tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1770944055299241586.post5284267509277867254..comments2024-03-18T14:41:19.907-07:00Comments on The Raving Queen: Was This Otto Preminger's Answer To Roman Polanski's "Repulsion???????????????"The Raving Queenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01700003803433178894noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1770944055299241586.post-64752115282779853982017-03-29T06:59:56.153-07:002017-03-29T06:59:56.153-07:00Last night I asked David why he taped the 'Bun...<br /> Last night I asked David why he taped the 'Bunny Lake.' He said he had always heard about it, and was curious. Same basic reason I agreed to watch it. I had hoped for more, but was let down. The Evelyn Piper connection got to me because both this film, and "The Nanny," were released in the same year--1965--and I think it is the better film. Unfortunately, the lesser known. Despite the stellar performance given by Samantha, the reason 'Bunny Lake' is better known is the quirkiness of its title. It is the best thing, next to Samatha, about it. And both vanish quickly, leaving behind an inexcusable mess.The Raving Queenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01700003803433178894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1770944055299241586.post-23316263372002629032017-03-28T08:55:17.235-07:002017-03-28T08:55:17.235-07:00I thought "Bunny Lake" was a chore to si...I thought "Bunny Lake" was a chore to sit thru when I was 12, then in my 20s, then the last time it was on TCM, I threw in the towel half way thru it. Thats the problem wih Otto Preminger: when he's good, he's very, very good, but when he's bad, he's insufferable. Alas, he was usually insufferable, other than the startling exception of his masterpiece "Laura" (which I've begun to think may have had a lot of beneficial studio interference). Preminger also seems to have had a weird fixation with closeted (and not so closeted) homosexuality. Several of his films either featured such characters in key roles (Webb in Laura), or starred performers who themselves fit the description (Coward in Bunny).<br /><br />You know you're a girl of a certain age if you can remember the days when charmless, dead-voiced Carol Lynley came out of absolutely nowhere, inexplicably (and thankfully momentarily) chosen by the star making business to be its next sensation. She would be consigned to deserved oblivion had she not stumbled into "The Poseidon Adventure" and incidental immortality. And poor Keir Dullea: always a bride's maid, never a bride. Another Hollywood hiccup: as dead-voiced and charmless as Carol Lynley (they should have married and begat zombie children). He must have been great in bed, because there is no other plausible reason he was ever placed in front of a camera. Perfect as the soul-less astronaut in "2001: A Space Odyssey" but utterly forgettable in everything else he ever did.<br /><br />Yes, "Who Killed Teddy Bear?" was a hoot! From the theme song, to the casting, to the seedy story set in sleazy Times Square: it is flawlessly executed for what it is (and at least does know what it is, unlike the pretentious, joyless, horribly dated "Midnight Cowboy"). Sal Mineo is indescribably hot in this flick, in his tight T-shirt, delivering a subtly hilarious sendup of Marlon Brando's "method" tics (you can't help imagining Mineo as Stanley in Streetcar). And what can we say about Elaine Stritch here: she indeed must be seen to be believed as a blowsy, clumsy, half-closeted '60s dyke. Between Mineo practically bursting out of his clothes in every scene, and Stritch chewing on all of hers, this movie leaves a girl breathless. My partner frequently quotes his favorite Stritch scene, when she's feeling up a traumatized Juliet Prowse under the guise of "comforting" her, seductively growling "Let it out, baby, let it all out!"Videolamanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17085408408647466431noreply@blogger.com