NASTY HABITS

Glenda Jackson and Sandy Dennis

NASTY HABITS (1977). Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg. 

When the elderly abbess Hildegarde (Edith Evans) passes away, a battle ensues between two factions of nuns in Philadelphia. On one side is Sister Alexandra (Glenda Jackson), who wants to remain aloof as the Prioress Sister Walburga (Geraldine Page) and Mistress of Novices Sister Mildred (Anne Jackson) conspire with the somewhat addle-pated Sister Winifred (Sandy Dennis) to spy upon the other faction and trip them up at every turn. On the other side is the younger Sister Felicity (Susan Penhaligon) who sneaks out into the woods outside the convent for romantic rendezvous and hot sex on a regular basis. She wants all of her nuns to have a steady beau. Both groups are not above using hidden mikes and cameras to find out what the others are up to. When Felicity is excommunicated, she goes public, telling all on The Mike Douglas Show. Is this the end of this oddball Philly faction of possibly Catholic nuns? 

Jackson, Jackson and Page

Frankly, the notion of setting the whole Watergate story in a nunnery is brilliant, and while the execution may be flawed, Nasty Habits emerges as a memorable motion picture. The actors are all wonderful, but Glenda Jackson is simply superb as the quietly ferocious manipulator behind the scenes. One of her best sequences has her addressing the other nuns as to the difference between ladies and the bourgeoisie, but she is wonderful throughout. Nasty Habits may not be a laugh riot a la Night at the Opera, but it is consistently amusing. Keeping it in the family, a few of the cast members' husbands are also in the film: Rip Torn; Eli Wallach, and Jerry Stiller -- all play priests (Stiller's wife Anne Meara is a gum-chewing nun from Joisey.) Vatican scenes with Stiller and Wallach examine whether or not the Philly nuns are a true order or not, a sop to the Catholic Church, of course. Melina Mercouri is also fun as a nun who travels the world as a missionary and advises Sister Alexandra by telephone. 

Verdict: This very funny movie should have been a TV series! ***. 

THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL

THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL (1985). Director: Peter Masterson. 

A lovely, low-key movie and character study about an elderly woman, Carrie Watts (Geraldine Page, who won and deserved an Oscar), who desperately wants to go back to her childhood home for at least one last look. Carrie lives with her son, Ludie (John Heard) and daughter-in-law Jessie Mae (Carlin Glynn) in a small home and sometimes there is a definite strain. Based on Horton Foote's play (he also wrote the screenplay), the mood piece is moving because it invokes feelings of lost youth, distant times of (alleged) happiness, past regrets and wasted chances, and all the things that most human beings feel as they grow older. Still, the film primarily works because of Page's superb performance. She makes a woman that many of us would find quite tiresome in real life (what with her hymns and dumb religious assertions) perhaps more interesting than she deserves to be. Still she comes off as a very real person. Heard and Glynn are also quite good. Rebecca De Mornay and Richard Bradford are also notable as a fellow bus passenger and the local sheriff, respectively. One could quibble about certain things, but this is all about mood. 

Verdict. Quietly touching. ***.

SUMMER AND SMOKE

Geraldine Page and Laurence Harvey

SUMMER AND SMOKE (1961). Directed by Peter Glenville.

"Ask for all -- and be prepared to get nothing." -- Alma.

In a small Southern town around the turn of the century, Alma Winemiller (Geraldine Page) has been in love with her next door neighbor, doctor's son John Buchanan Jr. (Laurence Harvey), since they were children. Alma would prefer a more spiritual romance with John, while the lusty and somewhat wild and free-wheeling John would prefer just the opposite. Alma's father (John McIntire) is the town preacher and her mother is mentally disturbed, having had a breakdown years before. John's father is incredibly stern, which perhaps leads his son to take up with the daughter (Rita Moreno) of the owner of the local gambling den. Alma eventually commits what John deems a betrayal, but the bond between them still exists, until both realize that the tables have turned ... This very odd "romance" is based on the 1948 play by Tennessee Williams (revised some years later as Eccentricities of a Nightingale); Page played the part in a 1950's revival. Page, who received an Oscar nomination, gives a very strong performance, although at times she seems overly theatrical. Harvey is good but not in her league.  Una Merkel [Destry Rides Again] also received an Oscar nomination for her notable performance as Alma's mother. Earl Holliman does some nice work as a traveling salesman that Alma encounters at the finale. Pamela Tiffin [The Fifth Cord] was "introduced" in this film as the daughter of a madame played zestfully by Lee Patrick [Caged]; Tiffin never developed into a major star.

Geraldine Page as Alma

I basically think Summer and Smoke is an absorbing and interesting picture with a good storyline, but it does have some problems. Page and Harvey were both in their thirties at the time, perhaps a little too old for their roles; Page was nearly forty, in fact. Younger actors -- assuming they were good actors -- might have added a certain degree of veracity. Considering the obsession that Alma has had for John over the years, I thought her reaction at a development at the end of the film is a bit too subdued. But the film has a good score by Elmer Bernstein (which even adds suspense to the proceedings). some lively and poignant sequences, moves quickly, and boasts an essentially fine performance by Page. Her scene when she finally declares her love for John is superb.

Verdict: Star-crossed, touching romance with some wonderful acting. ***. 

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE?

Ruth Gordon and Geraldine Page

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? (1969). Director: Lee H. Katzin. 

Newly widowed Claire Marrabel (Geraldine Page) discovers that her husband left her with virtually no assets and a lot of debts, so what's a poor woman to do? She kills her housekeepers (we learn this even before the opening credits) at her Arizona dwelling and takes their assets for herself. But she has a formidable adversary in her new companion and potential victim, Alice (Ruth Gordon), who is there, unbeknownst to her employer, to find out what happened to a friend of hers who disappeared. With adept and amusing performances from the two leads, as well as a lively physical fight between the two, it's a shame that they are wasted in a movie as mediocre as Aunt Alice? The film was produced by Robert Aldrich, co-produced by his company, and was filmed at the Aldrich studios, but the role Aldrich most needed to play was as director, as Lee H. Katzin fails to imbue the film with much tension or suspense. The climax occurs nearly fifteen minutes before the comparatively flat wind-up. A dull sub-plot concerning a burgeoning relationship between duller characters played by Robert Fuller [The Brain from Planet Arous] and Rosemary Forsyth only pads out the running time. Anyone expecting another What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?  or Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte will be sorely disappointed.

Verdict: Even "aging actresses" deserve better than this. **.

THE BEGUILED

Geraldine Page, Clint Eastwood, Elizabeth Hartman

THE BEGUILED (1971). Director: Don Siegel.

During the civil war a wounded Union soldier, John (Clint Eastwood), winds up at a Southern girls school run by Martha (Geraldine Page) and her assistant, Edwina (Elizabeth Hartman). These two women and a couple of the nubile students are mightily intrigued by this Yankee, and agree to keep him hidden in the school until he's recovered, as they are afraid in his condition he might die in a rebel prison. With survival uppermost in his mind, John romances the two ladies, tells them anything they want to hear, and unsuccessfully fends off the advances of sexy student, Carol (Jo Ann Harris). Finally one night he gets an invitation from all three women, but whose bed should he go to, and what will the consequences be if he makes the wrong choice ...? The Beguiled is more about sexual tension than about anything else, and on that level it succeeds, although it could be argued that it's somewhat sexist and even rather silly at times. In spite of that the movie has a certain fascination. Eastwood [Revenge of the Creature] is more than adequate, although he's out-acted by his two powerhouse co-stars, with Page [Sweet Bird of Youth] convincing as the headmistress with her pansexual fantasies, and Hartman excellent as the virginal spinster who's come to see John as her escape. Harris, Pamelyn Ferdin [The Mephisto Waltz] as 13-year-old Amy, and Mae Mercer as the black servant, Hallie, are also notable. Siegel also directed the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Verdict: Obvious but entertaining and nearly a classic. ***.

THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE

A striking shot from "Happiest Millionaire"

 THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE (1967). Director: Norman Tokar.

Walt Disney decided to try and get another blockbuster musical like The Sound of Music or its own Mary Poppins by adapting a play about the real-life Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Sr. of Philadelphia. Frankly, Biddle seems an unlikely subject for a light-hearted musical, as he sounds like a rather grim, conservative soul -- despite his eccentricities, which sound more like childish curmudgeonliness -- who started an athletic-religious movement and probably never had to work a day in his life. As embodied by the ever-likable Fred MacMurray, Biddle is made more palatable in this screen treatment, which could have used a little more of a story. The chief plot has to do with the 1916 courtship and ensuing marriage of Biddle's daughter Cordy (Lesley Ann Warren) and Angier (John Davidson) of a prominent New York family. Biddle has two sons but they seem to disappear early in the picture, and even the maid, played very well by Hemione Baddeley, takes a hike after the intermission [the film is nearly three hours long!]. On the other hand, Tommy Steele's winning personality as the butler is on display throughout the film. Greer Garson is cast as Biddle's wife, and while she adds a bit of class to the film, she doesn't really seem to be in the same movie -- you just can't see her as thinking anything but that Biddle is utterly declasse. Garson doesn't make any attempt to be funny, which may have been wise of her. Speaking of class, Gladys Cooper as Aunt Mary and Geraldine Page as Angier's mother nearly steal the picture, especially in the parlor scene when they have a sophisticated verbal cat-fight. An unexpected cast member is Joan Marshall [who starred in Homicidal as Jean Arless] playing a maid who is terrified of Biddle's collection of pet alligators. [More than once we see Tommy Steele pulling one of the larger gators by the tail.] The songs by the Sherman Brothers are vaguely pleasant at times, but not very memorable.This was the first film for both Warren and Davidson, both of whom are excellent. The Disney studio later teamed them in The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. MacMurray is fine.NOTE: The restored, expanded DVD of this movie actually has a kind of vague double-image on the picture and is certainly not as crisp and clear as it should be.

Verdict: The movie is not terrible, it's just too long and aimless and needs a stronger story. **1/2.

THE DAY OF THE LOCUST

The movie premiere that climaxes Locust

THE DAY OF THE LOCUST (1975). Director: John Schlesinger.

"I could only let a fabulously rich man love me. I could only love a man criminally handsome. Please try to understand."

In Hollywood of the 1930's, artist Tod Hackett (William Atherton) lives in the same complex with aspiring star Faye Greener (Karen Black) and her father, an old-time performer named Harry (Burgess Meredith). Although Tod is very drawn to Faye, she wants a man with money, and winds up sexlessly cohabiting with the somewhat strange but wealthy Homer Simpson (Donald Sutherland). There is a nasty-minded midget (Billy Barty) and a bratty Shirley Temple clone (actually played by the male Jackie Earle Haley), as well as two guys who run cockfights out of Homer's garage. After two hours of meandering, the film arrives at a climax at a movie premiere that seems intended to wake the benumbed audience out of their lethargy but is too little, too late. When The Day of the Locust was released, it was overpraised in some quarters because of the admittedly vivid climactic riot and a "daring" scene of a child being stomped to death, which fooled people into thinking this piece of treacle was more adult and "meaningful" than it really was. Time has, unfortunately, not made the movie any better. Karen Black probably gives her all-time worst performance, so irritating is she that she almost sinks the movie right from the first, and Burgess Meredith isn't that much better. Atherton isn't bad at all, but Sutherland gives the best performance as Homer. Barty can do nothing to make his character less of a caricature, but Haley in drag is certainly vivid and memorable. Still, the movie presents unpleasant, and worse, uninteresting characters that you simply don't care about. Natalie Schafer, Nita Talbot, and William Castle [as a director] have small roles, as does Geraldine Page as an evangelist. A scene when a set collapses is well done from a technical standpoint. This was based on a novel by Nathaniel West; I don't know how faithful Waldo Salt's screenplay is to the source material, but it's pretty bad. The absolutely most disgusting scene shows poor Billy Barty kissing a rooster on its bloody beak. Dick Powell Jr., plays his father at the premiere-within-the-movie, which explains why he looks so much like the actor. Although Schlesinger was considered a "serious" director as, say, compared to Robert Aldrich, this movie is in reality little better than Aldrich's atrocious Legend of Lylah Clare! This is almost as bad as Schlesinger's Darling.

Verdict: Just a mess -- and boring to boot! **.

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH (1962). Written and directed by Richard Brooks, from Tennessee Williams' play.

"The right doors wouldn't open so he opened the wrong ones."

A struggling actor named Chance Wayne (Paul Newman) comes back to the southern town of his birth with a fading star Alexandra Del Lago (Geraldine Page) in tow. He hopes to see the woman he loves, Heavenly (Shirley Knight) whom he, unbeknownst, left with child on his last dash into town. Heavenly's father, Boss Finley (Ed Begley) and his nasty son Tom (Rip Torn) are not keen on having Chance around, but Heavenly's Aunt Nonnie (Mildred Dunnock) has always been fond of him, and warns him to get out before it's too late. Not a good situation for a fellow to be in. Paul Newman isn't bad as Wayne, but he's not really the right actor for the role; Chance is essentially a male hooker and Newman was always too white bread for that kind of part. [It would have been very interesting to see Elvis Presley, who was first offered the part, in the role. He might have been more on the mark.] Geraldine Page gives a showy performance that occasionally lets us see the human being behind the essential monster that is Alexandra Del Lago. Although this is a sanitized, Hollywoodized version of Williams' play to be sure, some of Williams' genuis comes through, and his depiction of redneck Republicans seems ahead of its time. Madeleine Sherwood has fun as Miss Lucy, Boss Finley's paramour. Doesn't quite work up the sense of dread and terror that the play does, but it comes close.

Verdict: Williams Lite, but not bad for what it is. ***.

INTERIORS

INTERIORS (1978). Director/writer: Woody Allen.

63-year-old Arthur (E. G. Marshall) tells his wife and three daughters that he wants to move out and be by himself for awhile. His wife Eve (Geraldine Page) foolishly imagines that he'll come back to her, and in this is humored by one of her daughters while another tries to make her see reality. Renata, a poetess (Diane Keaton), is married to a novelist (Richard Jordan) whose work fails to impress the critics. Her sister Flynn (Kristin Griffith) is an actress with an undistinguished career, and the third daughter, Joey (Marybeth Hurt), is still struggling to find herself. Renata says of Joey: "She has all the anguish and anxiety of the artistic personality without any of the talent." The situation leads inexorably to tragedy after Arthur gets a new woman, Pearl (Maureen Stapleton), in his life. Interiors is interesting and well-acted, but while Allen may not have wanted to just spell everything out, the film still needs more detail and character development. Dramatic things happen but the film doesn't always give us a chance to see the characters reacting to them. Interiors is Allen working in an Ingmar Bergman mode, although the film is not as deliberately-paced as anything by Bergman. Well-photographed by Gordon Willis. Sam Waterston has a small role as Joey's better half.

Verdict: Good enough to make you wish it were better. ***.