The Idol (1966) User Reviews

The Idolatry of Parks by Jones

[m0rphy · 6/10 · 6 May 2002]

What a banner year 1966 was in England!We won the FIFA World Cup in our country for Association Football (soccer) vs. West Germany, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones et all bestrode the pop world, trendy fashion, "dolly birds" and....Jennifer Jones came to England to make "The Idol" with fellow American Michael Parks.Our own John Leyton (who had had several pop hits e.g. "Johnny Remember me" and had appeared in "The Great Escape" (1963)),completed the star line-up.

Previously Jennifer Jones had not made a film since 1962 (Tender is the Night) with Jason Robards Jnr.She was a last minute replacement for Kim Stanley and as Selznick had died the previous year, Jennifer was again a widow and needed a project to keep her going.JJ is/was an old hand at making films in Europe and England c.f."Gone To Earth" (1950 ) made in Shropshire, "Indiscretion of an American Wife" (1953)made in Rome, "Beat The Devil" (1954)filmed in Sapporo, Italy,"The Barretts of Wimpole Street"(1957) filmed in England.Selznik had become disillusioned with Hollywood in the late 1940's after what was then the costly flop "Portrait of Jennie"(1948).It was a British film debut experience for Michael Parks. In this contemporary story, Michael Parks (Marco) is a talented American art student living in London who is friendly with John Leyton (Timothy), a 19 year old student.Timothy despite a contemplated career in medicine, actually has artistic leanings himself, especially in sculpture and he secretly admires the girl friend (Jennifer Hilary) of his American friend.Jennifer Jones (Carol) a divorcee, as John Leyton's mother, at first is wary of her fellow American thinking him a bad influence on her son.Although Carol has a mature male friend, (Guy Doleman), she too succumbs to "The Idol" especially when he rescues her son from a vicious beating from a couple of thugs.The Idol however appears to have cut himself off from his American parents and decides to spend Christmas in Wales instead.After his return to London he seems intent on bringing about his own self destruction and continues on a downward spiral, seemingly alienating himself from his friends on purpose. Timothy is distraught at a new year's party on a riverboat barge on "The Thames" to find out his mother has evidently been intimate with his friend who has arrived at the party in a drunken stupor with a prostitute.Somehow the Idol then completes his own self-destruction but Timothy refuses to implicate anyone especially his mother in what the police now see as a murder charge.

I have spent 1 1/2 years collecting on video all 24 films Jennifer Jones made, so have been able to compare and assess the transition of each of her roles from 1939(New Frontier)-1974(The Towering Inferno).Many of these titles are no longer available commercially if they have just been deleted by mainstream dealers.Readers may have to bid on "E-Bay" at auction, check with rare video dealers or in the case of "The Idol" buy it for $210 from a "video detective", as this title is so hard to find that not even rare US video dealers had a copy when I checked with them.

A certain video guide regards it as trash worthwhile only for Jennifer Jones fans to see her make it with a younger man.Another states it is not even worthy of the worst film of the year award missing that exalted status by a mile.I have not read one favourable review of this film.Personally, I found this film quite engrossing as my heroine filmed it in England with a British supporting cast well known to someone of my generation born in 1946.Its rarity status also added to a sense of exclusivity.The film lasts 108 mins and is in B&W and I have definitely seen worse films than this.I will therefore certainly run this "Idol" through my VCR again when I get the urge!

An Oddity for Film Buffs

[marcosaguado · 5/10 · 20 April 2004]

The great Kim Stanley had been cast in the Jennifer Jones part and like so many times before, Kim Stanley was replaced at the last minute. The year is 1966, Daniel Petrie, a director without a clear, personal vision, he renders homage to some of the truly greats of its day. Antonioni comes to mind. As an interesting piece of trivia, take notice of Michael Parks. He was Adam in John Huston's "The Bible" and the sheriff in Kill Bill Volume 1 and a double role in Kill Bill Volume 2. The Idol, is one of those pointless films that becomes a sort of guilty pleasure with the passing of time.

I watched it because of Michael Parks

[germaniaosorio · 5/10 · 6 May 2021]

As I just watched Wild Seed (1965), I wanted to try with another movie where Michael Parks looked his best and I found it. Someone here compared it with Plan 9 From Outer Space by Ed Wood...C'mon! It's not that terrible. That's an exaggeration. Plan 9 is senseless and terribly acted. Hilariously horrible, though.

The Idol is not the best movie, but not the worse. I love that it was shot in London. The problem here is that I never understood the motivation behind The Idol (Parks). And I believe it's a problem with the script. They don't hint why he is self-destructive and obnoxious towards people around. As some reviewer said here, James Dean had a reason behind his rebelliousness. Here, we're left with nothing, but a bad taste.

I thought I was going to hate Jennifer Jones' character, but then, I kind of understood her point of view of a repressed woman from a different era, who felt a bit thrown-off by the modern generation and their liberties. It was an interesting and entertaining story, but without much explanation by the end.

The Enigmatic Ms. Jones

[StevieGunder · 28 August 2004]

Having finally acquired a copy of this film after years of searching, I expected the worst, having heard stories about what a disaster and a piece of trash it is. Instead I found a rather tame, but very dark character study: certainly flawed, but interesting nonetheless and well worth the wait for Jennifer Jones fans. She gives an interesting, complex, disciplined performance, and is very striking looking at this late stage in her career. The movie seems to meander and lose some of its believability from time to time, but it leaves one with a haunted feeling that is hard to shake. Not great stuff, but not the bomb that legend has made it out to be.

A new James Dean in town

[HotToastyRag · 5/10 · 23 June 2023]

After a four-year absence, Jennifer Jones finally returned to the screen in the 1966 indie British flick The Idol. Her character was randomly supposed to be American, even though she spoke in an affected accent, used English expressions, and had an English son, John Leyton. I wonder why she took the role, unless she happened to be vacationing in England at the time and thought it would be fun to attend a couple of onscreen parties. She also doesn't do much actual acting until her big finale in the second half of the movie. If you love Jonesy like I do and are thinking of turning it off in the beginning because it doesn't seem to feature her at all, you might want to stick it through for her big dramatic scene.

If you don't, though, you're not missing a quality movie. You're missing a low-budget, indie British movie that wouldn't stand the test of time even if anyone remembered it. Jonesy is protective over her son and makes a lot of decisions for him, because he's pretty spineless and never stands up for himself. He has a bad-boy friend, Michael Parks, who thinks he should leave the nest and let Jonesy fend for herself. He dislikes her immediately, and the feeling is mutual. She thinks he's crude, cheap, and disrespectful. Michael is a total recreation of James Dean. At one point, he even staggers towards another character, anguished, with his hands offered like in the "take the money" scene from East of Eden. If he or the director intended an imitation, it was very good. If he just wanted to be his own sexy bad boy in the 1960s, he also succeeded. It would take a lot of guts and rebelliousness to try and seduce Jennifer Jones in 1966. She's wealthy, cultured, mature, and old enough to be his mother - so what does he have to offer? A lot of sex appeal and a daring glint in his eye for her to try and tame him.

If you like films like Alfie and Room at the Top, try this out. You'll probably get a new crush out of it, even if it won't be your new favorite movie. Indie movies in the 1960s weren't known for being wonderful.

Securely to her apron strings

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 24 May 2015]

Post the death of David O. Selznick The Idol marked the return of Jennifer Jones to the big screen. She's an American living in London with a grown son played by British pop star John Leyton, a divorce in the offing, and a divorce attorney in Guy Doleman with whom she's keeping company.

Into their lives comes American student Michael Parks who Leyton has grown to Idol(ize). Leyton is tied quite securely to Jones's apron strings. It isn't too long before Leyton's girlfriend Jennifer Hilary winds up with Parks. And not much longer before Parks puts the moves on Jennifer Jones.

Before The Graduate there was The Idol. But Mike Nichols film is light years better. Michael Parks always had a certain raw animal magnetism, but never properly developed it. In The Idol all Parks is doing is a pale imitation of James Dean and he reminds us how much better Dean was at doing Dean.

As for Jones she looks truly lost here. Her's is one of the saddest of Hollywood stories. David O. Selznick guided her in every step of her career and apparently Jones couldn't channel Selznick as to what to do.

Nobody comes off with any glory from The Idol.

Fallen idol.

[dbdumonteil · 3/10 · 29 July 2003]

It looks like a parboiled cross between Douglas Sirk and Michelangelo Antonioni ,with a touch of French nouvelle vague thrown in for good measure.It depicts a spoilt youth playing with trash.None of the young actors became a star afterward,which is easily understandable;for instance,John Layton was supposed to play nineteen-year old Jones' son,and he was already 27 (!) at the time if IMDb informations are accurate.

Jennifer Jones is the only reason why you would watch this boring "psychological" melodrama.She had already worked in GB for "gone to earth" (1949)but Daniel Petrie cannot hold a candle to Michael Powell.Her character(a still attractive middle-age woman who falls for a two-bit James Dean) is nothing short of worthless:only the open ending might make this part a bit original ,but it's too little too late.

One scene is particularly unpleasant nay obnoxious:the would-be drunk idol asks a prostitute to "evaluate" the girls of the party.

THE IDOL: Better Than Its Reputation

[mackjay2 · 7/10 · 17 October 2005]

The 1960s produced some films that have become legendary more for their rarity today than for their actual merits. Most, as it turns out when we finally track them down, don't live up to the legend. A few surpass it. In the case of THE IDOL (1966) we have something in between. The movie is not nearly as bad as some have made it out to be. The way the mid-60s mod London scene is depicted may make some cringe. However, acting-wise, the film is quite good, with not a single consistently poor performance. Much of it is shot with artistry, if not brilliant artistry, at least it's always interesting to watch. John Dankworth's score rises to an intermittently impressive occasion. The screenplay by Millard Lampell (based on an Italian story) does appear to be the stuff of seedy soap-opera, that is, until about midway, when the viewer realizes that some fairly serious stuff is going on. What may seem like a "swinging-60s/swinging London" melodrama turns out to have some pretty intense psychological implications.

First of all, there is the near-incestuous relationship between Timothy (John Leyton) and his mother Carol (Jennifer Jones). Leyton was 27 and pretty much looks it, so we are treated to a very discomforting set-up with this pair. It's easy to read this type of incest relationship in a film as an expression of the man stuck in eternal boyhood. Several scenes in the film show Timothy struggling to express his manhood and failing. His mother can be seen as a domineering control-freak, unwilling to allow her boy to grow up and abandon her. Into this mess walks the irresistible, too-handsome, over-confident Marco (Michael Parks), an American artist inexplicably residing in London. Is Marco actually talented? One painting we see briefly looks accomplished, but it's probably not his artistic gifts that draw people to him. Drama kicks in when Marco meets Timothy's would-be girlfriend Sarah (Jennifer Hillary) and proceeds to take her for himself. Sarah, of course, falls completely under Marco's spell, underscoring Timothy's lack of self-esteem. The viewer might be waiting for Timothy to blow his top and let Marco have it, but he remains resolutely impotent. After a rain-soaked skirmish with some local toughs, in which Timothy is rescued by Marco, things take yet another turn. Carrying poor Timothy home, Marco is met at the door by Carol, who previously had thrown him out of her home for romancing Sarah. By restoring her boy to her, Marco endears himself to Carol. He also decides that Carol looks pretty good in a 'Jennifer Jones' sort of way and proceeds to seduce her. The upshot of that sequence is revealing of both characters, and it is what makes the film more than merely 'interesting'. By sleeping with Marco, Carol symbolically acts out her incestuous impulse towards her own son, thereby creating an intolerable situation. The two women and Timothy now are faced with their own naked feelings and true intentions. In the end, it is not they who must be destroyed. It must be Marco.

Despite most critical reception, Jennifer Jones does not embarrass herself in this film. It's a convincing performance of a complicated woman (as much as the role itself could be convincing) . John Leyton and Jennifer Hillary (who occasionally resembles a young Audrey Totter) are very satisfactory in their victimized roles. Most impressive is Michael Parks. After an awkward attempt to portray Marco's freewheeling contempt for society and family, Parks settles into a complex characterization, needy, tormented by inner demons, yet perhaps ultimately hollow. It's an interesting performance by an always interesting actor.

Self-absorbed tortured artist bag's his friend's mother...the rest seems to be filler.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 11 October 2020]

A bit of nudity at start obnoxious young people son, Timothy

I saw "The Idol" for one reason...to see what sort of stuff Jennifer Jones did late in her career. Now I'd already seen her in 1969's "Angel, Angel, Down Below" and thought it was a godawful mess. But perhaps this was just an abberation and "The Idol" would be better...or, it would be yet another chance for Jones to embarrass herself.

The story centers on an angry, self-absorbed art student, Marco. Inexplicably, he has several friends despite him seeming like a jerk. In fact, he seems so smug, I was hoping one of the characters would punch him...a feeling I very, very have when I watch a movie. This is a serious problem with the film...having a central character that you almost instantly take a disliking to at the start of the film.

One of his friends is Timothy, a rather sullen and dull medical student. Timothy's helicopter mother is Carol (Jones) and their relationship seems strained. She is about to get remarried after her divorce is final and he broods in most of the scenes with her. Later, Timothy wants to move in with Marco...but Carol nixes that. And so, Marco plans on seducing Carol and humiliating her.

While Jennifer Jones looked very nice for a woman in her mid-late 40s, it must have been tough for her to have to be in dreck like this film and her next one. But after her husband, David O. Selznick died, she was pretty much penniless and had to take what she could get....and I assume after she read the script, it definitely looked like this to her as well. But the script is muddled, the characters all unlikable and I found the whole thing quite boring. Not as incredibly bad as "Angel, Angel Down Below"...but not a whole lot better either. A very hard film to like.

The Idol is not James Dean by half....

[ccmiller1492 · 6/10 · 23 July 2006]

Michael Parks, like his counterpart Christopher Jones, is no James Dean. Dean had more depth, and underneath his alienation and rebelliousness were a profound vulnerability and a need for approval. Parks' character Marco has none of these redeeming attributes and merely acts as a cold, selfish vehicle of contempt for authority and traditional values, an all too common theme of 60's films. There was also a great flowering of discovery and a burning desire to improve or expand stultified paradigms... There isn't a lot of motivation for Marco's antisocial behavior...other than a deep-seated hatred of women which is insufficiently explained. Though the camera dwells lovingly on his interesting features in close-ups, it leaves a void where there should be some feeling for the character. He purposely destroys all his relationships without cause or merely out of resentment of the overbearing maternal control of his friend Timothy (sympathetically played by John Leyton). His callous seduction of Timothy's dignified but vulnerable mother (Jennifer Jones) is out of all proportion to his fancied slights and particularly nasty after her befriending him despite her initial dislike. It's hard to generate any care for this empty idol, who's ultimate self-destructive acts do even more damage to those who survive him.

Idle

[brefane · 1/10 · 10 November 2015]

Long considered "lost", The Idol is a dreary melodrama starring Michael Parks at his dullest and most charmless, and Jennifer Jones who like Parks seems miscast. Jones replaced Kim Stanley who might have provided some needed intensity. Daniel Petrie who directed Raisin in the Sun (1961) seems unsure of what to do with this flimsy story and its threadbare characters, but picking up the pace would help considerably as would better sound recording. Right from the start the film fails to engage; the characters, situation and setting remain nondescript. One wonders who thought there would be an audience for what feels like standard TV fare. "Lost" or buried? Jones' 1969 cult film Angel, Angel Down We Go aka Cult of the Damned, is wilder, more entertaining and worth discovering.

Jennifer Jones : Movie Star!

[adventure-21903 · 9/10 · 29 March 2020]

The Idol was announced and starring Michael Parks and Kim Stanley. Ms. Stanley withdrew from the film and Parks is on record recommending Jennifer Jones- a true superstar - of the 1940's and 1950's with such hits as The Song Of Bernadette, Duel In The Sun, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing. Jennifer had not appeared on the movie screens since 1962 with the starring role in Tender Is The Night which was an obsession of her late husband and Svengali David Selznick. Jennifer was beautiful and was a glamour star of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Jennifer's husband David Selznick was negotiating with Ross Hunter to star Jennifer in one of Hunter's soap operas that were so popular : Imitation Of Life ( Lana Turner) Back. Street (Susan Hayward )etc. Jennifer and Ross Hunter seemed to me to be the perfect combination. However Sekznick died and. Jennifer was offered this role and had to quickly make up her mind. There was also an offer to join Stephen Boyd in he Oscar at Paramount

The Idol was Directed by Daniel Petrie The Idol moves along well with the attraction of Parks to Jennifer Jones. Filmed in gorgeous black and white in England, Jennifer gives her always intelligent performance. The film was distributed by Embassy Pictures and faded quickly from the movie audiences.

Jennifer was molded and promoted by David Selznick into a world famous superstar with the films cited above and also with great roles in Since YouWent Away, Madame Bovary, and a remake with Rock Hudson in A Farewell To Arms.

Jennifer stayed off the screen for 5 years from 1957 to 1962-too long for a major star. Compounding this was a very difficult private life: Her first husband Robert Walker died at age 32 from a combination of drugs, Walker never got over losing Jennifer to Selznick, JJ had a difficult relationship with one of her sons Michael, and a disastrous relationship with her daughter Mary Jennifer who committed suicide shortly after Mother's Day from a skyscraper overlooking the 20th Century Fox backlot where Jennifer made many of her films such as The Song Of Bernadette, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, Tender Is The Night and The Towering Inferno among others,.

Jennifer Jones was a fine actress and one wished she had worked more especially in the later part of her career to take her mind off her personal troubles.

See The Idol to see a fine actress at work. Parks is very fine

All idols crack eventually.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 19 December 2021]

A truly bad movie set in London in The Swinging sixties, this film seems to have no other purpose than to show a bunch of young losers and the loser adults in their life, particularly the aging Jennifer Jones who tries to keep her son completely under her thumb. Jones is beautiful, even with that severe short haircut, and that makes her ripe for seduction by her son's best friend, Michael Parks. But she's controlling in every way shape and form, and it's an unfortunate character for the oscar-winning legend to be playing.

Some very dreary black and white photography doesn't aid to the film which really has little in the way of its script and character development and Direction. The performances, including Jones, are just adequate, and at times, the film has absolutely no pacing, slowing down to a snail trot. There's nothing even campy or unintentionally funny about the older woman younger man paring, and everyone seems to be walking around completely bored. Jones would have been better off in one of those hag horror films popular at the time than she was with this. A completely insipid and forgettable movie.

Jennifer Jones

[williwaw · 5 November 2011]

Academy Award Winner Jennifer Jones replaced the great Kim Stanley in this British made film. Jennifer Jones husband David Selznick who both created Jennifer Jones as a world famed star and controlled Ms. Jones' career to just about an Obsession had just died and Jennifer Jones per reports took this film on sudden notice. Michael Parks in interviews noted that He- Mr. Parks-suggested Jennifer Jones to replace Kim Stanley, and I am glad Joe Levine listened to Michael Parks! Jennifer Jones is fine as always in this movie filmed in brisk black and white. (How those films today seem so special!).

Daniel Petrie who had previously directed another great female star Susan Hayward in the fine 'Stolen Hours' (aka Summer Flight)- also set in Britain- directs Jennifer Jones here, and displays a fine hand.

Jennifer Jones is so good in this film and looking typically stylish one wonders why Jennifer Jones did not work more given her great talent, glamor, beauty, and fame. 'The Idol' did not get the typical for the time Joseph E Levine super charged PR campaign and the film was quickly released to fair reviews. It was really the end of Jennifer's standing as a superstar. What would follow would be the dreadful 'Angel Angel Down We Go', and her cameo in the all star 'Towering Inferno'.

Jennifer Jones did try and get both "Terms of Endarment" ( Shirley MacLaine, and The Jean Harris Story ( Ellen Byrstn) but failed. Jennifer Jones would retire.

Gritty soap opera

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 28 January 2023]

Universal's attempt to turn Michael Parks into the next popular matinee idol with WILD SEED and BUS RILEY'S BACK IN TOWN did not exactly pan out as planned. Probably too much tinkering with BUS RILEY during post-production undermined its effectiveness and wrecked chances at the box office. Parks did not become a full-fledged star but would find more work on television and go abroad to make this 1966 offering.

In England there was a tendency to use Hollywood names to boost ticket sales. Including newer names like Parks that had not become megawatt successes, as well as older names like Jennifer Jones, a previous Oscar winner, who was a bit past her prime.

Miss Jones' previous motion picture had been 1962's TENDER IS THE NIGHT, which was the last project overseen by her producer husband David Selznick. Mr. Selznick died in 1965, leaving Jennifer Jones a widow at age 46. Not quite ready to retire from the movie business, she was looking for a script where she could still be seen in a titillating fashion.

THE IDOL doesn't enjoy a large budget, but it does benefit from the guidance of a talented director (Daniel Petrie) and other skilled folks behind the camera. Their propensity is towards cinema as art, and this picture has quite a few artistic touches. THE IDOL contains some kitchen sink realism, having been made at the end of the cycle of such films. So while the plot is highly contrived, it still contains a great deal of stark emotionalism.

Parks portrays a young man who is a hanger-on and an influencer. He has a rich male pal (John Leyton) who lacks direction in life, and there is a girl (Jennifer Hilary) that likes both of them.

Parks steals Hilary from Leyton, but struggles to fully commit to her. She spends a considerable amount of time with him in his flat, which Leyton is paying for...despite his mother's protestations. While Parks gets cozy with Hilary, we know that if something more alluring were to come along, he'd be off like a shot.

The something more alluring is in fact Jones, who plays Leyton's mother. At first she despises Parks and the hold he has over her son. But secretly she is obsessed with him. She fights her feelings of lust for Parks, while at the same time carrying on an Oedipal relationship with son Leyton. Yes, this is a complex study of desire and forbidden fruits.

Eventually Jones succumbs to passion with Parks, on a night that Leyton's been beaten up in a bar brawl. Parks has brought her son home to her, and she's grateful to him. Gratitude leads to more, or else we wouldn't have a movie.

The fallout of their affair will signal their collective downfall. A rift occurs between Parks and Leyton, and there is a standoff on a boat, which leads to Parks being knocked overboard and drowning.

What I find fascinating about the film is how Parks' character is an anti-hero pseudo-rogue, yet ironically he's a victim of this wealthy family. He doesn't treat Jones as an older conquest as much as he treats her like a real object of desire and tool for revenge, since he never got over her earlier opposition to him. The big sex scene between them is not as trashy as one might expect.

Sometimes I felt Jones was a bit unsure of herself on screen. But she does eventually latch on to the character midway and ultimately she turns in a fine performance. I guess I can excuse her uncertainty in the beginning scenes as a woman not quite at peace with where she is in life, and what she really needs. Once the character figures that out, it's as if Jones herself has also figured out how to proceed with her role.

Both stars are very attractive. But they are not always filmed in the most flattering ways, which adds to an undercurrent of grittiness. The look and feel of what we see on screen generates realism, and despite the over-the-top soap opera outcome, the story hits us hard and makes us think.

tortured artist seeks revenge by torturing cinema-goers!

[kennedya-1 · 5 August 2005]

This is the worst film I have ever seen - Michael Parks' performance as a tortured artist is so bad it practically surpasses criticism and moves into another zone where terms like "ham", "pretentious" and "posturing" seem barely adequate to impart the true awfulness that is his portrayal. I first saw it one night in a hotel bedroom in Portugal when I couldn't sleep ;after 5 minutes my instinct was to turn it off but I then developed a morbid and masochistic desire to see if the rest of the film could get worse than the few minutes I had already seen - it did not disappoint! Such was my disbelief that anyone would finance such meretricious tripe that I actually spent time trying to find out the title to enable me to tell my friends! (I missed the starting titles and thankfully fell asleep before the end). Move over Plan Nine From Outer Space and The Swarm - This is a turkey the size of Turkey!