by John Farr
John Farr on one of the greats, director Elia Kazan, and three of his less-celebrated pictures.
Panic in the Streets (1950)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT:
Early Elia Kazan suspenser centers around an increasingly desperate search for two criminals on the lam in New Orleans (played by Jack Palance and Zero Mostel), who, unbeknownst to them, have been infested with Bubonic plague. If health inspector Dr. Clint Reed (Widmark) and police captain Tom Warren (Paul Douglas) don’t nab their quarry fast, this killer plague will spread and put the whole country at risk.
WHY I LOVE IT:
Breathlessly exciting film is one of the best manhunt pictures ever made, with the plague twist adding an extra jolt of tension. Kazan’s peerless on-location shooting never obscures the terrific acting from the four central characters, comprising both hunters and hunted. Palance is positively magnetic. Don’t miss this one.
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT:
Local radio interviewer Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) decides to interview transients at the local jail for a human interest story. There, she spots a drunken Arkansas hayseed named Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes (Andy Griffith), whom she discovers has rare gift for gab and song. Before long, due to Marcia’s initial boosting, “Lonesome” becomes a wildly popular network TV star. Little does she know she’s creating a monster.
WHY I LOVE IT:
This engrossing and sobering tale about the precarious and poisonous nature of fame in our mass-media age seems even more timely today. Budd Schulberg’s script (who also wrote “On The Waterfront”) literally sizzles, and Neal is superb. As to Andy, this role made him, but he sure is a long way from Mayberry! An impossibly cute, young Remick (as Betty Lou, Lonesome’s baton twirling, clueless child bride Betty Lou, and Franciosa as a slimeball talent agent do fine work; the legendary Matthau is also on hand in a subtle, sad-sack turn as a wise but weary network executive. This is one “Face” you’ll never forget.
Splendor in the Grass (1961)
WHAT IT’S ABOUT:
Rich kid Bud Stamper (Warren Beatty) and high-school beauty Deanie Loomis (Natalie Wood) are going steady in 1920s Kansas, but though the torch of love burns hot and bright, Deanie resists giving up her virginity to Bud, whose sexual frustration drives him into the arms of other, “looser” girls. The fragile Deanie, meanwhile, is driven over the edge by her shrewish mother (Audrey Christie), and her own raging hormones.
WHY I LOVE IT:
Handsome and emitting the masculine musk that would soon turn him into a rakish sex symbol, Beatty makes an assured screen debut in Elia Kazan’s “Grass,” starring opposite an exquisitely lovely and tortured Wood, playing one of Hollywood’s most memorable sexual hysterics. (Reportedly, the two young stars had some sexual hysterics off the sound-stage as well.) Think Douglas Sirk or Tennessee Williams and you have some idea where Kazan’s wonderfully executed tale of young love, scripted by William Inge, eventually tumbles. Keep an eye out too for Phyllis Diller and a young Sandy Dennis, also making her big-screen debut.
Great choices, John, and I am so glad that you singled out “Splendor In The Grass”. Today, the film seems to have survived a lot of its negative criticism and comes across as a highly probing and extremely devastating study of sexual hysteria in a small-town 1920’s Midwestern environment which viewed sex as a very “nasty”, almost unmentionable, fact of life. Elia Kazan was able to get quite a memorable performance out of Natalie Wood, who brought you into the “very eye of the storm”. Wood was actually nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress, but lost out to Sophia Loren in Vittorio DeSica’s “Two Women”. However, William Inge, who was responsible for the screenplay, won a much-deserved Oscar. Over the years, there have been a lot of pictures about sexual hysteria, sometimes veiled as sexual anxiety, as in Douglas Sirk’s magnificent “All That Heaven Allows”, but there has probably never been one as powerful as Elia Kazan’s “Splendor in the Grass”.
speaking of william inge, have you seen “picnic” with william holden and kim novak?
John, I have seen “Picnic”, more than once, too. What’s your opinion of this one? It’s probably Joshua Logan’s best film, right?
that distinction I’d give to “Mister Roberts” but “Picnic” runs a close second.
and that score…who can forget “Moonglow”?
As sung by The McGuire Sisters? Not me!
or that jazzy instrumental version on the soundtrack.
Once upon a time, I had that soundtrack.
Please note that the THIRTEEN editorial staff reserves the right to not post comments it deems to be inappropriate and/or malicious in nature, as well as edit comments for length, clarity and fairness. No solicitations or advertisements will be allowed. Users may link to other Web sites relevant to discussion, but most often links to commercial Web sites will not be permitted.