Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 5, 2020 6:36:00 GMT -8
1962’s Walk on the Wild Side is based on the novel by Nelson Algren. The synopsis of that book includes:
If the book asked any of those questions, the movie didn’t answer them. What the movie does answer is “How stupidly can you get everyone to act so that they face the maximum danger at the end?” Despite the obvious dangers involved in dealing with the thugs who run a house of prostitution in New Orleans, everyone acts (particularly at the end) as if they can just waltz in and out at will.
Well, they certainly could have if they had arranged things that way. But an otherwise interesting movie gets scuttled on the plot of the man trying to rescue his old girlfriend from a house of prostitution and proceeding in the worst way possible.
There’s a story here. It’s just never realized. The one story that does work is Anne Baxter playing the Mexican Teresina Vidaverri who does a bit of rescuing of her own and takes to Dove Linkhorn (Laurence Harvey). Beyond that, this is mostly mindless melodrama.
Oh, but there was an interesting opening with Dove Linkhorn on the tramp road running into Kitty Twist played by Jane Boom-Boom Fonda who looks every bit like she could play a prostitute as she eventually does in this movie. Some say her acting was bad. I thought it was pretty good.
Barbara Stanwyck plays the cathouse owner, Jo Courtney. It’s a fine The Big Valley kind of tough-woman performance you’d expect out of her. But it is backed by nothing. She’s just tough from out of nowhere. Otherwise she’s a cardboard cutout character. Certainly the reigning movie codes at the time prohibited anything more than the superficial. Even so, it’s just stilted writing and talent wasted.
The problem is not the actors in this. It’s a story that runs out of steam and is filled with gadgety plot points near the end. Even when Dove goes get Hallie (Capucine) away from the cathouse, Jo is immediately on her trail and we have this tremendously bad line from Hallie which was something like “I knew you’d come.” Given that she would likely be either dragged out of there or beaten up (possibly both), it was a casual line completely out of context. And no one was prepared in the least if indeed Hallie “Knew they would come.” Not even the wise and self-sufficient Teresina has a gun or a plan.
The worst moment of the film is when the beaten-to-hell (one of his plans for getting Hallie out of the cathouse didn’t go so well) Dove Linkhorn magically rises out of unconsciousness and out of bed with full steam to take on one of Jo’s cathouse thugs….which he immediately overpowers. How? It must be the depth of his love for Hallie…or the stupidness of the screenplay.
There are memorable opening credits by Saul Bass. But the main question is, Is Laurence Harvey miscast as a wandering Texan? Yes, but had the story been solid, you wouldn’t have cared. The story is caught between something intelligent/poignant and just melodramatic pap. Had Teresina been able to talk Dove into forgetting his quest for Hallie, it would have been a better story.
And as lovely as Capucine is, there’s zero chemistry with Laurence Harvey. In fact, her character is fairly shallow and stalls the picture. We don’t really care if she escapes the cathouse or not. We’re prefer that Dove dump her and return to Anne-Baxter-with-a-black-wig.
But, alas, we get yet another stupid ending. Whether the movie follows the book closely or not, perhaps the problem is that even though they have to somewhat necessarily skirt the issues of lesbianism and prostitution, they do a very bad job of it. Even for a movie, nothing seems particularly real about the story — except, again, for the interaction between Harvey and Baxter. But the film is watchable with suitably lowered expectations. Jane Fonda, for instance, is hot as a pistol.
With its depictions of the downtrodden prostitutes, bootleggers, and hustlers of Perdido Street in the old French Quarter of 1930s New Orleans, A Walk in the Wild Side has found a place in the imaginations of all generations since it first appeared . . .
Perhaps the author's own words describe this classic work best: "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives. Why men who have suffered at the hands of other men are the natural believers in humanity, while those whose part has been simply to acquire, to take all and give nothing, are the most contemptuous of mankind."
Perhaps the author's own words describe this classic work best: "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives. Why men who have suffered at the hands of other men are the natural believers in humanity, while those whose part has been simply to acquire, to take all and give nothing, are the most contemptuous of mankind."
If the book asked any of those questions, the movie didn’t answer them. What the movie does answer is “How stupidly can you get everyone to act so that they face the maximum danger at the end?” Despite the obvious dangers involved in dealing with the thugs who run a house of prostitution in New Orleans, everyone acts (particularly at the end) as if they can just waltz in and out at will.
Well, they certainly could have if they had arranged things that way. But an otherwise interesting movie gets scuttled on the plot of the man trying to rescue his old girlfriend from a house of prostitution and proceeding in the worst way possible.
There’s a story here. It’s just never realized. The one story that does work is Anne Baxter playing the Mexican Teresina Vidaverri who does a bit of rescuing of her own and takes to Dove Linkhorn (Laurence Harvey). Beyond that, this is mostly mindless melodrama.
Oh, but there was an interesting opening with Dove Linkhorn on the tramp road running into Kitty Twist played by Jane Boom-Boom Fonda who looks every bit like she could play a prostitute as she eventually does in this movie. Some say her acting was bad. I thought it was pretty good.
Barbara Stanwyck plays the cathouse owner, Jo Courtney. It’s a fine The Big Valley kind of tough-woman performance you’d expect out of her. But it is backed by nothing. She’s just tough from out of nowhere. Otherwise she’s a cardboard cutout character. Certainly the reigning movie codes at the time prohibited anything more than the superficial. Even so, it’s just stilted writing and talent wasted.
The problem is not the actors in this. It’s a story that runs out of steam and is filled with gadgety plot points near the end. Even when Dove goes get Hallie (Capucine) away from the cathouse, Jo is immediately on her trail and we have this tremendously bad line from Hallie which was something like “I knew you’d come.” Given that she would likely be either dragged out of there or beaten up (possibly both), it was a casual line completely out of context. And no one was prepared in the least if indeed Hallie “Knew they would come.” Not even the wise and self-sufficient Teresina has a gun or a plan.
The worst moment of the film is when the beaten-to-hell (one of his plans for getting Hallie out of the cathouse didn’t go so well) Dove Linkhorn magically rises out of unconsciousness and out of bed with full steam to take on one of Jo’s cathouse thugs….which he immediately overpowers. How? It must be the depth of his love for Hallie…or the stupidness of the screenplay.
There are memorable opening credits by Saul Bass. But the main question is, Is Laurence Harvey miscast as a wandering Texan? Yes, but had the story been solid, you wouldn’t have cared. The story is caught between something intelligent/poignant and just melodramatic pap. Had Teresina been able to talk Dove into forgetting his quest for Hallie, it would have been a better story.
And as lovely as Capucine is, there’s zero chemistry with Laurence Harvey. In fact, her character is fairly shallow and stalls the picture. We don’t really care if she escapes the cathouse or not. We’re prefer that Dove dump her and return to Anne-Baxter-with-a-black-wig.
But, alas, we get yet another stupid ending. Whether the movie follows the book closely or not, perhaps the problem is that even though they have to somewhat necessarily skirt the issues of lesbianism and prostitution, they do a very bad job of it. Even for a movie, nothing seems particularly real about the story — except, again, for the interaction between Harvey and Baxter. But the film is watchable with suitably lowered expectations. Jane Fonda, for instance, is hot as a pistol.