The 1960s were a wild, creative era for Hollywood, producing some truly unforgettable cinema. But not every film from that decade deserves a spot on your watchlist today.
Some movies that wowed audiences back then now come across as painfully dated, unintentionally funny, or just plain hard to sit through. Here are 16 films from the swinging sixties that, looking back, really did not hold up.
1. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Picture this: Martian children are so bored that their leaders decide the only solution is to kidnap Santa Claus. Yes, that actually happens in this 1964 sci-fi oddity.
The special effects look like they were made from tinfoil and cardboard boxes, because they basically were.
The plot makes almost no logical sense, and the acting is gloriously stiff. Modern viewers mostly watch it as a comedy.
It has earned a permanent spot on “worst movies ever made” lists worldwide.
2. Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)
A fertilizer salesman made a bet that he could make a movie. The result was “Manos: The Hands of Fate,” and spoiler alert: he lost that bet spectacularly.
The camera shakes constantly, the sound cuts in and out, and scenes drag on for what feels like hours.
Somehow, this disaster became a cult legend after being featured on the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Unintentionally hilarious and genuinely hard to watch, it is a true relic of cinematic ambition gone sideways.
3. Eegah (1962)
Somewhere in the California desert, a prehistoric giant named Eegah has been living for thousands of years, and he has developed a crush on a teenage girl. If that sounds ridiculous, just wait until you see the costume.
Eegah looks less like a terrifying caveman and more like someone glued a shag carpet to an actor.
The pacing is brutally slow, and the dialogue is cringe-worthy even by 1960s standards. Richard Kiel, who later played Jaws in James Bond films, played Eegah.
4. Attack of the Mushroom People (1963)
Originally a Japanese production titled “Matango,” this film follows shipwreck survivors on an island full of flesh-transforming mushrooms. The English dubbed version strips away most of the creepiness and replaces it with unintentional comedy gold.
Watching characters slowly turn into mushrooms while speaking in flat, emotionless dubbed voices is more amusing than frightening.
The mushroom creature costumes look adorably terrible by today’s standards. It remains a fascinating time capsule of Cold War-era anxieties wrapped in a very strange package.
5. Cleopatra (1963)
Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra nearly bankrupted an entire movie studio. The production was so chaotic and expensive that 20th Century Fox almost collapsed under its weight.
At four hours long, the finished film tests the patience of even the most devoted history buffs.
Taylor’s performance has genuine moments of power, but the pacing feels more like a museum tour than a Hollywood blockbuster. Modern audiences tend to admire the costumes more than they enjoy the story.
It is a fascinating disaster of ambition.
6. The Oscar (1966)
Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood, but “The Oscar” is a cautionary tale about how badly that formula can go wrong. The film follows a ruthless, unlikeable actor clawing his way to an Academy Award nomination, and audiences are expected to root for him.
Nobody does.
The script is stiff, the melodrama is turned up to maximum, and the cameo appearances from real celebrities feel awkward rather than fun. Critics absolutely torched it upon release, and time has not been any kinder to this self-congratulatory mess.
7. Doctor Dolittle (1967)
Rex Harrison talking to animals sounds charming in theory. In practice, this bloated musical ran so far over budget and over schedule that it became one of the most infamous productions of the decade.
The songs are largely forgettable, and the film crawls along at a pace that tests younger viewers especially.
It somehow won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, which feels generous. The 1998 Eddie Murphy remake, despite its silliness, is genuinely more watchable.
That says quite a lot about how far this one has fallen.
8. Krakatoa, East of Java (1969)
Here is a fun geography lesson: Krakatoa is actually west of Java, not east. The filmmakers knew this and used the wrong direction anyway because it sounded more dramatic.
That kind of sums up the entire movie’s relationship with accuracy.
The disaster sequences look impressive for their era but feel cartoonish today. The human drama is thin, the characters are forgettable, and the whole thing feels like an excuse to show off the volcano effects.
Factual errors aside, the pacing really drags before the big eruption arrives.
9. The Green Berets (1968)
John Wayne co-directed and starred in this unapologetically pro-Vietnam War film, and it arrived at one of the most politically divided moments in American history. Critics were brutal, calling it simplistic propaganda dressed up as an action movie.
Even supporters of the war found its cheerful, black-and-white view of the conflict hard to swallow.
One scene famously shows the sun setting in the east over Vietnam, a geographical impossibility. The film feels less like storytelling and more like a two-hour recruitment poster from a different era entirely.
10. Skidoo (1968)
Otto Preminger, a respected director known for serious films, decided to make a trippy counterculture comedy about a retired gangster who accidentally takes LSD. The result is one of the most bewildering films ever made by a major Hollywood studio.
Jackie Gleason, Groucho Marx, and Carol Channing all appear, looking equally confused.
The film attempts to connect with 1960s youth culture and fails spectacularly on every level. Groucho Marx reportedly hated it.
It was so misunderstood that it was barely released and then buried for decades.
11. Valley of the Dolls (1967)
Based on Jacqueline Susann’s trashy bestselling novel, this film about showbiz women and prescription pill addiction was meant to be a serious drama. Instead, it became an unintentional comedy of overwrought performances and jaw-dropping dialogue.
Judy Garland was originally cast and fired before filming completed, which gives you a sense of how chaotic things got behind the scenes.
The campy melodrama has earned it a devoted cult following who love it for all the wrong reasons. Sharon Tate’s performance stands out as the film’s one genuine bright spot.
12. Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969)
Anthony Newley wrote, directed, and starred in this deeply strange musical that serves as a thinly veiled confession about his failing marriage to Joan Collins. Watching a filmmaker air his personal life this publicly and this awkwardly is genuinely uncomfortable viewing.
The title alone is enough to make modern audiences back away slowly.
The film bombed catastrophically at the box office and damaged Newley’s career significantly. It is fascinating as a historical oddity but nearly impossible to recommend as actual entertainment.
Truly one of a kind, for better or worse.
13. The Ambushers (1967)
Dean Martin’s Matt Helm spy series was already running low on ideas by the third installment, and “The Ambushers” makes that painfully obvious. The jokes feel recycled, the action sequences look cheap, and Martin himself seems more interested in his martini than in the plot.
The whole thing plays like a parody of spy films that forgot to be funny.
The Matt Helm films tried to compete with the James Bond franchise and never came close. This entry is the weakest link in an already wobbly chain of sequels.
14. Myra Breckinridge (1970)
Technically released in 1970 but very much a product of late 1960s Hollywood excess, this adaptation of Gore Vidal’s controversial novel is one of the most chaotic films ever produced by a major studio. Mae West, at age 77, delivers lines that made audiences squirm.
Raquel Welch looks great but seems as confused as everyone else about what kind of film she is in.
Critics despised it, audiences stayed away, and studio executives reportedly wept. It remains a fascinating example of what happens when Hollywood tries too hard to be edgy and shocking.
15. Candy (1968)
“Candy” assembled one of the most impressive casts of the decade, including Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, James Coburn, and Ringo Starr, and somehow produced something almost unwatchable. The film is a satire of sexual politics and counterculture excess, but the jokes land with a thud.
Brando plays a fraudulent guru and looks like he wandered in from a completely different film.
Each big-name actor seems to be performing in isolation from everyone else. The result is less a movie and more a very expensive, very confused celebrity parade.
16. The Happening (1967)
Four young drifters accidentally kidnap a powerful mob boss and then discover nobody wants to pay his ransom because everyone actually wants him dead. That premise has real potential.
Unfortunately, the film wastes it with a tone that can never decide if it wants to be a comedy, a thriller, or a social commentary.
Anthony Quinn does his best with a tricky role, but the script keeps pulling the rug out from under him. Faye Dunaway appears in an early role, which is the main reason film historians still mention this one at all.