exposed
a breast in Sunday's
performance of
Parsifal in Vienna
1967
Two
free-spirited
young ladies
decide to buy a
farm after they
graduate from
college, and are
really struggling
to break even with
a few chickens, a
few ducks, and one
cow. The greatest
obstacle to their
success is a
predatory fox who
is always after
their birds and
eggs. With the
onset of a harsh,
snowy winter, they
are essentially
completely
isolated from
civilization. At
times they are
even unable to
traverse the
snowy, desolate
roads to the
nearby village.
Into their lives
comes an itinerant
seaman, a
strapping young
man who visits the
farm because he
grew up there and
has come to visit
his grandfather,
with whom he had
had no contact in
three years. He
did not realize
that the old man
had passed on, and
that the two women
had purchased his
estate in an
auction. Since the
sailor is only on
a two-week leave
from his ship, the
two women offer
him free room and
board in exchange
for his help in
fixing up the
portions of the
farm which have
falled into
disrepair.
The sailor falls
in love with one
of the women, and
the other woman's
jealousy turns out
to be quite
different from
what we originally
anticipate. It
turns out that she
does not have
sexual feelings
for the man, but
rather for her
partner on the
farm. It tunrs out
that the partner
is ambivalent
about everything,
including her own
sexuality, and is
willing to have
sex with both of
them. Melodrama
ensues.
The Fox is a loose
adaptation (and
geographic
relocation) of a
D.H. Lawrence
novella. Roger
Ebert called it a
"quite, powerful
masterpiece" and
assigned to it a
perfect 4-star
rating. I must
respectfully
disagree, although
I might have come
closer to
agreement if I had
seen the movie in
1968, when he
wrote his review,
since the lesbian
scene and Anne
Heywood's naked
masturbation scene
were probably
daring portrayals
within the context
of the mainstream
American movies of
the time.
The Fox contains
the full litany of
excesses from the
filmmaking of the
late sixties and
early seventies.
The characters'
motivations and
actions are
lacking in
credibility, and
every situation is
imbued with far
more melodrama
than the conflicts
should warrant.
The acting is also
quite poor,
featuring two of
the worst
performers of that
era: Keir Dullea
is wooden and
off-kilter, while
Sandy Dennis's
readings and
reactions are, as
always, too
petulant and
immature to
represent a
sophisticated,
grown woman. At
least we can be
thankful that the
other woman was
not played by Kim
Darby. That would
have been the
1960s trifecta of
bad acting. Two
weak performances
can be absorbed in
some types of
films, but they
spell disaster for
this movie,
because it is
essentially a
filmed version of
a three-character
play, meaning that
those two
characters have
2/3 of the screen
time. Worse still,
they probably have
90% of the
dialogue because
the other woman is
the strong, silent
type who only
speaks when spoken
to, and even then
replies tersely,
maintaining a
great deal of
emotional distance
from the others.
That hollow
performing, when
coupled with a
heavy-handed
score, excessive
and obvious
symbolism, a
contrived ending,
and a glacial
pace, makes the
film a real chore
to watch now,
about 50 years
after it was
released. The
cinematography,
however, is quite
beautiful,
atmospheric and
evocative.
SPOILER: it must
be the only film
in history in
which one of the
characters
apparently commits
suicide by placing
herself
deliberately in
the presumed
falling trajectory
of a tree being
chopped down, then
refusing to move
when the other
characters point
out the precarious
nature of her
position.
Although the film
did little at the
box office in its
day, and is all
but forgotten now,
the director was
Mark Rydell, who
received a Golden
Glovbe nomination
for this picture
and did many films
which were
considerably
better. He was
nominated for the
Best Director
Oscar for On
Golden Pond, and
also did such
successful films
as John Wayne's
The Cowboys, Bette
Midler's The Rose,
and Steve
McQueen's The
Reivers.
The nudity is
quite good. Anne
Heywood, whom we
saw a few days ago
in Good Luck, Miss
Wycoff, performs a
two-minute
sequence in which
she strips stark
naked and
masturbates while
standing in front
of a mirror.