Propiedad privada

When I caught up with this film in Nottingham in 1965 it was being proudly advertised as "The Film with Only Two Certificates in England!" True, at that time only Leeds and Liverpool had passed the film with a "local X." The British Board of Film Censors had rejected the film on 30 March 1960, leaving small British distributor Cross-Channel (who also released Blackjackets) with the task of persuading as many local authorities as possible to pass the film for exhibition. Cross- Channel had an initial break-through when the film was chosen for the opening run at the new Compton cinema in London's West End. As a cinema club for members only the Compton did not need certificates and duly premiered the film on 16 November 1960. Personally, I found the film fairly harmless viewing even in 1965, although the story of two drifters ogling the bored housewife next door eventually became a bit creepy. Most of the local watch committees said no, but a fair few said yes:

London Compton – Wednesday, 16 November 1960 (British premiere); LEEDS Plaza – Sunday, 20 December 1964 and week; LIVERPOOL Essoldo (London Road) – Sunday, 4 July 1965 and week; LEEDS Gainsborough – Thursday, 2 September 1965 (three days); NOTTINGHAM Moulin Rouge – Sunday, 14 November 1965 and week; LIVERPOOL Jacey Film Theatre – Sunday, 19 December 1965 and week; LIVERPOOL ABC (Walton) – Monday, 16 May 1966 (three days); WAKEFIELD ABC – Monday, 27 June 1966 (three days); WEST BROMWICH ABC – Thursday, 29 September 1966 (three days);

The mini-release must have made a good bit of income since the distributor deemed a re-issue in 1969 more than worthwhile:

BIRMINGHAM Cinephone – Sunday, 24 August 1969 for two weeks; NOTTINGHAM ABC Elite – Sunday, 5 October 1969 and week; LIVERPOOL Jacey Film Theatre – Sunday, 7 December 1969 and week;

Two drifters become obsessed with and annoy a frustrated house wife in the Hollywood hills until things become dangerous. This feels like most indie movies today that are a few people in a house and then some stuff happens, so I wasn't suprised to see that it's being remade.

This was scandalous in the 50s and even earned an X rating in the UK. It's mostly innocuous, but it does have a very dark ending with some implied things. Overall, I'm not sure it's the "lost classic" as I've read and really dosnt need a modern remake. I guess it was way ahead of its time, but I generally don't really like the films it's way ahead of. Fortunately, it's only 80 minutes and the last 10 minutes was great.

Watched on Kanopy.

This movie has a high artistic quality. It was filmed by experienced veteran Ted McCord in the typical clinically clean black and white-style of the era. The main setting is an elegant house in the sun drenched hills of Los Angeles - and the location is very well used indeed. The bright setting is sharply contrasted by sexual frustration. The main character seems to be a piece of decoration for her husband, a successful, mainly absent businessman. Her constant stereotype Pepsodent smile renders her somewhat subhuman - well a part of the property. Yet she has a yearning which is unfulfilled. At one point she pulls a broad black belt around her neck, pulls it tight and lies down on the bed. Her lonelyness is relieved by two doubtful characters, one of them a young Warren Oates. Very well filmed underwater swimming pool scenes at the dramatic climax at the end.

Private Property is a great little neo noir vehicle, outstanding in that its inherent quality, belies the shoestring budget upon which it was made. All the creative elements fortuitously came together for writer/director Leslie Stevens. He gets a great central performance from Corey Allen as deviously shrewd drifter Duke, as well as a distinctly arousing turn from Kate Manx as domestic goddess Ann, seemingly the object of every man's desire, apart from her husband Roger. Then on top of all that, he manages to score the highly experienced Ted McCord as his cinematographer. He must have thought all his Christmases had come at once.

One part home invasion, one part voyeuristic thriller, and one part social critique, considering it was made 60 years ago, Private Property still manages to be quite confronting. It's fairly upfront in its treatment of sexual themes and desires. It looks remarkably good for a film made on such a low budget, even going as unexpectedly far, as featuring some quite extensive underwater photography. I have to be honest and balance my praise, when adding the musical soundtrack however is frequently over-intrusive and not always quite appropriate, for the accompanying scenes.

Stevens comfortably helms the project making excellent use of both his car and home to site the majority of the action. On the evidence of this film, one feels it's a pity we didn't see more cinema work from him, as for much of his career, he worked in theatre, later transitioning to television, where he is arguably best remembered as being the creator of the original Outer Limits.

Very few people seem to have heard of, let alone seen, this bizarre and strange film, but it is ripe for re-discovery as a precursor of the harsher realism that American movies were able to explore once censorship restrictions were lifted. It is open to all sorts of interpretation; is it a critique of capitalism in which the marriage partner becomes "property"? Is there a hidden homosexual motivation between the two buddies who can, apparently, only attain their "manhood" when in the company of each other? It is perhaps wrong to read too much into early movies using today's sensibilities, but subversive this film most certainly is, and reflects much of the thinking expressed in a ground-breaking book of that era entitled "The American Sexual Tragedy". Passion, when repressed, always runs morbid, and this film illustrates that notion with realism and skill.