Jeunes Gens en colère

The Idol was announced and starring Michael Parks and Kim Stanley. Ms. Stanley withdrew from the film and Parks is on record recommending Jennifer Jones- a true superstar - of the 1940's and 1950's with such hits as The Song Of Bernadette, Duel In The Sun, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing. Jennifer had not appeared on the movie screens since 1962 with the starring role in Tender Is The Night which was an obsession of her late husband and Svengali David Selznick. Jennifer was beautiful and was a glamour star of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Jennifer's husband David Selznick was negotiating with Ross Hunter to star Jennifer in one of Hunter's soap operas that were so popular : Imitation Of Life ( Lana Turner) Back. Street (Susan Hayward )etc. Jennifer and Ross Hunter seemed to me to be the perfect combination. However Sekznick died and. Jennifer was offered this role and had to quickly make up her mind. There was also an offer to join Stephen Boyd in he Oscar at Paramount

The Idol was Directed by Daniel Petrie The Idol moves along well with the attraction of Parks to Jennifer Jones. Filmed in gorgeous black and white in England, Jennifer gives her always intelligent performance. The film was distributed by Embassy Pictures and faded quickly from the movie audiences.

Jennifer was molded and promoted by David Selznick into a world famous superstar with the films cited above and also with great roles in Since YouWent Away, Madame Bovary, and a remake with Rock Hudson in A Farewell To Arms.

Jennifer stayed off the screen for 5 years from 1957 to 1962-too long for a major star. Compounding this was a very difficult private life: Her first husband Robert Walker died at age 32 from a combination of drugs, Walker never got over losing Jennifer to Selznick, JJ had a difficult relationship with one of her sons Michael, and a disastrous relationship with her daughter Mary Jennifer who committed suicide shortly after Mother's Day from a skyscraper overlooking the 20th Century Fox backlot where Jennifer made many of her films such as The Song Of Bernadette, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, Tender Is The Night and The Towering Inferno among others,.

Jennifer Jones was a fine actress and one wished she had worked more especially in the later part of her career to take her mind off her personal troubles.

See The Idol to see a fine actress at work. Parks is very fine

The great Kim Stanley had been cast in the Jennifer Jones part and like so many times before, Kim Stanley was replaced at the last minute. The year is 1966, Daniel Petrie, a director without a clear, personal vision, he renders homage to some of the truly greats of its day. Antonioni comes to mind. As an interesting piece of trivia, take notice of Michael Parks. He was Adam in John Huston's "The Bible" and the sheriff in Kill Bill Volume 1 and a double role in Kill Bill Volume 2. The Idol, is one of those pointless films that becomes a sort of guilty pleasure with the passing of time.

Having finally acquired a copy of this film after years of searching, I expected the worst, having heard stories about what a disaster and a piece of trash it is. Instead I found a rather tame, but very dark character study: certainly flawed, but interesting nonetheless and well worth the wait for Jennifer Jones fans. She gives an interesting, complex, disciplined performance, and is very striking looking at this late stage in her career. The movie seems to meander and lose some of its believability from time to time, but it leaves one with a haunted feeling that is hard to shake. Not great stuff, but not the bomb that legend has made it out to be.

This is the worst film I have ever seen - Michael Parks' performance as a tortured artist is so bad it practically surpasses criticism and moves into another zone where terms like "ham", "pretentious" and "posturing" seem barely adequate to impart the true awfulness that is his portrayal. I first saw it one night in a hotel bedroom in Portugal when I couldn't sleep ;after 5 minutes my instinct was to turn it off but I then developed a morbid and masochistic desire to see if the rest of the film could get worse than the few minutes I had already seen - it did not disappoint! Such was my disbelief that anyone would finance such meretricious tripe that I actually spent time trying to find out the title to enable me to tell my friends! (I missed the starting titles and thankfully fell asleep before the end). Move over Plan Nine From Outer Space and The Swarm - This is a turkey the size of Turkey!

Post the death of David O. Selznick The Idol marked the return of Jennifer Jones to the big screen. She's an American living in London with a grown son played by British pop star John Leyton, a divorce in the offing, and a divorce attorney in Guy Doleman with whom she's keeping company.

Into their lives comes American student Michael Parks who Leyton has grown to Idol(ize). Leyton is tied quite securely to Jones's apron strings. It isn't too long before Leyton's girlfriend Jennifer Hilary winds up with Parks. And not much longer before Parks puts the moves on Jennifer Jones.

Before The Graduate there was The Idol. But Mike Nichols film is light years better. Michael Parks always had a certain raw animal magnetism, but never properly developed it. In The Idol all Parks is doing is a pale imitation of James Dean and he reminds us how much better Dean was at doing Dean.

As for Jones she looks truly lost here. Her's is one of the saddest of Hollywood stories. David O. Selznick guided her in every step of her career and apparently Jones couldn't channel Selznick as to what to do.

Nobody comes off with any glory from The Idol.