Was Paul Thomas Anderson inspired by this film when making Boogie Nights? It opens with a long tracking shot at a wild party which results in a middle aged man getting annoyed that his wife is having it off with a younger hunk, taking out his gun and shooting at the guy. Stranger things have happened.
That was one of several surprisingly interesting things about this movie, which is little remembered today. That's probably because people dismiss it as a standard 60s sex comedy - it was based on a play by George Axelrod, stars Tony Curtis, has an animated credit sequence and Andre Previn score, Walter Matthau is in support cast etc. But there's more to it than that.
You never really hear about it in discussions of queer cinema, but the premise is really bold - a womanising man is killed and reincarnated as a pretty woman (Debbie Reynolds), who then visits the dead man's best male friend (Tony Curtis). Reynolds seems to fall for Curtis and vice versa; Reynolds tries to blackmail some of "her" exes and gets involved in dealing with "her" murderer (Matthau); she also romances a millionaire (Pat Boone).
That's a fairly racy storyline. The action has been rendered sexless by the casting of Debbie Reynolds in the lead - she gives a professional "get-in-there-and-try" performance, which can't mask the fact she's miscast, and out of her league, never convincing as a former man, or rogue. (It's fascinating to imagine what Marilyn Monroe, originally announced as star, would have done with the material.)
Curtis doesn't do much either, basically playing the straight part, reacting to things. Matthau hams it up outrageously and it's fun to see Ellen Burstyn in an early role - though not as fun as it is seeing Pat Boone romance a former guy. Good old Christian Pat, sitting in a car and trying to make out with Reynolds, even proposing marriage - it's bizzare.
Entertainment wise the movie is too long for a farce (it's almost two hours), and lacks decent story development - the set up has so much potential but the writers don't do anything with it. Censorship would have been a big reason for this, but the lack of imagination didn't help.
Vincente Minnelli wasn't the best director of this kind of thing either, although the production value is impressive.
1 comment:
“Goodbye Charlie” is one of those comedy romance movies that you can get through the 116 minutes once but are not likely to watch it again. The only redeeming feature was Walter Matthau.
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