberto Benigni was a bambino, we had our first love affair with Italy. It was the early '60s, and America was in its repressed, pre-Age of Aquarius phase, while Italy, says Italian-American author Gay Talese, was ''infusing postwar upheaval into pure sexuality.'' Films like Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, Pietro Germi's Divorce -- Italian Style, and Vittorio De Sica's Two Women brought such torrid stars as Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren to our full attention, and we liked what we saw. As Loren, who won an Oscar for Two Women, puts it, ''Sexiness was a stimulating subject.'' Adds Talese: ''Back then, our film ratings people wouldn't allow a man and woman in the same bed. These films liberated a lot of men of Bill Clinton's age.'' Rank 60
