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Autumn Leaves
Joan Crawford wrings her hands appropriately throughout Autumn Leaves, a weepy and overheated melodrama from 1956 that should produce some genuine conflicted emotions among the viewer, but mostly just produces unintentional giggles.
Crawford plays Millicent Wetherby, a stenographer who meets a nice young man named Bert Hanson, who is way younger than Millicent, at a diner and there is an instant attraction between the two, which excites Bert but somewhat confuses Millie. Bert pursues Millie claiming that he is head over heels in love with her and even when she pushes him away and encourages him to date women his own age, he comes right back and wears Millie down until she agrees to marry him. Not long after their marriage, evidence begins to surface that Bert might be mentally disturbed and it might be up to Millie to make the decision to have him institutionalized and lose him in the process of treatment.
For some reason, it took the collaboration of four writers to come up with this overbaked story that I'm sure the star could smell miles away well, because there is a lack of commitment in Crawford's performance here that makes it difficult for the viewer to commit to the silliness as well. Crawford's disdain for the script comes through in her performance, though there are a couple of scenes worth viewer attention: the scene where she tells off Bert's no good father and Bert's trampy ex-wife, which actually includes use of the word "slut" is pretty much worth the price of admission.
Robert Aldrich's direction is a little over the top. Aldrich would later direct Crawford to much greater effect in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. The film suffers from a rather cheap look too...the film appears to have been made on a budget of about $1000 and judging from Crawford's performance, that $1000 came out of her own pocket. Cliff Robertson, in his second theatrical film, works very hard to believable as the psycho Bert but the performance eventually becomes whiny and annoying, though he does shine in the scene where he accuses Millie of conspiring with his dad and his ex, well-played by Lorne Greene and Vera Miles. I guess hardcore Crawford fans might enjoy this one, but this one might be hard going even for them. You can't beat that title song though, dreamily crooned by Johnny Mathis.
Joan Crawford wrings her hands appropriately throughout Autumn Leaves, a weepy and overheated melodrama from 1956 that should produce some genuine conflicted emotions among the viewer, but mostly just produces unintentional giggles.
Crawford plays Millicent Wetherby, a stenographer who meets a nice young man named Bert Hanson, who is way younger than Millicent, at a diner and there is an instant attraction between the two, which excites Bert but somewhat confuses Millie. Bert pursues Millie claiming that he is head over heels in love with her and even when she pushes him away and encourages him to date women his own age, he comes right back and wears Millie down until she agrees to marry him. Not long after their marriage, evidence begins to surface that Bert might be mentally disturbed and it might be up to Millie to make the decision to have him institutionalized and lose him in the process of treatment.
For some reason, it took the collaboration of four writers to come up with this overbaked story that I'm sure the star could smell miles away well, because there is a lack of commitment in Crawford's performance here that makes it difficult for the viewer to commit to the silliness as well. Crawford's disdain for the script comes through in her performance, though there are a couple of scenes worth viewer attention: the scene where she tells off Bert's no good father and Bert's trampy ex-wife, which actually includes use of the word "slut" is pretty much worth the price of admission.
Robert Aldrich's direction is a little over the top. Aldrich would later direct Crawford to much greater effect in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. The film suffers from a rather cheap look too...the film appears to have been made on a budget of about $1000 and judging from Crawford's performance, that $1000 came out of her own pocket. Cliff Robertson, in his second theatrical film, works very hard to believable as the psycho Bert but the performance eventually becomes whiny and annoying, though he does shine in the scene where he accuses Millie of conspiring with his dad and his ex, well-played by Lorne Greene and Vera Miles. I guess hardcore Crawford fans might enjoy this one, but this one might be hard going even for them. You can't beat that title song though, dreamily crooned by Johnny Mathis.