Something Wild (1961 film)

Something Wild is a 1961 American psychological drama film directed by Jack Garfein, and starring Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker and Mildred Dunnock.[3] The film follows a young New York City college student who, after being brutally raped, is taken in and held captive by a mechanic who witnessed her suicide attempt on the Manhattan Bridge. The film is based on the 1958 novel Mary Ann by Alex Karmel, who co-wrote the screenplay with Garfein.

Something Wild
Promotional poster
Directed byJack Garfein
Produced byGeorge Justin
Written byJack Garfein
Alex Karmel
Based onMary Ann
by Alex Karmel
StarringCarroll Baker
Ralph Meeker
Mildred Dunnock
Jean Stapleton
Martin Kosleck
Charles Watts
Clifton James
Music byAaron Copland
CinematographyEugen Schüfftan
Edited byCarl Lerner
Production
company
Prometheus Enterprises Inc.
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • December 20, 1961 (1961-12-20)[1]
Running time
112 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUnder $1 million[2]

Released in December 1961, Something Wild violated a number of Hollywood conventions and taboos by showing an on-screen rape and brief nudity, and received a mixed response from film critics.

Plot
Carroll Baker in Something Wild

Mary Ann Robinson, a teenaged girl attending college in New York City, is brutally raped while walking in a park near her home in the Bronx. Traumatized by the experience, Mary Ann washes away all the evidence and destroys her clothing. She hides the rape from her mother and stepfather, with whom she has an already distant relationship. Mary Ann unsuccessfully tries to continue living her normal life. She takes the subway to school and faints during the crush of people. This results in the police escorting her home, which upsets her prim and unsympathetic mother.

The rape continues to haunt Mary Ann. She leaves school abruptly and walks downtown, through Harlem and Times Square, to the Lower East Side. There she rents a room from a sinister-looking landlord. She takes a job at a five and ten store, where her coworkers dislike her because she is distant and unfriendly. Her crude, promiscuous neighbor, Shirley, at the rooming house is rebuffed when she offers to "introduce" Mary to her male friends.

Overwhelmed at her job after her co-workers play a prank on her, Mary Ann walks across the Manhattan Bridge and almost jumps into the East River, but she is stopped by a mechanic, Mike. At first, he seems to have her best interests in mind, offering her shelter and food. She decides to stay with him, but when he comes home drunk and tries to attack her, Mary Ann kicks him in the eye. The following morning, he has no recollection of the incident, but his eye is badly hurt and eventually must be removed.

Mike now says that he wants Mary Ann to stay there, saying, "I like the way you look here." She wants to leave, but he refuses to let her go, keeping the door locked. He holds her captive in the apartment, though she refuses to have anything to do with him.

One night, Mike proposes to Mary Ann and she rejects him, saying she just cannot. He again attempts to be physical with her. Mary Ann reveals to Mike that she was the one who blinded him in one eye. Mike still insists he needs her. When Mary Ann discovers the door unlocked, she leaves, walking through the city and sleeping in Central Park. She later returns to Mike's apartment, and when he asks why she has returned, she says, "I came for you". She writes her mother, who comes to the apartment and is shocked to see where and with whom Mary Ann lives. She has married Mike and announces that she is pregnant (if by Mike or the rape is not revealed). Her mother insists that she come home, while Mary Ann tries to impress upon her mother that she now considers the apartment her home.

Cast

Production

Jack Garfein had made his debut as film director with End as a Man (1957). He formed a company, Prometheus Productions, with his wife Carroll Baker. It obtained film rights to Mary Ann, the first novel of Alex Karmel, published in 1958. Karmel and Garfein wrote the script, and United Artists agreed to finance. It was originally called Something Wild in the City.[4]

The score for the 1961 film was by the distinguished American composer Aaron Copland, who in 1964 reused some of its themes in his symphonic work "Music For a Great City". The original film score, taken from private session recordings preserved by the director, was released on CD in 2003. Morton Feldman was originally commissioned to compose the score, but when Garfein heard the music, he reportedly said, "My wife is being raped and you write celesta music?" and promptly replaced Feldman with Aaron Copland.

The opening title sequence was created by Saul Bass. Bass' title sequence might have been an influence on the creators of the 1983 documentary Koyaanisqatsi, as it features very similar sped-up city imagery.

Director of photography Eugen Schüfftan was a noted German cinematographer and inventor of the Schüfftan process who went on to win the Academy Award for Best Cinematography the following year for The Hustler. The film was shot on location in New York City, which was rare at the time.

The supporting cast included two actresses who later played iconic television sitcom mothers, though they did not appear together in any scenes. Jean Stapleton, playing Mary Ann's boisterous rooming-house neighbor, went on to star as Edith Bunker in All in the Family and its spinoff/successor show, Archie Bunker's Place. Doris Roberts, portraying Mary Ann's store co-worker (in Roberts' film debut, although she had previously done television work).

Release

Something Wild had its theatrical premiere at the Plaza Theatre in New York City on December 20, 1961.[5]

Box office

The film was not a financial success, described by Dorothy Kilgallen as a "box office disappointment" and "a financial blow to the star and her husband."[6]

Critical response

Jonas Mekas wrote in Film Quarterly that the film was the "most interesting American film of the quarter; it may become the most underestimated film of the year."

Wanda Hale of the New York Daily News praised Baker as a "fine actress" and Garfein's direction "very tight and smooth," summarizing: "Something Wild carries a moral for the feminine sex: Don't walk in the city's parks alone after dark."[7]

New York Times critic Bosley Crowther said that it was "... quite exhausting to sit through that ordeal in the apartment," and that "... it is not too satisfying, because it isn't quite credible and the symbolic meaning (if there is one) is beyond our grasp."

In 2007, the film was screened at New York's IFC Center, billed as a "lost indie film classic."[8]

Home video

The film was released for the first time on DVD as part of the MGM Limited Edition Collection in December 2011. The Criterion Collection released the film on Blu-ray and DVD on January 17, 2017.[9]

See also

References
  1. "Something new is happening at the Plaza Theatre". New York Daily News. December 10, 1961. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. EUGENE ARCHER (July 9, 1960). "SHUFTAN IS HERE FOR 1ST U.S. FILM: One of Europe's Top 'Mood' Camera Men Will Shoot 'Something Wild' in City". New York Times. p. 11.
  3. "Something Wild". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
  4. A.H. WEILER. (May 1, 1960). "VIEW FROM A LOCAL VANTAGE POINT". New York Times. p. X7.
  5. "Next at Plaza". New York Daily News. December 5, 1961. p. 63 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Kilgallen, Dorothy (January 8, 1962). "On Broadway". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 29 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Hale, Wanda (December 21, 1961). "'Something Wild' On Plaza Screen". New York Daily News. p. 171 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Bennett, Bruce (December 29, 2006). "'Something Wild' This Way Comes". New York Sun. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  9. Vurki, Mithram (October 14, 2016). "The Criterion Collection Announces January Titles: 'His Girl Friday,' 'Black Girl' and More". IndieWire. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
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