Walk on the Wild Side
D: Edward Dmytryk (1962); with Laurence Harvey, Jane Fonda, Capucine, Barbara Stanwyck, Anne Baxter. Tawdry trash, of the finest sort, rife with revolting characters and dreadful performances, Walk on the Wild Side is adapted from the novel by noted Texas writer Nelson Algren, who, like Jim Thompson, wrote about the human underbelly. But with multiple rewrites, including drafts from Clifford Odets and Ben Hecht, the screenplay goes terribly awry. Couple that with the movie’s deplorable casting, and you have a turgid and lurid (these are not necessarily bad qualities in a movie) drama along the lines of some ill-advised Tennessee Williams indulgence. With Laurence Harvey (nominated by one anonymous viewer as the No. 1 Lithuanian-American actor of all time!) as Dove Linkhorn, a drifter searching for his lost love, a sculptor/prostitute named Hallie, played by the 100% beautiful and 100% talent-free Capucine. The film also stars Fonda as Kitty Twist, an amoral, mentally deficient thief and prostitute, as well as the magnificent Stanwyck as Jo Carter, a glamorous-but-tough and domineering (of course) lesbian brothel-keeper at the “Dollhouse,” where Kitty and Hallie work, and (mysteriously) the usually capable Baxter stars as a Mexican woman who offers her chicharonnes to complete strangers. Please — this is 1962! Rita Moreno and Chita Rivera must have been out of town that weekend.It is the early Thirties in New Orleans, and the plot becomes complicated when Hallie is reunited with Dove and tries to leave the Dollhouse. In the incompetent hands of Capucine, Hallie displays that particularly unpleasant early-Sixties European cinematic ennui. Madam Jo, a part Stanwyck sinks her teeth into as only she can, sics her goons — led by her legless husband who drags himself around on a rolling cart — on Dove and Hallie, and things turn ugly. Also typical of early Sixties filmmaking is the complete disregard for period-appropriate hair, makeup, and costuming. If the titles hadn’t told us this was the early Thirties, we would have had no clue. The title song, which has a sleazy sound that is perfectly suited to this film, garnered an Oscar nomination. Other attention focused on this movie was no doubt based upon its one-time shocking content. Now, it is a very amusing, outdated, convoluted morality tale, whose lesson is a mystery.
This article appears in December 24 • 1999.