I'd Say it Was More of a Quick Glance
This weekend's review: Walk on the Wild Side.
I seem to remember being recommended Walk on the Wild Side by someone here on Livejournal, and when I found a copy of it, I decided to check it out mostly sight unseen. I just had a brief summary to go on, but it seemed interesting enough to be worth a look. Ultimately, while I’d say it wasn’t bad, it isn’t ever going to be one of the greats.
The story revolves around Dove Linkhorn (Laurence Harvey), a young man from somewhere in the Midwest during the Dust Bowl period of the Great Depression. Several years back, he fell in love with an artistic woman named Hallie (Capucine), but he had to stay with his father on their farm, and she left for parts unknown. As the movie begins, he’s finally tracked her to New Orleans, and even though he has no money, he’s determined to make his way there and find her. After a brief interlude where he’s travelling with a young woman, Kitty Twist (Jane Fonda)-who’s not above lying, stealing, and more to get what she wants-Dove finds himself living and working at a gas station on the edge of town that’s run by Teresina Vidaverri (Anne Baxter). Teresina sympathizes with his situation and helps him try to find Hallie, though she’s less than enthused when they finally track her down. You see, Hallie’s working in a place called the Doll House, run with cold efficiency by Jo Courtney (Barbara Stanwyck) and seeming to cater to wealthy men. If you’re familiar with the tropes (and the limitations of the Hays Code), you can probably figure out what that means…
Assuming you are familiar with the tropes, it’s not hard to predict how things in this movie are going to play out, especially once you see that Hallie isn’t very happy with her lot in life. That being said, the trappings surrounding the plot are worth talking about, which is more than you can say for other movies with this sort of plot. On the good side, I kind of like the characters of Jo and Teresina, for different reasons. Jo is obviously one of the villains of the piece, but she’s unquestionably in charge of her business, and has a toughness I always appreciate seeing in fictional characters. Teresina is the opposite side of the coin, as a business owner who’s firm but fair, and is also kind to people who deserve it. Together, they’ve become contenders for my “Best Female Characters” list, and helped keep my interest in the movie. It also helps that they both give solid performances, even if Baxter’s Hispanic accent and appearance is a little un-PC nowadays. I also like the fact that Dove is allowed to be more vulnerable than your average movie hero, both by expressing his emotions and by not immediately recovering after a fight. It’s refreshing to see, and I wish Hollywood would be more willing to do things like that.
On the other hand, there are a lot of elements to this movie that are unusual in various ways, and sadly generally not to the good. For a start, the movie introduces characters and elements only to ultimately do nothing with them. Most notable among these are a resident of the Doll House who clearly isn’t all there mentally (she steals things and keeps talking about someone called “The Colonel”), and a legless man who works for Jo. The latter character in particular is given a huge reveal near the end of the movie, but he wasn’t really much of a character up to that point, so it falls a little flat, made worse by the fact that the revelation doesn’t add anything to later events. Then there’s the baffling use of music. The music itself isn’t baffling (in fact, I quite like the theme song, which plays both in the movie itself and during the end credits), it’s the way it’s shown on screen. The Doll House has a band, which we see several times during the movie. Hallie even interacts with them on occasion. But even though we hear a singer and see the band playing, we never see a singer. In fact, there are shots where it looks like the band doesn’t have a singer at all. So who’s supposed to be singing the song? It’s not important to the story by any means, but it’s noticeable, and therefore odd to those who pick up on smaller details. Finally, while most of the cinematography of the movie is decent, there is one scene that contains some of the worst continuity errors I have ever seen. It’s a scene featuring Hallie and Dove sitting by a lake, and for some reason, the director couldn’t keep track of the placement of Dove’s hands. They jump from resting on his chest to resting against Hallie’s cheek between shots, and the way it’s shot makes it impossible not to notice. I normally gloss over continuity issues, but this one is too glaring to ignore. Surely someone must have noticed the issue in the editing room, and I would have thought those scenes would be easy enough to reshoot. Again, it’s not a huge problem, but it’s definitely a distracting one.
I’m on the fence about recommending this movie. On the one hand, the story isn’t much to write home about. On the other, the various details, both good, bad, and bizarre, are interesting enough that they might be worth a look. I guess I’d suggest watching it if you’re in more of a snarky frame of mind; that’s not exactly a compliment to the movie, but at least that might help it stand the test of time.
CAT ALERT: There’s a brief moment in the movie where Kitty, appropriately enough, is holding a cat in her arms. But that pales in comparison to the opening and closing credits, which consist of a black cat sauntering down what seems to be an alley in the city in time with some jazzy music, being shot from multiple angles. Other than a brief fight with a white cat, it keeps its composure the whole time. Apparently the titles were designed by the famed Saul Bass, though it’s not the sort of imagery one would expect from him. On the other hand, I don’t particularly mind if this is his subject matter.
I seem to remember being recommended Walk on the Wild Side by someone here on Livejournal, and when I found a copy of it, I decided to check it out mostly sight unseen. I just had a brief summary to go on, but it seemed interesting enough to be worth a look. Ultimately, while I’d say it wasn’t bad, it isn’t ever going to be one of the greats.
The story revolves around Dove Linkhorn (Laurence Harvey), a young man from somewhere in the Midwest during the Dust Bowl period of the Great Depression. Several years back, he fell in love with an artistic woman named Hallie (Capucine), but he had to stay with his father on their farm, and she left for parts unknown. As the movie begins, he’s finally tracked her to New Orleans, and even though he has no money, he’s determined to make his way there and find her. After a brief interlude where he’s travelling with a young woman, Kitty Twist (Jane Fonda)-who’s not above lying, stealing, and more to get what she wants-Dove finds himself living and working at a gas station on the edge of town that’s run by Teresina Vidaverri (Anne Baxter). Teresina sympathizes with his situation and helps him try to find Hallie, though she’s less than enthused when they finally track her down. You see, Hallie’s working in a place called the Doll House, run with cold efficiency by Jo Courtney (Barbara Stanwyck) and seeming to cater to wealthy men. If you’re familiar with the tropes (and the limitations of the Hays Code), you can probably figure out what that means…
Assuming you are familiar with the tropes, it’s not hard to predict how things in this movie are going to play out, especially once you see that Hallie isn’t very happy with her lot in life. That being said, the trappings surrounding the plot are worth talking about, which is more than you can say for other movies with this sort of plot. On the good side, I kind of like the characters of Jo and Teresina, for different reasons. Jo is obviously one of the villains of the piece, but she’s unquestionably in charge of her business, and has a toughness I always appreciate seeing in fictional characters. Teresina is the opposite side of the coin, as a business owner who’s firm but fair, and is also kind to people who deserve it. Together, they’ve become contenders for my “Best Female Characters” list, and helped keep my interest in the movie. It also helps that they both give solid performances, even if Baxter’s Hispanic accent and appearance is a little un-PC nowadays. I also like the fact that Dove is allowed to be more vulnerable than your average movie hero, both by expressing his emotions and by not immediately recovering after a fight. It’s refreshing to see, and I wish Hollywood would be more willing to do things like that.
On the other hand, there are a lot of elements to this movie that are unusual in various ways, and sadly generally not to the good. For a start, the movie introduces characters and elements only to ultimately do nothing with them. Most notable among these are a resident of the Doll House who clearly isn’t all there mentally (she steals things and keeps talking about someone called “The Colonel”), and a legless man who works for Jo. The latter character in particular is given a huge reveal near the end of the movie, but he wasn’t really much of a character up to that point, so it falls a little flat, made worse by the fact that the revelation doesn’t add anything to later events. Then there’s the baffling use of music. The music itself isn’t baffling (in fact, I quite like the theme song, which plays both in the movie itself and during the end credits), it’s the way it’s shown on screen. The Doll House has a band, which we see several times during the movie. Hallie even interacts with them on occasion. But even though we hear a singer and see the band playing, we never see a singer. In fact, there are shots where it looks like the band doesn’t have a singer at all. So who’s supposed to be singing the song? It’s not important to the story by any means, but it’s noticeable, and therefore odd to those who pick up on smaller details. Finally, while most of the cinematography of the movie is decent, there is one scene that contains some of the worst continuity errors I have ever seen. It’s a scene featuring Hallie and Dove sitting by a lake, and for some reason, the director couldn’t keep track of the placement of Dove’s hands. They jump from resting on his chest to resting against Hallie’s cheek between shots, and the way it’s shot makes it impossible not to notice. I normally gloss over continuity issues, but this one is too glaring to ignore. Surely someone must have noticed the issue in the editing room, and I would have thought those scenes would be easy enough to reshoot. Again, it’s not a huge problem, but it’s definitely a distracting one.
I’m on the fence about recommending this movie. On the one hand, the story isn’t much to write home about. On the other, the various details, both good, bad, and bizarre, are interesting enough that they might be worth a look. I guess I’d suggest watching it if you’re in more of a snarky frame of mind; that’s not exactly a compliment to the movie, but at least that might help it stand the test of time.
CAT ALERT: There’s a brief moment in the movie where Kitty, appropriately enough, is holding a cat in her arms. But that pales in comparison to the opening and closing credits, which consist of a black cat sauntering down what seems to be an alley in the city in time with some jazzy music, being shot from multiple angles. Other than a brief fight with a white cat, it keeps its composure the whole time. Apparently the titles were designed by the famed Saul Bass, though it’s not the sort of imagery one would expect from him. On the other hand, I don’t particularly mind if this is his subject matter.