Io sono perversa

In its own sexy, shoddy way, this 1969 film version of an early Elmore Leonard novel is better than the recent "hip" version with Owen Wilson. It mixes film noir conventions with teen exploitation riffs and a fair amount of nudity for a guilty pleasure that's redolent of late 60s/early 70s cheeseball cinema.

Ryan O'Neal is a drifter (good hearted, of course) who hooks up with Leigh Taylor Young, a bad girl out for "kicks." Leigh gets Ryan into bed and then into vandalism and robbery and...well, you know where the film is going. It's the journey that's the fun.

O'Neal had a sort of bruised likability that worked for him on TV's Peyton Place and he uses it effectively here. Young, married to him at the time and his PPlace co star, is sulky and seductive and, oh yes, naked a lot as a girl who just wants to have fun. Their brief love scenes have a fair amount of steam to them and watching them drop their bell bottoms to go skinny dipping gives the whole movie a certain "Boogie Nights" flavor. The (then) O'Neals were one hot couple.

There's a good supporting cast: Robert Webber, Lee Grant, doing a dry run for "Shampoo" as a horny divorcee, James Daly, a nice, slimy villain who pimps out Ms. Young to some business men, and Van Heflin in what may be his last role. On the downside, the direction is a bit flat, lacking in the kind of edge that can really make a crime story cook. And the score, as noted in another post, is atrocious, poured like syrup over scene after scene.

The Big Bounce definetly qualifies as a guilty pleasure, what with Ms. Young going hysterical and smashing a living room up with a fire poker and O'Neal smashing an opponent smack in the face with a baseball bat, and in the credits no less. All in all, this version is preferable to the Owen Wilson one in which you can practically see the actors' tongues push out their cheeks as they condescend to the materail. Here there's a fair amount of sweat, exploitation and a hint of camp as the good looking leads go through their noir paces. Worth a rental.

If there's ever been a movie ruined by a soundtrack, it's THE BIG BOUNCE: a late-sixties balance of sunny sea-blue and rural-gray tones, adapted from Elmore Leonard's Neo Noir novel beginning with a convict bashing an inmate's face with a baseball bat, and then, on parole and stuck within the small town, he's both feared and revered...

Depending who's around, and where he's at, and, while still in the film's rushed rudimentary stages, he seeks work for a dishonest rancher who exploits cucumber farm workers...

But with the help of a particular friend, he lands a soft job as a maintenance man at a beach side motel, where so much potential, pitting Ryan O'Neal against one of the sexiest sirens of Neo Noir... played by his then-wife and former PEYTON PLACE co-star Leigh Taylor-Young, who's the buried lead here: A seemingly sophisticated femme-fatale, she's bad news and big trouble.

Author Elmore Leonard said all adaptations before GET SHORTY and JACKIE BROWN never got it... But maybe, in critiquing BIG BOUNCE piecemeal, he saw a dark ray of hope in Taylor-Young's Nancy Barker, both effectively sinister and sexy...

The aforementioned crappy music, arranged by the usually capable Tony Curb, sounds like The Beach Boys possessed by folk singers drowning-out an otherwise groovy Jack Nitzsche-like surf music score -- one particularly godawful track repeats Nancy's name over and over... killing whatever edge her character's supposed to have.

But it's not all that bad: the overall vibe is lean and edgy, and there are terrific moments when Jack and Nancy hang out, night and day, discussing an upcoming heist, and possible murder. But Jack spends too much time with his old-timer friend played by veteran actor Van Heflin... so overly (and quickly) helpful to Jack's plight... he hardly has any obstacles in his way, or rungs to climb, or corners to paint himself out of.

It's really all about our femme fatale Taylor-Young being really bad and getting progressively worse (as in, badder and badder): and then, possibly becoming lethal while keeping her ridiculously beautiful poker face intact...

But really, TV director Alex March needed the intentionally flawed heart-of-gold convict ani-hero to take more risky chances, early on, to live up to any manipulative competition. And it wouldn't be the first time Ryan O'Neal would get what was supposedly his first-billed vehicle stolen by a close relative. He probably never got over PAPER MOON belonging solely to daughter and Oscar winner Tatum O'Neal.

Unsure of where to go after wounding a vengeful local in baseball match and told to flee town, a Vietnam War veteran takes up with the mysterious young mistress of a produce farm owner in this little seen drama starring Ryan O'Neal in his first screen role. It is not the greatest debut for the Oscar nominated actor, but in what was only her second screen performance, Leigh Taylor-Young is excellent as the tantalising mistress. A femme fatale of the post-Production Code era, she plays a seductress like few others before her, revealing lots of skin and boldly parading around in the buff. She is just as effective with her clothes on too as there is an ambiguity as to whether or not she genuinely likes O'Neal or is just using him for a scheme revealed in the film's final third. That said, the scheme comes too late to provide much vigour, and easy as Taylor-Young is on the eyes, there is little else propelling the first hour. Van Heflin has a nice, understated turn as a justice of the peace, and Cindy Eilbacher is adorable, playing a surrogate daughter to O'Neal, but it is not enough to carry the film. The opportunities for more are all too apparent. Why not explore O'Neal's criminal background in further depth or how serving in Vietnam has affected him? Why not establish his desire for a daughter further? By all accounts though, the film was promoted as a vehicle for its two stars (married in real life at the time) and therefore it is easy to see why the filmmakers took a less exciting route. The film is not worthless as some of its dissenters might say, but it sure could have been a lot more.

Taking advantage of the enormous publicity from the small screen when cast members Ryan O'Neal and Leigh Taylor-Young became a small screen Dick and Liz, they were cast in The Big Bounce. Both were cast in roles suitable to each other, but Leigh made far more of it than Ryan.

O'Neal is a rather quick tempered drifter who is a Vietnam veteran and doing farm labor work for lack of something better. It also fits the unsettled character of his nature. As the film opens he's in trouble having stabbed one of the migrants, a fellow known for a nasty temper and the fact he was reputed to carry a knife.

Knowing all that the local town judge Van Heflin persuades the prosecutor to drop the whole thing and Heflin offers room, board, and a job at his motel. But O'Neal finds something Heflin can't compete with in the intriguing and sexy mantrap Leigh Taylor-Young.

Maybe Carroll Baker in Baby Doll made a sexier big screen debut, but she's the only one I can think of. Taylor-Young is a child of the Sixties. She's the kept mistress of Robert Webber manager of the pickle works and the biggest employer in the area. She's also one spoiled rotten and dangerously psychotic woman. What Taylor-Young is is all about kicks, getting them wherever she can.

The question is will O'Neal who isn't the strongest of characters be able to resist this woman and the dangerous things she does just to get what she calls The Big Bounce.

The Big Bounce is an inauspicious debut for O'Neal who would really hit it big shortly with Love Story. But it did guarantee him a lengthy career. But Mrs. O'Neal really runs away with this picture as the kind of woman that ought to come with a warning label.

"Elmore Leonard called this adaptation of his book "an awful movie"...IMDB Trivia.

"The Big Bounce" is Ryan O'Neal's first theatrical film. I saw it mostly because one of the supporting actors is Van Heflin...a darn fine actor from Hollywood's golden age.

Jack (O'Neal) is a guy who's drifted since being discharged from the Army. He also is a guy with a criminal record for Burglary and Assault. Perhaps this is why Nancy (Leigh Taylor-Young) is so smitten with him. Regardless, she takes her clothes off OFTEN to get the drooling Jack to do what she wants. Now he protests a lot...but off come her clothes and he complies. This leads to complications, such as when she runs a dune buggy off the road (possibly killing the occupants) for kicks. She also proposes he help her with a robbery...one that will be 'fun'. And, once again, he agrees to go along with this flaky lady...and you assume it's because of her super-powers of persuasion...in other words, her hot bod. What's next? See the film yourself and find out.

In some ways this is a tough movie for some to watch. After all, there are not 'good guys' in the film. But it is a mildly interesting character study of a woman who appears to have a Borderline Personality with strong Antisocial features (I used to diagnose folks when I was a therapist and this one is right or at least close!).

You probably noticed the quote from IMDB where the writer calls this an awful film. Obviously he wasn't thrilled with it. I didn't think it was terrible, though a few of the characters and plots are WAY underdeveloped...especially the one involving Lee Grant and her onscreen daughter. It's almost criminally underdeveloped and it really doesn't work well...as if they edited out most of this plot but forgot to edit out it all. But as far as the plot involving Young, it is compelling. After all, you wonder....is she some nutty thrill-seeker or is she setting him up? Neither one is good...and possibly the nutty thrill-seeker angle is worse considering how extreme her behaviors are! I liked but didn't love the film...and think it's worth a look.

By the way, this film has a significant amount of nudity. You might not want to show it to your kids or your mom or Father O'Reilly.