12 Old Movies of the 1960s That Are Still a Pleasure to Watch

Many old movies are classics, sure — but can feel a little like homework. Here are some movies of the 1960s that remain a pure pleasure.

The Apartment (1960)

You'll find yourself saying again and again through this cool-eyed comedy: They made this in 1960? Its setup — a young clerk has to loan out his apartment to executives who use it for secret trysts with vulnerable women — is grim even by modern standards.

And yet the movie is still a pleasure, because you quickly find yourself quickly rooting hard for the irresistible Shirley MacLaine and begrudgingly heroic Jack Lemmon (above). You don't have to look hard to find a very modern metaphor here about refusing to take it from the man.

MacLaine, Lemmon, director Billy Wilder and screenwriter IAL Diamond reunited three years later for Irma la Douce, which revisited some of the themes of The Apartment.

Also Read: Ursula Andress in Dr. No — 13 Behind-the-Scenes Images of Bond Girl 001

Breathless (1960)

This Jean-Luc Godard classic works as a critique of film as a medium — the plot is almost throwaway, and the jump cuts expose the artificiality of everything — or you can enjoy it as a completely unchallenging romp through Coolsville. Every frame is beautiful.

Breathless is one of those old movies that still feels hipper than anything today.

Psycho (1960)

Psycho will rid you of any ideas that old movies are stodgy and dull. It's a very juicy thriller from the jump: Janet Leigh's Marion Crane is a good girl gone bad who steals from her boozy boss to flee across the Arizona desert to the arms of her deadbeat boyfriend. Then she meets the psycho of the title.

Yes, the expository ending is a letdown, but it speeds along until the final moments. Consider that when Psycho came out, many people didn't know what a psycho was.

Psycho made sure they didn't forget.

West Side Story (1961)

A soaring musical with real emotional stakes, West Side Story (directed by directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins) is a swirl of color, dance and song that will completely transport you from any doldrums you may be feeling.

The stellar cast includes Richard Beymer as Tony, Rita Moreno (right) as Anita, and Natalie Wood (left) as Maria.

Inspired by Romeo and Juliet, it's a stunner from beginning to end.

Also Read: 10 Movie Sex Scenes Someone Should Have Stopped

L----a (1962)

Pretty much the epitome of a movie that couldn't be made today. We can't even print the title without setting off filters at some of the sites that publish our stories. But the film is a pleasure because of how elegantly director Stanley Kubrick balances grim humor, tragedy and drama while somehow staying within the bounds of decency.

Adapted from the supposedly unfilmable Vladimir Nabakobv novel that famously doesn't use a single dirty word, the film stars James Mason as the pathetic Humbert, who constantly expects understanding and sympathy for his repugnant predilections and is instead met with disgust — especially from the audience. But Kubrick is skillful enough not to jab us in the ribs or tell us how to feel — the facts speak for themselves.

Sue Lyon, 15 when the film premiered, plays the 12-year-old title character with dignity and verve, selling us on the awful tragedy of her situation without melodrama. And Peter Sellers is a jolt of nasty fun as Quilty, Humbert's main antagonist, who is every bit as gross as he is, but even sneakier.

A Hard Days Night (1964)

A total charmer, this portrayal of 36 hours in the madcap lives of John, Paul, George and Ringo captured Beatlemania at its peak.

Rather than settling in for a fly-on-the-wall documentary approach, the Fab Four keep working to make us laugh, poking droll fun at their own fame.

Directed by Richard Lester, it earned two Academy Award nominations, including for Alun Owen's screenplay, which managed to make everything feel light and unscripted.

Dr Stangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Stanley Kubrick is at his most darkly acerbic in this satire of a war-mad world, in which civility and a supposedly honorable sense of purpose belie a passionate desire to bomb your opponents to ash.

It also has a stellar cast of Kubrick favorites, including Sterling Hayden and Peter Sellers in multiple roles.

Sellers also gets to deliver the movie's most memorable line: "Gentlemen — you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

The American Film Institute ranked it as number three on its list of the funniest American films.

Also Read: The 15 Funniest Comedies We've Ever Seen

Valley of the Dolls (1967)

We didn't say we were making a list of the best films of the 1960s — just the most enjoyable.

Sure, Lawrence of Arabia might be better and more important than Valley of the Dolls, but you'll have much more fun watching this dishy, wildly over-the-top adaptation of the sensational Jaqueline Susann bestseller.

Barbara Perkins, Patty Duke and Sharon Tate star as young women struggling to make it in the entertainment industry, who are driven to pill-popping by the demands and bad men all around. It received critical pans, but it's a fabulous time capsule of the supposedly swingin' — but actually often dark — 1960s. Watching the film makes you dream of the long, thriving cinematic career Sharon Tate should have enjoyed.

It's noteworthy that revered critic Roger Ebert wrote the screenplay for the film's 1970 sequel, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, after collaborating on the story with Russ Meyer.

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

This grown-up exploration of the literally swingin' '60s finds the title characters (played by Robert Culp, Natalie Wood, Elliott Gould, and Dyan Cannon, respectively) exploring the ins and outs of matrimony.

After attending a very '60s retreat, Bob and Carol open up their marriage, and soon encourage their more conservative friends to do the same. But the film ends with a nonverbal, open-to-interpretation conclusion to the tune of Burt Bacharach's gorgeous "What the World Needs Now," sweetly sung by Jackie DeShannon.

Bonus: Culp (above left, with Wood) wears a very 1960s outfit at one point that would later inspire costumes worn by Mike Myers in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Rafal Zawierucha – playing Roman Polanski — in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Barbarella (1968)

For a very different approach to sci-fi, take in this spacey romp starring Jane Fonda as a fashionable heroine on a mission to stop Durand Durand, whose name would later inspire that of one of our favorite pop bands.

The movie is being remade with Sydney Sweeney, and we're very curious how a very '60s time capsule will fare with a modern update.

It's also striking to note that it came out in the same year as the next film in our gallery, which had a very different take on life in space.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Like zombie movies? You can thank George Romero's low-budget, high-impact masterpiece, which feels unnerving and fast-moving even by today's seen-it-all standards. Somehow it still feels fresh, in spite of all its imitators.

Perhaps that's because of how it was made: This is as indie and seat-of-your-pants as filmmaking gets. Romero made it for a mere  $125,000, with an unknown cast - yet the execution was so good that it made back nearly 250 times its budget at the box office.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001 is still so essential to movie history that it was parodied in the opening of last year's biggest hit, Barbie.

But it's also a pure pleasure, if you're willing to surrender yourself to a very 1960s trancelike state and examine the big questions of why we're here and where we're going. Among its fans was David Bowie, who credited it as the inspiration for his breakthrough song "Space Oddity."

The third Stanley Kubrick film on this list is one of the greatest cinematic pleasures of the 1960s, or of any decade.

Liked This List of Old Movies of the 1960s That Are Still a Pleasure to Watch?

You might also like our recent list of 1950s movies that are still a total delight or this list of Rad '80s Movies Only Cool Kids Remember.

Main image: Sharon Tate in a publicity still from Valley of the Dolls. 20th Century Fox.