Buttercup Chain/Love & Pain & The
Whole Damn Thing/Model Shop/Pursuit Of Happiness/Summertree (Sony Martini Movies Wave
Three/DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C/C+/C+/C+/C+ Extras: C- Films: C/C+/C/C+/C+
With more
counterculture films in the mix this time, Sony adds five more interesting back
catalog films on DVD for the third series of their Martini Movies. This time, we get a few good films and a few
average films, but they are all worth seeing once just for how different and
open form (for Hollywood narrative films) they can be.
This wave
includes…
The Buttercup Chain (1970) starts out as tale of two
couples getting involved with each other while on vacation, until a baby gets
in the way. Jane Asher (a big model of
the time) and Hywel Bennett are one couple, Sven-Bertil Taube and Leigh
Taylor-Young (on a role as one of the sexy lead actresses of the day) is the
other. Despite some good music by
Richard Rodney Bennett (Billy Liar, Equus) and beautiful 2.35 X 1
Panavision scope cinematography by Douglas Slocombe (original Italian Job, Indiana Jones trilogy,
1974 Great Gatsby), the film is more
interesting to watch visually than anything else. Director Robert Ellis Miller doesn’t have
much to say, the conclusion is too pat and we never really learn much about
these people. With no eventual point, it
is too often flat and dull. Clive Revill
also stars.
Love & Pain & The Whole
Damn Thing (1973)
is Alan J. Pakula’s third film, taking a break from thrillers to do a love
story in which a younger man (Timothy Bottoms, still riding The Last Picture Show wave at the same
studio) meeting an older woman (Maggie Smith) and becoming oddly involved with
each other. It has some funny moments
and they are interesting together, but as offbeat and smart as it is, it is
everything we expect and have seen before.
Still, it is wroth a look and the music by Michael Small (Parallax View, original Stepford Wives) and cinematography by
Geoffrey Unsworth (2001, Zardoz) are a plus.
Model Shop (1969) was director Jacques
Demy’s attempt to produce a hit after doing two operettas (Umbrellas Of Cherbourg, Young
Girls Of Rochefort) back to back, but the straight-out drama/comedy just
never picks up despite some ambitious filmmaking. Gary Lockwood (2001) plays a man who becomes obsessed with a beautiful young woman
and model (Anouk Aimée) and starts following here everywhere hoping she’ll be
with him. She has been recently divorced
and they start an affair, but where it will go is hard to say. Unfortunately, the script does not know where
to go either and the results are disappointing in the end. Michel Hugo (Head, The Night Stalker
(1972)) makes it look good (it is in color despite all the black and white
stills on the DVD case) but it does not go very far. Severn Darden also stars.
Pursuit Of Happiness (1971, not the Will Smith film)
is Robert Mulligan’s drama about a young man who was born into money (the
underrated Michael Sarrazin) who becomes socially aware when he gets involved
with a beautiful activist (Barbara Hershey) in this decent film that is not
great, but one of Mulligan’s better showings.
While the script is interesting and even bold, it is the supporting cast
that also keeps this one interesting, including E.G. Marshall, Sada Thompson,
David Doyle, Arthur Hill, Ruth White, Barnard Hughes, William Devane, Ralph
Waite, Charles Durning and Rue McClanahan.
It is worth sitting through just for them, but it is one of the best
films here.
Summertree (1971) is the second of two films
directed by the singer/songwriter Anthony Newley and it stars a young Michael
Douglas as Jerry, a non-political guy who has had a good life, but knows he may
get drafted. In the meantime, he looks
at school, as well as at sexy medical employee Vanetta (Brenda Vaccaro) and
does not know where he wants to take his life.
His parents (Jack Warden, Barbara Bel Geddes) try to help and are
supportive, but that only helps so much.
The best of the five films here down to its ending, it does drift into
different directions, but Douglas is good and we also get memorable
performances by Rob Reiner (on the verge of doing All In The Family) and William Smith as a draft lawyer. The ending rings true and ironic today. See it.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 image on Pain
(EastmanColor), Model (Perfect labs),
Pursuit (EastmanColor; Director of
Photography – Richard C. Kratina (of Love
Story)) and Summertree (EastmanColor
Director of Photography – Richard C. Glouner) all look good, but not always
consistently so. Chain is the only scope film in the set. The 2.35 X 1 image is the only one here
originally issued in three-strip Technicolor, but all five have good color and
some nice shots, but you also get a few shots in each that are too soft or show
the age of the print in parts. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono on al the films are fine, except that Chain is lower, rougher and more dated-sounding than the rest. Extras include trailers for all the
respective films on their own discs and other trailers for other Sony releases.
- Nicholas Sheffo
