Something Wild (1961 film)
Encyclopedia
Something Wild was a 1961
independent film, starring Carroll Baker
and Ralph Meeker
and directed by Jack Garfein
, who was Baker's husband at the time.
The film, adapted from a book by novelist Alex Karmel, violated a number of Hollywood conventions and taboos by showing an on-screen rape and brief nudity. It featured a musical score by Aaron Copland
and was filmed largely on location in New York City, which was rare at the time.
Well known stage actors of the era, such as Mildred Dunnock
, Doris Roberts
and Jean Stapleton, had roles in the movie. The director of photography, Eugen Schüfftan
, was a noted German cinematographer, inventor of the Schüfftan process
, who won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
the following year for The Hustler
.
Mary Ann tries to continue living her normal life, unsuccessfully. She takes the subway to school and faints during the crush of people. That results in the police taking her home, which upsets her prim and unsympathetic mother, played by Mildred Dunnock
.
The rape continues to haunt Mary Ann. She leaves school abruptly and walks downtown, through Harlem and Times Square, down to the Lower East Side. She rents a room from a sinister landlord (Martin Kosleck
), who overcharges her. She takes a job at a five-and-dime store and her coworkers dislike her because she is distant and unfriendly. Her crude, promiscuous neighbor at the rooming house (Jean Stapleton) is rebuffed when she tries to be friendly.
At the end of her tether, Mary Ann walks across the Manhattan Bridge
and almost jumps in the East River
when she is stopped by a sympathetic mechanic, Mike (Ralph Meeker
). At first he seems to be a knight in shining armor. She decides to stay with him. But that night he comes home drunk, tries to attack her, and Mary Ann kicks him in the eye. The following morning he has no recollection of that, but his eye is badly hurt and has to be removed.
Mike now says that he wants Mary Ann to stay there, saying "I like the way you look here." She wants to leave but he refuses to let her go. He holds her captive in the apartment for months, even though she refuses to have anything to do with him.
One day Mary Ann reveals to Mike that it was she who blinded him in one eye. Mike still insists he loves her. Soon Mary Ann finds that Mike has left the door unlocked. Mary Ann leaves, walks through the city, sleeps in Central Park. Her mood greatly improves, and she sees how wonderful life is. She goes back to the apartment and decides to stay with Mike, voluntarily (a possibility of this change of heart could be Stockholm syndrome
). She marries Mike and rebuffs her mother's attempt to get her to return home.
, who in 1964 re-used some of its themes in his symphonic work "Music For a Great City." The original film score, taken from private session recordings preserved by the director, was released on CD in 2003.
Originally, Morton Feldman
was commissioned to compose the score for the film, but when the director heard the music, he promptly withdrew his commission, opting to enlist Aaron Copland instead. The reaction of the baffled director was said to be, "My wife is being raped and you write celesta music?"
http://www.cnvill.net/mffilm.htm
The opening title sequence was an early live action title sequence created by Saul Bass
.
that the film was the "most interesting American film of the quarter; it may become the most underestimated film of the year."
However, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
said that it was "quite exhausting to sit through that ordeal in the apartment." and that "it is not too satisfying, because it isn't quite credible and the symbolic meaning (if there is one) is beyond our grasp."
The movie was not a commercial success, and was Jack Garfein's final project as a movie director.
The film was never released on DVD or home video. It was shown at New York's IFC Center
in early 2007, billed as a "lost indie film classic."
1961 in film
The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:* Atlantis, the Lost ContinentB...
independent film, starring Carroll Baker
Carroll Baker
Carroll Baker is a former American actress who has enjoyed popularity as both a serious dramatic actress and, particularly in the 1960s, as a movie sex symbol...
and Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker was an American stage and film actor best-known for starring in the 1953 Broadway production of Picnic, and in the 1955 film noir cult classic Kiss Me Deadly.-Career:...
and directed by Jack Garfein
Jack Garfein
Jack Garfein, born July 2, 1930 in Mukacevo, Carpathian Ruthenia, Czechoslovakia, now Mukacheve, Ukraine, is an acting teacher and former motion picture and theater director....
, who was Baker's husband at the time.
The film, adapted from a book by novelist Alex Karmel, violated a number of Hollywood conventions and taboos by showing an on-screen rape and brief nudity. It featured a musical score by Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
and was filmed largely on location in New York City, which was rare at the time.
Well known stage actors of the era, such as Mildred Dunnock
Mildred Dunnock
Mildred Dunnock was an American theater, film and television actress.- Early life :Born in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from Western Senior High School, Dunnock was a school teacher who did not start acting until she was in her early thirties...
, Doris Roberts
Doris Roberts
Doris Roberts is an American character actress of film, stage and television. She has received five Emmy Awards. She began her career in 1952, and may be best-known as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996–2005....
and Jean Stapleton, had roles in the movie. The director of photography, Eugen Schüfftan
Eugen Schüfftan
Eugen Schüfftan was a cinematographer.He invented the Schüfftan process, a special effects technique that employed mirrors to insert actors into miniature sets. One of the first uses of the process was for Metropolis , directed by Fritz Lang...
, was a noted German cinematographer, inventor of the Schüfftan process
Schüfftan process
The Schüfftan process is a movie special effect named after its inventor, Eugen Schüfftan . It was widely used in the first half of the 20th century before being almost completely replaced by the travelling matte and bluescreen effects....
, who won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
the following year for The Hustler
The Hustler (film)
The Hustler is a 1961 American drama film directed by Robert Rossen from the 1959 novel of the same name he and Sidney Carroll adapted for the screen...
.
Plot summary
Mary Ann Robinson is a teenage girl attending college in New York City. On her way home, while walking through the park, she is brutally raped. Traumatized by the experience, Mary Ann washes away all the evidence and destroys her clothing. She hides the rape from her mother and stepfather, with whom she has a distant relationship.Mary Ann tries to continue living her normal life, unsuccessfully. She takes the subway to school and faints during the crush of people. That results in the police taking her home, which upsets her prim and unsympathetic mother, played by Mildred Dunnock
Mildred Dunnock
Mildred Dunnock was an American theater, film and television actress.- Early life :Born in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from Western Senior High School, Dunnock was a school teacher who did not start acting until she was in her early thirties...
.
The rape continues to haunt Mary Ann. She leaves school abruptly and walks downtown, through Harlem and Times Square, down to the Lower East Side. She rents a room from a sinister landlord (Martin Kosleck
Martin Kosleck
Martin Kosleck was a German film actor. Like many other German actors, he fled when the Nazis came to power. Inspired by his deep hatred of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, Kosleck would make a career in Hollywood playing villainous Nazis in films. While in the United States, he would appear in more...
), who overcharges her. She takes a job at a five-and-dime store and her coworkers dislike her because she is distant and unfriendly. Her crude, promiscuous neighbor at the rooming house (Jean Stapleton) is rebuffed when she tries to be friendly.
At the end of her tether, Mary Ann walks across the Manhattan Bridge
Manhattan Bridge
The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River in New York City, connecting Lower Manhattan with Brooklyn . It was the last of the three suspension bridges built across the lower East River, following the Brooklyn and the Williamsburg bridges...
and almost jumps in the East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
when she is stopped by a sympathetic mechanic, Mike (Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker was an American stage and film actor best-known for starring in the 1953 Broadway production of Picnic, and in the 1955 film noir cult classic Kiss Me Deadly.-Career:...
). At first he seems to be a knight in shining armor. She decides to stay with him. But that night he comes home drunk, tries to attack her, and Mary Ann kicks him in the eye. The following morning he has no recollection of that, but his eye is badly hurt and has to be removed.
Mike now says that he wants Mary Ann to stay there, saying "I like the way you look here." She wants to leave but he refuses to let her go. He holds her captive in the apartment for months, even though she refuses to have anything to do with him.
One day Mary Ann reveals to Mike that it was she who blinded him in one eye. Mike still insists he loves her. Soon Mary Ann finds that Mike has left the door unlocked. Mary Ann leaves, walks through the city, sleeps in Central Park. Her mood greatly improves, and she sees how wonderful life is. She goes back to the apartment and decides to stay with Mike, voluntarily (a possibility of this change of heart could be Stockholm syndrome
Stockholm syndrome
In psychology, Stockholm Syndrome is an apparently paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them...
). She marries Mike and rebuffs her mother's attempt to get her to return home.
Cast
- Carroll BakerCarroll BakerCarroll Baker is a former American actress who has enjoyed popularity as both a serious dramatic actress and, particularly in the 1960s, as a movie sex symbol...
as Mary Ann Robinson - Ralph MeekerRalph MeekerRalph Meeker was an American stage and film actor best-known for starring in the 1953 Broadway production of Picnic, and in the 1955 film noir cult classic Kiss Me Deadly.-Career:...
as Mike - Mildred DunnockMildred DunnockMildred Dunnock was an American theater, film and television actress.- Early life :Born in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from Western Senior High School, Dunnock was a school teacher who did not start acting until she was in her early thirties...
as Mrs. Gates - Jean Stapleton as Shirley Johnson
- Doris RobertsDoris RobertsDoris Roberts is an American character actress of film, stage and television. She has received five Emmy Awards. She began her career in 1952, and may be best-known as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996–2005....
as Mary Ann's co-worker - Clifton JamesClifton JamesGeorge Clifton James is an American actor. He is probably best known for his role as the bumbling Sheriff J.W. Pepper alongside Roger Moore in the James Bond films Live and Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun and his role alongside Sean Connery in The Untouchables .-Personal life:James was...
as Detective Bogart - George L. Smith as Store Manager
Production
The score for the 1961 film was by the distinguished American composer Aaron CoplandAaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, who in 1964 re-used some of its themes in his symphonic work "Music For a Great City." The original film score, taken from private session recordings preserved by the director, was released on CD in 2003.
Originally, Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman was an American composer, born in New York City.A major figure in 20th century music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown...
was commissioned to compose the score for the film, but when the director heard the music, he promptly withdrew his commission, opting to enlist Aaron Copland instead. The reaction of the baffled director was said to be, "My wife is being raped and you write celesta music?"
http://www.cnvill.net/mffilm.htm
The opening title sequence was an early live action title sequence created by Saul Bass
Saul Bass
Saul Bass was a Jewish-American graphic designer and filmmaker, best known for his design of motion picture title sequences....
.
Critical reception
The movie received an uneven critical response. Jonas Mekas wrote in Film QuarterlyFilm Quarterly
Film Quarterly is a film journal published by University of California Press, in Berkeley, California, United States. It was first published in 1945 as Hollywood Quarterly, was renamed The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television in 1951, and received its current title in 1958...
that the film was the "most interesting American film of the quarter; it may become the most underestimated film of the year."
However, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
said that it was "quite exhausting to sit through that ordeal in the apartment." and that "it is not too satisfying, because it isn't quite credible and the symbolic meaning (if there is one) is beyond our grasp."
The movie was not a commercial success, and was Jack Garfein's final project as a movie director.
The film was never released on DVD or home video. It was shown at New York's IFC Center
IFC Center
IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, New York City in the United States of America. It is located at 323 Sixth Avenue, on the former site of the Waverly Theater, which was itself a well known art house movie theater...
in early 2007, billed as a "lost indie film classic."