
CinemaSerf
Joined Aug 2019
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With decades of experience in this genre behind him, Rip Torn is on good form as the hardened Wyoming rancher all too familiar with the travails of making ends meet in this remote wilderness. Here he takes on the role of "Clyde" who employs the newly arrived widow "Elinor" (Conchata Ferrell) as his housekeeper. She has a young daughter in tow (Megan Folsom) and after a while concludes that she'd sooner break out on her own. He, sensibly, advises against that and so they come up with a marital compromise that sees them pull their respective resources. Now he was right, life there is lonely and when the winter sets in it's dark and bitterly cold. So cold, in fact, that the couple - whose marriage has only ever really been one of convenience - suffer a tragedy of their own that tests their mettle and puts strains on their already tense relationship. It's a bit more of a documentary this than a drama, offering us a potent glimpse of just how unforgiving nature can be when the temperature drops and the snow falls deep on the solid ground. Their motivation gradually evolves into something more akin to inter-reliance but of necessity rather than choice and the question is: might they ever actually feel love for other? The photography is effectively chilling as are the two efforts who lead what is quite a claustrophobically cast feature that could do with a little more power on the audio even if none of the dialogue is that important anyway. There's something eminently plausible about this story with characters that I didn't especially like, nor warm to, but I did very much have to respect.
"Sarah" (Olga Bellin) is pregnant and alone when she encounters "Fentry" (Robert Duvall). He is a subsistence farmer with little but the clothes on his back, but he takes pity on this woman and invites her to stay. Gradually, there is a bond that begins to develop between the two and a fondness is soon evident as he takes greater care of her whilst asking nothing in return. He enjoys having her around and promises to marry her and help her bring up the child. Now childbirth was no easy thing and though he manages to keep to the first part of his bargain, a tragedy means his plans for the second part must be carried out differently than he'd anticipated - but he still finds an unexpected joy and fulfilment from this scenario until yet more tragedy comes his way. The building blocks of the story here all play well to a personable performance from a Duvall whom I've rarely seen so effective. There's a minimum of dialogue, just some characterful acting that takes us on the most unlikely emotional journey set amidst the simplicity and isolation of their backwater Mississippi home. It's that paucity of traditional cinematic tools that adds to the intimacy of their relationship and makes this drama all the more poignant. It's a slow burn and the ending is maybe a little too rushed, but this is an enjoyably considered human story that's worth a watch.
After a whistle stop romance, sports journalist "Mike" (Gregory Peck) marries high fashion designer "Marilla" (Lauren Bacall) but when they get back to his tiny bachelor flat in New York they realise that now the dust has settled, they don't really know too much about each other. He wants to just settle back down to his own life, and that includes "Lori" (Dolores Gray) who has found out, third hand, about the marriage and isn't best pleased. Thing is, the new wife doesn't know anything about her, either, and after an encounter between the three finds her antennae are up and well and truly pointing (albeit in the wrong direction!). Meantime, "Mike" has another, more immediate, problem. He has been writing about bribery and corruption amongst the boxing fraternity and that's irked the local mafiosi who have put a price on his head. When his editor assigns him a bodyguard and holes him up in a grotty hotel while they finesse the coup de grâce of his story, she gets even more suspicious. Whom is more dangerous - the mob or the wife? It's quite good fun this with Bacall and Gray making mincemeat of their hapless "Mike". Peck also seems in on the gag and is a willing participant as things turn to some Harold Lloyd style alley-way fisticuffs. There's some wit from the script and even if some of her frocks are truly ghastly, even by empresses new clothes standards, Bacall is at the top of her game.