HOLLYWOOD CHICAGO ALERT! Sometimes you feel like a Zombie, sometimes you do. George Romero rocks the house with 'Diary of the Dead.' To read the full HollywoodChicago.com review, click here.

Continuing the Last Blog in Cyberspace Best Picture Oscar Special this week, Jeffery and I move into the analysis of the Swingin' 1960s.

JL is Jeffery L., Chicago Oscar historian, and myself is LB, Last Blog!

OVERVIEW, 1960-69

LB: What are the characteristics of this weird decade?

JL: We were talking earlier about how much time investment you have to make with the films of the '60's.

LB: I was talking about one in particular, but more on that later.

JL: Musicals dominates the sixties, and finally COLOR dominates. The last Best Picture, before Schindler's List in the '90s, to be in black and white, is 'The Apartment' (1960).

LB: For me, the decade is about the struggle between Old Hollywood and the "new" films of the later '60s. 'Bonnie and Clyde,' (1967) and 'The Graduate' (1967) first making their inroads. And of course, the 1969 Best Picture is an X-rated "new" film, 'Midnight Cowboy.'

JL: Color also made the styles looser, leading into an new era for the look of the film and art direction.

THE "BEST" BEST PICTURES, 1960-69

LB: What's your number 5?

JL: I have 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962).

LB: Ooooh, that is my 10th.

JL: I never thought you'd put that in last.

LB: This was something I've seen in the last five years, on the big screen, with intermissions and all the bells/whistles. I found it, for the most part, dull. Especially the second half. The first half, okay, the desert war. But the bureaucratic second half just makes the whole thing fall off the table.

JL: I agree with you on the second part of the film, but I liked it better. I gave it three stars.

LB: My number 5 is 'Oliver!' (1968), probably the last film I saw for the '60s completion, even after 'Tom Jones' (1963). Again, I went thinking I would hate it, and I came out saying this is a great musical. The art direction picked up on Dicken's London, no sugar coating, plus the songs and staging were great.

JL: It was a little lengthy, but I still put it at number 4.

LB: My 4 is 'My Fair Lady' (1964). I had no problem with Audrey Hepburn over Julie Andrews in the lead.

JL: My problem in that one is Rex Harrison. He seems tired, uninspired and he wasn't on his toes. His Henry Higgins needed to be more charming. He may have been burnt out after doing it so many times during its Broadway run. It's a number 8 for me.

My number 3 is 'West Side Story' (1961).

LB: Ding, ding, ding, also number 3 (high fives). Another long one.

JL: A lot of man hours in the Best Pictures of the '60s. The unions must have loved it.

West Side Story is better as a film than it was on stage, and that is saying a lot.

JL: Talk about "motion" pictures, there is just brilliant motion in this one. The dance sequences, especially with the song 'America' are just stunning genius. The choreographer Jerome Robbins shared the Best Director prize with Robert Wise.

Number 2 is 'Midnight Cowboy' (1969).

LB: That is my number 2 as well (high fives).

JL: This was one I first saw on late night television when I was a kid.

LB: And THAT was your only viewing?

JL: No. I've since seen it and love it.

LB: I'm curious, since the late director John Schlesinger was gay, how do you think gays are treated in that film?

JL: I think pretty well, considering the era. It was edgy just because it was taking it on as subject matter, in the background.

LB: I thought it was groundbreaking, and sympathetic. I didn't understand it when I first saw it, as a teenager on TV, but when I did get it later I loved it. It's freaky and has an immediacy.

What's your number 1?

JL: My number 1 is 'The Apartment' (1960).

LB: A triple bell ringer! It is also my number 1! (high fives) Three for three, awesome.

JL: It is a perfect movie, I'm a big fan of Billy Wilder. It's heartbreaking, hilariously funny and a pretty harsh indictment regarding climbing the corporate ladder and capitalism. Just genius.

LB: I don't like how its described in general, as "just" a comedy. If this is a comedy, it is the most bitter comedy ever presented. It deals with suicide, selling your soul.

Two great factoids about this film: As Jack Lemmon's character, C.C. Baxter, climbs up the corporate ladder, his suits get more expensive. Also, and this is what I love, of all the footage "printed" for the daily film outtakes, only 10 physical feet of film wasn't used. That seems impossible, it was perfectly lean and ideal.

THE "WORST" BEST PICTURES, 1960-69

JL: As discussed, my number 8 is My Fair Lady. What's yours?

LB: 'Sound of Music' (1965). And its pretty unfair, because I know that Sound of Music was the first Best Picture I ever saw, either on TV or at a revival in the theaters during the late '60s.

It was magical for me then, but just up against the other films it simply fell to number 8.

JL: 'In the Heat of the Night' (1967) is my number 9. I thought it was just given to it because of the subject matter, racial issues, which was "in" at the time. I just think its weak and wasn't sure what type of film it wanted to be.

LB: I had 'A Man for All Seasons' (1966) at 9. Again, since it was one of the last ones I saw, I was shocked on how stagy it was.

JL: Man is number 10 for me. I got it in the first five minutes, and then the rest of the film is the same dilemma over and over. Why should I care? It was horrible.

LB: You are absolutely right, you nailed it. As I said, the snoozy Lawrence of Arabia was 10 for me.

THEY GOT ROBBED

LB: Who got robbed in the '60s?

JL: This one was tough. But I go back to 1966 and A Man for All Seasons and wanted it to go to 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'

LB: Excellent pick. This was difficult for me as well. I went with 'Dr. Strangelove' (1964) over My Fair Lady. It is a classic that keeps resonating. It doesn't waste a single frame.

JL: I don't like it as much. I also considered 'To Kill a Mockingbird' over Lawrence in 1962.

LB: Boo Radley would agree.

TOMORROW: The second golden age of film, the 1970's, gets a whole day by itself. It's the Best Pictures during Oscar week, here on the Last Blog in Cyberspace. Rated PG-13.