cinema obscura: Peter Medak's "The Third Girl from the Left" (1973)

In 1973, Kim Novak was 40 and hadn't made a film in four years, not since the 1969 Zero Mostel vehicle, "The Great Train Robbery," directed by Hy Averback. Her last great role came the year before - in Robert Aldrich's deliciously campy (and very twisted) "The Legend of Lylah Clare."

She had never made a TV film - and, reportedly, was reluctant - but decided to take the leap with Peter Medak's "The Third Girl from the Left," perhaps because she related to the material in a meaningful way.

Its storyline - about an aging chorus girl with diminishing choices - approximately mirrored where Novak was at in her own career. It could also be viewed as a fataslistic update of Linda English, the character that Novak had played 16 years earlier in George Sidney's "Pal Joey."

 "The Third Girl from the Left" came with an enticing pedigree - a script by the famed composer-lyricist Dory Previn (based on her own experiences) and direction by Medak, the estimable Hungarian-born filmmaker who had previously helmed "Negatives," "The Ruling Class" and "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" and, later, "The Krays," an eclectic filmography.

Previn's screenplay is an acute observation of a woman with dashed dreams and no more self-delusions, played moodily by the always introspective Novak. Like Linda English, her Gloria Joyce here also has her Joey. In the Sidney film, it was Frank Sinatra as Joey Evans, a n'er do well crooner; here, it's Tony Curtis as Joey Jordan, a n'er do well stand-up comic. Previn also carefully works in a role for Michael Brandon as a younger man - also all wrong from Gloria - who, thanks to the vagaries of timing, comes along just when she is at her most vulnerable. As its title suggests, "The Third Girl from the Left" is about a woman isolated.

Novak's last film appearance, in 1991, was in Mike Figgis' "Liebestraum," the end of an incredible movie run which included work with Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Richard Quine, Mark Robson, David Hemmings, Delbert Mann, Phil Karlson, Otto Preminger, Joshua Logan, J. Lee Thompson, Freddie Francis, Terrence Young, and Sidney and Aldrich.

Note in Passing: "The Third Girl from the Left" aired to ABC on October 16th, 1973 and is available on DVD, via the Warner Bros. Archive Collection.

Regarding Comments: All comments are enthusiastically appreciated but are moderated before publication. Replies signed "unknown" or "anonymous" are not encouraged. Please sign any response with a name (real or fabricated) or initials.  Be advised that a "name" will be assigned to any accepted post signed "unknown" or "anonymous." Thank you.

~images~

(from top)

~The opening title card of the film

~Kim Novak performing in "The Third Girl from the Left"

~Photography:  ABC 1973©

 ~Novak with Tony Curtis and Michael Brandon in a scene from the film

~Photography: ABC 1973©

~With Curtis in another scene
Photography: ABC 1973©