The Subterraneans

Hooray I thought, another San Francisco movie that TnT shows from time to time and I can't think of a better place to set a beat generation based production than here. The good news is that there is plenty of location shots set around the North Beach/Telegraph Hill exteriors but bad that most of the interiors are the usual Paramount style back lots that just oozes, well, not authenticity anyway. the acting style is labored and theatrical almost like pantomime and if you think of a less plausible West Side Story with the singing removed you would be pretty close to what can be seen here. The acting particularly from the female lead is over the top whiny and mostly unsympathetic making this a movie to watch but with the sound turned down.

I just viewed this film for the first time. Janice Rule and Leslie Caron are excellent given the superfluous material; George Peppard is stiff and unconvincing.

If you take this film literally, the Beats represented party-loving, self-serving hedonists, rebelling against society with no particular purpose. In fact, the Beats and their literature provided a needed counterpoint to the conformity and staid complacency of American life in the 1950s. They were the forerunners of the Hippies, for sure.

Despite a shallow story line, the film is of historical interest as to how Hollywood (and maybe mainstream America) viewed the Beat generation in 1960, when the film was released.

The music is absolutely marvelous - it's great to see and hear jazz giants like Gerry Mulligan (also in an acting role), Art Pepper, Art Farmer and Shelly Manne.

A true period piece, worth seeing - once.

about an age and not about a period. about few people and a too strange love story. about a world very far by Kerouac novel and the real facts. so, only a sketch. and it is not really an error if its ambitious are not so high. because the basic bizarre piece in this movie it is the cast. why few not bad actors for a poor exercise to present an age ? than - the script ( the dialogs are almost fake ). not the lat, the story - chaotic and too pink. short, it is a trip of Hollywood in middle of a kind of revolution. but the reality is not part from its rules so, the result is far to be admirable. only interesting ingredient - the performance of Roddy McDowall. but it is not enough to be more than a sketch for a decent social portrait.

This MGM film starred the lovely Leslie Caron so great in MGM Musicals such as American In Paris and Gigi and two up and coming MGM stars: George Peppard and Jim Hutton. Both Peppard and Hutton had 7 year contracts and MGM was still at the time of filming the Number 1 studio in Hollywood. Howard Strickling a maestro of PR set George Peppard to be in the mold of a Spencer Tracy: A great Actor, and Hutton who has a brief role as a combination in the vein of Jimmy Stewart and Jack Lemmon. See this movie just too see Peppard as a lading Man and Hutton in a brief role

This movie about the "beatnik" scene in the Bay Area fails. Leslie Caron is miscast and George Peppard made the most of this casting to move onto Home From The Hill with 2 other MGM contract players: Luana Patten and George Hamilton, Jim Hutton would team up with another MGM contract star Paula Prentiss in Where The Boys Are, a smash hit also starring other MGM contract stars Yvette Mimieux. George Hamilton and a great actress Paula Prentiss whom Hutton would mean up with at MGM: Where The Boys Are, Honeymoon Machine, Bachelor in Paradise and Horizontal Lieutenant. Jim Hutton did A Period Of Adjustment with Jane Fonda at MGM and then went on a 15 month suspension until MGM released him from his 7 year contract. Hutton was supposed to do the role Russ Tamblyn did in How The West Was Won but the deal fell thru. Hutton got his release from MGM having to do Looking For Love, a Connie Francis film which had cameos by the MGM stars Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton and his former co star Paula Prentiss.

MGM was a great studio in the early 60's.

A piece of art!This is what describes the movie best.It's about a love story between two very different of a kind people.But the thing that grabbed me most was the good play of the actors which by the way were given much material.Not like most movies which are made today this one relays most on the dialogue.It is not what they say,it's how they say it!I must say as a really big fan of old movies that this one has made me a big impression,it was very enjoyable to just watch how all those actors really becoming their characters!George Peppard did well but a little unconvincable,but Leslie Caron was the one how got me convinced that there was love somewhere in the movie...These are The Subterraneans Today's Young Rebels - Who live and love in a world of their own this is their story told to the hot rhythms of fabulous jazz!