December 5, 2013
This Property Is
Condemned – US, 1966
As I was watching Sydney Pollack’s 1966 drama, This Property Is Condemned, a thought
popped into my head: This is a film that
could be remade. It took me a moment to remember that it had already been –
indirectly, of course. The film is a welcome reminder that history has a way of
repeating itself, that the struggles of present-day working Americans are
similar to those of people who came before. There have always been companies
that downsized and there have always been those who jobs depended of their
telling other people that they no longer have theirs. A few years ago, it was
George Clooney delivering the somber news in Alexander Payne’s excellent film Up in the Air. Here, it is Robert
Redford as Owen Legate, a railway employee who arrives in a small town in
Mississippi that is suffering mightily from the effects of the Great Depression.
His presence will only add to its misery. It is telling, however, that his
first request is to see all of the company’s employee files, starting with
those that have families. This is a man with a heart in a rather heartless job.
Films like this one often have a fairly standard arc: The
stranger is only in town for a short, he meets a woman, and they fall in love
in warp speed. In the meantime, the formula calls for him to perform his
official duties, make enemies in the process, and learn to hate his line of
work. This Property Is Condemned is
different in this last regard, but only because Adam has already come to loathe
his occupation. Also separating this from other films of its kind is the reason
behind the town’s animosity toward Adam. Do they hate him for firing them or
for taking away “their main attraction”?
The film was inspired by a one-act play by Tennessee
Williams, and many aspects of the film have obviously been inspired by the theater.
There are characters that speak in long soliloquies and others that make their
presence known through their silence. One in particular gives new meaning to
the phrase “the silent and deadly type.” In addition, towards the beginning of
the film, we’re treated to what feels like thirty minutes of real time. We
follow Redford’s character as he meets young Willie Starr (Mary Badham), and
enters the lives of her, her mother (Kate Reid), and her big sister, Alva, who
all the men seem to want but few actually respect. We watch as Adam observes
from afar the forced merriment taking place on the ground level below, and we
see what he sees: that Alva’s mother has Alva essentially prostituting herself.
One male visitor even starts a conversation by insinuating that he has received
her mother’s permission to see her quite often, and it’s clear he doesn’t mean
for their meeting to be just a gradual courtship.
It is not going to give too much away to say that Alva is a
tempest of contradictions. She has wonderful fantasies of breaking free and
seeing the world, all the while refusing to take the steps that would finally
get her out of a community that is suffocating her. She seems to enjoy the
attention that her looks and reputation have afforded her, yet dislikes the
constant pressure and occasional danger that having too many fans can bring.
And she seems especially torn when it comes to one particular man named J.J.
(Charles Bronson). Her first impulse is to flee from him. However, every time
the two of them find themselves face to face, she freezes momentarily, as if
she is momentarily stunned by a deadly combination of fear and attraction. That
J.J. is her mother’s boyfriend gives their relationship a dimension that Freud
would have had a field day analyzing.
The tale of Alva and Adam’s ill-fated love is told in
flashbacks and bookended by a somewhat awkward narrative involving Willie’s
telling a local boy about the time when her home was not in such a dilapidated
state, when it was filled with dancing, drinking, and its fair share of
nefarious characters. I’m not sure why the boy would want to listen to this,
and the opening scene does not give the audience much of a reason to either.
However, the technique enables the film to return to Willie’s narrative toward
the end and for her to wrap up the story for the audience. Could it have been
done more effectively? Without a doubt. However, the bookends are consistent
with the theatrical feel of the film, and one can easily imagine a theatrical
production in which Willie begins her story and the curtain slowly opens on her
once lively home.
There is another reason that Up in the Air is worth mentioning in a review of this film, and it
relates to the perception that some people have of the two films’ male leads.
Like Clooney, Redford is also an actor who does not always get the credit he so
richly deserves. In many of his films, he has played characters with calm
demeanors and for the most part, he tends to underplay moments that other actors
might have played much more emotionally. His characters are also often a model
of decency, hard work, and stoicism, and he plays these parts exceptionally
well. Therefore, it is easy for people to get the impression that is just playing
himself, which is unfortunate, for his work in this film, as well as his work in
other films, is genuinely impressive. Moreover, his performances, like those of
Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, Henry Fonda, Mary Pickford, and so many other
cinematic titans, are the kind that time and repeat viewings have no impact on.
If anything, the passage of time has only made them more impressive.
This Property Is
Condemned is an occasionally daring film that looks at a time that tested
even the most noble of souls. It is skillfully helmed, and thanks to its source
material and screenwriters Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Coe, and Edith Summer, its
characters seem authentic, even if they are bit long-winded at times. The film
is hampered somewhat by a soundtrack that seems slightly off, a back lot that
is hardly believable as New Orleans, and a time-frame that seems a bit short
for everything we see to be able to transpire in, yet it overcomes these faults
by delivering a moving story about characters we come to root for and care for.
And of course it has Natalie Wood giving what amounts to an acting clinic, and
that is more than enough for me. (on DVD)
3 stars
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