Mat L
Never a more talented team assembled to make a movie like this dark classic for Natalie Wood's fans, and yet failed to deliver. Written by Coppola based on Tennessee Williams, shot by James Wong Howe, directed by Sydney Pollack and dressed by Edith Head, with a beautiful jazzy score and a superb cast, The sentimental southern gothic tale has aged rather well, thanks to an Academy Award worthy performance from Wood, and a very strong supporting cast. Yet it's easy to see why it flopped at the time. These melodramas in somptuous technicolour were better suited to the late 50's, and the movie clearly hesitates between the period era that it is describing and the summer of love of 1966. Yet it's a little gem and a must see for the unforgettable, sublime Natalie Wood in one of her best performances.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
12/18/23
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Audience Member
A stranger, Owen Legate (Robert Redford), arrives in the small town of Dodson and makes his way to the Starr Boarding House, where a loud birthday party is in progress for the landlady, Mrs. Hazel "Mama" Starr (Kate Reid). He meets Willie, the youngest daughter of the house, and rents a room for the week, while remaining mysterious about his motives for being in town. It soon emerges that the eldest daughter, Alva (Natalie Wood), is the "main attraction" at the party. Mr. Johnson, the oldest and richest railroad station worker, is eagerly awaiting her arrival. When Alva finally appears, many men greet her and try to attract her attention or to dance with her, including Mama's boyfriend J.J. (Charles Bronson). Alva and Owen first meet in the kitchen, where the girl tells a fanciful story about one of the workers taking her dancing at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. Willie is entranced, but Owen suspects that the story is fictitious. It becomes obvious that Alva is eager to leave Dodson and dreams of going to New Orleans, from where Owen has come. Later, Alva enters Owen's room on a false pretense and begins confiding in him. He discourages her, suggesting that she is no more than a prostitute, and she leaves in tears. Mama explains to Alva that she must be kind to Mr. Johnson, who has promised to look after her. The next day, Willie, who is skipping Vacation Bible School, sees Owen on his way to work. The purpose of Owen's visit to Dodson is to lay off several railroad employees as a result of cutbacks made necessary by the Depression. In the evening, Mr. Johnson is waiting again for Alva to get ready for their date, but she is avoiding it. She makes an excuse to get him to go inside, then leads Owen into the garden to show him her father's red-headed scarecrow. Owen confronts Alva about her arrangement with Mama, to which Alva will neither admit nor face. She runs back angrily to Mr. Johnson and invites everyone in the house to go skinny-dipping. J.J. manages to get Alva alone and comes on to her. He tells her Owen has come to lay off most of the town. The workers grow increasingly hostile toward Legate, but Owen and Alva become closer. They visit an abandoned train car decorated by Alva's father and Alva talks once again of her dream to leave the town. When Owen is beaten up by the laid-off men, Alva takes care of him and the two spend the night together. Meanwhile, Mama has arranged for the family to accompany Mr. Johnson to Memphis, where he will take care of them. She will not let Alva go to New Orleans with Owen. When Alva protests, Mama persuades Owen to believe he has been deceived and that Alva was planning to go to Memphis all along. Mama, J.J., Alva and Mr. Johnson go out to celebrate their new arrangement. Drunk and angered, Alva confronts J.J. and gets him to admit that he stays with Mrs. Starr to be with her. That night, Alva marries J.J., but the next morning she steals his money and their marriage license and runs away to New Orleans...
Sydney Pollack´s 1966 American strong drama set during the great depression and inspired by the great 1946 one-act play of the same name by Tennessee Williams, was written by Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Coe and Edith Sommer. I don´t think I have ever heard of this film, but I am glad I bought it at the local flea market. We get a great cast in Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Kate Reid, Charles Bronson, Robert Blake and Mary Badham. Natalie Wood received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama and well deserved in my opinion as she is really dazzling and gorgeous as Alva. Robert Redford is subtle and magnificent as Owen. I like the storyline that you can´t really forsee what will happen except that Owen and Alva will end up with each other in one way or another. The film is noted for its memorable song "Wish me a Rainbow", written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, which is heard at the beginning and the ending of the film. Ed Ames, Gilberto Astrudo, and Lawrence Welk have all covered versions of this sentimental melancholia song. It´s interesting that the film received mostly mixed to negative reviews which to me a bit of a questionmark as I really liked "This property is condemned".
Trivia: Natalie Wood attempted suicide during the filming of this movie (27 November 1965). Natalie Wood had trouble performing the drunken bar scene, so she got drunk for real. This was supposed to be a prestige picture for Natalie Wood after a string of flops that would mark her comeback as a serious actress. However, the film was met with public and critical indifference. Wood retreated from Hollywood and wouldn't make another film for another three years.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/21/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Between 3 and 3.5 stars. Story with the echoes of the South dramas of Tenesse Williams, but less rich, although good interpretation from the actors.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/25/23
Full Review
Audience Member
In truth, it ought to be SEVEN stars. Perfect, succinct, visceral, heart-shattering story about a girl, Alva (Natalie Wood), raging to break out from the suffocation of her dead-end town and the white slavery imposed by her own mother. Wood's role is richly complex -- naive nymph and femme fatale, broken soul and desperate dreamer -- and she f**king owns it. For Tennessee Williams pictures, I put this up there with "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Baby Doll." That Wood garnered no more than a Golden Globe nomination, and that the movie isn't held in higher acclaim, is sickening. Bonus Points: directed ably by Sydney Pollack, co-written by Francis Ford Coppola and powerful roles by Robert Redford and Mary Badham (Scout from "To Kill a Mockingbird"). The Redford-Wood second act face-off renders some of the best dialogue I've ever heard and Redford gets the gems, spitting out invectives like buckshot. Don't miss it.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/19/23
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steve d
Engaging and Wood is fantastic.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This movie is an underappreciated gem. Natalie Wood and Robert Redford have incredible chemistry and both give stellar performances. Alva Starr plays the game yet one senses she is hurt by her father leaving and see that she is becoming increasingly angry about being pimped out, controlled by her mother. She wants nothing more than to escape her circumstances. She is so much more than the flirtatious surface she portrays to entice borders to her mother's establishment. She loves her sister and Owen Legate with a beauty, maturity and purity which is lovely to witness. Her mother is selfish, controlling, greedy and abusive. You are rooting for Alva and Owen and Willie's happy ending, but it is not realized in the end. I've read that Tennessee Williams is known for his tragic endings. I wish I could have changed this one. The hero/heroines certainly deserved it.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
Full Review
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