Stirb wie ein Mann

Film takes place at a military academy. Cadet Jocko DeParis (Ben Gazzara) concocts an elaborate scheme to get another cadet thrown out of the school. He has the unwilling help of two freshman--Simmons (Arthur Storch) and Robert Marquales (George Peppard). He orders them to keep quiet--but they're not sure if they can and Jocko is a very dangerous man...

Bizarre movie. I hated it at first--it took some time for me to get used to the characters and figure out what was going on but I eventually did. It's not an ordinary Hollywood movie--it was independently made and had trouble with the censors. There's a VERY obviously gay character named Cockroach (Paul E. Richards) who has a crush on Jocko and a shower scene that is homo erotic to a strong degree. There's also a hint of sex between some of the cadets. Pretty raw for 1957.

The acting is just OK. Gazzara and Peppard made their debuts with this film so their overly mannered performances can be forgiven. The rest of the cast is pretty good and carry the film. This was not a commercial success and is rarely screened but it's so strange and different it deserves some recognition. Worth catching if you're interested in offbeat films. A 7.

An interesting look at gay themes from the 1950s. At the time this movie came pout, homosexuality was still a crime in most (maybe all) states. It had another decade and a half to go before being declassified as mental illness.

This opens with a drawing that looks like Tom of Finland. The people involved in making this may never have heard of Tom of Finland. It was the stylized gay zeitgeist. (I guess. I was not there.) Ben Gazzara plays the central character. He is a horrible, thoroughly unlivable bully. It all takes place at a military academy. A fey student who seems to worship him, despite his cruelty, is writing a novel based on his life. It's called "Nightboy." And John Rechy was still a youngster! It's a worthwhile movie. The acting is good all around. The plot is not entirely plausible. But it's exciting and consistently well done.

Jack Garfein made "The Strange One" in 1957. It was adapted by Calder Willingham from first his novel and then his play "End as a Man". Actually the title "The Strange One" doesn't really do it justice; a better, if somewhat declamatory, title might have been 'The Evil One' since its central protagonist, Jocko De Paris, is one of the most sadistic and warped anti-heroes in all of fiction. The setting is a military academy in the Deep South and Jocko is cock of the walk. He rules with a combination of charm and viciousness but it all goes belly-up for him when he targets a young cadet and his father, who happens to be an officer there. His scheme involves four other cadets whose fear of him he's counting on. It's a melodramatic scenario that culminates in a bravura, sustained passage of mounting hysteria but it's brilliant in the way that the best of Tennessee Williams or William Inge are brilliant. Willingham's dialogue has the ring of poetry to it and Garfein, whose first film this was, (he's only made one since), directs it superbly.

Of course, it would have been nothing were it not for its cast, many of whom were totally unknown at the time. Ben Gazzara may already have been a star on the New York stage, (he was Brick in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"), but was an unknown quantity in the movies, (it was also his first film). His performance as Jocko should have made him a much bigger star than he ever became and it remains a career-best performance. Those who fall under his spell include Pat Hingle, James Olson, Arthur Storch and George Peppard. They are all terrific; Peppard, also making his screen debut, shows real promise and Hingle in outstanding.

There's also one overtly gay character, (though the whole picture is suffused with homo-eroticism), a cadet who fancies himself a writer and who is obviously in love with Jocko. He's played by Paul Richards as a grotesque and flamboyant queen, part Truman Capote and part Gore Vidal. In any other film this character would be offensively out of place but here he's just one more poisonous plant in this insidious hothouse. The film wasn't successful and is almost impossible to see now, at least here in the UK but it's a masterpiece and one of the best American films of the fifties. Essential.

Originally advertised as the first picture filmed entirely by a cast and technicians from the Actor's Studio, this tale of power play amongst the cadets of a Southern military academy, only comes alive when it features the material that the Production Code of the 1950's demanded be cut.

Based on the autobiographical novel and play End as a Man by Calder Willingham, director Jack Garfein uses the music of Kenyon Hopkins noticably in the scenes between Ben Gazzara as an upperclass man and Paul E Richards as a presumably gay cadet Gazzara nicknames Cockroach, who wears a shower cap when the other cadets don't. Richards is a "creative writer" who names the Gazzara character in his novel "nightboy". Their best scene together is where Richards reads to Gazzara, who plays with his sword! Clearly Gazzara is not adverse to Richard's attention, and their farewell handshake is more a sensual than manly experience. Gazzara's relationship with Richards is also echoed in his friendship with football jock James Olson, where Gazzara reacts to being casually touched. I also like idea of Gazzara's cigarette holder, though his kissing his own wrist at one point is a little too self-consciously Method.

But whilst it is interesting to observe these subversive (for the period) elements, the narrative ultimately disappoints in the treatment of Gazzara as the academy's resident sadist. The Actors Studio adaptation needs to create an ensemble, as opposed to allowing Gazzara to star, which dissipates the tension and reduces his threat. Whilst it may be more psychologically truthful for him to underplay his psychotic nature, with the addition of Freudian insight which makes him more intellectual than physically violent, this doesn't help the drama, which is even more obvious when the far more satisfying climax uses mob intimidation and a physical act of revenge.

The worst of the Actors Studio excess is in the presentation of victim Arthur Storch who is said to be schizophrenic and thus an easy target. Storch has coke-bottle spectacles, buck teeth, cartoon at attention posture, ambition to become a priest, is a mommy's boy, afraid of women, and anti-alcoholic. Gazzara's interest in Storch is inexplicable, even if he does hold him down while Olson spanks him with a broom, but as a good part of the film has us trapped in one room (the stage origins show here) while we're supposed to observe how bad Gazzara is, proceedings crawl into tedium. Or perhaps this kind of s/m power play just doesn't hold that much interest for me. The academy rooms have cell-like iron gates in front of the doors, and even though they aren't locked, the film opens with a guard hitting each as he passes, doing a role call.

Watch for Gazzara's sci-fi buggy car, which has room in the back for a passenger.

This film is a real sleeper. It launched some brilliant careers, especially that of Ben Gazzara. But also those of Pat Hingle, George Peppard and Arthur Storch, who became a fine stage director. Look for this one to see some interesting characters and a compelling story.