Customer Reviews

Walk on the Wild Side

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Last evening, I skipped the traditional televised holiday fare and watched Edward Dmytryk's "Walk On The Wild Side" (Columbia Pictures, 1962). Let's just say that the next time you're having friends over for melba toast and you're looking for the perfect over-the-top extravaganza to project on to the living room wall, this should be the featured attraction. Barbara Stanwyck is the lesbian owner of a New Orleans brothel known as "The Doll House." Glamorous Capucine (a 60's version of Garbo)is the most popular call girl since Holly Golightly and coveted by both her butch madame and a drifter named Dove (not kidding) played by the inscrutable Laurence Harvey. Add a youthful Jane Fonda (in her bulimic period) and a miscast Anne Baxter as a Mexican diner owner (cascading dark wig, inauthentic accent and all) and you've got one mesmerically curious flick. Oh, did I forget to mention that the entire thing kicks off with a title sequence in which two felines (one black, one white) engage in a vicious catfight punctuated by Elmer Bernstein's pulsating jazz score? Meow! They sure as hell don't make e'm like this anymore! - Mark Griffin ("Genre" Magazine)

Elmer Bernstein's beautiful Jazz theme and Saul Bass' sensuously lyric opening credits set the tone for this tale of Dove Linkhorn and his search for his lost love Hallie Gerard through the tough underbelly of 1930's New Orleans. These opening shots of a back cat prowling through an alley are justifiably considered one of the best credit sequences ever filmed. Cinematically sublime and well worth the viewing.

What follows is a high melodrama set in a brothel called the Doll House, where Dove, Hallie, Kitty and Madame Jo Courtney meet their various tragic ends. As directed by once black listed director Edward Dmytryk "Walk on the Wild Side" is a full-blown old style drama that is chock full of finely tuned old style performances.

Cast against character Laurence Harvey as Dove tackles his roll as a love sick Texas cowboy with more than his usual cool approach. He manages a plausible Texas accent and turns Dove into a man of fire and misguided passion. He makes it believable that he is the kind of guy that the women he meets with the exception of Barbara Stanwyck find it hard to resist. This is no mean feat for the thin aristocratic British actor.

French beauty Capucine seems almost too refined at first to play Hallie the artistic and wounded object of Dove's affection. But as the film progresses she delivers just the right blend of tragedy and pathos of a girl lost in the world of prostitution.

The accomplished Anne Baxter makes her presence known as Teresina Vidaverri the Mexican café owner who helps Dove and along the way also falls for him. Miscast in an age when Hollywood had most major roles of Latinos played by non-Latinos she is tough, tender and manages to be believable in the role.

Jane Fonda appears as the spurned bad girl Kitty. She walks the wild side with abandon and shows her range as an actress in this, one of her early rolls. Sexy, slinky and utterly rotten her Kitty is pure fun as in her desperation for Dove's affections carries the turn of events for him and Hallie to damnation and loss.

When Barbara Stanwyck comes on the screen she steals the picture out from under all concerned as Jo the lesbian Madame who looses her cool over her unrequited passion for Hallie. It is a classic Stanwyck performance full of all the power and history of this great American star. In her speech to Hallie about what love is she shines as she reveals her own tragic past. This was the first American film to show a lesbian on the screen and Stanwyck presents us with a real woman full of strengths and flaws that is much more than one would expect from a gay character in mainstream Hollywood of 1962.

Joseph MacDonald captures all the heat and steam of New Orleans with his shimmering black and white cinematography. The out of time early 60's costumes by Charles La Maire are stunning in their range from rags to high class call girl glamour. Bernstein's wonderful score is one of his best and adds the right touch of jazzy glitz to the drama.

"Walk on the Wild Side" is one hell of a ride and well worth the admission price to the Doll House.

It's been said that nobody deliberately sets out to make a bad movie. Based on a novel of the same name and with character names like Dove Linkhorn and Kitty Twist, "Walk on the Wild Side" kind've makes me wonder. Set in the "early thirties", it tells of Texan Dove (Laurence Harvey) on the road to New Orleans to find his lost love, sculptress Hallie (Capucine). He hooks up with been-around runaway Kitty Twist (Jane Fonda). They meet good-hearted cafe owner Teresina (Anne Baxter---with a not very convincing Mexican accent) and Dove discovers Kitty is a thief so he ditches her. Teresina gives Dove work and helps him with a newspaper ad to locate Hallie. After a suspicious phone call (that sounds like Kitty) tips Dove off to Hallie's whereabouts, he finally finds her. She's living off brothel owner/vice queen Jo Courtney (Barbara Stanwyck) and works in Jo's "Doll House" in the French Quarter. But good ole boy that he is, he doesn't catch on. Kitty turns up as a new "doll" and things begin to unravel leading to scandal and tragedy. The performances are rather good even if Capucine seems a bit too classy and patrician to be a fallen woman. The dialogue is ripe and I loved one line a drunken street preacher shouts at Capucine, "You hip-slingin' daughter of Satan!" I can't really call this a bad movie. I enjoyed it despite the obvious plot contrivances and recommend it to those who enjoy somewhat trashy but interesting melodramas. The title sequences by Saul Bass are cool and Brook Benton sings the title song performed in the "Doll House". For some, this will be a good DVD find.

When Hollywood attempted to loosen the strictures of the Hays code in the 50s and 60s it often turned to the Southern Gothic as a way for testing permissibility because everything they hinted at could easily be chalked up to Southern decadence; this 1962 Edward Dymytryk melodrama is based on a Nelson Algren novel, but it plays like something by Tennessee Williams. A handsome Texas "dirt farmer" searches New Orleans high and low during the Depression for his lost sweetheart from back in the Lone Star state, unaware that she has become the kept woman for the mistress of the toniest and most corrupt bordello in the French Quarter; he is aided in his quest by a runaway juvenile and a Mexican-American café owner, both of whom yearn for him but realize the nobility of his quest. Columbia cast almost every one of these characters wildly against both type and nationality, with Laurence Harvey as the Texan, Capucine as his sweetheart, Barbara Stanwyck (honking Brooklyn accent and all) as the New Orleans madam, and Anne Baxter as the Mexican-American; everyone seems to be taking their parts very seriously, but only Baxter succeeds with her accent (she and Jane Fonda, as the wayward juvenile, seem to be the only two having any fun at all). The film is worth seeing if only for its beautiful camerawork, particularly in the bordello, and for its famous score by Elmer Bernstein and credit sequence by Saul Bass.

A must see--and own. I highly recommend for your library. Harvey, Fonda, Standwick,and Capuccini are all great! Will keep you on the edge of your seat. The soundtrack is superb. You will want to see it again and again! A bit of a tear-jerker.

I first saw this film many years ago on TV & always remembered the soundtrack and the nobility of the hero's quest. Its an excellent and bizarre Southern melodrama with great performances by a very young Jane Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck. The music and credit sequences are outstanding by any standards. The movie itself is strangely moving and well-made.

I'd rate this 4.2 stars but gave it 5 above to encourage buyers to support DVD manufacturing of smaller, more obscure titles. Consumers need more rarities to continue to surface :)
Interesting film with a young Jane Fonda very effective in a supporting role, she's terrific as the immoral, thieving temptress from Hell. I disagree with a previous Amazon review; Fonda's Southern accent works just fine in the context of the film. Certainly, she was young enough here to portray a just-about-legal sociopath. The film could have used even more of Fonda than the screen-time she has, in my opinion.
Anne Baxter is very interesting and takes chances outside of the comfort zone which many film stars tend to cling to; not all of her choices necessarily work, but she's victorious, overall, and creates a memorable, likeable characterization. Hers, too, is a supporting role, though somewhat larger than Fonda's.
In yet another striking supporting performance in the film, Barbara Stanwyck was years ahead of her time (as is the film) in portraying a lesbian character; she's believable- complex, dangerous, sad, lonely, corrupt, all-the-while dealing with unrequited love as the proprietor of a New Orleans brothel. Ultimately, the film chooses to characterize her as a hardened, "bad" woman due to her sexuality, likely the 'Hayes Code' wouldn't allow 1962 American cimema to show a 'good' lesbian.
The male lead, Laurence Harvey, is sympathetic and the 'hero' of the piece, searching in New Orleans for a lost-love he hopes to find, with Capucine the object of his affection in her not-bad/not-great portrayal of an indifferent woman who is 'kept' by Stanwyck.
Stunningly memorable opening credits with an incredible black cat lurking about, with director Edward Dmytryk actually getting the cat to give a conscious performance (!) taking a 'walk on the wild wide'. Okay, that sounds loopy, but the cat definitely appears aware of being photographed and filmed. An artful, great opening sequence, judge for yourselves :)
Buy it before it goes out of print. A great looking, stylized 'seedy movie' with a lot to appreciate along with its imperfections.
For those who like their DVD collections to be electic, this one's a keeper. The movie-poster-quality photo of Jane Fonda on the dvd cover also is on the disc itself, minus the cat-eyes behind her.
You won't easily find this movie in stores or in the used bins, thank you Amazon! I bought it 13 months ago, then re-watched it this week, and I look forward to revisiting it again in the future.
A final note of possible interest is that actress Joanna Moore, who the following year would give birth to Tatum O'Neal, has a small role in which she has her moments. You can see more than a bit of the late actress in Tatum's current television work, in both looks and performance, she seems to be more-so her mother's, than Ryan's daughter.

The opening credits are worth the price of admission in this drama of a young man seeking his lost love. Mild by todays' standards "Walk On The Wild Side" is a drama that covers an era when love and honor were virtues. Well acted, good music (title song sung by Brook Benton)and an opportunity to reflect on moral values.

Best title [and end-title] to date! The great catfight between the too real alleycats, but that's Saul Bass!

It's close to Blanche "Streetcar" country - a lurid and rique tale of our hero {the not forgotten "Prince" Laurence} looking for and finding his lost beloved - Capucine {another tragic end in real life} ensconced in a well-run brothel [Barbara Stanwyck as the madam - a GREAT, chilling performance]. Along the route he meets the young drifter, Jane Fonda, Anne Baxter ["interesting casting"], and other various persona from the lower depth - almost another reflection of Orpheus-Euridyce.......

Quite bold for the relatively conservative Blue Velvet Kennedy era, fairly effective today as a period piece. Excellent theme song too! DVD restoration in wide screen would do the titles proud!

I was pretty young when I first saw this movie on television on a late show. The musical score and the tragic conclusion stayed with me. I own the video now a good 25+ years later, and it still affects me the same way. I have always been a fan of Barbara Stanwyck, and her performance here does not dissapoint. Despite Mr. Harvey's and Ms. Baxter's seriously contrived "accents" (texan and mexican respectively), the movie is very watchable. If you like the "old school" way of movie making, back when a little something was left to the imagination, then this movie is a good addition to your collection.