Private Property (1960).

Review #2407: Private Property (1960).

Cast: 

Corey Allen (Duke), Warren Oates (Boots), Kate Manx (Ann Carlyle), Jerome Cowan (Ed Hogate), Robert Wark (Roger Carlyle), and Jules Maitland (gas station owner) Directed by Leslie Stevens (#862 - Incubus)

Review:

"There is nothing wrong with being a hack writer. I would point with pride to the inspired hacking of Shakespeare, Michelangelo—you can go through a big list. As a playwright, I achieved the rank of night clerk in a hotel at 22, night-ward attendant in a New York psychiatric hospital at 25 and the exalted status of copy boy for Time magazine at 28. These jobs paid my room rent while I was writing plays."

You might know that Leslie Stevens had created the original The Outer Limits show that ran from 1963 to 1965. Well, there were a few other things in between all of that, as one expects from the son of a Navy admiral. He served in the Army Air Forces during World War II but found more interest in writing that saw him do his first play off Broadway in 1954. A number of his plays were turned into movies: The Lovers (1956) became The War Lord in 1965 and The Marriage-Go-Round (1956) was made into a movie in 1961. Stevens became a screenwriter with Arthur Penn's The Left Handed Gun (1958). And then, well, here he became a film director with Private Property (1960). The movie was made at the house of Stevens (alongside a vacant one adjacent to it) that was done in ten days for roughly $59,000 that apparently had moments where they stop shooting in mid-sentence. Stevens, alongside Stanley Colbert, who produced the movie, dubbed themselves "America's only authentic New Wave filmmakers", and it should be said they got some talent behind the camera with Ted McCord and his camera operator Conrad Hall (as one does when needing someone to shoot underwater). The movie was thought by a few folks as disturbing, and in a time where people seemed to actually care what the Catholic National Legion of Decency said about movies (they called it "highly suggestive" in dialogue, sequences and music, and I guess that means they watched the movie with one eye open), the movie couldn't even get a Production Code seal and therefore no national distribution. Apparently, future US president John F. Kennedy (and his wife) saw the movie in 1960 and apparently was depressed by the film*. However, the movie did have appreciation in Europe and therefore made roughly $2 million in its time. For a number of years, the movie was believed to be lost before being discovered and restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, so nowadays you have a pretty good chance of being able to see the movie if you look for it in the right spots. Stevens directed three further features: Hero's Island (1962), Incubus (1966; that was the movie filmed in Esperanto), and Three Kinds of Heat (1987) prior to his death in 1998 at the age of 74. A remake by Chadd Harbold was released in 2022.

For a movie with basically three people in it, you really can feed the sordidness on screen that sees one's space slowly get smaller and smaller. Sure, it doesn't have gore or nudity, but you can feel the grime all the same for a movie that has a fascination for such strange psyches that make up the lead duo. And this with such an interesting trio of actors, if you think about it. Allen became more known as a TV director in this decade (having peaked in film with a key role in Rebel Without a Cause [1955]) and Oates was only just burrowing out of television roles before getting meatier roles. Manx appeared in only one other movie with the aforementioned Hero's Island before her sudden death in 1964 at the age of 34. And for 79 minutes, you get a really dreary movie in the simmering that comes through in such carefully shot moments. It probably helps that with Manx's character, she is mostly seen as being trapped in the illusion of suburban happiness and a listless life filled with such little color to begin with (one might wonder the psychological implications that come from directing one's spouse in their own house about them having a listless life before muggers come about*). Its more of a performance to experience to be trapped by more than anything, which goes hand-in-hand with the stupor that comes with seeing Allen or Oates interact against her (which is more "at her" than "with her"). in that regard, Allen is pretty spooky in the strange little ways he enters Manx's life (to say nothing of the observations made about her to Oates that aren't different from looking at meat). Oates is appropriately awkward enough in that chained (of sorts) dynamic with Allen that might as well have been culled from Of Mice and Men. Sure, it probably doesn't have as much tension as it might need to really hold up a fairly standard climax (crime doesn't pay when folks kill each other off, suffice to say), but it is a curiosity that probably deserved better than to be forgotten for so long, that's for sure. As a whole, it is a fairly decent movie, one with authentic spirit to make a sordid tale and stick with it that might be worth acknowledging by checking it out late at night.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*Lyndon B. Johnson probably got a chuckle at that pansy being disturbed at something the Catholics didn't like. What, this isn't me being political about the movie, I just think JFK sucks when compared to LBJ, I thought this was a normal thing?

*Hey, remember Billy Jack (1971), the movie where Tom Laughlin directed a scene where a woman (played by his actual wife and co-writer on the film, Delores Taylor) gets raped?

Incubus.

Review #862: Incubus.

Cast:
William Shatner (Marc), Allyson Ames (Kia), Eloise Hardt (Amael), Robert Fortier (Olin), Ann Atmar (Arndis), and Milos Milos (Incubus) Directed by Leslie Stevens.

Review: 
Before the review, I will provide a bit of background to this movie in the following paragraph. If you'd want, move on to the next paragraph, which contains the review. 

Incubus (Inkubo) was released 50 years ago on October 26, 1966 at the San Francisco Film Festival, with a bunch of enthusiasts of the Esperanto language there. This was directed by Leslie Stevens, creator of the original "The Outer Limits", which had been cancelled prior to this film, with Dominic Frontiere (composer of the first season of the show) contributing the music for this film. Conrad Hall (winner of three Oscars) did the cinematography, in his first credited contribution. This is the second film released in the language (the first being Angoroj in 1964), which had been created in 1887 by L. L. Zamenhof. The language is popular among parts around the world, but apparently not enough in a concentrated area. As for the pronunciation of the language in the film, supposedly the Esperanto enthusiasts were laughing at the way the actors (who rehearsed for less than two weeks in phonetic training of their lines) spoke the lines. The film, while not popular in the United States, was somewhat popular in France.  The film was thought to be lost for 30 years due to a fire. However, one copy was found in France (with subtitles on the bottom), and the film was restored and is now available after all these years. It should be noted that one of the actors (Milos) killed himself before the film's release, Stevens' company went bankrupt not long after, Hardt's daughter was kidnapped and killed two years later, and Atmar died the same month of this film's release. By the time of its release, Shatner had already started his run on Star Trek. On this Halloween, it only seems fitting to review this movie, with the legacy that it has.

Now then, with all that history, how is the movie? I can't really judge their pronunciations of Esperanto (I had never even heard the language spoken prior to this film), so the best way to judge the acting is to see how they interact with the movie around them. I should note that Shatner doesn't show up until around 15 minutes in, with the film focusing on the succubi and darkness around a village. The scene where Ames kills one of these travelers in the water is pretty interesting, in part due to the camera work. When it comes to uniqueness, this one may take the cake, with one scene showing a priest sucking an egg while carrying a frog (knock yourself out trying to interpret that). This is the kind of movie that one might show to some friends late at night, or at an art house to try and figure it out. The music by Dominic Frontiere is also quite interesting, adding to the film's mystique. It isn't really a boring movie, just one with some sort of controlled vision that tries to stand out in being something eerie and different without being too pretentious. The film lasts just under 80 minutes, which is somewhat a positive in that it can't really droll too long. The camera shots range from closeups to superimposing shots, all of which are interesting in their own right. This is the kind of movie that could almost be enacted on the stage, for better or worse. Shatner is fairly engaging (as one would expect), with enough interesting moments of him speaking dialogue as interesting as it gets. He certainly has some chemistry with Ames. She is pretty interesting to watch as well. Hardt is also adequate, with a better presence than Milos does. The climax is one to behold, as Ames faces off against the Incubus...who has turned into a goat. It's so strange seeing this fight as it cuts between a real goat and a goat head pushing against her a few times, with one shot of the goat licking itself. It's not a great seminal work, but it is a film with a certain kind of vision that works in the ways that it wants. There is a certain intriguing nature to this movie that not a lot of films can bring within its eeriness. This is the kind of film that you should at least check out for curiosity's sake, or for Shatner, at least. Happy Halloween.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.