Propriété privée

This black and white film produced in 1959 is tame compared to what is out there nowadays. Corey Allen, who is best remembered as the gang leader in the movie "Rebel Without A Cause" (1955), is very good as the sexy stud drifter. He shows up at the house of a luscious blonde housewife saying he is looking for yard work. Her much older husband is away on a business trip. There are plenty of shirtless shots of the muscular and hairy chested Allen who knows the wife is sexually attracted to him. They wind up in bed and then things get wild. His dense sidekick is played by actor Warren Oates in an early role.

It wouldn't be fair for me to rate this 1959 flick. On one hand, it has historical significance since it was one of the first movies denied release by American censors who found it forbidden fruit. On the other hand, as entertainment, I found the 79-minutes unfortunately too talky and boring to endorse. Hence, it doesn't seem fair to choose between the two poles.

The flick starts off well enough, at a filling station where two seedy drifters, Duke and Boots, look to fill their empty lives by pursuing a wealthy blonde for seduction purposes. Now that's a promising start, but from there on, except for the brief ending, the narrative flattens out into a basically one-note affair. After all, how long does it take wily Duke to infiltrate blonde Ann's hilltop mansion where she usually lives alone, her businessman husband out making money. Then too, it's a stretch that wealthy hubby would leave her alone without household help.

Thus, it appears budget constraints flatten the main storyline into a series of hilltop one-on-one talk-fests. Sure, Duke wants to insinuate himself into Ann's life by pretending to be a gardener. But needed suspense in his manuevers is sorely lacking. Still and all, the hilltop setting does furnish a good scenic view of greater LA that kept me watching.

All in all, it looks like the indie effort was a well-intended effort to escape the bonds of 50's studio productions held captive by a strict censorship code. But what might have been cutting edge then, seems banal now when much looser public standards prevail.

My advice: if you're looking for more than mainly talky flatlining, skip it. But if you're interested in former forbidden fruit grab it and bite.

Although this film is supposedly a fictional drama, I believe there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of lonely and attractive housewives all across North America who can relate to the scenes played out in the film Private Property. We have all heard that phrase before of "playful and innocent enough flirting or sexual teasing". And we have also heard the phrase "No means No" in countless drama films which are played out in both an actual and/or a fictitious court of law.

This film draws a very fine line between some tense criminal and very real sexual assault activity that is hard to watch and a very good dramatic simulated performance played out by all four (4) of the film stars. The female lead played by Kate Manx as the lonely suburban California housewife who was ignored by her business executive husband appreciated the attention bestowed upon her by the aggressive stranger who showered her with compliments as well as many lies.

We the audience could see that this lonely housewife was getting in over her head and the two strangers were thinking with their little heads and not their big heads. We see how quickly some playful flirting innocence can turn both violent and deadly. This black and white film is still a great watch some sixty (60) years later.

I rate Private Property a high 8 out of 10 rating that all women and men including young teenagers should watch to remind them to keep their emotions in check and the boys to keep their peckers in their pants.

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;

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.