Vento freddo d'agosto

Just watched this movie that I first read about in one of Pauline Kael's books of collections of her movie reviews. I can't remember what she said about it but I don't remember her panning it either. Anyway, it stars Lola Albright-who was one of the stars of the TV show "Peter Gunn" at the time-as a stripper who lives in a good apartment and Scott Marlowe as the 17-year-old kid who has an affair with her not knowing anything about her profession. They both are quite good, especially Ms. Albright, though like some of the other reviewers here, I did think Marlowe seemed a little old to play a late teen. Part of me also thought the ending seemed a little abrupt though that might have been due to the low budget nature of the film and that it's adopted from a novel that probably had a few more additional passages after that end. Still, director Alexander Singer guides the drama fairly well with the help of the jazzy score by Gerald Fried, melodramatic though it may have seemed at times. And Ms. Albright sure turns up the steam every time she appears, doesn't she? So on that note, I highly recommend A Cold Wind in August.

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 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.

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

Impressive and bold B movie with a fantastic performance from a glowing, Lola Albright. A name that meant nothing to me and although I see she is still working today, her medium has mainly been TV, but why? Maybe this film was just a bit too strong for the time and she never got the attention she should have from it. The story of a young guy with an older woman, nothing new but here dealt with particularly well with no moralising. Much is clearly low budget stuff with some pretty poor 'teenage' scenes but all the scenes involving the gradual seduction and those of the later striptease are shot with astonishing attention to detail and sizzle before you. From her very first advances with the naked foot upon his hand to the startling, aforementioned, strip, these are some of the most sensually shot scenes I have seen in film. Ending is uncompromising too, which comes as a relief.