Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Movie review - "Up in the Cellar" (1970) **1/2

Three in the Attic was such a popular success that it's no wonder AIP went for a sequel - well, this isn't really a sequel, since Chris Jones was by that stage probably too expensive (and would soon retire from acting) and also it would have seemed silly to have Paxton Quigley locked up by three more women... so instead they came up with this rip off. Here we have Wes Sten setting out to seduce three women in order to get revenge on the college president (Larry Hagman) who expelled him - Hagman's daughter, wife (Joan Collins) and mistress (Judy Pace).

As in Attic he genuinely falls for one of them (the daughter) who busts him for cheating, leading to mayhem... also as in Attic  she forgives him and they go off into the sunset together... unlike Attic the mother comes along Which is kind of hot - they're going to live in a menage a trois (she's the girl's step mother so there's no incest, at least not legally).

However this movie is very different in tone from the earlier one - it's far less sexy and more comic and satirical. Unlike Jones, Sten isn't a genuinely good looking, charming guy but a geeky nerd who is a top level poet that gets duped by student revolutionaries. The sex scenes are played for satirical comedy; Hagman's character sends up some of the right wing politics of the time - there's also pot shots at black power, student revolutionaries, student politics, the middle class (the usual targets of late 60s satire).

The writer-director was Theodore Flicker, best known for The President's Analyst and Barney Miller - and you can feel his satirical stamp. Because of this I'm actually surprised this isn't better known - maybe people felt the central story was too sexist or something.

The acting is very strong - Hagman and Collins were old acting colleagues of Flicker, and both deliver excellent comic performances, very funny. Sten is less impressive - he's like a poor man's Bud Cort. The piece does lack genuine emotional kick which Three in the Attic, for all it's faults, had - there are some nice moments when the girl admits she feels ugly. Structure wise the bit where Sten hooks up with Judy Pace feels tacked on. A curio - patchily brilliant, with some strong acting.

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