prs-51

This is one of those fairly uncommon good films that you can watch often and it is always enjoyable and brings a smile to your face. It follows the antics of an LA Lothario as he navigates the problems of managing too many women in his busy life. The film deftly avoids presenting this character as a predatory jerk by showing him really to be in many ways a loser and that it is more the case that his romantic "success" is a result of his position as a gifted heterosexual hairdresser in the upper-class Los Angeles female ecosystem. The cast is uniformly good with a special shout-out to Jack Warden as Julie Christie's sugar daddy. The setting on President Nixon's 1968 election eve may add nuance to the background but the basic story can stand on its own. Good entertainment.

In the long list of film noir femmes fatales there's a pantheon of actresses usually headed by Jane Greer, Barbara Stanwyck and Gloria Grahame. To this illustrious list I think you can credibly add the name of Elizabeth Montgomery even though it is based on only one performance in one episode of a television show. In the "Rusty Heller Story" she plays the eponymous sexy Southern firebrand as she schemes and revenges her way up the greasy pole in the world of the 1920's bootleg era gangsters. She can charm the pants off any male shmuck and even has straight-arrow Eliot Ness watching himself. Its a bravura performance and she dominates the screen.

I am prompted to offer this review of The Wild and the Willing by what I think is its undeserved user rating on this site. While the film has its shortcomings it does offer some good entertainment for those who enjoy the atmosphere of the play hard-work little milieu of young 1960's university students. The banter and dialogue of especially the first half is good as well as the characters and motivations of many of the leads - the bright angry working class boy who fits right in but is forever feeling guilty about it; the good looking girls seeking that superior male meal ticket while being abruptly dismissive of lesser types wanting their company; the emotionally unsatisfied wife of a cold academic looking for comfort in younger male students and many others. And this is probably where it runs off the rails a bit in the second half with the relationship between the wife and the working class student being rushed and not quite plausible in its sudden intensity given he has been happily dating a young Samantha Eggar. The dramatic finale of the prank is also a little overblown. Overall this site's user rating of 6 is too low for a film that has many enjoyable attributes not least the acting of Ian McShane, Virginia Maskell, Samantha Eggar and others. I would clearly list it in the upper 7's.