Something Wild (1961)

Jack Garfein’s 1961 film Something Wild explores similar subject matter to Otto Preminger’s 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder (incredibly controversial movie at the time). Both deal with sex crimes against women. That’s not to say that Garfein was simply rehashing Preminger’s movie. The two directors take very different approaches. Preminger brings out the horror of the crime through lengthy courtroom scenes. Garfein’s movie is more focused on the woman’s response, on her attempts to put her life back together.

This was a time when Hollywood was becoming interested in making grown-up movies dealing with confronting and disturbing subject matter. This obviously meant dealing with sexual subject matter. It’s hardly surprising that more than one director would see rape as a valid subject for a movie. The Production Code was getting shakier and shakier and it seemed like a time when such a subject could be approached in a grown-up way.

Something Wild was based on the novel Mary Ann by Alex Karmel, who co-wrote the screenplay with Garfein.

A young college student named Mary Ann (Carroll Baker) is raped on her way home. There’s nothing the least but graphic about the scene and it isn’t particularly brutal. What makes it shocking is her obvious utter powerlessness. It takes place in an isolated spot so screaming for help isn’t going to work. The attack happens so fast and the rapist has her totally under his physical control so quickly (within seconds) that trying to run away isn’t an option. He’s clearly a powerful man so there’s no point in struggling. She just has to endure it, which in some ways makes it a lot more confronting.

Her reaction to the rape is interesting. It’s not surprising that she wants to get rid of the clothes she was wearing, and woman would. But most women would drop the clothes into the rubbish bun, or perhaps burn them. What Mary Ann does is cut them up into tiny tiny pieces and flush them down the lavatory. Nicely symbolic of her desire to cleanse herself.

Mary Ann becomes strange and withdrawn. She runs away from home, rents an apartment and gets a job. She’s tying to re-establish her identity, or to establish a new identity. She becomes increasingly isolated and eventually decides to throw herself into the river. At which point an auto mechanic named Mike saves her. He suggests that she should go back to his place, which is close by, to lie down for a while before trying to make her way home. She’s very suspicious but she’s desperately tired and has been having dizzy spells and reluctantly agrees.

She then discovers that she’s now a prisoner. Mike has no intention of letting her go. Mike goes out and gets staggering drunk and when he comes home she thinks he’s going to rape her so she kicks him in the face. He loses the sight in that eye but the next day he just assumes that he must have been in a fight.

Mike tries in his clumsy way to be friendly and kind but he’s clearly very mad and very deluded. He honestly thinks that Mary Ann will fall in love with him and marry him.

This was the era of the cult of Method Acting and Carroll Baker was one of those unfortunate enough to be swept up in the cult. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to have harmed her acting as much as it did most people’s. She gives a powerful performance that doesn’t have the contrived artificial feel that so much Method Acting has. Carroll Baker is a very underrated actress and she really is very good here. Ralph Meeker was a good choice for the part of Mike. He’s like a crazy bumbling teddy bear who goes from seeming harmless and pathetic to seeming insane and dangerous.

Alert viewers will immediately notice striking similarities to William Wyler’s 1965 The Collector. The novel of the same name (by John Fowles) on which Wyler’s film is based was published in 1963. I can’t help wondering if Fowles had seen Something Wild. The fact that Fowles began work on the Collector in late 1960 makes it perhaps more likely that he had read Alex Karmel’s novel.

In both cases we have a man suffering from an obsessive delusion that he can persuade a young woman to fall in love with him by keeping her a prisoner but the similarities go much further. The women in both stories start to feel a tinge of compassion for their captors, and perhaps even a slight trace of affection. The men in both cases are clumsy and inept but in their own twisted way they’re well-meaning (or at least see themselves as well-meaning). The relationships between the two lead characters develop in the same way, at times hostile, at times uneasy, and at times almost convivial. In both cases the man prepares a special dinner (with carefully selected wines and an attempt to create a romantic atmosphere) preparatory to suggesting marriage.

The story however plays out very differently from The Collector. The movie changes direction sharply several times. There’s no real connection between the various stages of the movie.

This is one of those movies in which characters do things because that’s what the script says they’re going to do, even when it’s something no real person would do. Director Jack Garfein studied at the Actors Studio which may be why this movie has a very theatrical feel. The characters seem like characters in a play rather than real people.

So if you’re looking for a logical story and realistic characters with realistic motivations then this movie is not for you. To enjoy this movie you have to embrace its artificiality. You have to see it as a kind of urban fairy tale. The supporting performances are of no importance to the story but they’re all bizarrely exaggerated and incredibly hammy. Maybe that’s the point. They’re the grotesque characters you’d encounter in a fairy tale. Mike’s apartment is the dungeon in which the bandit imprisons the princess. It doesn’t have to make sense in realist terms, it has to make sense in fairy tale terms. And fairy tales have their own moral framework which isn’t always in synch with conventional morality, and the central characters don’t have to behave consistently. They have to behave in a way that leads to the proper fairy tale ending (which can be a happy or a tragic ending).

If you view the movie this way it starts to make sense, and starts to become quite fascinating. You also have to suspend your moral judgments. Fairy tale characters are driven by destiny. This is a weird love story that is sure to enrage the politically correct. Recommended for its oddness and unconventionality.