Told from a European perspective, Something Wild is a real "art house" kind of film. Directed by Jack Garfein, it stars his wife, Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, and Mildred Dunnock. Of interest is the presence of two future TV stars, Jean Stapleton, and a dark-haired, slim, young Doris Roberts.
I watched this film and took it literally instead of just going for the psychological aspects, so I immediately was in trouble.
The story is a compelling one: a beautiful student (Baker) walks home through the park and is raped. Traumatized, she never tells anyone and eventually disappears from her home, where she lives with her parents.
She takes a room in a cheap, sleazy rooming house and gets a job at the five and ten. Her isolation and trauma grow deeper, and she tries to kill herself by jumping off of a bridge. She is saved by a man (Meeker) who, noticing that she's nearly fainted as he is walking with her, takes her to his apartment so that she can sleep while he goes to work.
After work, he goes out and returns so drunk he can barely stand. She fights him off and injures him in the eye. When she tries to leave, she is unable to - the door is locked from the inside, and he has the key somewhere. When he comes to, she asks to leave. He plans on keeping her there.
Fascinating story of a woman's agony and the darkness she is driven to, a man's horrible loneliness, and the tremendous power of freedom - freedom of the soul, freedom of the body, and the freedom to love and be loved.
There is very little dialogue in this movie, and it moves slowly. It's certainly a film made with a different sensibility than one usually sees.
While I appreciated the story, several things took me out of the symbolism and took me into reality. One was that the story was placed in New York City. This young woman probably went to Barnard or Columbia. I lived in NYC for 30 years. Why, when its dark out, would a woman walk alone through Central Park?
That was the first thing. The second thing is that after what she went through, she agreed to go to Ralph Meeker's apartment. She is so traumatized by her experience, I can't believe she'd walk down that awful hallway, let alone go inside the apartment.
The third thing: She knew he kept the key in his pocket, why didn't she just knock him out one night and leave?
I should not be bothered by these things in a film like this. So why are they in there? She could have been attacked in a vestibule, he could have taken her to his place in a cab when she fainted, he could have hidden the key. None of that was the real story but it was all a distraction.
Carroll Baker does a beautiful job of showing her character's torment, vulnerability, fear, and finally strength. Ralph Meeker was a fine actor and always a favorite of mine. I always found him very sexy and was not surprised to learn he was one of Brando's Streetcar replacements. Here he's not sexy. He's gentle, kind, lonely, and miserable. Your heart breaks for him even as you want him to free his prisoner.
The atmosphere in this film is tremendous. It's New York in the summer - so you can add 15 degrees to the heat anywhere else and double the humidity. The way she tried to keep herself cool in her room, her going into the rain, the door of the neighbor's kept open - anything for a small breeze - one really felt it, as well as both the silence of New York, as in the park, and the loudness and crowds - people partying, Times Square, the subway. Suffocating.
This is a powerful film. For me it could have been so much more. Even with its flaws, however, this young woman's journey is haunting.
I watched this film and took it literally instead of just going for the psychological aspects, so I immediately was in trouble.
The story is a compelling one: a beautiful student (Baker) walks home through the park and is raped. Traumatized, she never tells anyone and eventually disappears from her home, where she lives with her parents.
She takes a room in a cheap, sleazy rooming house and gets a job at the five and ten. Her isolation and trauma grow deeper, and she tries to kill herself by jumping off of a bridge. She is saved by a man (Meeker) who, noticing that she's nearly fainted as he is walking with her, takes her to his apartment so that she can sleep while he goes to work.
After work, he goes out and returns so drunk he can barely stand. She fights him off and injures him in the eye. When she tries to leave, she is unable to - the door is locked from the inside, and he has the key somewhere. When he comes to, she asks to leave. He plans on keeping her there.
Fascinating story of a woman's agony and the darkness she is driven to, a man's horrible loneliness, and the tremendous power of freedom - freedom of the soul, freedom of the body, and the freedom to love and be loved.
There is very little dialogue in this movie, and it moves slowly. It's certainly a film made with a different sensibility than one usually sees.
While I appreciated the story, several things took me out of the symbolism and took me into reality. One was that the story was placed in New York City. This young woman probably went to Barnard or Columbia. I lived in NYC for 30 years. Why, when its dark out, would a woman walk alone through Central Park?
That was the first thing. The second thing is that after what she went through, she agreed to go to Ralph Meeker's apartment. She is so traumatized by her experience, I can't believe she'd walk down that awful hallway, let alone go inside the apartment.
The third thing: She knew he kept the key in his pocket, why didn't she just knock him out one night and leave?
I should not be bothered by these things in a film like this. So why are they in there? She could have been attacked in a vestibule, he could have taken her to his place in a cab when she fainted, he could have hidden the key. None of that was the real story but it was all a distraction.
Carroll Baker does a beautiful job of showing her character's torment, vulnerability, fear, and finally strength. Ralph Meeker was a fine actor and always a favorite of mine. I always found him very sexy and was not surprised to learn he was one of Brando's Streetcar replacements. Here he's not sexy. He's gentle, kind, lonely, and miserable. Your heart breaks for him even as you want him to free his prisoner.
The atmosphere in this film is tremendous. It's New York in the summer - so you can add 15 degrees to the heat anywhere else and double the humidity. The way she tried to keep herself cool in her room, her going into the rain, the door of the neighbor's kept open - anything for a small breeze - one really felt it, as well as both the silence of New York, as in the park, and the loudness and crowds - people partying, Times Square, the subway. Suffocating.
This is a powerful film. For me it could have been so much more. Even with its flaws, however, this young woman's journey is haunting.