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An offbeat, oddly moving film in which Carroll Baker plays a young victim of rape. Although the crime goes unnamed in this 1961 movie, the pain and anguish suffered by Baker's character, Mary Ann, are candidly as well as sensitively handled. And while the film can only hint at Mary Ann's thoughts (unlike the book on which it was based), Baker gives a touching performance as the victim who tries to deny the crime by erasing all physical traces of it, and then seeking to lose herself in the jungle of New York City, only to find herself trapped in the apartment of a supposed Good Samaritan played by Ralph Meeker. The film's second half is weakened by the sketchiness of the characters' motivations, but the actors help to fill in the gaps. Legendary American composer Aaron Copland has added a grand (perhaps too grand) musical score; Eugen Schüfftan's crisp black & white cinematography and the extensive use of New York City locations add to this drama. Directed by Jack Garfein (Baker's then-husband), who co-wrote the script with Alex Karmel, author of the 1958 novel "Mary Ann."

Student traumatized by a rape is saved from suicide by a lonely mechanic, who feels she may be his last chance for happiness. Beguiling art film missed cult status by that much. Director Jack Garfien, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Alex Karmel from Karmel's novel "Mary Ann", and his wife, actress Carroll Baker, put everything on the line for this production, but it didn't connect with audiences at the time. It looks good today, however, and has an unusual, unnerving, voyeuristic quality. Baker and Ralph Meeker have intriguing chemistry, though the premise--that the mechanic keeps the girl like a wounded pet in his little hovel--is often creepy instead of romantic (although I'm not sure of the actual intention here). Incredible jazz score by Aaron Copland; striking black-and-white cinematography from Eugen Shuftan. A mixed bag, mostly effective. **1/2 from ****

Written and directed by Jack Garfein, "Something Wild" is a gray-toned contemplation of the relationship between need and love. I think it is fair to say that some viewers will be disturbed by the story, which is about a young woman, Mary Ann (Carroll Baker, wife of the director), victimized and despairing, who meets a young man, Mike (Ralph Meeker), whose agenda is unclear.

The pathway from despair to hope, or false hope, is examined by this film in a dramatic and unconventional way. Contributing to the tone of the film are the B&W photography and the score by Aaron Copland.

The acting is terrific. Baker's and Meeker's characters may live in your imagination after the end credits. New York City plays its role as the vast backdrop to this dark tale.

One final note: Though they are only connected by the riveting performances of Ms. Baker, if you like this film, you may like "Baby Doll"--another distinctive and artistically risky film.

Believe it or not, my mother took me to the drive in to see this movie with her in the early 60's. At the time the drive-in was the place to go to cool off during family arguments or in times of extreme boredom. I was only about 10 at the time, but now 40 years later I still remember this film, and researched IMDB to find it again. I have not seen a recent copy, and understand that it is not available for purchase, but I think it would be a fine addition to classic black and white film history, so I hope it is re-released on video or DVD. Even as a young girl I was haunted by Carole Baker's character, not understanding exactly what had happened to her, but realizing that the love she developed with Ralph Meeker was somehow sad, but sweet and deeply emotional at the same time. I remember how desolate the character of Ralph Meeker was, and his apartment reflected this barren soul. They were two people who hurt desperately, and could only relieve their pain by coming together and sharing their emotionally tortured souls. I recommend you watch this movie if you get a chance.

"Something Wild" tells a very simple story. A young woman is raped and her whole world falls to pieces. She is saved from a suicide attempt by a lonely young man who helps her to heal. It's not such an exceptional tale. You could even apply to it that famous line from the TV series "The Naked City": "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them." We are witness to some very personal and intimate moments in the lives of two people whose ability to feel has been smothered. The woman has had her whole being violated. The man, craving love, tries to hold onto her. The two actors, Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker, certainly are game, but I was uncomfortable with the second half of the film both times that I watched it. The two lead actors sometimes seem stranded in scenes that are quite stagey, and some lines, especially Meeker's "you're my last chance", land with a resounding clunk. Although the woman might still be suicidal, and would-be suicides can be quite devious, I just didn't buy the hostage situation (or the ending), and it was repugnant to me, anyway. It was, essentially, the old cliché of the controlling man telling the woman: "Do as you're told, because I know what's best for you." For a woman traumatized by rape that can hardly be reassuring.

This film is helped immeasurably by its low budget and on-location shooting in New York City. No amount of studio fakery could duplicate the ethereal majesty of the Brooklyn Bridge or the teeming streets of the tenements, or the interesting clutter of a five-and-dime store. The first half of the film, depicting the rape and the woman's trauma, following it, is gripping and believable, in no small way due to Baker's performance, though the film's view of humanity struck me as rather misanthropic. The work of Saul Bass (titles) and Aaron Copland (music) felt as if it was created for a more hyper urban drama than this intimate piece, but Eugen Schufftan's cinematography was obviously a labour of love.

This movie is somber, downbeat, and really really weird. Many women hate this movie because of the ending. And for good reason. I guess you can say this is the kind of movie that leaves one with a bad taste in the mouth. It is the kind of movie where you want to scream at the characters--"what the hell are you doing?" But this film is hypnotic in its strange way. The performances are terrific, and the locations are stunning. They may not have been viewed that way 40 years ago, but today it is a kind of museum piece, very accurately capturing the atmosphere of New York City in the early Sixties. There is an excellent score by Aaron Copland, which was later released as "Symphony for a Great City." Since this was a low-budget movie, one really has to wonder how much he was paid to score this film. You also have to wonder why this movie was such poison for everyone associated with it. The author of the novel never wrote anything significant again. The director, Baker's hubby, faded away. Baker divorced him and Ralph Meeker hit the skids. Something Wild has many tragic dimensions, for both its characters and its stars.

I remember watching this movie when i was in grade school and getting reprimanded by parents for viewing an"adult" film. I have seen it through various stages of my life and still find it intriguing. Both Mike and Maryann are not endearing characters and have many physical and psychological problems. When I say they deserve one another;I don't mean it in a harsh way, but rather a statement of practicality. We are not shed too much light on their past, but know it is affecting their present. Only with the help and love of each other can they survive their all too bleak future. The filming in black and white certainly adds to the dreariness of their situations. They are not "people" persons, but seem to have respect and commiseration for one another. Though Mike (RalphMeeker) seems to be controlling and possessive, it is something Maryann unconsciously needs. He builds her stamina and literally sharpens her survival skills. Maryann had problems before the rape as seen in flashbacks of her school and home life. Mike seems to be more mysterious, living a desolate and pitiful existence..only confiding to her that she is his last chance. It is only through their incredible acting that you forgive their shortcomings.

I always wondered what strange, obscure film it was that I saw in the sixties as a child that haunted me for the rest of my life (I'm 50 now). I think it had a great influence on some of my choices in life -- no kidding. I finally saw it on TCM today and it's no wonder it stayed with me! It alternates between brutal and tearfully sad to uplifting and achingly tender. I wouldn't say it's a great film, but it is certainly unforgettable! I thought the score was way too strong and ear-piercing. It hurt the film. And I thought the pace of the film was simply too slow. Some of the temper tantrums seemed contrived. However, the incredible TENDERNESS of this unusual love story is simply beautiful. I don't know if I've EVER seen such a moving kiss -- and I am a devoted fan of the classics (and new movies too).

I am so glad TCM played it. I hope they will again. I would recommend "Something Wild" only to those film lovers who enjoy serious (and sometimes depressing) drama.

Actually, New York,New York is the real star of SOMETHING WILD. Carroll Baker is lovingly lit throughout the whole picture(thanks to Director and then husband Jack Garfein)amidst the alternate squalor and splendor of America's greatest city.

The brutal rape of Miss Baker's character within the first 5 minutes of the movie is depicted with surprising frankness for its time. One can almost smell the sweat of the predatory thug who, without saying a word, viciously violates her. This scene is all the more harrowing in that there is no music soundtrack provided. Yet another example that The Hays Code was becoming by 1961 an historical document not reflecting the current mood of what the North American movie public was indeed mature enough to view on the silver screen.

I really enjoyed the kitchen sink realism of this picture, from the cattiness of the girls at Woolworth's against fellow worker Miss Baker(Doris Roberts nails her part for all it's worth) to the good natured slovenliness of Jean Stapleton's next door neighbor in the tenement slum.

Ralph Meeker(every man's meat&potatoes actor)is Carroll Baker's 'knight in shining armor' in this movie. Rescuing Miss Baker from a leap into despair and the briny deep, he then proceeds to hold her captive in his castle,or in this case a barren basement bed and...bed. "Mike" is an auto mechanic and yet he has no phone,no radio, and just one light bulb that illuminates the entire room. However, away from the elbow grease of his job, "Mike" likes to spend his hard earned money bending his elbow at the neighborhood bar. We see the staggering evidence on more than one occasion and poor Carroll, already victimized earlier now has to confront yet another man turned beast.

Of particular notice is Carroll Baker's wardrobe throughout this flick. She wears light-colored dresses and matching white pumps which, with her soft, flowing blonde hair, enhances her already luminous presence on screen. This is all the more striking in black & white,particularly during the location shots along the sleazy store fronts of 42nd St. Only at the movie's end does she wear a dark print dress and jet black high heels. Likewise in BABY DOLL, Miss Baker wore white until the final reel,after her climactic encounter with Eli Wallach,in which she then donned a black dress.

Parallels may be drawn between the two movies, but SOMETHING WILD is as valid today as a subway token. Some days you are lucky to find a seat,while on others you better hold on to the overhanging strap.

Rate this *** out of **** stars.

Mary Ann Robinson (Carroll Baker) lives in the Bronx with her domineering mother (Mildred Dunnock) and stepfather. One night walking home from the train, she is raped in a park. She doesn't tell anyone and it takes a toll on her. She abandons her life and runs away renting a rundown apartment. Shirley Johnson (Jean Stapleton) is her loose next door neighbor. Her mother hounds detective Bogart (Clifton James) to find her. Mary Ann struggles eventually tries to jump off the Manhattan Bridge. She is stopped by passerby Mike (Ralph Meeker) who takes her back to his basement apartment. What starts out as a little creepy turns into a comfortable kindness. Then he turns up drunk and she's locked in. He won't let her go.

Carroll Baker is basically disintegrating on screen. It's an interesting performance. The turn with Ralph Meeker is an odd animal. There are so many ways to look at it and I'm sure there are people for each way. There are many ways this movie could go but I don't think the happy ending is deserved. It didn't really earn it. It's not great but I hope it's something the filmmaker wanted.

I first became aware of this film when Winona Ryder mentioned it as one of her all-time favorite films in an interview with Timothy Leary. I found that no video copy of the film was on the market and it was rarely screened. I knew right away it would have to be a truly great film to be ignored for 40 years by the same American movie-going public who turned Kazan's ridiculously overrated "On the Waterfront" into a multi Oscar winner, gave George Stevens an Oscar for the awful "Giant," and made their greatest director (Orson Welles), a commercial failure and an exile.

Well I finally saw this thing yesterday, in pristine form and on the huge screen of the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood, thanks to the American Cinamateque, and all my suspicions and predictions were comfirmed: it's not only a masterpiece but one of the most idiosyncratic American films ever made; better than any pre-East-of-Eden Kazan film and featuring an astounding performace from Carroll Baker, and a brilliantly bizzare and understated one from Ralph Meeker. The film's pace is slow and methodical, frustrating ALL audience expectations and conditioning in the best Antonioni style (you can clearly tell Garfein's seen "L'Avventura" and "La Notte" a few times), and revealing insights and truths that would be completely obzcured otherwise. Most of the film is fascinatingly shot on crowded New York streets in a semi-neo-realist style using long takes and with the modernist music of Aaron Copland providing an eerie counterpoint to the visual mood. The cinematography is by Eugen Shuftan, the same guy who shot Fritz Lang's famous silent film "Metropolis" and it's expressionistic to the max, providing further contrast and counterpoint, a 'poetic touch' to the realistic method acting employed in the film.

Some people might think that the entire film is absurd and no rape victim would refuse to say anything about her rape and then fall in love and marry a crazy mechanic who locks her in an apartment, but they forget one point: Meeker doesn't know (because he was drunk out of his mind) that he violated Baker's trust and when Baker mentions that she was the one who kicked him in the eye, he realizes his inpropriety, becomes patient, and leaves the door unlocked. Furthermore, the reason Meeker locks Baker in the room in the beginning is partly to prevent her from another 'blacked-out' suicide attempt, because he loves her and doesn't want to lose her. And the objection of 'rape victims who never report their rape are unrealistic' is ridiculous on its face; everyone knows from statistics that it is an unoforunate and all too common occurence, maybe even especially more so when the girl raped is beautiful enough to be said to be 'provoking' men. So the entire film is completely valid on its face and thoroughly realistc. But what makes it great are the little touches and details, the time taken to capture the nuances of acting and location that other films don't make the effort for. One can only hope that Jack Garfein (the director, who was married to Carroll Baker at the time) makes the further effort of getting MGM/UA or whoever owns the original negative of this film, to transfer it to a good DVD to give people a chance to rediscover one of the great American films some 40 years after its initial release to commerical failure: "Something Wild."

Haunting, Avant-Garde, and occasionally Surreal Anti-Hollywood Movie from the Early Sixties failed to get noticed in its initial release despite Carol Baker's Notoriety, mostly from a similar Film with a lurid, controversial, and sensational subject matter, Elia Kazan's Baby Doll (1957).

Directed by Her then Husband, Stage Director Jack Garfein, and Co-Starring the prolific but curiously obscure Method Actor Ralph Meeker, this is a "Strange One" indeed. The least of which is the decision to bust the code with its "Rape" and its aftermath Storyline.

The Film has a few flourishes that stand out among the repetitive and slow-burning scenes that frankly lose some impact with a meandering of melancholy heavy-handedness. However, the Artistic Flare of the Director with a Jazzy and unsettling Score and some very Expressionistic Cinematography and Filthy Squalor of the Tenement Environment are indelible

Some of the Dialog is rather clunky and repeated often, and there is an urgency to the Story that is held back with some Over-Extension and the Film, at times, especially in the Second Half is a bit Stagy. As a whole it's not as good as its parts and is a somewhat endurance test, but is not without its Fine Points.

A Daring and Disturbing Movie has since gained some appreciation for its willingness to expand Cinema's conventions and its Artistic Template. Not a Great Film but a noteworthy Production as an Artifact of its Time and Place, and its contribution to help American Films evolve, taking a cue from the European New Wave Influence.

This strange little-known film directed by Carroll Baker's then-husband Jack Garfein stays with you, even with some pseudo-depressive situations popping up every other scene. Baker, wildly underrated in her long career, is right on the mark as usual. Ralph Meeker is outstanding as the brooding "patch-man" with the dingy, cool apartment in New York.

Fortunately, little films like this were produced in the 60's and 70's in America. We'll never see that again. If you read a description of the subject matter of this film, don't be turned off. If you can find it, give it a chance. It's had a lingering effect on me since I was a kid and recommend it with an 8 out of 10. Bravo Carroll and Ralph!

Filmed in moody black and white with a jumpy early-60's score by Aaron Copland, a young Carroll Baker plays a college student raped on her way home from school one Spring evening in a scene being racy for its time. The rape triggers an anxiety neurosis of some kind and Baker suddenly seeks to escape her domineering mother by running away into the depths of New York City, renting a room in a seedy boarding house and getting a menial job at the local Woolworth's. Obviously superior to her surroundings, she doesn't fit in and the rejection increases her nervous state till, on the verge of a breakdown, she meets a well-meaning man with similar needs who forces her to unite with him.

This would have been very edgy when released 1961, but these days, it would never be made with the same story.

I have so many questions. However, to answer them, I would probably have to transport myself back to the pre Vietnam war, pre hippy, pre Beatles era of modern history.

We are definitely in the realm of show don't tell in this gritty, grimy, kitchen sink drama shot in black and white.

Carroll Baker is great and shows great range and the cinematography is quite beautiful in some cases.

The plot and how it ends is simply baffling. Character choices are quite insane. The eye? The imprisonment? The decision to return? The decision to stay?

Worth a watch because I haven't seen anything like this before.

I first saw this film on T.V. back in the late sixties.I was only eight or nine years old. This beautifully tragic film had a lasting effect on me. It was many years later, before I had the chance to see it again. I had only remembered bits and pieces of it at the time, but seeing it in my forties was no less mesmerizing.

Surfing through the channels last night, I came across a showing of the film on TCM. Unfortunately, I missed the first 20 minutes or so. But I couldn't resist watching the remainder of Something Wild. I came away with an even more resounding admiration for this bizarre foray into loneliness and despair. Carroll Baker's hauntingly nuanced performance was a revelation to behold. Ralph Meeker, an unappreciated actor for most of his career, gives a subdued but no less stellar a performance.

The story of a rape victim running from every memory of her horrible ordeal, only to attempt to take her own life, by jumping off the Manhattan Bridge. But a savior of sorts, played by Meeker, saves her just in time.These two aren't the only subjects to amaze your senses. The backdrop of New York City also plays a big role in the film. The great cinematography of NYC in the 1960's not only lends a gritty realism to Something Wild, but also made me nostalgic for my younger years. The conclusion of this cinematic gem might seem quite strange for some, but if you pay close attention, it is quite fitting. Look out for future T.V. moms Jean Stapleton ( Edith Bunker on All in the Family), and Doris Roberts, ( Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond).

Something Wild is quite simply something special!!!!!!