13 January 1963 - Walter Hugo Khoury's 'A ilha' (The isle) with Eva Wilma, Luigi Picchi, Mario Benvenutti, Elizabeth Hartman, Francisco Negrão.
13 January 1963 - Atlântida in its dying days release 'Entre mulheres e espiões' with great Oscarito on his way down too; plus Vagareza who was popular with a segment of the public but never reached the pinnacles of fame.
20 January 1963 - Comedian-producer Amancio Mazzaroppi goes to Hollywood: 'Casinha pequenina' was Mazzaroppi's pet project in which he gave himself airs of a 'serious' director.
3rd February 1963 - Hailed as 'Sophia Loren of Ebony', Luiza Maranhão was Black as coal and very beautiful... 'A grande feira' was part of what became known as Cinema Novo that followed more or less on the steps of France's Nouvelle Vague.
28 April 1963 - As 'Correio da Manhã's columnist says: 'How much longer will we have to put up with 'cangaço' (films about Brazilian rural banditry)? That was the million-dollar question. I particularly think 1963 was the peak year for that genre. Luely Figueiró stars in 'Nordeste sangrento' (Bloody Northeast) even though Irma Alvarez comes in first in the credits.
5 May 1963 - Wilson Silva's 'Nordeste sangrento' which had been showing in Rio de Janeiro for only one week is banned from the cinemas due to a judge's order who considered some scenes and expressions that went against the Nation's morals.
Guy Lupe & Tarciso Meira in 'Casinha pequenina'.
17 February 1963 - a 1961 Mexican-Brazilian co-production made essentially to cash in on the Carnaval festivities, 'Quero morrer no Carnaval' (I want to die at Carnaval time). OESP (Estadão) columnist despairs of the Brazilian cinema industry saying the Italian & French post-war cinema conquered the world while Brazilians keep on doing almost-to-nothing. Maybe the journalist lacked political knowledge. If he had done his homework he would have known that Italy & France were recepients of great capital flowing from the United States and its Marshall Plan of European reconstruction and Brazil was just a 3rd World country with no funds. Actually, the columnist should be doing his job better informing about the songs and performers for example.
Odete Lara, Dercy Gonçalves, Herval Rossano, Miriam Persia.
12 May 1963 - Dercy Gonçalves was the most popular female comedian in the country; Miss Gonçalves worked in all media: movies, theatre, TV, radio... you name it. 'Sonhando com milhões' is just one more vehicle for her antics. Odete Lara is the 'serious' star; Herval Rossano is the handsome fellow and Miriam Persia is 'the other broad'.
21st April 1963 - Nelson Pereira dos Santos' 'Bôca de Ouro' (Golden teeth) told a gangster story with Jece Valadão, Odete Lara and Daniel Filho... the same line-up as in 'Os cafagestes' a year before.
9 June 1963 - the so-called 'Cinema Novo' with a new production: 'Tocaia no asfalto' shot in Salvador-Bahia. Good actors like Agildo Ribeiro, Arassary de Oliveira and Geraldo Del-Rey enhance the plot.
'O Cruzeiro' 22nd December 1962.
23rd June 1963 - A new Film-Production-Company made up of a film director (Roberto Santos), a popular movie actor (Leonardo Villar), a playwright (Gianfrancesco Guarnieri), a stage director (Flavio Rangel) and a financier (Oswaldo Da Palma) releases 'Gimba, presidente dos valente' based on a popular play by Gianfrancesco Guarnieri that made Maria Della Costa a superstar a few years back playing Gimba's romantic interest, a Black woman living in the slums. Gimba was actually a romanticized vision of a proletariat anti-hero, in his case he is Black... in Nelson Rodrigue's 'Boca de ouro' he is white. Most of these working class fictional heroes had a sudden death with the coup d'etait in 1964 when a right-wing military junta took over government of Brazil for 25 years.
23rd June 1963 - Brazilian country music's most popular duo Tonico & Tinoco in 'Lá no meu sertão' opened this day. The picture above was actually published 4 weeks later. As you see the movie was popular and played for a long period.
7 July 1963 - Yet another folk-hero 'O Cabeleira' following in the footsteps of 1952's 'O Cangaceiro' shows more of the sort of 'justice' Brazilians living in the hinterlands are offered. A lot of brutality and violence. Helio Souto & his associates knew exactly what they wanted: a lot of money! Milton Ribeiro had been the original cangaceiro (bad man) in the 1952 blockbuster. Marlene França is the beauty and Black singer Francisco Egydio plays some interesting character.
Leonardo Vilar as Lampião; Virgulino Ferreira da Silva aka Lampião, 40 years old.
15 September 1963 - here it comes: the real 'follow-up' to Lima Barreto's sensational 'O cangaceiro' which enthralled the audience in Cannes in 1952: 'Lampião, o rei do cangaço' - a super production of Oswaldo Massaini the same producer of 'O pagador de promessas' that won the coveted Palm d'Or in Cannes in 1962. Leonardo Villar plays ruthless Lampião as he had played meek Zé do Burro in 'Pagador de promessas'.
29 September 1963 - Actor-comedian-producer Ronaldo Lupo in his umpteenth comedy 'Quero essa mulher assim mesmo' with show girl Anilza Leoni plus marvelous Violeta Ferraz, amazing Grande Otelo, old timer Matinhos & Atila Iório, Herval Rossano who probably played the good-looking guy, Hamilton Ferreira who usually played the bad guy, Wilson Grey could play 'bad' or 'good' fellow, Maria Pompeu was a show girl too... It is amazing how easily Estadão's cinema columnist dismissed any film he deemed as 'chanchada'... it is really a sin when one thinks that Brazilian cinema all but died after a few years never to be ressurected again.
