A good trashy film inside here struggling to get out. It's got vague Touch of Evil vibes, especially in the last act which is set in Tijuana - Harry Keller produced this and it was made by Universal, and there's a jazzy score.
Ann Margret acts up a storm as a 17 year old delinquent who winds up in the bed of aspiring politician John Forsyth and proceeds to make his life a mess.
Forsyth is professional in a terrible role - his character is a complete dill, finding this girl, not reporting her, letting her stay overnight, buying clothes for her, dropping her at the bus station, then letting her run all over him, invite her friends over. It's probably the most emasculated male lead I can remember seeing. He doesn't even kiss Ann Margret. I kept waiting for the worm to turn but he doesn't punch out the kids, he lets her drive him over a cliff at the end, it's Ann Margret's testimony that gets him off (a complete deux ex machina). The boys die via an accident.
Ann Margret's performance is undisciplined but she's full of pep and energy and is clearly trying. It's not her fault the movie is bad, and the direction is quite crisp. The main problem is the script. It never feels believable that Forsyth lets Ann Margret stay overnight and buys her stuff - they might've gotten away with that had all the action played over the course of one night but not two nights. Not unless he slept with her, which he should've done. It would've made Ann Margret's actions more understandable.
She's a psycho who is a little lost - they could've done a lot with that. But the film feels afraid to develop the relationship between her and Forsyth too much. If he'd slept with her it would've made him suffering a lot more fun.
There are all these interesting ideas that aren't developed. Like Forsyth's wife - it's hinted there's trouble in their marriage but we only see her once, in a phone call. Why not bring her in to the third act? Why not use the character of that wife (Pamela Brown) of his friend (Richard Anderson)? Why not use the friend more? Why not have one of them killed off?
I did like the two psycho guys - Peter Brown and Skip Tyler give good perfomances and have delineated characters, as charming educated psycho and more brutish psycho. When the film is a home invasion movie it works better.
It's a film that pulls its punches and wastes its opportunity. Could and should have been so much better.
2 comments:
Ace critique as usual, but the film's title is actually "Kitten with a Whip."
Thank you :)
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