The Long, Hot Summer
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Movie Reviews of The Long, Hot Summer
Movie Review: long hot summer
Summary: 5 Stars
this movie oozes heat. The acting is superb. great movie for the collector.Movie Review: The Long, Hot Summer
Summary: 5 Stars
great movie, I loved it, shipped promptly and in great conditionMovie Review: Messy but mesmerizing over-the-top scenery-chewing fun
Summary: 4 Stars
I haven't read the William Faulkner novel "The Hamlet", nor the other short stories from which this film was adapted, but I'd have to guess from what I know of the author's other works that it's a pretty loose rendition. Oh, the basic, typical Faulkner elements are here: the once-proud but now decaying family, the patriarch concerned about propagating his heritage into the future, the suspicions of strangers that come into the settled town and change things, the carnality and sexuality of women, the repression of desires by both sexes. But on the whole this is "lighter" and more optimistic-feeling than any work of the writer that I've read, and it certainly strikes me as unlikely that the novel - published in 1940 - is as full of humor, and short on gothic misery, as the film. I guess I'll have to read it and find out...
All that's by way of saying that this ain't a film you need to go into worrying about Faulknerian heaviness. Even the florid, over-the-top character of Will Varner (Orson Welles at his most charismatic and unstoppable), who dominates the small town of Frenchman's Bend through generosity and a gregarious nature as much as, or perhaps more than through the usual threats and intimidations - even he is as much a comic figure as anything. And pairing the force of nature Welles with the young Paul Newman as Ben Quick, ne'er do-well drifter who's looking for a piece of the Varner financial pie - and the Varner daughter Clara (Joanne Woodward) results not in a clash of egos and styles (at least not onscreen) but rather a contest of similar florid, scenery-chewing actors who seem to be having a good ol' time. And much of that, thankfully, translates into a good ol' time for us in the audience as well.
The basic storyline here is that Quick - run out of one town for supposed barn-burning - hitches a ride on a barge and ends up in this backwater Mississippi town, making the acquaintance of a couple of the town's young lovelies in the forms of Clara and her sister-in-law Eula (Lee Remick). Eula is married to Jody (Anthony Franciosa), Clara's older brother, a weak-willed and possibly impotent (it's only hinted at here) young man who seems incapable of pleasing his blustery father Will. Clara has been in a long-running semi-courtship with another weak man, Alan Stewart (Richard Anderson) who is sickly and under the thumb of a domineering mother - so the Alpha-male Quick is speedily sized up and found suitable as potential mating material for his spinster daughter by old Will, who throws himself around with even more weight than Welles was packing when the film was made (and that's saying something).
But as I said, it's not entirely Faulknerian Southern Gothic in style, perhaps closer to a mild Peyton Place atmosphere, maybe crossed with some "Hud"-era Larry McMurtry. And that's OK, because the actors all have fun with it, the location work is nice, and the whole thing does convey at least a little bit of the sense of the land and people and history that were the writer's life's work - even if only Woodward among the members of the principal cast was actually southern. I think she fares the best overall, regardless of her more realistic accent, getting pretty well the mixture of feelings that this smart, educated young woman has about being potentially pushed into a life where her abilities and talents won't be appreciated. Newman certainly has the charisma and charm for Ben Quick, but the darker and harder aspects of the character aren't opened up enough by screewriters Irving Ravitch and Harriet Frank for him to get as much juice out of it as he might. Remick doesn't have much to do but look pretty - which she does spectacularly well; Franciosa is playing a fairly stereotypical pathetic-son-trying-to-please-daddy but he carries it off nicely, always believably insecure around Welles and belligerent around Newman. Which leaves us with The Great Man, Orson the Magnificent who is...well, he's Orson. Hammy and showing off and dominating, I have no idea if this is the way the character was written but he's larger than life and full of energy, raging and laughing, yelling and joking. Half the time he's very hard to understand - and that's AFTER much of his part was post-dubbed (for that matter a large chunk of the film was looped, not just Welles' role). Talking a mile a minute, slurring his voice, changing his pitch - supposedly tricks to infuriate director Ritt, according to some sources. Well, maybe - but however much truth there is to that, he's magnetic and if he doesn't seem any more like he's from Mississippi than any of the rest of the cast, it does feel at times like he understands the Gothic, overdramatic nature of it all like no one else does.
In short, it's not quite Faulkner - not quite "real" - not quite a perfectly worked-out piece of narrative - but it's compulsively watchable thanks to the powerful cast, who may not have been making a masterpiece but who were clearly under a spell of some kind, and doing what Hollywood in those days did best - taking us out of our mundane world filled with mundane people, and bringing us to a land of larger-than-life characters, some of whom at least sure seem like they'd be fun to share a cold beer with, on a hot Mississippi summer afternoon.
The DVD looks fine, the colors bright and full of heat; the extras aren't substantial though there is a half-hour "making" of piece that was originally on TV and isn't terribly useful.
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.
Movie Review: "Summertime, and the livin' is easy" Or The Long, Hot Summer with Young Hot Paul Newman
Summary: 4 Stars
It was the time when they called him a young new star and it was his breakthrough to stardom, fame, and success. The moment Paul Newman's Ben Quick, rebellious and irresistible drifter enters a rural Mississippi town of Frenchman's Bend to stir up its women, puzzle its men and to catch the interest of Big Daddy Varner (Orson Welles, the ferocious force of nature seemed to have fun playing Will Varner and experimenting with make-up) the town richest and most powerful redneck who perhaps sees in Ben a lot of himself, the screen legend was born.
"The Long, Hot Summer" (1958) is based on five short stories and a novel by one of the America's greatest novelists and storytellers, the expert of Southern life, William Faulkner, and the film is a steamy, moving, often funny (perhaps, unintentionally) tale of lust, greed, jealousy, and larger than life personalities and their clashes. I guess I need to read more Faulkner's stories because I was surprised to see the film that is based on the works of the writer known for his heavy use of such sophisticated literary techniques as symbolism, allegory, and especially stream of consciousness, the film which linear narrative is easy to follow from the third person point-of-view.
Besides Paul Newman who was as talented as he was hot, his off- screen wife-to-be Joanna Woodward shines as Clara Varner, Will's intelligent, thinking daughter, the teacher in a local school whom her father wants to see married (and not just wants but takes certain steps that Clara does not like and feels offended by). The film was the first of many Newman's and Woodward's collaboration and it is not easy to recall the greater chemistry between two leads. Orson Welles dominates the screen in his every scene as expected. 21-years-old Lee Remick (Eula, Varner's daughter-in-law, sexy and innocent woman-child), Anthony Franciosa (Jody, Varner's overlooked and jealous son), and Angela Lansbury (Minnie, the woman who has her own plans about future that include a widower Varner in them) all add to the sizzling fun that "The Long Hot Summer" is.