Forgotten '70s movies: Newman! Remick! Fonda! Sarrazin!

The dawn of the Seventies had some big outdoor movies: Altman's M A S H and that stunning western McCABE & MRS MILLER. SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION (called for some reason NEVER GIVE AN INCH here in the UK, maybe the original title was too clunky - though not as clunky as the film...) could have been a contender, but quickly got lost and never seen again here. Looking at it now, easy to see why ...

When a logging town in Oregon, goes on strike against a large lumber conglomerate, the non-union Stamper family, headed by Paul Newman and his father Henry Fonda, keep working and quickly become the enemy of every now-out-of-work family in town. Shot on location along the Oregon coast, the film’s characters are dwarfed by the monolithic landscape and the buzzing of chainsaws, resulting in a leafy green palette that’s simultaneously scary and overwhelmingly beautiful. Based on Ken Kesey’s follow-up novel to ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST Paul Newman’s second film as a director (after directed his wife in the highly-regarded RACHEL, RACHEL in '68) mixes hard-luck violence with genuine sympathy. But maybe being director as well as star, orchestrating the large family get-togethers and the logging sequences, meant there was no room for the central  story of husband and wife. The men are the focus here with the women firmly in the background, serving big breakfasts and washing .... Newman was in his prime here but his rather unlikeable character does not play for sympathy.

Henry Fonda as the clan's stubborn father is second billed and we see a lot of him, at the expense of Lee Remick, rather sidelined as the wife. Eventually she packs her suitcase and leaves about three-quarters through. It would have been nice to see Newman and Remick as a great romantic/dramatic team - like she was with Lemmon or Clift. But they don't have that many scenes together with no central focus. They were of course both in Ritt's THE LONG HOT SUMMER in 1958, each partnered with someone else (Woodward, Tony Franciosa). It seems Newman's character does not even miss her, as he is busy with Hank Fonda's injury and death, and the stunning central sequence of his brother Richard Jaeckel slowly drowning as he is trapped under a log, as Newman tries to free him .... 

It all looks marvellous, with some appropriate country style music, and the green and leafy Oregon countryside and that marvellous house all look correct. Michael Sarrazin also scores as the long-hair hippie son who returns home and rejoins the family business, and he has a few nice scenes with Lee's neglected wife, whom he understands more than her husband does.

This film was actually on release when I saw and met Lee Remick at London's BFI National Film Theatre in 1970, I remember a clip being shown, before we moved on to Remick's other roles. Report on that at NFT label,

and this is my tribute from 2010 to the marvellous Lee Remick - for me up there with Julie Harris and Geraldine Page ... 

http://osullivan60.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/remembering-lee-remick.html

http://osullivan60.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/1970-72-when-stars-came-out-to-talk.html

Soon - Remick and Claire Bloom in the film of Iris Murdoch's A SEVERED HEAD (also 1970), and one of her later tv movies EMMA'S WAR

'60s double bill: In search of what's'isname ...

1967 - London in the Swinging '60s, the Kings Road, the fashionable people, the mini-skirted dolly birds and the clothes and music - and those long forgotten movies that never get revived now. Here's 2 more of them: Michael Winner's magnum opus of the time I'LL NEVER FORGET WHAT'S'ISNAME, and a Julie Christie oddity IN SEARCH OF GREGORY.

Advertising golden boy Andrew Quint is fed up with his fabulously successful life. In very dramatic fashion, he quits his job to return to writing for a small literary magazine. He wants to leave his former life behind, going as far as saying good-bye to his wife and mistresses. He finds, however, that it's not so easy to escape the past.

I had not seen Winner's film since its release, its a cornucopia of '60s people and places. We start with Oliver Reed, then in his prime, walking all the busy street with an axe over his shoulder. He arrives at his office and proceeds to demolish his desk. Well, its one way of resigning .... Olly's boss is the devious Jonathan Lute, top billed Orson Welles who looks like he is enjoying himself while no doubt collecting a hefty pay check. Lute is presented as evil incarnate who will do anything to keep Quint (Reed) in his power. Quint goes back to his roots, that little magazine he ran with Norman Rodway and his wife Ann Lynn, their secretary Carol White whom Quint gets involved with; of course there's also his discarded wife Wendy Craig, and assorted mistresses like hippy chick/dolly bird Marianne Faithfull always stripping off for a bath (below). Pot shots are taken at all the usual targets, the braying toffs at Cambridge, well-known faces pop in and out: Michael Hordern, Harry Andrews, Mark Burns, Mark Eden, Edward Fox, Frank Finlay, Roland Curram ... I suppose it was par for the course then for actors to get a day or two on the new Michael Winner.

Winner though, like the budding Ken Russell, had his finger on the pulse of contemporary culture then, this catches the mid-60s perfectly as his 1964 THE SYSTEM (Oliver again, with budding David Hemmings, Jane Merrow and another great cast) catches the tail end of that black-and-white era.

The melodramatics come thick and fast here, as scriped by Peter Draper: Rodway sells out the magazine to Orson, Quint make a commercial attacking the superficiality of it all and the ruthless world of advertising, this is unveiled to applause at the old National Film Theatre I knew so well, one of the leading characters comes to grief in a grisly car accident and we finish with Oliver at dawn on a bridge, as Wendy, his ex-wife, arrives and they walk off for breakfast, with Battersea Power Station belching out fumes in the distance .... they just don't make them like that anymore! POOR COW Carol White of course also lives in one of those Chelsea houseboats we are familiar with from other '60s trash opuses like MY LOVER MY SON and GOODBYE GEMINI. A neglected London classic then like UP THE JUNCTION ... ?  
Oliver Reed was a powerful screen presence then, as shown by his 4 for Winner and 4 for Ken Russell - I only caught his Dante Gabriel Rossetti in Ken's 1967 BBC film DANTE'S INFERNO once and it was a mesmerising experience, and of course his Bill Sykes in OLIVER will be unveiled once again over the seasonal holidays ...

IN SEARCH OF GREGORY:  The mid to late '60s saw lots of these pseudo highbrow arty cod-Antonioni dramas. For every genuine classic like THE CONFORMIST or THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI CONTINI we had to endure oddities like 1969's IN SEARCH OF GREGORY - Julie Christie hunting a mystery man - or De Sica's own A PLACE FOR LOVERS - Faye Dunaway dying of  a rare disease while still looking dazzling (as per recent review) or Vanessa Redgrave & Franco Nero in A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY. (Trash label) or Anouk and Omar in Lumet's baffling THE APPOINTMENT - these must have emptied cinemas on release, but we never really got a chance to see them at the time, so they couldn't have hung around long. Visconti's SANDRA (VAGHE STELLE DELL'ORSA) in 1965 is one that actually works, its dazzlingly operatic style highlights Claudia Cardinale and Jean Sorel at their best as the incestuous siblings, as per my reviews on it (Italian, Claudia, Jean labels).

Here the brother and sister are Julie and a very young looking John Hurt. This would seem to reach for the Antonioni style with Julie as the Monica Vitti figure we first see walking around Rome. She is lured to her father's 5th wedding in Geneva by the promise of the mysterious guest Gregory who just may prove to be ideal for her. Her brother though wants to keep Gregory for himself - we never see the mystery man but Julie imagines him to be Michael Sarrazin, whom she glimpses in a poster in his leather jacket. Cue several scenes of Sarrazin, in and out of clothes, as the mystery man she keeps missing ...  the mystery here is why Julie, after her triumphs in DARLING, ZHIVAGO and FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, chose to do this puzzler, maybe it was a final film she owed producer Joseph Janni. Her previous one, PETULIA for Richard Lester in '68 is a genuine '60s classic, before she headed to America, and Altman's MCCABE & MRS MILLER with Beatty, and of course back to Italy for DON'T LOOK NOW ...

What sinks IN SEARCH OF GREGORY is that Sarrazin (who died last year aged 70, see label), fine in other movies, is simply not appealing or interesting enough for us to see what attracts Christie to him ... the story is not realistically worked out, but hey - Julie looks different but marvellous here in 1969 and it catches that Euro-gloss nicely. Adolfo Celi as the father is for once easy to understand here, and Hurt looks like a decadent cherub.
We never see the real Gregory but Julie runs across Sarrazin at the airport and thinks he is Gregory and they end up in the same hotel room. Turns out he is not Gregory, but a complete stranger, while unknown to her the real Gregory is next to her at the airport while she is on the phone to her brother, who is also on the line to Gregory. Thats the kind of Antonioni puzzle director Peter Wood seems to be aiming for here, so its a tale of emptiness, boredom and longing about an idle rich girl (cue acres of footage of Julie wandering around looking glam but glum and disconsolate), as co-scripted by Antonioni regular Tonino Geurra (who also died this year). A genuine curio then...

These 2 (WHAT'S'ISNAME and GREGORY) have the Universal Pictures logo and are more examples of European films financed by Americans in the '60s, Others reviewed here (1960s label) include OTLEY, DUFFY, SEBASTIAN, THE DAY THE FISH CAME OUT, THE BOFORS GUN, SMASHING TIME (actually a Carlo Ponti production), LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS etc.  
Next Swinging '60s double bill: BEDAZZLED by PETULIA. 

Michael Sarrazin RIP

Another R.I.P! Michael Sarrazin (1940-2011) was one of those interesting new actors who came along in the mid-60s and, again like most good-looking actors, had a good 10 years with some interesting hits and misses. As a leading man of the era he was ideal opposite the likes of Jacqeline Bisset and foil to Jane Fonda and Susannah York in THEY SHOOT HORSES DON'T THEY, 1969 - one of those movies we loved at the time and which I have been meaning to re-watch.

Sarrazin often played young drifters (as in HORSES) and is another one in the effective teasing thriller EYE OF THE CAT, 1967 (reviewed here previously). Other movies included Streisand's co-star in one of her minor movies, the amusing FOR PETE'S SAKE (1974), and THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD, and the monster in the television FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY ('75). Other movies included SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION, THE FLIM FLAM MAN, and that Italian oddity in '68 with Julie Christie - IN SEARCH OF GREGORY, another one to re-watch sometime. Canadian Sarrazin was always interesting and had a nice laid-back presence. Among the roles he turned down was Joe Buck in MIDNIGHT COWBOY.

Fun and Games

“Ze snake iss loose"!!

VENOM – How about this storyline: the kidnapping of a wealthy kid goes wrong and the kidnappers find themselves holed up in the family home as the police surround them and THEN they find out that the snake the kid collected that morning is not harmless but is in fact a deadly mambo who soon escapes from its box and slithers into the ventilation shaft, after biting the nanny (Susan George, expiring in grand fashion) … This farrago was originally to be directed by Tope Hooper, but was taken over by Piers Haggard and features a cast of temperamental actors who here, in 1981, were not quite as famous as they used to be, but when one’s career is in the descendant one has to take what work one can – so we find Klaus Kinsi and burly Oliver Reed as the kidnappers, Sarah Miles with nothing to do as the medical specialist and Sterling Hayden as the grand-father, and the once promising Nicol Williamson is the police superintendent. Its satisfyingly worked out – Klaus gets a good scene with ze snake – as does Olly when it slithers up his trouser leg! and dear old Rita Webb owns the pet shop the snake comes from!

EYE OF THE CAT - A drifter and a mercenary nurse plan to murder his eccentric but wealthy aunt once she has changed her will in his favour. However, the aunt keeps dozens of cats in her home, and the man is deathly afraid of cats … interesting premise for a Joseph Stefano (he scripted PSYCHO) thriller ably directed by David Lowell Rich in 1969 and with another top notch Lalo Schifrin score. Its another of those glossy Universal late 60s thrillers – which we saw here in England as supporting features but they certainly made their mark. This one is fabulously entertaining to see again now as its twists and turns and the cats are all terrific, particularly that main cat. What a star! Stunning sequences include the aunt in the runaway wheelchair, Sarrazin explaining his childhood fear of cats and Gayle Hunnicutt surrounded by all those hungry moggies – not only a clever homage to Tippi and those BIRDS but surpassing it! All 3 leads are terrific: Hunnicutt with her big hair and Sarrazin are so typically late ‘60s and nice to see Eleanor Parker again as the aunt. Even dependable Laurence Naismith pops in as the doctor! Then there is the brother, Tim Henry – whatever happened to him? San Francisco looks terrific too as lensed by Russell Metty.

GAMES – another young couple back in the swinging 60s in San Francisco (not seen much as its mainly interiors) and an older woman who joins their games in Curtis Harrington’s stylish whodunit which also looks terrific (and may well have influenced EYE OF THE CAT) and benefits from the casting of Simone Signoret in a terrific role for her here in 1967. She is Lisa Schindler the saleslady who manages to become the houseguest of bored rich couple James Caan and Katharine Ross and joins in their kinky mind-games. The games turn deadly though when mysterious Lisa insinuates herself into their lives. After a rather slow start, Games soon segues into an exciting, serpentine mystery that seems way ahead of its time for 1967. Good to see Estelle Winwood too. Another interesting thriller then with twists one can almost anticipate as one begins to realise who is pulling the strings. Signoret of course was in LES DIABOLIQUES ... It was a second feature when I first saw it back then, I loved seeing it again.

A Shelley Winters double bill!

WILD IN THE STREETS – Another ‘60s trash classic I had forgotten but its also vastly enjoyable now. Barry Shear’s film of the Robert Thom story for American-International was a hit in 1968. Its certainly a wild and woolly view of hip culture then as millionaire singing idol (Christopher Jones) helps a Kennedy-like congressman (Hal Halbrook) become senator on the platform of lowering the voting age to 15, through sheer charisma gathers to rallies in both L.A. and D.C., Jones even wins the office of U.S. President and then forces anyone over 30 into a "paradise camp" to be forever happy on LSD so that they are incapable of causing any more trouble. Its mad, its wacky, its enormous fun, particularly with Shelley Winters on the rampage as Jones’ whacked out mother. Chris Jones is much more animated here than the waxwork he had to play for David Lean in RYAN’S DAUGHTER, and there’s also ‘50s starlets Diane Varsi as a spaced out senator and Millie Perkins as the senator’s wife, and there's a young Richard Pryor! Nice ending too with Jones being told he is too old by the new generation of kids wanting power... Its all an outrageous take on events of the counterculture late 60s. Now for A-I’s companion piece THREE IN THE ATTIC!

SOUTH SEA SINNER (not SOUTHSEA SINNER, that part of Portsmouth where I lived for 10 years!). This 1950 yarn finds Shelley in the South Seas as the bar singer Coral, Macdonald Carey is as dull as ever, also Frank Lovejoy. There is a kind of plot but its mainly Shelley torn between the two men and warbling a few ditties, in some very kitsch costumes. A nice programmer for a rainy afternoon, pity its not in colour. Also called EAST OF JAVA.