George Axelrod's film of Al Hine's book isn't so much a satire of teen culture as it is a skewering of teenage-isms, such as bikinis, cashmere sweaters (in assorted 'flavors'), beach party/monster movies, high school cliques, morally corrupt parents, and the need for mass love. Tuesday Weld, starting her senior year at a new school, is befriended by psychotic pixie Roddy McDowall, who thinks of himself as a magical bird and uses hypnotism on Weld to help her achieve the things she craves. Axelrod, who also co-wrote the script, creates chaos on the screen, and then pushes his camera through it. He isn't spoofing American fads (and our eventual boredom with material pleasures), he's highlighting what he thinks we SHOULD be hostile about--but the trouble is, he's much more angry and corrupt than his central character (she's more like a wide-eyed Alice in Wonderland). Axelrod isn't indifferent--and he's not a innocence lost--but since we don't know what makes the director tick, much of the movie is just a big question mark. It gets off on the wrong foot (framing the story in flashback), featuring far too much of McDowall (acting like Norman Bates' little brother). If this movie didn't sink Roddy McDowall's movie career, it should have: he's smug and insufferable in place of self-confident. Some of the other performances are worthwhile, and Weld has many sharp, knowing moments, yet the film is a crazy-quilt put-down. It leaves you winded. ** from ****
Review of Lord Love a Duck
