Look in Any Window

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.

It's the suburbs and a peeping Tom is on the loose. He scares people with a disturbing mask. Craig Fowler (Paul Anka) is a disinterested teen and the only son of a loveless marriage.

Paul Anka may be a teenage music icon at the time but he's not a charismatic actor. Quite frankly, he would barely be cast as a supporting actor if not for his name. The problem is that he's way before my time and holds no nostalgic value for me. He's just another stiff amateur actor and he's not holding the screen. I do have to admire that a pop idol is willing to play a creepy character but nothing else.

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.

"Look in Any Window" is a cheap, sleazy exploitation film about the shenanigans going on behind the scenes in suburban America. While it could have been well made and intelligent, the filmmakers really just wanted sensationalism. However, despite being pretty crass, it is entertaining.

The film is like a soap opera and it consists of many different vignettes involving really screwed up people. The most obviously messed up person is Craig, played by Paul Anka. He is an out of work teen who loves peeking in windows. Eventually, his behavior escalates and the police are looking to find him. His father is emotionally and physically impotent and the film is trying to say this is why the young man is a creepy sex offender...which is a bit of a stretch. As for nearly all the adults in the film, they seem to love cheating on their spouses and are too wrapped up in themselves to notice that Craig is a real head case!

The film often features very broad acting that is anything but subtle. The worst of these is played by Alex Nicol, who is Craig's alcoholic father. Subtle, he is not! But none of the characters seemed subtle...not even the cops investigating the peeping Tom case! I am a bit surprised the film didn't cast Jayne Mansfield or Mamie Van Doren as well...they would have fit right in to the story. Overall, a bad but fun movie...the type you watch if you could use a laugh or if you like over-the-top stories.

I'm almost surprised that Paul Anka, who was a hit teen singer when he made this, didn't worry about being type-cast forever as a peeping tom, even though his parents are pretty worthless. Nevertheless, this little exploitation (TEEN) flick about social generation-gap stuff is right on the money, especially since most of the actors were professions.....But this has some creepy (not really sleazy) scenes but they always lead into TRYING TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM. The parents are drunks, cheating on their spouses, unattentive, and Paul Anka's character is similar to Tony Perkins in PSYCHO except he's not crazy or a murderer..he's just curious how other people live. Ruth Roman..I won't even go into how "cool" they cast the adults in this (for once) and the teenager characters do a good job.

This is not some Perv movie or anything (even for then) and I'm in my 50's and am an artist and Don't thinks it's some creepy thing...AND THERES VERY little humor to fake it. It's unfortunate how real these families in this little movie were (at the time in America) in an affluent, I guess, neighborhood, with the adults (FOR REAL) kind of being the screw-ups, teen-agers, lost, whatever), but if you can find it. I don't know if it's on DVD or Video, but it's a slice of somebody's life (well told) with a Zero budget..Check it!