The Long, Hot Summer
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Movie Reviews of The Long, Hot Summer
Movie Review: Southern Fried Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Well now, what do we have here? It is nothing less than one of the best and sexiest southern fried dramas from the 1950's. This adaptation of several works of William Faulkner is a tour de force for everyone involved. How lucky are we to have two great films on southern family life starring Paul Newman come out in 1958? This film is a fine companion piece to "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof", a bit more upbeat than "Cat" but still full of sound and fury.
As Ben Quick, Paul Newman ignites the screen and fairly burns down half of Mississippi in the process with his incredible magnetism. He brings to Quick all he as to bear as an actor and creates one of his early memorable performances. Just watch him as bare chested he hugs his pillow on the hot veranda while watching Joanne Woodward through a screen door sitting up in her bed trying to ignore him, or his walk across the Varner yard early on in the film, his interactions with Orson Wells or Tony Franciosa. He is every inch the "mean and dirty" barnburner everyone thinks he is. He is just what the Varner family and Clara Varner in particular need to feed their respective fever dreams brought on by the heat of this particular August in the south.
Hitting her marks in a great performance is Joanne Woodward. She being a true daughter of the South comes to the table with and extra barrel loaded. As Clara Varner she is both needy and steely, a magnolia ready to be plucked but at that same time fearful that she will be passed over and left to wither on the vine. Her scene in the general store after closing time with Newman is just about one of the steamiest love scenes ever filmed this
side of "Picnic". Miss Woodward here in this film is pure magic to watch and in combination with Paul Newman the pair become an alchemy of fireworks and lightning bugs on a summers night.
Adding to the fine cast is Lee Remick, Tony Franciosa, the incredible Angela Lansbury and the equally and always impressive Orson Wells. I would go on about each of them but I think it best to let them surprise you. That's half the fun of the film.
The score by Alex North is memorable and one of his best. The cinematography by Joseph LeShelle captures the hazy heat of Mississippi. And Martin Ritt's direction of all parties concerned is perfectly on target. Be sure to check some of his other collaborations with Newman, "Paris Blues", "Hud" to mention only two.
Pour yourself a tall sweet tea, kick off your shoes and open the veranda doors and let the breeze of this long hot summer envelope you.
Movie Review: I'm no trembling little rabbit with unsatisfied desires
Summary: 3 Stars
Joanne Woodward plays the 22-year-old maid with a mama's boy beau and Paul Newman the menacing - well, roguishly and charmingly menacing, anyway - prince with eyes for her in Martin Ritt's THE LONG HOT SUMMER.
As one of the dvd extras tells us, Woodward and Newman were hot in love during the filming of this movie, and their chemistry translates well onto the screen. The story, a young girl coming of age and finding love, didn't do much for me. Orson Welles, hidden behind a movable rubber nose and a thick layer of insta-tan, mumbles in an incomprehensible southern accent and chews the scenery in just about every scene he's in.
This is purportedly based on a number of short stories by William Faulkner. Save for some character names and the use of barn burning as a plot device the Faulkner link is pretty tenuous.
If you enjoy romantic melodramas, or are a fan of the stars, it's likely you'll enjoy this one more than I did. I thought it was just okay.
Movie Review: Why daughters become rebels......
Summary: 4 Stars
I saw the LONG HOT SUMMER on the big screen back in 1958 when I was 16 and thought it was fabulous. I'm older now, and although the film still has some appeal, mainly because of the two lead actors whom I admire very much, I didn't enjoy the film as much on the small screen today. For one thing, the detail in some shots is hard to see which might not be the case if you have a large viewing screen. For another thing, I don't think it is clear to me even yet why old man Will Varner (Orson Wells in a "big Daddy" type role) has it in for his son (Anthony Franciosa). Faulkner's tales, the basis of the screen play, may reveal the source of the animosity between the two men, but this film does not. The closest we come to understanding Will Varner's cruel behavior is to hear him call his son "weak" which does not seem to be the case for Miss Varner's equally effeminate beau who is obviously a mama's boy, and whom Will Varner would approve as the stud for his daughter if only he would "pop" the question. Both young men seem weak compared to the muscular, virile, tanned Newman (Ben Quick). Furthermore, why is a beautiful girl like Joanne Woodward unmarried in the old South where couples ran off in their teens? And, what father would bribe a "no account barn-buring drifter" to wed his daughter? Again, the Faulkner tales probably reveal much the screen play misses.
The film has it's appeal - the actors are beautiful (including Lee Remick who went on to play acclaimed roles as drunken and/or crazy wives), and Angela Landsbury (Jessica Fletcher) is wonderful as Minnie, the long suffering mistress of Will Varner. Based on it's price, this is a good buy for your "oldies" film library as the story is instructive for youngsters who wonder what fueled the youthful rebellion that later culminated in Women's Movement in the late 1950s.
Movie Review: Body Heat!
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie, released in 1958, must have raised eyebrows in the declining Eisenhower years. Sometimes less is more. It is amazing how sexy and erotic a movie can be without the lead characters running around naked. You can feel the sizzling electricity between Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward; but then, they weren't acting since they married soon after finishing this film. Although the movie is billed as "William Faulkner's The Long Hot Summer" and is based on some of his stories, I kept seeing and hearing shades of "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," which came out in the same year so I don't know who influenced whom if at all.
Both Newman as the sexy drifter and Woodward, the school teacher who is 23 and still not married, are both so young and handsome and play off each other beautifully. The other actors give credible performances as well although Orson Welles is a little over the top at times. He certainly fills up the screen both in physical size and bombast. Angela Lansbury is charming as the local madam who provides pleasure for Welles who plays the rich landowner Varner. I don't know how true to Faulkner the plot is, not having read the stories in question, but something tells me the ending is distinctly not Faulknerian.
Southern accents are always tricky; occasionally they don't ring true here with the exception of Woodward's; but she's a native Southerner after all.
Set in Mississippi although shot in Louisiana, the film has an authentic feel and remains remarkably undated. It sizzles.
Movie Review: Steam Heat
Summary: 4 Stars
I rated this film with four stars though on most measurable levels, it is worthy of maybe three. The screenplay as written is a montage, (some say mish-mash) of William Faulkner's literary works. Still, the film works..... most of the time. Jerry Wald's production has 1950's sensibilities written all over it. A real strength of this film lies in the charismatic on-screen performance of young Paul Newman's Ben Quick and his incendiary relationship with Orson Welles' Will Varner. It is said the editing room had to re-do much of Welles' dialogue to make it intelligible for the audience. Whatever. I am fascinated by virtually every word uttered in Welles' quirky interpretation of a portly, gravelly voiced redneck hell-bent to leave his greasy thumbprint on all who would come under his influence. For 62 year old Varner to race about town in a Jeep as his personal conveyance of choice completes the picture of a man unbowed in the presence of all others. Eager to marry his daughter off to perpetuate his legacy, Will encouraged Ben anyway he could. In all things, he could be demanding and callous, yet in a rare display of affection, Will uncharacteristically and tenderly explained to his sensitive daughter Clara, (Joanne Woodward) "Sometimes the strong just rolls over the weak." Angela Lansbury played Minnie LittleJohn, a retired women of the evening. As an inevitable consequence of age, her world weariness and palpable sense of urgency that time was running out expedited a patient and sincere pursuit of Will for his hand in marriage. Richard Anderson portrayed Alan Stewart, Clara's long-time supposed suitor, an elegant, tasteful and honorable southern gentleman. Outed by an impatient Varner, and forced to declare his sexual orientation, he had to finally declare his unsuitability for Clara's hand in marriage. To me, the one miscast major actor in this film was Anthony Franciosa as Will's disaffected son, Jody. It was difficult for me to accept a dark and somewhat ethic Franciosa as a privileged son of the deep south, though Lee Remick positively shined as his highly desirable sexually charged wife Eula. The obvious on-screen chemistry shared of Newman and Woodward in "The Long, Hot Summer" is the stuff of Hollywood legend. Those were real sparks of passion arcing between them, the camera just documented the fireworks for posterity. Their highly charged scenes make the price of admission all the more reasonable and justification enough for me to rate this film with 4 stars.