Added to my Guilty Pleasures list last week: Walk on the Wild Side (1962), Edmund Dmytryk’s lurid tale set in a French Quarter bordello, starring Barbara Stanwyck as a stylishly butch and aging madam with the hots for Capucine (can you blame her?) Also on board are Laurence Harvey as a Texas (?) farm hand also in love with Capucine (can you blame him?) and Anne Baxter as a Mexican (?) owner of a truckstop café who pumps gas in high heels and quietly smolders for Harvey.Best of all, however, is a young Jane Fonda as a piece of trashy jailbait named Kitty Twist. Yes, yes, yes: she’s a great thespian with Coming Home and Klute and Julia and a few other rightfully praised performances under her belt…but this is early Fonda, the Jane We Love of The Chase and –best of all—Hurry Sundown. She sizzles in this one and appears to be having one hell of a good time. And when she disappears for the second act, we miss her (although Baxter’s impersonation of Katy Jurado keeps us glued, as does Stanwyck’s aching loins). But Kitty’s too tantalizing not too pop back into the picture, which she does with scene-stealing abandon.
Really, this is a major delight. If the camp doesn’t seduce you, then at least take time to appreciate Elmer Bernstein’s groovy score with that pounding theme song and the naughty opening credits, courtesy of Saul Bass, with that angry black cat
2 comments:
Walk On The Wild Side is nothing short of addictive. I've seen this movie at least 100 times - yes, I do have a life - and I never get sick of it. Although one is repeatedly warned about the "sin" throughout the film, one cannot look away. Looks like Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) took a few lessons from Kitty Twist on that train across Texas!
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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