Imagine if you had the following line up in a film: Marlon
Brando, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, E.G. Marshall, Angie Dickinson and Robert
Duvall. This film did indeed have that cast. In addition to that the film was
written by Lillian Helmond based on the book and play by Horton Foote and
directed by Arthur Penn who would direct BONNIE AND CLYDE the following year.
With all that talent combined why isn’t this film more well-known or discussed?
A lot of that could be due to the story itself. The base of
the story does seem interesting but the way it’s handled here, major talent
involved in its writing or not, it plays more like a soap opera than an action
film which was how it was marketed. A great trailer can make a movie but if you
don’t deliver what you promise an audience will remember.
The story revolves around a small Texas town that is run by
and basically owned by the Rogers family. Convict Charlie “Bubber” Reeves
(Redford) has escaped with another con and is heading for Mexico. His partner
kills a man, steals his car and leaves Bubber to fend for himself.
Back in town Val Rogers (Marshall) is about to celebrate his
60th birthday. The employees at the bank toast him while the wife of
milquetoast and bank VP Edwin Stewart (Duvall) watches as his flirtatious wife
Emily (Janice Rule) confronts Val about why she and her husband are never
invited to his parties. Emily is the catalyst for much that happens in the
film, a woman intent of stirring the pot, having an affair with Edwin’s married
co-worker Damon (Richard Bradford) and spending as much time with a bottle as a
person can without passing out.
Val’s son has his own situation to deal with. Unhappily
married for the sake of his father, Jake (James Fox) has been having an affair
with Anna (Fonda), the wife of Bubber. The entire town, with the exception of
his father, is well aware of the affair but no one speaks up.
In the middle of all of this is the local Sheriff Calder
(Brando). Living in his office above the jail with his wife Ruby (Dickinson)
Calder is intent on doing his job. The job was given to him by Val and for that
reason many who are considered a class beneath Val look unfavorably on Calder,
seeing him as a hired hand rather than a lawman. What they don’t realize is
that Calder is indeed a man of integrity, a man whose soul will be eaten by
both classes before the end of the film.
More time is spent with the whole set up of the town, a
dissection of the characters who make up this city and its various classes.
There is the upper crust, donating millions to the building of a college Val
has high hopes for. There is the middle class, the hard partying drinking revelers
on a Saturday night who resent the Rogers family while working for them none
the less. There are the blacks in the town who, being in the mid-sixties still,
now have rights but rarely have anyone to defend those rights for them. And
finally there are the teens, bound and determined to follow in the footsteps of
their parents, hard partying and drinking all the way.
The ins and outs of these groups, who is sleeping with whom,
develop more tension than the chase for Bubber. In thinking back we get a better
glimpse of these people, their lives and their interactions than we do Bubber.
Eventually Bubber is given a chance to speak about the injustices of this town
and the people in it, but that’s more of a speech than character development.
As various members of the town get drunker as the night goes
on, as their resentments begin to surface thanks to the alcohol, tension builds
and confrontations begin. Calder is assaulted by a group of Rogers’s employees,
not because they want to help their boss but because they resent him. Beaten
and bloody he still attempts to find and save Bubber before this group can get
their hands on him.
In watching the movie it was entertaining enough but felt
too long to reach the end. Brando gives a decent performance, Redford does what
he can with the part, Fonda isn’t on screen nearly as much as you would expect
and no one really stands out. Reading about the film later I discovered that
the story had failed as a book and play and the movie didn’t fare much better
when it was released. Producer Sam Spiegel wanted a message movie, director
Penn wanted a more straight forward approach and in the end Spiegel took over
and cut the film the way he wanted. Penn eventually disowned the film. Hellman,
who was friends with Penn, blamed him for the way it turned out and the two
parted on bad terms.
Fans of the actors involved or of Penn will want to check
the film out just to see how they do here. If you like movies like PEYTON PLACE
then you’ll find plenty to enjoy. But for most it will not be a fan favorite.
The movie is being released by Twilight Time so the usual applies here, limited
number of copies and few extras but a glorious looking print involved.
Click here to order.
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