| One flew away from the cuckoo's nest! |
“The
trouble began…” So begins the fevered film version of William Gibson’s novel, The Cobweb. Gibson, best known as the
playwright of The Miracle Worker and Two for the Seesaw, wrote the story, inspired
by his psychotherapist wife's tenure at The Menninger Clinic. I’ve never read
the book, but somehow I don't think the brilliant Gibson plotted The Cobweb like another MGM Grand Hotel-style, all-star soap
opera.
| Pulp fiction? Playwright William Gibson's novel. |
The
original casting for the film’s romantic triangle was MGM mannequins Robert
Taylor, Lana Turner, and Grace Kelly—this was more apt for the super-glam soap
opera. Instead, familiar film noir faces Richard Widmark, Gloria Grahame, and
Lauren Bacall assumed the roles of the idealistic clinic head, dissatisfied
wife, and the lonely art therapist—which gives the film a bit of grit.
| Sensitive Stevie Holte talks about flowers, art, and life with the sultry and sweaty doctor's wife, played by Grahame. |
Widmark’s
Dr. McIver has the cockeyed notion that patients should be treated like people,
not caged animals, which has the old guard gunning for him, natch. On the home front,
his wife Karen is bored in EVERY way. Since the doc is an idealist, Meg, the
other woman who pines for him, is also so very noble.
| Chaos over curtains for the library! |
The
film depicts the institution's staff and family as neurotic as the patients. At
one point, Widmark declares that he feels they are all trapped—yes—in a cobweb!
Only in the melodramatic world of Vincente Minnelli would a film's drama hinge
on drapes. And it's curtains for The
Cobweb characters, as the various contingents are determined to have their
way over the patient lounge's new decor: Lillian Gish as the domineering Miss
Inch is aptly named, as she never gives an one, and wants the curtains made cheap;
Gloria Grahame's Vicki needs a project, with money or permission no object; and
Lauren Bacall's art therapist Meg has the progressive idea of letting an angst-ridden
artist/patient design them. Who will prevail?
| Susan Strasberg & John Kerr play two patients, attracted to each other, who venture to the outside world on a date. |
MGM's
then-resident sensitive young man John Kerr plays the troubled Steve Holte, who
runs away from the clinic at the start and
near the end of the film! While his performance is as good as the rest of the
cast, Kerr's somewhat feral looks make it easy to see why his career
was short-lived in an era of Tab Hunter types. But I found Kerry quite effective.
| One of many strange moments, when Richard Widmark tucks in his unbuttoned shirt without unbuttoning his pants! |
Richard
Widmark was one of those golden era actors who seemed so natural on the screen
and makes the preposterous proceedings almost believable here. Gloria Grahame's
natural brass as his wife gives the soapiness some much needed humor. Also, was
it in Gloria's contract that she always must look slightly sweaty? I was
getting a Maggie the Cat vibe from Grahame here, as the frustrated wife who
needs to cool off.
| Lauren Bacall got second billing, but fourth-billed Gloria Grahame got all the scenes! |
The
movie is so overstuffed with characters and situations that Lauren Bacall has
nothing to do but look lovely and lonely from the sidelines. Bacall doesn't
even have a scene of her own until thirty minutes in and her first kiss with
Widmark comes near the film’s finale. There is pleasure to be found in Lauren playing a sympathetic lead rather than her usual snarky self. Then-rising star Susan Strasberg has it
even worse. Aside from a few scenes with Kerr toward the end, Strasberg’s
always in the group scenes. Surprising, since Susan broke out big in Picnic the same year.
| Gloria grabs the fabrics situation by the horn in this climactic curtain scene! |
Lillian
Gish is amusingly hammy as the firebrand Victoria Inch. And whoever thought of Charles
Boyer for Dev, the clinic's former head honcho, must have been out of their mind. As the deluded, drunken,
ladies man, Boyer, with his inimitable French accent, is somehow stuck out in
the Kansas cornfields. He comes across like Pepe LePew, especially when drooling
over Grahame’s character. Was it considered clever to cast Hollywood's most
famous neurotic, Oscar Levant, as a mother fixated patient? For me, while rightly
famed for his wit, his screen presence always escaped me.
Fans
of golden era Hollywood melodrama will probably The Cobweb, but other movie watchers will probably draw the drapes on this
florid film.
| Gloria Grahame brings the fever AND the floral curtains to 'The Cobweb!' |
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Check it out & join! https://www.facebook.com/groups/178488909366865/