Although never fully appreciated in his lifetime, filmmaker
Richard Fleischer does have a loyal cult following. And with good reason.
Actually several good reasons. And they are ... "The Narrow Margin"
and "The Happy Time"
(both 1952), "Violent Saturday" and "The Girl in the Red Velvet
Swing" (both 1955), "The Vikings" (1958), "Compulsion and
"These Thousand Hills" (both 1959), "Barabbas" (1962),
"The Boston Strangler" (1968), "10 Rillington Place" (1971),
"Soylent Green" (1973) "Mandingo" (1965) and "Tough
Enough" (1983).
Fleischer,
of the
famed Fleischer dynasty ("Popeye," "Betty Boop" and "Koko the Clown"), directed about 50 films in his lifetime,
most of which tended to come in under the radar, despite their
accomplishments, and were given left-handed references at best by the
critics during his lifetime.
He died at age 90 in 2006, about six months before Robert Altman passed. But Fleischer never commanded attention as an auteur, as Altman did. At the time of their deaths, my mind was filled with elusive thoughts about
how much I admired (and perhaps overrated) Altman when I was a young
Turk - and how I too often took Fleischer for granted as so many other
critics had.
That could be because Fleischer didn't make the same
movie over and over again,
à la Altman.
Altman's chatty ensemble films all began
to seem like undisguised variations on each other, while each Fleischer
film, even the disposable, inferior ones, showcased the filmmaker's
knack for trying different things, different genres - to change and keep
growing.
I mean, Altman's "Nashville" and "A Prairie Home Companion"
may have been separated by 30 years, but they could have been made
back-to-back. (I like them both, however, and think that "Prairie" is an
especially effective rumination on death.)
But enough
about Altman. I am here to praise Richard Fleischer - and not at the
expense of another filmmaker - and reminisce
about all the joy he gave me.
A Richard Fleischer Film Festival would be
incomplete without such idiosyncratic titles as "The Girl in the Red
Swing" with Joan Collins as Evelyn Nesbit, "These Thousand Hills"
(1959), a fine Western with Don Murray and Lee Remick, "The Last Run"
(1971), a crime flick with George C. Scott; the
nifty "Soylent Green, "The Incredible Sarah" (1976) with Glenda
Jackson as Sarah Bernhardt and Daniel Massey as Victorien Sardou, and
"Tough Enough," an engaging Dennis Quaid boxing film.
And
in a league by itself is Fleischer's sublime anti-Biblical epic,
"Barabbas," with the perfectly cast Anthony Quinn in the title
role.
If I had to pick what I think is the best Fleischer, it would be "10 Rillington Place," the third
side of Fleischer's first-rate crime trilogy that also includes
"Compulsion" (1959) and "The Boston Strangler" (1968), both equally fine
films. But for what it's worth, "Rillington" is my hands-down favorite
Fleischer.
One of those rare crime thrillers that is not
only frightening but genuinely unnerving and disturbing, Fleischer's
movie stars Richard Attenborough in a thoroughly creepy performance as
John Christie, a muderer who posed as a doctor, performing illegal
abortions and going a step further by drugging, raping and then
strangling his patients. He murdered eight women in London between 1940
and 1953.
John Hurt (and never did a name fit an actor
so well) matches Attenborough every step of the way in a sadly
wrenching performance as Timothy Evans, the husband of one of Christie's
victims, who is falsely accused of killing his wife (Judy Geeson) -
while Christie stands by and watches his arrest.
"10 Rillington Place"is an award-worthy film.
And yet the only Fleischer title nominated for a best picture Oscar was, of
all things, the original movie musical "Dr. Dolittle" (1967).
Fleischer himself was not nominated. (Herbert Ross staged the musical numbers
for him.) He was the only director of the five nominated films that year not to
get a nod; his slot went to Richard Brooks for "In Cold Blood," which was not nominated for best picture that year.
Actually, "Dr. Dolittle" is much better than its unfairly tainted
reputation suggests. The film expresses an urgently empathetic regard for
animals and boasts a tricky, literate song score by Leslie Bricusse, one of
whose numbers posits the nifty observation that "a veterinarian should be
a vegetarian." And his "When I Look In Your Eyes" is one of the most affecting, heart-breaking love songs to grace any
movie musical.
And given that title star Rex Harrison (pictured above with a game co-star) had
already taught linguistics to a guttersnipe in "My Fair Lady," it
seemed like a natural progression for him to ply his skills on ... animals.
For more on this unhearalded filmmaker, check out
Dave Kehr's
astute New York Times essay, "In a Corrupt World Where the Violent Bear
It Away," which was timed to coincide with a Fleischer tribute at New York's Film Forum in 2008.
