Private Property

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Mr. E I thought the movie was well done. It was very spicy for 1960 but is tame compared to what is out there nowadays. They could have made it even more titillating by having Duke impregnate the housewife. In a voice over at the end she could have said how she would raise his son to be a better man than his father was. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/10/23 Full Review Blobbo X Twist at end is both guys secretly gay, both hide it from other. Risky subject matter for its time, but could have been fit into a 25 minute episode of Hitchcock. 3 stars if were shorter. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 06/29/23 Full Review Audience Member An excellent, taut, low-budget B movie. It felt like an extended episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Corey Allen was mesmerizing as the hot, sociopathic drifter. The ending was a let down; I am not sure if the Hayes Code was still in effect in 1960 but it wouldn't be surprising if it were, going by the too-convenient resolution. Class divisions are clearly a theme but it's not clear what the movie tries to say about it. The usurpers are vanquished at the end and the class structure is restored but I am not sure if the movie is saying that this is how things should be or how they inevitably are. Private Property was "lost" for decades until it was rediscovered in the 1990s. I'm so glad it was. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member Further evidence mid-century filmmakers often showed more facility with exploring darker parts of the human psyche than their contemporaries, Private Property is the kind of late-period film noir that often gets remade (badly). Cooked up from a recipe in Moviemaking for Dummies- charming drifter, oblivious husband, and bored housewife- writer/director Leslie Stevens mixes in just the right amount of interesting camera work and honestly portrayed desperation to neatly fill the 79 minute run time. Aside from the unfortunately superfluous and misused Warren Oates and a disappointingly trite finale, Private Property is saved from its hack exploitation fate by humorous and interesting Freudian insertions and a slow burning plot. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Cheap low-budget film that packs a punch. Writer/Director Leslie Stevens shot the film in 10 days in his own Beverly Hills home, telling the story of two drifters, Warren Oats and Corey Allen, who begin to stalk a woman he happen to spot one day, Kate Manx. But this film is much deeper than simple home invasion/stalker story. Director Stevens infuses the pulpy story with a lot of intelligence and art house style. It's a mix that Samuel Fuller used throughout his films to great effect, though Stevens seems to hedge more toward the art house side to that duality. That's my main complaint about the film, the rather overt symposium and mannered style, but at the same time the film is highly compelling and quite fascinating. Stevens introduces the two drifters climbing up the side of an oceanside cliff, with their footprints on the beach having the two monsters emerging from the sea. Also, the scenes were the two drifters squat in a neighboring abandon home and watch the lonely wife seek attention from her husband out by the pool feel far more creepy and invasive than you'd imaging any other film ever attempting in this era. The film also has some incredibly unsettling moments when Allen dances with the lonely wife in an attempt to seduce her that are just bizarre and unnerving. Another weird layer to the story is that Allen is trying to set up the wife to introduce Oates character to sex and women, event hough it's hinted that Oates character is likely gay. All of this was too much for the decency crowd at the time and the film was denied a distribution deal in the US and was eventually considered a lost film. However, the film was unearthed years later and given a proper restoration and release. A must see for fans of Warren Oates and tough film noir. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review s r Interesting acting, but not much of a plot. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Private Property

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