For quite some time, today's movie (a
beautiful, sudsy confection) was out of circulation with only a
much-sought-after VHS release the only way to get one's hands on it.
(I have one and idiotically chose not to sell it when they were going
for well over $100 on eBay!) Now at last on DVD, the colorful
splendor of Connecticut (and Troy Donahue) can be viewed by a wider
audience.
Parrish (1961) was based on a 1958
novel concerning a young fellow named Parrish McLean who makes his
way in the challenging, sometimes cutthroat, tobacco farming
industry. As he grows into a man, he enjoys relationships with three
highly-varied girls while also witnessing his mother's growing
romance with a fat cat in the industry.
Joshua Logan became interested in
filming the story and wanted to cast Clark Gable as the tobacco
kingpin alongside his famed Gone with the Wind costar Vivien Leigh as
Parrish's mother, but along the way these plans fell apart and Delmer
Daves (who'd helmed the sensational hit A Summer Place, 1959) came in
to write, produce and direct the picture.
Troy Donahue, whose career had received
a boost from Daves' A Summer Place (and would continue to benefit
from Daves direction in Rome Adventure, 1962) was cast in the lead.
Claudette Colbert, who'd been absent from the big screen for six
years, portrayed his mother and Karl Malden (quite a switch from
Clark “The King” Gable!) won the role of the tobacco czar.
The film begins with Donahue and
Colbert arriving at a ferry boat which is taking them part of the way
to their destination of Connecticut where they intend to start life
anew. Donahue, who'd been a deckhand on the ferry, bids farewell to
its captain (who is played by John McGovern, memorable as the postal
worker who gives Tippi Hedren directions to Rod Taylor's home in The
Birds, 1963.)
This is the first glimpse audiences got
of Ms. Colbert in the film and a rare one of hers to be presented in
color. Colbert had done the Technicolor Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
for John Ford, but generally preferred to be filmed in black and
white (and always, ALWAYS photographed from her left side except for
the most fleeting moments here and there!)
Following an airplane flight, Donahue
and Colbert are escorted by tobacco field hand Dub Taylor (whose
accent is so authentically low-rent it can be difficult to understand
him at times!) to their new home.
Sadly for Donahue, Colbert has
neglected to mention to her new employer Dean Jagger that she not
only has a teenaged son, but has brought him along to live with her.
He tells her in no uncertain terms that the boy cannot live under the
same roof as her on his property. As she has been hired to tutor and
groom his teenaged daughter who's due home from school, the presence
of a boy on the grounds just won't do!
While Colbert unsuccessfully tries to
wear Jagger down on the subject, Donahue takes a walk and winds up
in a tobacco field where several ladies are planting. First the
subject of catcalls, he next stands patiently as veteran field hand
Hope Summers explains to him how a tobacco plant is just like a baby
and has to be carefully nurtured.
Meanwhile, fifteen year-old (in the
storyline) Connie Stevens manages to glimpse beyond her heap of curls
to see the tall young man before her and is immediately smitten.
Before he even knows what's next, he's been hired on to work the
fields (which are owned by Jagger) that very day, dress clothes and
all, and is all set to move in with Taylor's sizable family!
Stevens takes him on a tour of the
ramshackle house, being sure to point out “the john,” which has
no lock, and where her own room is situated before taking him up to
the attic where he'll be living (in marked contrast to the
beautifully-appointed apartment that Colbert has been given.) Stevens
is what Dorothy Zbornak would call “faster than Marcus Allen,”
wasting no time in letting Donahue know how much she likes him.
She later takes Donahue to the tobacco
barn where she informs him that when it's very hot at night, she
comes there to sleep. “Raw.” Next, she gets the kiss of a
lifetime from Donahue, but isn't able to take things any further
because her date has arrived to take her out and this mystery man is
someone she can't say no to. Afterwards, however, she comes home (the
top of her dress not fully fastened) to find that Donahue has come
down with tobacco poisoning. This requires a sensuous blotting of
calamine lotion to ease the burning itch.
If you'll note the way Donahue is lit
and photographed here, it's the sort of glorious, soft-focus,
star-making cinematography that any young actor or actress would kill
for. Parrish's cinematographer was Harry Stradling Jr., who was hired
four times to photograph Barbra Streisand on film, which ought to
tell you everything you need to know about his skill in that arena!
(Stradling won two Oscars, for The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1945, and
My Fair Lady, 1964, and was nominated a dozen other times.)
Meanwhile, Colbert's young charge has
arrived home and is clearly going to be a bit of a handful. Diane
McBain, a stunningly attractive young lady, is given the same
awe-inspiring lighting as Donahue. She makes Colbert aware that she
has a mind of her own and has no intention of living under the thumb
of either her or her father Jagger.
Colbert good-naturedly attempts to
establish herself as merely a friend, but McBain's having none of it,
preferring to dart off on a date with one of her wealthy beaus than
to even have dinner with her father on her first night back home.
Over at the tobacco field, trouble is
brewing thanks to the presence of wire worms, which are destroying
the freshly-planted crop. Most of the workers are reluctant to stay
and work overtime through the night, but Donahue is willing, inspired
by his employer Jagger's own integrity and work ethic.
Stumbling to his mother's apartment in
the dark of night rather than heading to Taylor's shack, which is
further away, Donahue is nearly run down by a car careening up the
driveway. It is driven by McBain, just now arriving home from a late
date.
She gets her first good look at Donahue
and, like most other females in the movie, is instantly attracted to
him. She suggests that they finish off some of the champagne that she
has leftover in her car, but he begs off after such a staggeringly
grueling night in the field. Again, both of these performers are
given lustrous close-ups during the scene.
Now feeling some stirrings for McBain,
Donahue is beginning to become torn and his canoodling partner
Stevens can sense it. She confronts him about it at the filed, but he
remains evasive. (I love the color of this sky blue jacket against
the green of the foliage, the gold of his hair and the orange of his
face. Ha!)
Colbert sagely warns her son about
getting his heart broken one way or another, though he isn't apt to
listen to her too closely regardless of their obvious affection for
one another.
Repeated challenges at the field result
in a total replanting, which depletes Jagger's supply of starter
beds. As Donahue is finishing up one day, he is accosted by a young
lady on a bicycle (Sharon Hugueny) who takes an interest in what's
going on.
We later find out that she is the
daughter of nearby tobacco king Karl Malden, who lives in a
splendiferous mansion and owns very nearly all of the surrounding
territory. (I'm a sucker for anything grand and stately like this,
probably thanks to being raised in a one-bedroom house!)
Malden has three children and rules
them with an iron fist. The two sons (one of who is married) and
daughter Hugueny are all expected to live by his rules and report to
him anything and everything they see regarding the local tobacco
industry. Should they fail to do so, they are reprimanded and
humiliated by him.
Malden finally drags it out of his kids
that Jagger is facing potential ruin over the loss of his crop and
promptly buys up the only available starter plants, offering then to
“bail out” Jagger – at a price. Jagger informs Malden that he
would gladly go belly up than to accept anything at all from him.
Prior to this terse meeting and
directly after it, Malden has met and become intrigued by Colbert.
Her attractive, ladylike ways and attempts to smooth over all the bad
blood between the men pique his interest and he decides it would be
nice to see her socially. She, as a practically penniless widow with
a wayward son, isn't exactly against the idea of dating a wealthy
tycoon either.
Stevens is having an increasingly hard
time getting through to Donahue and the two find themselves arguing
when she suggests that his mother is dallying with the area's biggest
hot shot Malden. Donahue is incensed at her implications, and,
confused by his own feelings when it comes to romance, blows up at
her.
Trouble is, Stevens is grappling with
her own set of issues. She's going to have a baby! Naïve Donahue,
who's only been in the area a little while, wonders if it is his
though Stevens is five months along. She easily could have duped him
into claiming responsibility, but she gamely opts to inform him that
he's clear of any burden.
Now things are beginning to heat up a
bit between Malden and Colbert. With both he and his children
vacationing at the same oceanside resort as McBain, he arranges for a
romantic evening on his yacht. However, Colbert deftly informs him
that she isn't about to be his resident squeeze. It's got to be
marriage or nothing.
McBain has to head back to school, but
has made plans for Donahue to sneak onto the train with her for most
of the way. She erupts, however, when she discovers that he has
agreed to escort the knocked-up Stevens to an annual dance out of the
goodness of his heart. When he refuses to back down from his promise,
we see a McBain's snarly side as she announces that she hates him
more than she has ever hated anyone or anything!
Malden agrees to marry Colbert and they
enjoy a colorful ceremony followed by an extended honeymoon. Once
back home, it is decided that Donahue will move into the big house in
order to get to know his new step-family.
Hugueny is delighted with Colbert, but
alcohol-loving son David Knapp, along with elder son Hampton Fancher
and his wife Saundra Edwards, make it clear that they aren't exactly
in love with this new wrinkle in the family canvas. Fancher, in
particular, makes his displeasure known when he won't even shake
Colbert's hand.
Fancher lets Donahue know that he has
no intention of standing for Donahue's association with a “tramp”
like Stevens and cockily asserts his position to him privately.
However, Donahue stands up for himself, adding that Fancher had
better learn how to treat Colbert with more respect.
Donahue pays a visit to his old pals at
the tobacco shack and finds that Stevens' baby has been born and, not
coincident-ally, the entire family has new clothing and the rathole of
a house they live in has all new furniture, a television and a
spanking new refrigerator, stocked to the hilt. It seems that
Stevens' baby was fathered by someone with plenty of (hush) money.
Malden holds a reception in order to
introduce his new bride to the people of the area (and I do adore
these sorts of cinematic soirees, also to be found in movies like
Madame X, 1966, and later to inspire prime-time soaps like Dallas and
Dynasty.) Among the invitees are Hayden Rorke, known to many for his
work on I Dream of Jeanne from 1965-1970 and a frequent player in
films directed by director Daves. It's beginning to become clear to
Donahue that his newfound stepsister Hugueny is turning into a young
lady.
Also present at the party is Poseidon's
Underworld's favorite extra Leoda Richards who, in this sequence
anyway, is given closer, front and center proximity to the camera
than lead actress Colbert!
Now that he's ensconced in Malden's
family, Donahue is offered a position with the expansive family
business. Malden demonstrates, via a massive relief map in his
office, how he owns all but a few parcels of tobacco farmland in the
region. He grants Donahue the key position of a checker, who goes
around to each field and takes note of anything and everything that
is occurring on site.
Malden's office is enormous and
contains little besides that big map and an imposing desk. Note the
wallpaper done in golden tobacco leaves! He impresses upon Donahue
that he will work long and hard, but the reward will be worth it.
After a controversial series of events,
first a raging fire at a competitor's field and then a bout with blue
mold, Donahue and Malden can no longer see eye-to-eye and Donahue
departs to join the U.S. Navy. (This farewell kiss between McBain and
Donahue is not present in the finished cut of the movie.)
McBain, devastated that nothing is
going her way with Donahue, agrees to marry Malden's son Knapp,
resulting in yet another defection from Jagger's household to the
dreaded enemy.
While Donahue is away on a submarine,
Hugueny is growing up and becoming more and more ladylike with each
passing day. Finally, she turns eighteen (an event punctuated by a
hilarious scene in which most of the cast gathers in a semicircle and
sings “Paige has a birthday, Paige has a birthday!” followed by a
hokey countdown from numbers 1 to 18!)
All along, Hugueny corresponds back and
forth with Donahue until her father gets wind of it and throws one of
his customary fits. Hugueny has now begun, however, to stand up for
herself and face him down a bit more than she once did.
In the bowels of his submarine, Donahue
receives letters and, in one instance, a boxed cake from Hugueny and
whiles away his evenings dreaming of her. Her photos are tacked up in
his bunk, yet in a hysterical on-screen moment, he rolls over and
lies down only to reveal a hovering 8x10 glossy of Colbert,
imposingly situated right next to his face!!
Once sprung from the navy, Donahue
comes back home and is reunited with his mother and with now-curvy
Hugueny. He also witnesses a domestic meltdown between McBain and her
unhappy husband Knapp.
Settling on a career plan, he decides
to work the recently dormant land of Jagger rather than deal with
Malden. The two work out a deal that has Donahue almost
singlehandedly planting and raising a tobacco crop of his own. (In
one humiliating shot, shown below, Donahue is shown with his old
sailor cap down around his ears as he pilots a tractor up and down
the rows and into the barn.)
Before the movie has ended, Donahue has
watched one girl become trapped in a personal hell, another girl come
to terms with the life she has brought upon herself and another girl
rises to his side in order to help him become his own man. It oughtn't
to be hard to figure out which is which.
He also sees his mother finally put her
foot down about the man she's married to and settles the score with
arch-enemy Fancher who, by this time, has managed to disgust even his
own father Malden.
One either has the affection for
(stomach for!) this sort of glossy, high-strung melodrama or one
doesn't. I do! It would be difficult to describe the film as “good,”
yet with its photogenic cast, its gorgeous location filming, its lush
- if often over the top - Max Steiner score, its beautiful Howard
Shoup costumes and all the other studio polish, it is very easy on
the eyes. It's also such a rare chance to see late-career Colbert, in color to boot!
On the subject of the music, do notice below how Donahue's tobacco poisoning was “cleared up” for the cover of this soundtrack album!
On the subject of the music, do notice below how Donahue's tobacco poisoning was “cleared up” for the cover of this soundtrack album!
Parrish was also a box office success,
despite having a reputation as a “bad” movie and with lukewarm
critical response. One thing that works against it somewhat is its 2
hour and 20 minute length when a good two hours ought to have been
plenty for a movie of this type. However, the almost documentary-like
attention to tobacco farming (which is surprisingly interesting) is
surely responsible for the extended running time.
Donahue was and is an acquired taste to
be sure. He had tall, lean, clean looks (with beautiful crystalline
blue eyes), yet also had a slightly puffy face around the jaw line
and a thick neck, thus rendering him alternately awkward-looking or
awesome-looking, depending on the lighting and the angle. In Parrish,
he is often photographed with loving care, but once such things went
out of fashion in favor of more realism in the cinema, he hit a rough
patch.
Having been molded into a young
heartthrob by agent Henry Willson, he'd worked his way up from bit
roles in the mid-'50s to a costarring role in the 1959 smash hit A
Summer Place. Parrish was his big shot at leading man status and he
was given plenty of publicity push. As a Warner Brothers contract
player, however, he was put to work both on TV and in movies, thus he
couldn't enjoy the benefits of solely being a “movie star.” (You'd think that a magazine devoted solely to him could get the cover right, though! His part was always on the other side. They've reversed the negative...)
Following this, he starred in SusanSlade (1961, again opposite Stevens), Rome Adventure (1962, with his
short-term wife Suzanne Pleshette) and Palm Springs Weekend (1963.)
After the western A Distant Trumpet (with Pleshette and McBain) and
My Blood Runs Cold (1965), his career became more and more sporadic
as he lost his contract and his type fell out of favor. After a
serious bout with alcohol and drugs and various roles in low-rung
projects, he died of a heart attack in 2001 at age sixty-five.
French-born (but American-raised)
Colbert worked in her first film as a teen in 1927, rising to major
star status by the early 1930s in epics like The Sign of the Cross
(1932) and Cleopatra (1934.) Also in 1934, testifying to her
versatility, were Imitation of Life and It Happened One Night, which
copped her an Academy Award for Best Actress. She went on to many
great and memorable roles, both comedic and dramatic, being nominated
for 1935's Private Worlds (Bette Davis won for Dangerous) and again
for 1944's Since You Went Away (Ingrid Bergman won for Gaslight.)
Known throughout her career for
steadfastly insisting on being photographed from her left side, every
once in a while the camera would catch her right side. (Look at this
shot with a mirror in it and you can see that maybe she was on to
something after all as her right side in the reflection is a little
flatter and slightly sunken, though I can't imagine it would have
been that fatal in her youth or even in this case. And her aversion to that side was allegedly due to some sort of bump in her nose.)
By about 1955, decent film roles for
Colbert were drying up and she began to pop up on anthology
television from time to time. Parrish was her first film in six
years. She avoided the many motherly roles that had been offered her,
but accepted this one because it was clear to her that the character
had a romantic and sexually-desirable side to it. It was her last
feature film, however, and she headed straight into retirement. In
1987, she shocked everyone by coming back to do the telefilm The Two
Mrs. Grenvilles with Ann-Margret and won a Golden Globe for her
trouble. (An Emmy went to Piper Laurie in Promise instead of her.)
She lived until 1996 when a series of strokes claimed her at age
ninety-two.
By this time in his career, Malden had
established himself as a renowned character actor with an Oscar on
his mantle for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and a nomination for
On the Waterfront (1954, with the statuette going to Edmond O'Brien
for The Barefoot Contessa that time) among many other strong roles.
He would continue with solid supporting work in feature films right
up until he entered a second career on TV with The Streets of San
Francisco (1972-1977), which earned him a new generation of fans. He
continued to work here and there as an actor while also presiding
over the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a five-year
stretch before dying of natural causes in 2009 at the age of
ninety-seven.
Another Oscar-winning actor in Parrish
was Jagger (for 1949's Twelve O'Clock High), who enjoyed a lengthy
career as a valuable character actor from the late-1920s to the
mid-1980s. A few of his more notable movies include Brigham Young
(1940), The Robe (1953), Executive Suite (1954), White Christmas
(1954) and Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), though he was busy in film
and on TV for a straight forty-five year period. He died of heart
disease in 1991 at age eighty-seven.
At the time of Parrish, Stevens was
appearing regularly on Hawaiian Eye (1959-1963) and, like fellow
Warner Brothers player Donahue, split her time between movies and
television. Her next two movies, Susan Slade (1961) and Palm Springs
Weekend (1962), also starred Donahue, though she wasn't paired off
with him in the latter one. Like Donahue, as the studio system
dismantled and she was left to her own devices, she had to struggle
(and attempt to change her image) to keep going. She did remain
reasonably popular, though, and kept working here and there to the
present day, with a highly successful skin care line to help fill in
the dry spots. She is currently seventy-six.
We love McBain and have profiled not
only she herself, but several of her movies such as Ice Palace
(1960), Claudelle Inglish (1961) and The Caretakers (1963.) Parrish
offers her at her most ravishingly lovely. Offscreen since 2001, she
is currently seventy-three. (Why in the hell isn't there a DVD
commentary available for this movie with Stevens and McBain?)
This was Miss Hugueny's debut on film,
having essayed a few TV roles beforehand. She would next portray a
mental patient in The Caretakers (1963) and then enjoy costarring
billing with Peter Fonda in The Young Lovers (1964.) However, apart
from some subsequent TV parts, that was the end of the line for her
promising career. She had met actor (and later mega-producer) Robert
Evans on the set of Parrish and they wed swiftly after (she was
seventeen, he was thirty.) The marriage was a disaster, affected her
Warner Brothers contract and resulted in a fast separation and later
divorce.
A second marriage was slightly more
successful, but pregnancy stalled her career once more. In 1976, she
married again and was about to reignite her career (on her way to
sign contracts as a matter of fact) when she was struck by a speeding
police car and seriously injured. Thus sidelined once again, she and
her husband resided in Lake Arrowhead, California where they lived
together until she died at fifty-two of cancer, which had been
misdiagnosed.
Fancher was a half-Mexican young man
who'd intensely studied flamenco dancing prior to opting for an
acting career at age twenty. After working on several TV westerns, he
became yet another Warner Brothers contractee, which meant he worked
steadily on many of their hit TV series as well as making film
appearances. His work in the cinema was limited for the most part,
though, to Rome Adventure (1962), The Other Side of the Mountain
(1975) and a little known psychological drama called Survival (1976.)
He did co-write Blade Runner (1982) and later directed and wrote The
Minus Man (1999), which starred Owen Wilson. He is seventy-six today.
This was the feature film debut of
Knapp and he didn't set foot before the cameras again for close to a
decade after, though at that time he did enjoy a string of TV and
film appearances that stretched into the mid-'80s. There was also
some behind the camera work as a producer and writer. He then made a
brief resurgence in the mid-'90s before falling victim to renal
failure in 2006 at age sixty-seven.
Fancher's wife in Parrish was played by
Saundra Edwards, a 1957 Playboy Playmate who parlayed her appearance
there into a Warner Brothers contract. (Her role in this film is
thankless, brief and very covered up!) Bit roles in movies and a wide
variety of TV show appearances from 1958 up to the time of Parrish
(and the concurrent A Fever in the Blood, 1961) seemed to signal
success, but it was not to be.
Several notable character actors and
actresses appear, though few get a chance to really make much of an
impression. Taylor, of course, had a decent part and the
aforementioned Summers got one good monologue, but Bibi Osterwald as
Taylor's wife got little, Sylvia Miles was quite wasted as a field
worker and its criminal to put Madeleine Sherwood in a movie and hand
her virtually no lines. Ford Rainey plays a foreman. A variety of
other name actors are supposedly present in tiny roles including
Frank Campanella, Carroll O'Connor, Vincent Gardenia and Terry Carter
(who co-wrote the simplistic and unintentionally goofy songs sung by
the planters.)
Winding up, I give you an alternate
cover of the movie tie-in paperback novel...
...and its back side, which features
photos and an amusingly “steamy” description of the story.
A later reissue of the book distanced
itself from Troy and Connie and featured a highly sensual anonymous
couple in the midst of a clinch! (I love this sort of artwork
nonetheless.)
Look at this (Spanish or Mexican?) poster that has each of the gals (as themselves, not in character) hanging on the phone in wait for Donahue's call!
Then there was this ad which promised
the prize of a Hollywood contract to the winner of a contest and
which featured the four young stars of Parrish.
Finally, if you know of my affection
for oddball trading cards of movies and stars, then first take a look
at this publicity photo from the movie (already strangely awkward
thanks to Donahue's loony expression and McBain's sensuous one.)
9 comments:
Wow, this movie looks pretty, well, awful I have to say. Or rather, I'm sure it looks great, it just sounds fairly corny and dull.
That being said, I have quite enjoyed the look and melodrama of A Summer Place, Palm Springs Weekend, and Rome Adventure so maybe I would like it. Troy Donahue is cute enough and the photography and costumes and sets of those were all top notch.
But I'm a little confused, was all this tobacco farming taking place in Connecticut? Have I got that right? No wonder all their crops were failing all the time. And were there any mentions at all of how tobacco might be bad for you? I doubt it.
Well, finally something I can comment "personally" about. I met Troy Donahue at a party in 1998 or so, in San Francisco. A dear friend who works for the SF opera was friendly with Donahue's fiancee, an attractive and younger Asian woman who was appearing at the opera house. Donahue was quite tall, looked his years, and loved to smile and talk! He was also dishy about his ex-wife Suzanne Pleshette ("She had bigger balls than I did!"). My friend popped on a LaserDisc (hey, it was the late 90s) that included a mini-documentary about old Palm Springs, and Donahue waxed nostalgic about the time, the place and the parties. Also, he told us that at the premiere of "Imitation of Life," he was cornered behind the theater by some black men. He was terrified they were going to rough him up for calling Susan Koner a "ni**er" in the film, but he was delighted, however, when they slapped him on the back and thanked him, informing him that her character deserved the insult for not being proud of her blackness! Frankly, he was very nice, polite and down to earth. He clearly had no pretensions about anything, certainly not about hanging out in a Bohemian musician's pad on the fourth floor of a San Francisco flat surrounded by stacks of opera recordings dating back to the 1910s. My overall impression was that he was a man who was at peace and enjoyed chatting with equally nice people. My memory of the occasion is a fond one.
Dave, if you were able to enjoy those other flicks you named, I bet you would like this one. I left out some of the various plot details along with way to avoid complete "spoilage"! :-) It's a tad long, but nearly always beautiful to look at and with some entertainingly campy parts.
Narciso, THANK YOU for your recollections of Troy Donahue! I enjoyed reading about your encounter with him and it was truly a relief to hear positive information, too, since so often once a person has fallen off the radar, all we hear is the horrible side of things. He did have a rough go of it career-wise and personally for about 20 years, but it sounds like he wound up in a good place. I saw him in a movie once (Cyclone, 1987) and it was surprising to see him as he looked then, though he went on to another dozen or two roles after that! (I had pictures from it on my old laptop that was burglarized.)
One of my favorite quotes concerning Troy Donahue was this one from Tab Hunter: "They were always accusing him of being gay and me of being straight!"
Dave, forgot to mention that a) this is "shade" tobacco, which I know nothing about, but which was grown in Connecticut. (I think it was/is for cigars??) and b) there is no mention in the least of tobacco's health harms. The Surgeon General's far-reaching report came out in 1964, three years after this (though sixty years hence, many people are still smoking like crazy!)
Terrific overview of this ripe piece of high gloss trash, which could be subtitled: Let's mosey on down to the farm and overact a while.
Claudette Colbert and Dean Jagger are good but a great deal of the acting is strictly dinner theatre quality. Donahue looks human but there's no way to prove it from his line readings. Karl Malden is so over the top at times it's a wonder there was any scenery left after he gets done chewing on it!
It's definitely sumptuous with that wonderfully lush look and glossy sheen signature of the studio era which was drawing to a close when this was produced.
I'm a bit shocked Poseidon that you didn't mention that dead dog of a hairstyle on Connie Stevens's head complete with wagging tail hanging down the back. It's been a while since I've seen it but if I remember correctly it was two tone as well to complete the horror.
I'm assuming they gave Connie that Ellie May hairdo so we'd know right away she was "low class?" Ditto Diane in her Grace Kelly look.
I'm not surprised that Troy was often assumed to be gay since he always seems so tentative and almost scared in his movies (which I guess is how a lot of gay guys seemed what with all the, you know, physical beatings going on).
This just doesn't seem to have the "travel porn" look of Rome Adventure or Palm Springs Weekend, but I will definitely look for it if it ever shows up on TCM or anything.
>>The Surgeon General's far-reaching report came out in 1964, three years after this (though sixty years hence, many people are still smoking like crazy!)<<
Or fifty years if you , UNLIKE ME, are versed in simple math! ;-)
Joel, I do hate that hairdo on Connie, too. The closest I came to attacking it was this: "Connie Stevens manages to glimpse beyond her heap of curls to see the tall young man before her." I disliked it here, but I really hated when she turned up in something similar for "Palm Springs Weekend!" I certainly have nothing against "big"hair, but this one always just looked stupid to me (and I think Dave is on to something with the "Ellie May" remark.)
I was five years old when Delmer Davies came to town looking for a Lincoln for Troy Donahue to drive in PARRISH. Our Lincoln was still in the dealership window when he saw it and wanted it. As a result, our family let them use it in the movie for a fee. lol. Years later, I met Mo Ostin Warner Bros. co- CEO head, told him the story and he said to me, " You remember that?". This was in NYC. Many things resulted in that meeting, such as Johnny Depp asking Troy to be in his movie, "CryBaby". Such memories, thanks
PARRISH, that is remarkable about your family's car being utilized in the film. How neat! Thank you for sharing that tidbit with me and the other readers here.
Post a Comment