Dreams Are What Le Cinema Is For: The Stripper - 1963

Joanne Woodward as Lila Green

THE STRIPPER 1963lecinemadreams.blogspot.com /2015/09/the-stripper-1963.html

This forgotten little film has long been a favorite of mine and used to show up fairly regularly on late night televisionwhen I was a kid. Until it resurfaced recently on YouTube, I can say it’s easily been 40 years since I last saw thislast-gasp effort in Hollywood’s love affair with the works of Faulkner, O’Neill, Williams, & Inge.

Adapted by Meade Roberts (The Fugitive Kind, Summer & Smoke) from William Inge’s little-known 1959 play ALoss of Roses, and directed by Franklin J. Schaffner ( Patton, The Planet of the Apes , Sphinx); The Stripper is, likea great many of my favorite films from the '50s—especially those written in the Southern Gothic/Midwest Melodramatradition—a heavy slice of mordant Americana served up with plenty of lost illusions and broken dreams on the side.Shot in somber black and white (then derigueur for contemplatively downbeatmovies), The Stripper is the so-familiar-you’ll-swear-you’ve-seen-it-before story ofLila Green (Woodward); a down-on-her-luckwannabe actress touring with a seedytheatrical troupe (The Great Renaldo &Madame Olga: Magic & Mirth ParExcellence). Abandoned mid-tour in a smallKansas town by her equally seedyboyfriend,Ricky (Webber), Lila is forced todepend on the kindness of strangers. Notliteral strangers, mind you, for this justhappens to be the town where Lila grew upbefore a Betty Grable look-alike-contestprovided here with a her second-classmeans of escape to Hollywood. No, thestrangers Lila seeks out are merely friendsfrom her past. Friends to whom Lila nowappears as gaudy and out of place as a fur coat in July.

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Richard Beymer as Kenny Baird

Claire Trevor as Helen Baird

Lila secures temporary lodgings with Helen Baird (Trevor), a widow for whom she once babysat in her youth. Helen,now a full-time nurse pulling swing shift as a fault-finding, overprotective mother-hen to her only son Kenny(Beymer). Helen is initially glad to be of assistance to the prodigal cooch dancer, but she begins to doubt thesoundness of her philanthropy when itbecomes clear that the restless son she hassuch high hopes for has developed a majorinfatuation for the glamorous, at least ten-years-older, new tenant in stretch pants.Much in the same way the arrival of a train-hopping drifter shook up the small-townresidents in William Inge’s Picnic, theemotional (and sexual) disruption instigatedby the intrusion of Lila—a peroxided,emotionally-wounded, aging starlet with asqualid past and a childlike disposition—intothe vaguely oedipal Baird household is thesource of The Stripper’s central conflict.

For Lila, the return to the birthplace of somany of her unrealized dreams rekindles adesire to reclaim her lost innocence. ForKenny, irresolute in his manhood over failingto fill the idealized shoes of his late father;Lila’s age and superficially worldly charmsare like a beacon of maturity. Helen,conflicted in wanting Kenny to grow up andstand on his own two feet, yet prone to clingyexclamations like "You're all I have to livefor!" grows concerned when Kenny'sintensifying infatuation with Lila turns tomutual attraction. Adding fuel to Helen's anxiety that Lila's badinfluence will hasten her son's inevitabledeparture is the simultaneous concern thatthe flashy older woman will corrupt Kenny'sinterest in pretty Miriam Caswell (CarolLynley), their "good girl" (aka, virginal)neighbor. In this environment, everyoneseems to be looking to someone else forsalvation, rescue, liberation, or redemption.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILMThe Stripper is something of a “Best of” collection of what had become, by 1963, the over-familiar clichés in theTennessee Williams/William Inge oeuvre (it was Williams’ The Glass Menagerie which inspired Inge to write his firstplay). Set in the fictional small town of Salinson, Kansas (the same town Kansas-born William Inge chose for hisplay, Picnic), The Stripper has it all: the emotionally fragile fallen woman; familial discord; small town provincialism;sexual restlessness; Freudian psychology; and the eternal battle between idealism and truth. And, of course, heatand summer used as metaphors for passion.

Seeing the film again after so many years, it’s so clear to me why I was all over this genre when I was young. First,2/11

Robert Webber as Ricky Powers

they were situationally accessible to my limited frame of knowledge and experience. Unlike James Bond movieswhich took place all over the world, or exotic action adventures featuring acts of derring-do and non-stop danger;these films took place in the familiar, low-tech settings of town and neighborhood. The drama was often operaticallyover-the-top, yet human-scale enough in that it concerned itself with relationships, family tensions, and theapplicable-at-any-age struggle with how our character flaws work to keep happiness at bay. On the more “entertaining” side, not only were these films “daring” and “sex-obsessed” in ways suitable to a youngperson’s comprehension level (aka: all talk and no action), but the main characters were invariably women whocould just as well have been gay men. Overwrought, theatrically histrionic gay men. I of course wasn’t aware of it atthe time, but due to the times Williams and Inge (both closeted gay playwrights during a time when homosexualitywas criminalized in most states), were onlyable to express their truth through theirfemale characters. Thus, their femaleprotagonists were often imbued with a depthand dimensionality lacking in most roles forwomen written during this period.As a youngster, the stoic, heteronormativemacho leading man never spoke to anyreality I knew. But I did recognize parts ofmyself in the bruised, vulnerable, idealisticoutsiders Inge and Williams wrote soempathetically about.

THE STUFF OF DREAMSAs much as I enjoy this film, I’m inclined toagree when I encounter reviews labeling thismovie “lesser Inge.” The Stripper has a lackof subtlety and obviousness of intent thatmade me think it was early William Inge (it'sa little like an episode from one of those '60santhology TV programs like Playhouse 90).In reality, it’s one of Inge's late-career careermisfires. One he playwright’s first Broadwayflop following a string of unbroken successesstarting with Dark at the Top of the Stairs(1945), Come Back Little Sheba (1950),Picnic (1953), and Bus Stop (1955). Indeed, as A Loss of Roses signaled the beginning of a reversal trend in Inge’s career, the problematic work playhas a legacy of misfortune surrounding it rivaling that of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.The first victim was Shirley Booth, who had previously won both a Tony and an Oscar for her work in Inge’s ComeBack Little Sheba, and accepted the role in A Loss of Roses when promised the character of Helen would be mademore prominent. Alas, Booth wound up quitting the show just days before its Broadway debut for the rumoredreason that Inge was shifting the production to favor a Broadway neophyte he had developed a crush on: an actorby the name of Warren Beatty, making his Broadway debut.

The second victim was William Inge himself. For although he had faith in the play and expressed the belief that ALoss of Roses was a “sure thing,” the play opened to disastrous reviews and closed after a mere 25 performances.It was Inge’s first flop, and one that so devastated him, he never had another stage success again.

The third victim was Warren Beatty. For although his performance in the play garnered a Tony Award nomination,the experience was so unpleasant, it is said to be the reason he has never appeared onstage again. On the plus

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Kenny Thinks Lila Is HotAnd indeed, she is, for it's mid-summer in Kansas and Lila flounces about in a leopard fur coat.

Before settling on the grossly misleading The Stripper, other titles considered for this screen adaptation of A Loss of Roses were: Celebration,Woman of Summer, and A Woman in July

Carol Lynley as Miriam Caswell

side, Inge's enduring crush on Beatty (when Jane Fonda met Beatty for the first time in New York, she thought he

was Inge's boyfriend) gave the young actor afoot-up in Hollywood. He made his film debutin Inge's Splendor in the Grass, and starredin the Inge-penned All Fall Down , a 1962 filmwith an older woman/younger man themesimilar to The Stripper.

Victim number four was 20th Century Foxproduction head, Buddy Adler, who, on thestrength of Inge's reputation and trackrecord, purchased the rights to A Loss ofRoses for a whopping $400,000 (in 1950sdollars, yet!) before it even opened onBroadway. As he told columnist LouellaParsons at the time: “Yes, we paid a bigprice, but Inge writes only hits. He wrote 'BusStop' , 'Picnic,' and 'Dark at the Top of theStairs.' There were a number of producerstrying to get 'A Loss of Roses' so we were lucky to get it.”

Victim number five was Fox Studios. Adler purchased A Loss of Roses for then-under contract Marilyn Monroe, andteen heartthrob Pat Boone (!). Both turned the film down. Monroe (who enjoyed a great success with the filmversion of Inge’s Bus Stop in 1956) likely found the Lila character - a stripper with lousy taste in men, who at onetime tried to kill herself and was institutionalized - a tad too close to home, while Boone objected on moral grounds,finding the illicit affair between the young man and slightly pathetic stripper all wrong for his image.

Victim number six was actor Richard Beymer. Boosted to leading man stardom after West Side Story (1961), TheStripper jinx apparently hit a bullseye, for this was his last major motion picture.

Finally, victim number 7, Joanne Woodward. An Academy Award winner for The Three Faces of Eve (1957),Woodward retired from the screen not long after marrying Paul Newman and having two children. The Stripper was

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Legendary real-life stripper Gypsy Rose Lee as Madam Olga St. ValentineLouis Nye as Ronnie "The Great Renaldo" Cavendish

her to be her comeback vehicle, but its DOA performance at the boxoffice got her career reemergence off to a rockystart from which it never fully recovered.

PERFORMANCESWhile many found fault with Inge’s original play and Meade Roberts' considerably less sordid adaptation, criticswere largely in agreement over the quality of Joanne Woodward’s performance. Overcoming a stiff, blonde, cottoncandy wig that hovers always appears to hovering at least an inch above her scalp, Woodward has some reallyremarkable moments playing a character who’s part Blanche DuBois and part Charity Hope Valentine.Looking pretty spectacular in her Travilla wardrobe (Monroe’s designer), Woodward occasionally falls prey to thegimmicky tricks of smart actors trying to play dumb (laying it on a bit thick), but she truly shines in the film’s finalscenes and achieves several moments of heartrending poignancy.I’m nobody! Who are you?Are you nobody too?Then there’s a pair of us - don’t tell!They’d banish us, you know.

The rest of the cast is solid, if perhaps letdown a bit by a script which doesn't offersupporting characters much beyond makinga quick surperficial impression. RichardBeymer is good as the juvenile, but neversucceeds in getting me to understandKenny's darker, brooding side. The always-welcome Claire Trevor is a standout as themother who fills an empty life withoverconcern for her nearly adult son.Carol Lynley doesn't get much of a chance tobe anything but gorgeous in a thankless"girlfriend" role, and there really is far toolittle of the quirky Michael J. Pollard and theAuntie Mame-ish Gypsy Rose Lee. TVstalwart Robert Webber is convincingly oily.

THE STUFF OF FANTASY In all these years I have never forgotten theThe Stripper's opening, pre-title sequence.It's just that terrific. It promises a level campsleaze the movie never delivers, but how canyou lose with a movie that opens with a shotof the original, iconic Myra Breckinridgeshowgirl billboard?

BONUS MATERIAL"The Stripper" Watch the complete film onYouTube. HERE

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DreamersLila shows Kenny her prized possession: Film clips of her failed Hollywood screen test

for the 1955 Fred Astaire musical Daddy Long Legs

Michael J. Pollard as Geoffrey "Jelly" BeamisPollard and Webber are the only members of the original Broadway cast to recreate their roles in the film

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Something's Gotta GiveAs she strips, Lila sings the 1954 Johnny Mercer song Fred Astaire introduced in Daddy Long Legs--the movie she unsuccessfully screen-tested

for. Ironically, the song is also the title (grammatically cleaned up as Something's Got to Give) of Marilyn Monroe's last film. The Stripper wasreleased a year after Monroe's death in August of 1962, and the movie is loaded with reminders of its originally being a Monroe vehicle.

Helen Interprets Kenny's Birthday Gift as a Gesture to Replace his FatherA great many of the more unhealthier aspects of the mother-son relationship in

A Loss of Roses were excised when it became The Stripper

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"I want my roses back."Promotional stills of several sequences not in the film suggest the already problematic storyline

of The Stripper underwent a significant amount of post-production editing.Below, a segment of an 1891 Emily Dickinson poem quoted in the film:

In spite of the film's sensationalist title, Woodward makes for a very covered-up stripper.Happily, the same can't be said for her co-star

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Bus Driver: "We are approaching the world famous Sunset Strip! Here You may see in the flesh the great names of show business you've onlywatched on the screen before!"

Tourist #1: "Look! There's Jayne Mansfield!"Tourist #2: "No it isn't...it's Kim Novak!"

Bus Driver: "No it isn't, lady."Tourist #1: "Then who is it?"

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Bus Driver: "Nobody."

The Stripper's sole Oscar nomination was for the costume designs of William Travilla (Valley of the Dolls, BlackWidow, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes). Visit the blog: 50 Years of Film & Fashion Travilla Style to read more abouthis costumes for this film.

Copyright © Ken Anderson

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"It's what I want more than anything. More than winning contests or being a movie star, or anything like that. 'Cause if you know you've got one person who loves and respects you,

then you don't need love from a lot of people, do you?"

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