Kalter Wind im August

Kael in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," Waters in (I think) "Crackpot." Ever since I saw Kael's comment (circa 1970), I've wanted to see this. I finally tracked down a DVD pirated from TBS. And it was worth the wait. Yes, it's florid and overstated, but so is opera, and this is the film equivalent of "Traviata": older, "experienced" woman, young man who can't deal with her experience. It reminded me of "Who Killed Teddy Bear?" in that it's another film that is much better than it should be. I can't really say that Albright gives a good performance, but it is a great one, at least in its impact. Her lack of depth feels right for this character, more right than a more subtle performance would have been. It's a paradox of this kind of film.

The film is also surprising frank for 1961. No euphemisms here. Even the boy's father understands what's going on, and is amazingly understanding about it. It's adult, not just in its subject matter, but in its refusal to be coy about it.

I do want to point out one problem with the film. Scott Marlowe's character is supposed to be 17, but Marlowe was about 29 when he made this. Albright was only 7 years older, so you don't get the effect of the age difference, and Marlowe just feels too old to be so innocent. But it's not a killer problem.

This is Lola Albright's all- time greatest work. It is in fact, a work of B-movie brilliance...an art masterpiece if there ever was one. Lola Albright gave the best performance of her career in this movie about the seduction of a younger man. She is at all times believable and convincing...a stripper who can be loving and kind one moment, and a pleasure-seeking, self-centered older woman the next. To be honest, when she is seen on stage in a devil's costume, I thought that the rug was pulled out from beneath me. Talk about provocative, alluring, and extremely beautiful, Lola Albright is "all of the above" and then some. This movie should go down as one of the very best B movies of the 20th century...a title that it justly deserves.

I was not yet alive when A COLD WIND IN AUGUST made its initial theatrical go-round, but I suspect that it generated a magnitude of criticism during those less permissive times(in response to its ostensibly unprincipled premise and erotically-charged underpinnings). It's a rather prurient melodrama, but far too gracefully formulated to come off sleazy or sexually exploitive in its portraiture of a brassy mid-life burlesque queen who finds herself in a fiery romantic entanglement with a giddy seventeen year-old boy.

Considering that this film is a product of a far less lenient America, it smolders with audacious sexual intimations which surely raised more than a few eyebrows in '61. Still, it generally approaches its subject matter with sincerity and sensitivity...this is a film of uncommon veracity for its time, and could be mentioned in the same breath as BABY-DOLL, LOLITA, and THE NAKED KISS, films which their era's more priggish types may have found to be of questionable social graces. The makers of these and similarly polemical films should be admired for their fortitude in the face of stifling puritan objection.

Commanding performances are provided by two criminally under-appreciated talents, Albright and Marlowe. They have a unique and entirely believable chemistry on screen which is keynote to the film's success. Joe DeSantis shines as well in the role of Marlowe's cautious but understanding widower father.

A COLD WIND has its share of forgivable blemishes, and it may come off rather stilted, possibly even campy to some with its fifty-year vintage...regardless, it was/is a brave undertaking, professionally appointed and deserving of greater appreciation.

7.5/10

This is a movie that was in it's time full of meaning for teenagers and young men. Lola Albright gave a stunning performance as the"older woman" and this film was as good as the book for a change. If and when it becomes available on video I will certainly buy it and hope that it still gives the same thrill as it did in the 60's

Losing herself in alcohol and New York City, sexy stripper Lola Albright (as Iris Hartford) gets hotter than hot after her air conditioner "craps out" in the middle of summer. When seventeen-year-old Scott Marlowe (as Vito Perugino), the superintendence's handsome Italian son, is sent to fix her busted switch, Ms. Albright seduces him with liquor and lipstick. The couple enjoy their "older woman, younger man" romance, but Albright keeps her "dirty" profession on the back burner. Mr. Marlowe thinks she's a model or actress. All goes well until Albright accepts a stripping job from one of her ex-husbands. Cued in by a streetwise pal, Marlowe goes to see his lover swivel her bikini-clad hips for a mob of horny old men...

The "strip show" makes Marlowe reconsider his feelings for Albright, but she wants to keep "going steady" with the younger man. This ridiculous story is strengthened by the fact that the co-stars play it straight. Albright is sexy and serious, even when exclaiming lines like, "I want him, I want my baby!" Marlowe is clearly too old for the part, but stays in character. The unbelievable "Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" teenager Skip Young (as Al) actually makes Marlowe look younger. There are sensitive supporting performances from Herschel Bernardi as one of her castaways, and Joe DeSantis as his understanding papa. Debuting director Alexander Singer and cameraman Floyd Crosby give "A Cold Wind in August" a fresh look.

******* A Cold Wind in August (7/26/61) Alexander Singer ~ Lola Albright, Scott Marlowe, Herschel Bernardi, Joe DeSantis