Saw this 1956 movie the other night.
Billed as a "romantic comedy," it is actually a fairly effective story about a rich, spoiled, immature young man (Tab Hunter) who gets dumped by his mature-acting girlfriend (Natalie Wood). He then joins the army and alienates both staff and peers with his petulant, trouble-causing, rebellious behavior. Complications ensue.
It got so-so reviews, and not a great reception by reviewers on IMDB, so I didn't expect much.
Surprise: I found it very enjoyable, engaging, and convincing.
Tab Hunter is ideally cast as the spoiled rich kid. Impossibly good-looking as to seem unreal, Hunter manages to make you loathe his character's dim-witted inability to see the cause-and-effect of his actions, one incident of which nearly turns deadly.
Natalie Wood is wonderfully fresh and natural as his level-headed, college-ambitious on-off-on girlfriend. She is very convincing and believable when she gives Hunter, at various points, the plausible reasons why she doesn't want to commit to him: he's arrogant, immature, and careless of the feelings of others. Wood's character is unusually strong and independent for a young woman of the 1950s. She's got a brain, is studious and serious about her education. Willing to part with a major dreamboat of a boyfriend because he is not worthy of her.
The catalyst for Hunter's spoiled-boy behaviors is in Jessie Royce Landis's portrayal of his mother. Landis is simultaneously horrifically overbearing and hilarious; she coddles her boy and threatens the army staff with "I'll call my congressman about this," when she encounters Hunter reduced to cleaning the sludgy grease trap in the mess-hall kitchen. You see in no uncertain terms why her precious doll-boy is such an insufferable mess.
Also hilarious is Murray Hamilton, replete with a deep-South accent, as a platoon commander who smiles broadly and does pithy, ironic sarcasms as he deals with Hunter's brattiness.
Look at the rest of the cast: a young, debonair David Janssen, Jim Backus, Alan King, Henry Jones, and...a very young James Garner! All of them provide memorable characterizations.
Story and star-wise, this is a solid, enjoyable movie, one I didnt expect to like as much as I did.
Billed as a "romantic comedy," it is actually a fairly effective story about a rich, spoiled, immature young man (Tab Hunter) who gets dumped by his mature-acting girlfriend (Natalie Wood). He then joins the army and alienates both staff and peers with his petulant, trouble-causing, rebellious behavior. Complications ensue.
It got so-so reviews, and not a great reception by reviewers on IMDB, so I didn't expect much.
Surprise: I found it very enjoyable, engaging, and convincing.
Tab Hunter is ideally cast as the spoiled rich kid. Impossibly good-looking as to seem unreal, Hunter manages to make you loathe his character's dim-witted inability to see the cause-and-effect of his actions, one incident of which nearly turns deadly.
Natalie Wood is wonderfully fresh and natural as his level-headed, college-ambitious on-off-on girlfriend. She is very convincing and believable when she gives Hunter, at various points, the plausible reasons why she doesn't want to commit to him: he's arrogant, immature, and careless of the feelings of others. Wood's character is unusually strong and independent for a young woman of the 1950s. She's got a brain, is studious and serious about her education. Willing to part with a major dreamboat of a boyfriend because he is not worthy of her.
The catalyst for Hunter's spoiled-boy behaviors is in Jessie Royce Landis's portrayal of his mother. Landis is simultaneously horrifically overbearing and hilarious; she coddles her boy and threatens the army staff with "I'll call my congressman about this," when she encounters Hunter reduced to cleaning the sludgy grease trap in the mess-hall kitchen. You see in no uncertain terms why her precious doll-boy is such an insufferable mess.
Also hilarious is Murray Hamilton, replete with a deep-South accent, as a platoon commander who smiles broadly and does pithy, ironic sarcasms as he deals with Hunter's brattiness.
Look at the rest of the cast: a young, debonair David Janssen, Jim Backus, Alan King, Henry Jones, and...a very young James Garner! All of them provide memorable characterizations.
Story and star-wise, this is a solid, enjoyable movie, one I didnt expect to like as much as I did.