"Something Wild" (1961) starring Carroll Baker

Tonight I watched a movie called "Something Wild" (1961) starring Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker and therefore not to be confused with the 1986 Melanie Griffith film of the same name. They are two entirely different films and one is not a remake of the other, I ordered "Something Wild" from the Libe after seeing Baker in a few minutes each of "Baby Doll" and "Giants, both recently shown on TCM which we get here at Pearl's. Carroll Baker had quite a reputation in the 50s and 60s as both an ingenue and a very talented dramatic actress, and I had seen her in other parts over the years, most likely in television roles. She never became a major star, perhaps due to her serious and somewhat cold persona, or maybe due to her choice of material, but boy could she ever act, as she demonstrated in "Something Wild", playing a college student from Brooklyn whose life changes drastically one night as she is walking home from the subway station after classes.

I won't tell you what happens, but it throws her completely out of whack for obvious reasons. She becomes closed off to her parents and schoolmates. Soon, she finds an apartment for rent in another part of town and moves into it without telling her Mom and Stepdad, whom she had been living with. She gets a job at a Five & Dime store (kinda like today's 99 Cent store, but more quaint) and now she is living independently. But she is having trouble adjusting. She goes without eating, refuses to interact with her co-workers, and becomes agitated in crowds. Finally she faints on the subway and begins to come apart.

"Something Wild" is like a two part movie, and what I have described could be considered part one.

If, in part one, she has attempted and failed to integrate herself into society, in part two she succeeds in going the other direction and isolating herself almost entirely.

This begins to happen when a second life changing experience befalls her. Ralph Meeker, an actor who was very talented himself, plays an auto mechanic who comes into Baker's young life, and the second half of the film is almost their's alone. At this point, the film becomes like a stage play, very dramatic and emotional.

I hesitate to reveal much about the plot (which you could easily IMDB, I realise), because just about anything I say would give away the whole film. I will tell you that Meeker has an apartment of his own, near the Brooklyn Bridge, and Carroll Baker winds up living with him. His apartment is dark and dingy, and here I must comment on the look of "Something Wild", which has been restored and released by Criterion.

This movie features some of the best black and white location photography you will ever see, on the streets of New York City (Brooklyn mostly), and inside it's run down interiors. You truly feel you are on scene and in that time period as you watch. Also, every shot of every crowded, suffocating subway car, of every bum sleeping on a bus bench, of concrete city sidewalks and streets filled with kids playing ball and people sitting outside on stoops, and even the seemingly peaceful confines of Central Park, all add to the mood swings and tension Carroll Baker is experiencing.

The photography and settings in part describe her psyche.

It is some of the greatest cinematography I have seen in an art film. The DP got the utmost out of New York, at least of it's underbelly.

Ralph Meeker's character brings a new level of plot to the story, and as I complete my review of "Something Wild" I am somewhat sorry to say that the second half of the film ends up throwing a monkey wrench into what could have been one of the finest psychological portraits of cinema in the genre of late 40s to early 60s Heavy Drama, the kind of movies that starred Method Actors who trained on the stage. Carroll Baker certainly was such an actress, and she nails her role to the point where an Academy Award nomination would have been appropriate.

The photography, as mentioned, is beyond the usual level of outstanding, as are the use of locations.

Ralph Meeker could have been reigned in a little bit here and there, but that is a minor quibble considering the character he plays.

This is a 113 minute movie, and for the first 90 minutes, it is dead on excellent, if a little slow in places.

But unfortunately, the director of the film made some behavioral and motivational choices for his characters that, to me, are entirely unrealistic, and thus was the Monkey Wrench thrown with gusto into what had been a mesmerizing work of psychological drama.

Putting the Monkey Wrench of a ridiculous late plot development into context, I think that what you had here, with the group of people making this film, was a very talented cast of actors, and a director, who came from experimental New York theater and wanted to push cinema to new boundaries. Method Acting came out of Stella Adler in New York, and all of the young students wanted to show what they could do.

This director, a man named Jack Garfein, who was married to Baker at the time but did not end up with a long cinematic career, hit a big time home run with the first three quarters of his movie.

But then he threw it all in the trash can, I am sorry to say, with an ending so ridiculous as to be pure fantasy on his part, considering what the characters had been through and how they had affected one another.

What a huge bummer, to ruin a great movie like that.

As I say, I think they were going for the Experimental Theater effect, but it failed miserably, because in no way, shape or form would the ending of the movie shape up in such a way in real life. And the majority of the film is realistic.

Therefore, to sum up, I have an unusual Thumbs situation to relay.

One Thumb extends way up, big time, for the aforementioned first 90 minutes of story, pacing, first rate dramatic acting especially from Baker, and some of the best B&W location photography I have ever seen. A huge Single Thumb Up for all of that.

But a Big Bummer Sideways Thumb (not totally down but definitely not up) for one of the stupidest endings I have ever seen in a well done artistic picture.

It could not have been more phony baloney, and while it didn't ruin the movie, it certainly knocked down it's status from Five Star Classic to What The Hell Were They Thinking.  ////

See it if you will, at least for the camerawork.

Nothing much else to report this Labor Day. The weather has been mild since early August, and though we started out to have a really hot Summer, it turned out that we only had a hot July and the rest of the Summer has been pretty wimpy, scarcely above 90. I may ask for a refund as I did last year, when the average temp was even lower, in the mid-80s. I love mid-80s, of course, but in the Spring.

In the Summer, please bring on the heat.

Well, maybe next year.  :)

Elizabeth, if you are reading I hope all is well. I mention it only because I haven't seen you on FB for a couple of weeks. Probably you are working on one thing or another, or just living your life.

I've gotta get out there for a hike and take some pics myself.

See you in the morning.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)