Forgotten movie posters ....

..... an occasional series

Robert Altman's 1972 IMAGES seems under-regarded and seldom seen now, and not regarded as one of the key Altmans. It was quite intriguing back then, with Susannah York as the writer in Ireland imagining all kinds of things ....Like Polanski's heroine in REPULSION, York's character is one that is seemingly haunted by memories of undisclosed magnitude - or is just another unbalanced woman coming apart at the seams . It also utilises a children's story about a unicorn written by York, but after the key Altman movies like MASH and MCCABE & MRS MILLER this was wilfully arthouse stuff .... followed by a return to form for Altman with THE LONG GOODBYE, THIEVES LIKE US, NASHVILLE etc.

Very Altman then, Susannah too was another of those actresses that Altman got out of her clothes ....(I see from the magazine ad IMAGES was having a premiere run at the Curzon Mayfair in London, where I saw that special screening of THE SERVANT the other week ...)

Even Delon and Schneider couldn't make Losey's THE ASSASSINATION OF TROTSKY, also 1972, a hit or even an interesting movie ....

Back to Antonioni ... Vitti goes African ...

A discussion over at IMDb brought up a mention of a racist moment in L'ECLISSE, Antonioni's timeless 1962 film. Presumably this scene was meant where Vitti dresses up as an African - I never considered it racist, but rather charming, where her comedy talent comes to the fore ..... It is a stunning, vivid moment in this mesmerising film, showing the ennui and boredom in these Roman suburbs - no wonder Alain Delon passing by gets Vittoria's interest - after the drunk of course drives Delon's sportscar into the Tiber.  However, having looked at that scene again, the comments of the woman returned from Kenya would indeed be considered racist these days, but this of course was back in the early 60s, 50 years ago ... I wouldn't think it detracts from the overall film though, being just a fragment of a scene early on

The influence of Antonioni seems to grow now - L'AVVENTURA continues to be discovered, it seems more "important" than the empty theatrics of LA DOLCE VITA - well to me anyway. The films are all available now in new editions and continue to interest us.

There is so much I like in L'ECLISSE: Vittoria's pleasure at the plane ride among the clouds, following the man who lost heavily at the stock market, playing at romance with smooth boy Delon, and as here pretending to be African, and then that stunning finale where the camera turns up, but the lovers don't .... as eerie night descends on the city. It was certainly a parable for the atomic age ... 

French things ...

A few titbits from the weekend papers: Catherine Deneuve, 69, has railed against the tyranny of high stiletto heels - she has always favoured flatter heels, as in this shot on location with Bunuel and Jean Sorel for BELLE DE JOUR in 1967. Back in the '60s apparantly high heels were worn by "women of ill-repute" and were agony to wear (I can well believe that...), As she says "'A simple, well-made shoe with the perfect arch is such a pleasure. It makes us walk differently; we feel free, emancipated, as if we can deal with life's challenges."

Also 69 and still looking marvellous with that silver hair, my teen favourite Francoise Hardy (left) has a new album out: "L'Amour Fou" - but WHY is it costing £21.00 on Amazon, when the new David Bowie is a mere £8.00 ? This will surely deter casual buyers .... I can download her new album for £4.00 though ! More on Francoise at Hardy label..

And a flashback to 1972, where an issue of "Films & Filming" I have just been browsing through, had a report from the Venice Film Festival by esteemed critic Ken Wlashchin - here is his perfect review of Marguerite Duras'  NATHALIE GRANGER, which I reviewed here a while back, Moreau label:

"NATHALIE GRANGER was a hypnotic, fascinating, bizarre and even sometimes boring in a compelling way but at all times showing the remarkable intelligence of a film-maker with her own personal vision. The story is virtually nil. Two women sitting at home, rather bored, one worried about her problem child Nathalie. Nothing much happens except for a visit from a washing machine salesman. It is a kind of Dantesque vision of woman's private Inferno. The actresses, Jeanne Moreau and Lucia Bose, are totally subdued, their usually powerful screen personalities dampened in this claustrophobic environment. Strangely the film is lit by passages of quirky humour,  what could be interpreted as the humour of desperation. The visit of the ineffective salesman who talks for ten minutes before discovering the women already have the machine he is selling is a bravura passage of grey rather than black humour. Whereas Sartre found that hell was other people, Miss Duras appears to imply that hell, for a woman, is her home".

Memo to self: I really must sit down and discover Chantel Akerman's JEANNE DIELMAN from 1975 with sublime Delphine Seyrig, before too long - it reads like it should be by Duras but it isn't ...

That "Films & Filming" issue also has an amusing feature by Mike Sarne on Fellini's TOBY DAMMIT (see my review at Terence Stamp label), the only film he owned - in that pre-video world he has to "haul out the projector and lace up the only film he owns" ... as he then describes the film shot by shot. Tres amusing. 

The magazine also has a photospread on Douglas Trumbull's SILENT RUNNING, which I missed at the time but recorded from a late night showing the other day. - It will be interesting to compare with the Blu-ray of 2001 shortly, Trumbull of course did special effects on both ...John Carpenter's DARK STAR is also winging its way to me, one of my new Blu-ray titles, how we loved that in 1974 with the spaced out astronauts, the beach ball alien and that talking bomb... more sci-fi soon then.

An Award? For little ole me ... ? !

Andrew D. of 1001 Movies I (Apparently) MUST See Before I Die has nominated me (and 10 other bloggers) for the prestigious Liebster Blog Award.

Thank you, Andrew!  Andrew has been working his way through Stephen Jay Schneider's tome 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and writing his own reviews of those essential movies - quite a task.
 
http://1001movieman.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/winning-awards-its-apparently-what-i-do.html

So what do I have to do to claim this award ? — It seems I have to divulge eleven random facts about myself, answer eleven questions, make up eleven more questions and choose eleven more worthy winners. Gosh.... and why 11 ? I will put on my thinking cap and return ...

John Wayne in London, 1975

Following on from checking out Gary Cooper in London in 1959, see recent post below, I have now discovered a proper lulu - John Wayne as BRANNIGAN, a DIRTY HARRY type cop taking on the London underworld in the mid-70s, complete with that trashy '70s look, in Douglas Hickox's vastly entertaining movie. BRANNIGAN was the kind of fodder at the local cinema that a young movie buff like me wouldn't bother with in 1975 - we had more arty things by the big boys (Antonioni, Kubrick) to go see (like THE PASSENGER or BARRY LYNDON), but now it could be a new cult classic. It is dizzyingly enteraining, very well cast with all the usual types, as Big John shoots it up and causes car chases, fist fights and general mayhem. A cheerful cheesefest then, with Big John amiably guying his usual shoot-em-ups.

As I said before we grew up on John Wayne films in Ireland - THE QUIET MAN and THE SEARCHERS will always be Top 20 movies for me, and we liked going to see stuff like THE SEA CHASE or THE CONQUEROR and of course RIO BRAVO, followed by good-natured romps like NORTH TO ALASKA and another perfect Hawks film HATARI! ... I also loved LEGEND OF THE LOST in 1957 (Loren, Wayne labels) where he and young Sophia Loren are ideal together in this Sahara western - which was photographed by the great Jack Cardiff, he amusingly relates in his book MAGIC HOUR how Wayne came on set, as explorer Joe January, dressed in his usual cowboy gear. Cardiff asks directed Henry Hathaway"why is he dressed like a cowboy?" Hathaway replies "He always dresses like that" ...

Back to BRANNIGAN - Wayne's detective arrives in London to collect and take back two Mr Bigs: John Vernon (as good as he was in Hitch's TOPAZ) and the oily Mel Ferrer. Brannigan is given pert young Judy Geeson as his driver/assistant, and she looks better here than she did in the dreadful GOODBYE GEMINI IN 1970 (Trash label) and seems to be enjoying herself; Richard Attenborough is the pompous Scotland Yard chief who seems to operate from his Mayfair gentleman's club, assisted by a silent John Stride, while James Booth, Del Henney and others play various sleazy underworld types. I was delighted too to see Pauline Delaney again - she specialised in playing randy Irish landladies (as with Alan Bates in NOTHING BUT THE BEST or with Rod Taylor in YOUNG CASSIDY - '60s label), she is Mrs Cooper here whom Brannigan is billeted with. Wayne seemed relaxed and having fun (its his second last film), he was so iconic in the '50s, but here he is rather an outdated dinosaur with a toupee, but it is all good-natured fun where everyone seems to be in on the joke and having a laugh. An endearing trash classic then, and a fascinating look at mid-70s London. (Wayne is 68 here, he died 4 years later in '79, after those last roles in ROOSTER COGBURN and THE SHOOTIST in '76.

B. B. and I on the London underground ...

Here is Brigitte Bardot looking impossibly glamorous in fur on the London Underground system in 1955 - probably while filming DOCTOR AT SEA - 

and here's me, also on the London tube in 1968, aged 22 ... friends and I would have been on the Northern Line from Clapham South going up to the west end to see a late night movie, a new trend then, movies starting at 11pm ! - well, it was before the clubbing era !  Like Gary Cooper at Waterloo in 1959, (see below) the lines have been modernised since then.

Terence at the BFI, The Servant Blu-ray, Dirk's rolls ...

The British Film Institute turns its attention to Terence Stamp in May, with an interview and retrospective of his films, again - not that many, and not including my cult favourite MODESTY BLAISE, but it looks like Stamp had a hand in choosing the films, and he probably doesn't rate it that highly, he is on record as being dismissive of Vitti, and it was not a leading role for him really. At the time though (1966) we liked the look of his Willie Garvin (right) .....

 

They are also showing: BILLY BUDD, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, THE COLLECTOR, POOR COW, TOBY DAMMIT (Stamp label for review) with HU-MAN, THEOREM, SUPERMAN II, THE HIT, THE LIMEY, PRINCE OF SHADOWS, BOWFINGER, PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT and the recent SONG FOR MARION. So no TERM OF TRIAL or that very rare western BLUE from '66 ?

Terry has also been in the news as he has written a follow-up to THE LIMEY which he has called WATERLOO SUNSET and he wishes to team up again with Julie Christie for it, it would be their first teaming since the Schlesinger FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD in 1967 - as per my recent post on Stamp he has now come to accept that the Kink's perennial song "Waterloo Sunset" is indeed about him and Julie - so they could be back on screen together again 40+ years later? Well, maybe better late than never ... more on Waterloo below ...

Losey's THE SERVANT, as per recent posts on it below, and seeing the special screening 2 weeks ago with Fox, Miles and Craig in attendance, is now out on Blu-Ray in a deliciously designed pack, with a terrific article by critic Peter Bradshaw comparing it to Antonioni and Polanski, and it has bonus extras on Losey and Pinter, including interviews with Fox, Miles and Craig; and it is  getting lots of interesting reviews: 
Harold Pinter's vicious dissection of class, sex and power still unnerves 50 years on. James Fox is exquisitely louche as the aristocratic Tony who requires a manservant to tend to his needs and Chelsea home. Enter, darkly, Dirk Bogarde's impenetrable parasitic Hugo who very quickly takes control of Tony's feckless world. This subversive 1963 satire remains disturbing and powerful. (The Independent).

or this from a terrific site - http://nothingiswrittenfilm.blogspot.co.uk/

The Servant begs for analysis, but its caustic view of humanity is plainly evident. Tony seems a likeable dimwit at first, nursing dreams of a business deal in Brazil, but his engrained snobbery marks him as both narcissistic and naive - fair game for the vicious Hugo, more appealing than the likeable but plain Susan. Hugo and Vera are a perverse embodiment of the new generation, using raw sexuality to destroy the accepted order, bringing Tony down and loving it. Losey and Pinter make Hugo not so much an avenging lower class angel as a moral vampire, spreading decadence and decay wherever he goes.   The re-discovery of the year then.

Dirk Bogarde was in the Sunday papers too - his Rolls Royce, a Silver Cloud which he bought in 1964, has been found after being hidden away for years in some garage. It has been spruced up and sold - for £25,000 - to its sixth owner, a "businessman in Chelsford, Essex" - Dirk would have been amused at that! How very YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE ! 

It will be next week when I actually watch the SERVANT blu-ray, when my new Sony Blu-ray multi-region dvd player arrives. This is my first real Blu-ray - others I have are dual format packs, as I kept off getting Blu-Ray till now, I don't intend to re-buy all my favourites again for a third time though, after vhs and dvd versions !  - though I would certainly want BLOW-UP, MODESTY BLAISE, WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT, A KIND OF LOVING, DARLING, ACCIDENT, THE PASSENGER, 2001, BARRY LYNDON and any Antonioni's.  BILLY LIAR arrives in May, and then those epics ...

Coop in London, 1959

Gary Cooper, long a favourite of The Movie Projector, made his last 2 films in England, for director Michael Anderson, after that good run he had from the mid-'50s (FRIENDLY PERSUASION, TEN NORTH FREDERICK, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (though I don't care for it), MAN OF THE WEST, THE HANGING TREE, THEY CAME TO CORDURA) then THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE and finally THE NAKED EDGE, that rather dull thriller with a obviously ill looking star. (Cooper died in 1961, aged 60 - a pity he could not have gone on like Cary Grant or James Stewart, and made more important movies, like for Hitchcock, which would still be in view today. Same with Clark Gable, dyring at 59 in 1960). 

THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE is still enjoyable now, from a Hammond Innes novel, scripted by Eric Ambler, about wrong-doing at sea, salvage and wrecking the ship of the title. Anderson as usual assembles an interesting cast (as in his same year's SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL and the later NAKED EDGE, OPERATION CROSSBOW etc) - here Michael Redgrave, Emlyn Williams, Cecil Parker, and the obligatory Richard Harris support Cooper and Charlton Heston (after THE BIG COUNTRY and just before BEN HUR).  It is filmed mostly on boats and the the big courtroom scene in the second half, but there is an interesting moment shot on location at Waterloo Station with Cooper arriving there and taking a taxi to visit Virginia McKenna, the daughter of the late pilot of the wrecked ship. She is an airline hostess and has been provided with the perfect '50s basement flat, with bullfight posters on the wall and other '50s items. We see Gary exiting the station and it is interesting - well for me anyway, as I used that route for 11 years when I lived in Portsmouth and commuted to London every day. I remember the old station as it was then with the old cartoon cinema etc. It has been modernised since and is now the busiest station in London. Gary actually looks quite well here, he was such a fascinating man and reminds me so much of my father, or maybe my father was a Gary Cooper kind of man ...

R.I.P.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927-2013), aged 85. I wrote about her just last week after watching A ROOM WITH A VIEW again (below) - surprisingly, the scriptwriter for most of those Merchant-Ivory films was not Indian at all, but a German Jew, a lot of whose family perished in the war. After her marriage to an Indian she settled in India before moving to America. She won Booker Prize for her novel HEAT AND DUST, which she also scripted for Merchant-Ivory (with Jhabvala, right), who approached her in 1960 to make a film of her novel THE HOUSEHOLDER, which started that rewarding partnership, resulting in Oscars for her scripts of the E.M.Foster films ROOM and HOWARD'S END; others included THE GURU, THE EUROPEANS, THE BOSTONIANS, THE REMAINS OF THE DAY. She did not though script MAURICE.

Milo O'Shea (1926-2013), aged 86, veteran Irish actor and funny man. Last year a lot of musical talent departed - it may be comedians this year (having already lost Richard Briers, Richard Griffiths, Frank Thornton). Milo was an all-round theatre man, popular in films too:  Duran Duran in BARBARELLA, the friar in Zeffirelli's ROMEO & JULIET, THE VERDICT, ULYSSES, LOOT (right, with Richard Attenborough and Lee Remick, one to revisit ..), and in tv in THE WEST WING, CHEERS, and that great BBC series ME MAMMY, scripted by his friend Hugh Leonard, with the great Anna Manahan - how we loved that in 1969-71, but seems impossible to see now. He did STAIRCASE on stage opposite Eli Wallach, in a long career on stage in Dublin, London and New York.

Roger Ebert (1942-2013), aged 70, became the first American film critic to win a Pulitzer prize, having turned reviewing into a branch of showbusiness when he and Gene Siskel launched their influential film review show on tv in Chicago in 1975; by the early 1980s it was attracting a weekly audience of three and a half millions viewers. The “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” from Ebert and Siskel, was delivered to the camera in the manner of ancient Roman emperors deciding the fate of gladiators. A double “thumbs up” was considered a much sought-after seal of approval by the Hollywood studios. Their shows did not appear here in the UK though  (we were lumbered with the BBC's middle-of-the-road movie pundit, Barry Norman).  I like Ebert's book THE GREAT MOVIES. At least his reviews, like those of Pauline Kael's, are preserved in their books.

Sara (Sarita) Montiel (1928-2013) - terrific in Anthony Mann's SERENADE, (he was one of her husbands)  perhaps the best of the Mario Lanza films, a delirious 1956 Warners melodrama with that lush colour and great compositions and Sarita (as she was then) certainly stood out ... its from a 40s James M Cain novel where the Joan Fontaine character is a man! (review at Fontaine label) Almodovar plays tribute to Montiel in his BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar label). Montiel was also in VERA CRUZ and RUN OF THE ARROW as well as remaining a huge star in Spain, perhaps a more flamboyant Jane Russell type ...

Annette Funicello (1942-20132) - "Theres a Muscle Beach Party in Heaven". I never saw Funicello in anything, we did not have the Disney Musketeers when I was growing up in Ireland, but we knew all about Annette and Frankie Avalon and those Beach Party movies .... sadly, she had been unwell for some time with M.S. 

and just in, news of the death of Margaret Thatcher, aged 87 after being unwell for some years. Whatever one felt about her and her policies (such as the infamous Section 28 or that bonkers poll tax) she was indeed a towering, colorful figure in British politics, perhaps the only Prime Minister since Churchill (or Blair) to have stood out so much or to have made such a difference, unlike today's lot.  As The Huffington Post succintly put it:

"Love her or loathe her, one thing's beyond dispute: Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain. The Iron Lady who ruled for 11 remarkable years imposed her will on a fractious, rundown nation _ breaking the unions, triumphing in a far-off war, and selling off state industries at a record pace. She left behind a leaner government and more prosperous nation by the time a mutiny ousted her from No. 10 Downing Street.

For admirers, Thatcher was a savior who rescued Britain from ruin and laid the groundwork for an extraordinary economic renaissance. For critics, she was a heartless tyrant who ushered in an era of greed that kicked the weak out onto the streets and let the rich become filthy rich.

"Let us not kid ourselves, she was a very divisive figure," said Bernard Ingham, Thatcher's press secretary for her entire term. "She was a real toughie. She was a patriot with a great love for this country, and she raised the standing of Britain abroad."

Thatcher was the first _ and still only _ female prime minister in Britain's history. But she often found feminists tiresome and was not above using her handbag as a prop to underline her swagger and power. A grocer's daughter, she rose to the top of Britain's snobbish hierarchy the hard way, and envisioned a classless society that rewarded hard work and determination."
She certainly symbolised the '80s in all its dated aspects now. I expect there will be wall to wall coverage  .... 

Montgomery - a double feature ...

Following on from Montgomer Clift thread, see label ...

The Long Goodbye:  TERMINAL STATION and INDESCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE, plus - how I spoil you - another look at SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER .... '50s dramas don't get hotter than that, as I sit wrapped in a blanket, watching the snow swirl outside and the temperature drop to below zero again, still the heating will be coming on shortly, in our coldest spring for 50 years ...

The early 50s were busy years for Vittorio De Sica, UMBERTO D in '52, acting in many films includng MADAME DE .... for Ophuls, and BREAD LOVE & DREAMS with Gina in '53, when David O. Selznick hired him and his screenwriter Cesare Zavattini for TERMINAL STATION which was meant to marry their neo-realism with Hollywood glamour in the shape of Mrs Selznick Jennifer Jones with Montgomery Clift, hugely popular and in his prime then, after A PLACE IN THE SUN, I CONFESS and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. Dialogue was by Truman Capote, and Jennifer wears a chic Dior costume and fur.

A married American woman has gotten involved with another man while visiting relatives in Rome. She decides that the time has come to break off the relationship, and she makes plans to return home to her husband. But she soon realizes that she is not at all sure about what she wants to do, and she continues to agonize over her decision.

I had not seen this before - of the '40s stars Jennifer Jones never impinged on me much, though she was effective in SONG OF BERNADETTE, DUEL IN THE SUN, MADAME BOVARY etc. Here she is in lush close-up after lush close-up as she and Clift as the Italian lover she is saying goodybe to agonise over their relationship, as she plans to return to Paris by train and back to America. For a film set in a railway station it is surprisingly formal and looks terrific with marvellous black and white images, as our lovers try to find a private place amid the bustle of the station - there are amusing vignettes too of various people, passengers both rich and poor. I kept worrying about her suitcase and fur coat left with a porter, which her nephew, young Richard Beymer (top, with Jones) brings to the station ...will she finally get on a train, will they get back together after he slaps her? It reminds one of other films - Rossellini's VOYAGE TO ITALY, also 1953 - with another Selznick star Ingrid Bergman similarly agonising over her marriage, or Lean's SUMMERTIME with its lovers Hepburn and Brazzi parting at the railway station .... It reminded me too of my train journeys from Paris to Milan and back in '74, and from Paris to Barcelona ...

De Sica and stars

The interesting thing here is De Sica's film is 89 minutes, but Selznick took control as usual, cut it down to 63 minutes and tried to spice it up with a lurid trailer as its new title INDISCRETION OF AN AMERICAN WIFE. It didn't work as the film was not successful at the time. The Criterion Collection now though has both films on one disk and its fascinating to compare (thanks, Jerry). Selznick cuts most of the opening sequence setting up our heroine's indecision, thus making her character colder, and also cuts most of the local colour at the station. They added on a short of Patti Page singing "Autumn In Rome" to pad it out, as an introduction before the feature.

Selznick went on to one final lush one A FAREWELL TO ARMS in Italy in 1957 with Jones again cast opposite another gay idol, with De Sica in the cast; she went on to BEAT THE DEVIL and the huge romantic hit of LOVE IS A MANY SPENDOURED THING in 1955, while Clift had the ill-fated RAINTREE COUNTY lined up (unless FROM HERE TO ENTERNITY was made after INDESCRETION ...). He is marvellous here and looks terrific ... Vittorio was going to be very busy too, with GOLD OF NAPLES next, as well as TOO BAD SHES BAD, acting with Sophia and Marcello in their first outing ...

What to add about SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER that has not been said before. I remember this when I was a kid (well, 13) in 1959 ... that late '50s era was great for dramas (I WANT TO LIVE, SEPARATE TABLES, ON THE BEACH, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, THE NUN'S STORY, IMITATION OF LIFE, A SUMMER PLACE etc) but nothing was as lurid as SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, another slice of Tennessee Williams, though set in the American south, it was filmed at Shepperton Studios in England so it amuses to see British character players like Rita Webb pop up in the asylum scene.

It was of course scripted by Gore Vidal, that great set was by Oliver Messel, and Mankiewicz put Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn through their paces. Monty though seems lost between them, and actually doesnt seem quite with it here, after his near fatal car crash. It seems Mank had little patience with him, which annoyed Hepburn no end, she spat at the director when her role was finished,. She is amazing as Mrs Venable, descending in her lift, feeding her venus fly-traps, and telling the doctor about her poet son Sebastian's last trip last summer when they saw the baby turtles trying to get to the sea while the sky was full of vicious birds devouring them. Sebastian too was devouring - the poor youths he preyed on, using his mother as bait,
and then cousin Catherine Holly (Elizabeth) in that notorious white bathing suit - "why it was a scandal to the jaybirds". No wonder she wants Catherine lobotomised. Taylor in one of her great Tennessee Williams roles is marvellous, the supporting cast includes Mercedes McCambridge (Luz from GIANT, Emma from JOHNNY GUITAR) and Gary Raymond, and Tennessee as usual creates poetry out of mere dialogue.

SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER remains a stunner - the BBC version in the 90s with Maggie Smith and Natasha Richardson was totally forgettable by comparison.  The original "Films & Filming" review stated that tourists in sunny climes began wearing tee-shirts with "Sebastian" emblazoned on them ....!
 Next double-feature: Sarah Miles in THE HIRELING and LADY CAROLINE LAMB ...

Natalie - a double feature ...

LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER - Another one not seen since its release here in London in 1964, we liked those Robert Mulligan films then, produced by Alan J Pakula - before he started directing. Another too of those nice black and white movies of that era (like LILITH, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, BAY OF ANGELS), it is also a nice New York film of the period, set in the Italian-American milieu, like BLACK ORCHID or MOONSTRUCK, as nice Italian girl Natalie Wood, a Macys shopgirl, deals with her protective family of Mama and 3 brothers (led by Herschel Bernardi) who want to see her marry nice guy Tom Bosley .... but Angie (Nat) has her own ideas - she is pregnant for starters, from a one-night stand with a jazz musician, Steve McQueen, defining cool again. It starts nicely as musicians turn up to be hired and she has him paged over the tannoy. He barely remembers her, but she just wants the name of a doctor she can go to .... after misunderstandings he takes her for the abortion but of course they don't go through with it; she finally leaves home and get a nice little apartment and he begins to see her in a new light ...

Edie Adams (left) is a delight in the small role of Steve's casual girlfriend, a nightclub gal, particularly amusing when she returns to her apartment and finds he has installed Angie there. McQueen always worked best with a good female lead, as with Natalie here, Lee Remick (in that other nice Mulligan, BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL in '65), or with Dunaway in THOMAS CROWN (Dunaway, McQueen labels). The early '60s was Natalie's best time - she had been a child actress in the 40s, the 50s saw her playing daughter to Margaret Sullavan, Bette Davis and others, then her iconic roles in THE SEARCHERS and REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE; she was Warners' mid-50s star, along with Tab Hunter, before the arrival of the new ingenues like Sandra Dee, Carol Lynley and Tuesday Weld. In 1958 she was MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR in the Warners sudser, followed by the love interest in CASH McCALL and one of the ALL THE FINE YOUR CANNIBALS with husband Wagner in 1960 (Wood label). Then the early 60s saw her hits like WEST SIDE STORY, GYPSY (a favourite musical), SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER was another, and INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (Natalie label). SEX AND THE SINGLE GIRL and THE GREAT RACE were so-so, but she was certainly a Hollywood veteran. She was only 43 by the time of her mysterious death in 1981. 

THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED, was another good drama for her in 1966, her second with the rising Robert Redford, after DAISY CLOVER. (She also pops up for a moment in his THE CANDIDATE).. We are back to Tennessee Williams here, even if minor Williams, as directed by Sydney Pollack, and co-written by Francis Coppola.

Sultry women, sweltering weather, and a handsome new stranger in town ... A railroad official, Owen Legate comes to Dodson, Mississippi to shut down much of the town's railway (town's main income). Owen unexpectedly finds love with Dodson's flirt and main attraction, Alva Starr. Alva and Owen then try to escape Alva's mother's (Hazel) clutches and the town's revenge.

Natalie looks great as Alva, the town beauty with nowhere to go, and the depression period is nicely captured, as the story is told by Mary Badham (from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - another of Mulligan's hits) as Alva's kid sister. Kate Reid is the powerhouse mother, and Charles Bronson is also involved. It has its lyrical moments with the young lovers, and it captures that American Gothic deep south territory that Williams specialised in. Redford was also in that powerhouse all-star drama THE CHASE that year, which we will get around to before too long.  This though is one of Natalie's most powerful performances and she was at the zenith of her beauty. Natalie and Redford make a great movie couple, like McQueen & Dunaway, Clift & Taylor, Clift & Remick, Cary Grant and all his leading ladies (Loren, Kelly, Kerr, Bergman, both Hepburns etc) or Peck with his (Ava, Loren, Simmons), or Delon or Bogarde or Belmondo with so many ...
The story seems to falter when our lovers get to New Orleans, but there is a nice wistful coda at the end, with Badham (so affecting as Scout in MOCKINGBIRD) wearing Natalie's tattered dress, as she wanders off along the railroad track ....

[A flashback: London, 1968 - that summer of love. I am walking along Kings Road, Chelsea with my pal Stan, we are both 22, and someone hands us a flyer for the forthcoming Doors/Jefferson Airplane all-nighter at the Roundhouse in Camden, which I am going to with my hippie friends (Doors label). We enter a clothes boutique and a trim petite dark-haired woman with an American accent who is sitting on a stool, asks me what the flyer in my hand is for, so I show her and she asks if she can have it, so I say sure and give it to her. We leave the shop and are walking along when we both turn and look at each other and say "That was Natalie Wood"!. - it probably was, as it was between her marriages to Wagner when she was married and based in the UK. ..]

More '50s dramas coming up: Monty Clift in De Sica's TERMINAL STATION  and SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, return visits to BONJOUR TRISTESSE and others ..and the '60s HURRY SUNDOWN, THE CHASE, and Paul Newman as HARPER, and for comic relief John Wayne (iconic in the '50s, a toupeed dinosaur in the '70s) as BRANNIGAN unleashed on a trashy '70s London ....its delirious!
PS: I just ordered a compendium of Tennessee Williams stories - we need more Tennessee! - I particularly liked his THREE PLAYERS OF A SUMMER GAME collection, featuring two stunning stories TWO ON A PARTY and THE MALEDICTION, which have stayed with me, it will be great to read them again here.