Look in Any Window

This little 1961 movie has a trashy feeling to it, not helped by its very low budget. Yet it has a kind of sincerity as well, of the sort one used to find in high school civics classes. It's an odd mix of a movie, worth watching once. It's evocative of its era, the waning of the Eisenhower years, just past, and the start of the New Frontier, just beginning. The movie has the conservative mood of the fifties in some scenes, while in other respects it feels almost like a low budget attempt to make a Euopean-style art film in America. Director William Alland's style suggests a touch of Nicholas Ray here, a little John Cassavettes there, with a dash of John Frankenheimer and Arthur Penn thrown in for good measure.

Okay, enough name dropping. From what I recall of the story it revolves around a troubled teen (Paul Anka) who has become a "peeing tom", a voyeur in other words. What drives him seems not to be sexual urges so much as a desire to understand what "normal" is (I'm with you there, Paul). In this sense the story, though semi-sensational for its day, must come off as a little sad today. Since I haven't seen the film in decades I can't say for sure. As at least an attempt to probe into the true nature of dysfunctional or, if you will, troubled families, the film deserves praise for at least bringing the (at the time) hot topic up in the first place.

It's too bad that Paul Anka wasn't much of an actor. What's worse, there's something unappealing about him, not quite creepy but unsympathetic, that makes his troubled teen come off as stranger than he should. As the hypocritical grownups, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol and, especially Jack Cassidy, are all fine. The latter is surprisingly unhammy, and his playing here much stronger than it would be a decade later, when his acting got slicker and somewhat campy. I find his work in the movie actually touching at times, which is not, I suspect, what the actor or director intended.

A teenager terrorizes his neighborhood by prowling around at night wearing a mask.

Paul Anka plays Craig the troubled teen, he also sings the title song which takes on a weird creepy feeling when played while he wanders aimlessly around town , stopping to look at romance magazines. It was not a hit though Anka had several successful songs around that time. His mother is played by Ruth Roman, a sexy and flirtatious woman and his father is a weak alcoholic (Alex Nicol). There is also an odd couple pair of cops looking into the prowling case, one a veteran who believes in beating confessions out of suspects and his young partner who is more understanding since he studied psychology.

This is a strangely effective film is made more sleazy because of the low budget and being filmed in black and white. It is almost like a David Lynch film if he were making films in the early 1960s. It is hard to find, I own it on a VHS copy made by the video company The Fang. It was transferred from a jumpy 16mm copy. This is worth seeing if you like low budget films about the darker, more lurid side of suburbia in the 1960s.

Although this movie contained some unrealistic moments, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was like a time capsule of 1961, a time I well remember! Women were expected to be only housewives, the men cheated, and the cops! The movie is an off-beat criticism of the era (which deserved criticism, believe me), and had strong performances, including by Paul Anka.....Who knew he could act? It also had a pretty good screen play with some good lines.... It captured the claustrophobic angst of the era, when women were trapped in marriages, and all of the old traditions were on the line. It was inexpensively made, I know, and this added to the gritty realism of the result. More money and technicolor would have ruined it, I'm sure.

Singer and teen idol Elvis Presley got big budget musicals to work on. Singer and teen idol Pat Boone got to work on big budget movies. However, singer and teen idol Paul Anka got "Look In Any Window" among the few (and equally low budget) movie offers he got. Watching it, one has to admire the guts of Anka to appear in a movie where he plays a mentally disturbed teenager who likes to peep in the windows of his neighbors. I have to wonder what Anka's teen followers thought of Anka after watching this, though I am pretty confident in guessing what they thought of the movie as a whole. Despite its lurid description, the movie is pretty boring for the most part. Anka doesn't get to do much peeping, and he's actually off- screen for large chunks of time. It's no wonder this movie is pretty hard to find.

A heat wave in suburbia arouses a Southern California community. Feeling hot and not knowing what to do with it, bullied teenager Paul Anka (as Craig Fowler) becomes "The Masked Prowler" - actually, he's a "peeping Tom" sleazing out for looks at women who've been dressing down for the warm weather. Scaling fences in his tight tee-shirt and frightening mask, Mr. Anka is a hoot and a holler. His lack of sexual socialization skills may be due to poor parenting - specifically, they are flirty frustrated mother Ruth Roman (as Jackie Fowler) and alcoholic mechanic father Alex Nicol (as Jay Fowler). Anka's papa gets laid off and his mama gets laid on - by amorous and available neighbor Jack Cassidy (as Gareth Lowell)...

Newly arrived Italian widower George Dolenz (as Carlo) wants to take care of Mr. Cassidy's "lonesome" wife Carole Mathews (as Betty Lowell) while Anka aches to make their daughter Gigi Perreau (as Eileen Lowell) squeal on a trampoline. Hoping to catch Anka in action, veteran policemen Robert Sampson (as Lindstrom) and his amateur psychologist partner Dan Grayam (as Webber) investigate. It all leads to a boozy 4th of July pool party. This may your only chance to see the fathers of future "Screen Gems" contracted singer/actors Micky Dolenz (of "The Monkees") and David Cassidy (of "The Partridge Family") in the same film. You'll also hear Anka's relatively rare, moody "Look in Any Window" title song.

*** Look in Any Window (1/29/61) William Alland ~ Paul Anka, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol, Carole Mathews