While quite artistic and certainly worthy of a good review, I didn't find this to be a masterpiece as I expected, reminding me of several other highly regarded art house films of the 60's that are interesting bit not amazing. The black and white photography at first gives the film a claustrophobic feel, but as I got into it, that was appropriate for the lives of these four people.
Coming off of great acclaim from his Oscar winning role in "Hud", Melvyn Douglas was high in demand, and as the father of a teenager who's obviously inflicted with arrested development (Patricia Gozzi), he's got his hands full.
He's hired a companion (Gunnel Lindblom) for her, but that's obviously not enough, especially when she helps Lindblom take care of an injured young man (Dean Stockwell) and develops an obsession for him, going violently crazy when he makes love to Lindblom, and basically following him around out of fear for his safety. There are some very disturbing elements about this, especially as Stockwell obviously leads Gozzi on to steal from her father.
The father and daughter are troubled enough in their solitary existence, and the companion really can't help Gozzi, then Stockwell comes along and even after Douglas realizes what he's done doesn't order him away. It's obviously a tragedy for all concerned, an unresolvable situation, perhaps hitting too close to home for those who tried to make an impossible relationship work, taken one step further with the weird twists revealed later. Definitely not a film that general audiences will want to search out for.
Coming off of great acclaim from his Oscar winning role in "Hud", Melvyn Douglas was high in demand, and as the father of a teenager who's obviously inflicted with arrested development (Patricia Gozzi), he's got his hands full.
He's hired a companion (Gunnel Lindblom) for her, but that's obviously not enough, especially when she helps Lindblom take care of an injured young man (Dean Stockwell) and develops an obsession for him, going violently crazy when he makes love to Lindblom, and basically following him around out of fear for his safety. There are some very disturbing elements about this, especially as Stockwell obviously leads Gozzi on to steal from her father.
The father and daughter are troubled enough in their solitary existence, and the companion really can't help Gozzi, then Stockwell comes along and even after Douglas realizes what he's done doesn't order him away. It's obviously a tragedy for all concerned, an unresolvable situation, perhaps hitting too close to home for those who tried to make an impossible relationship work, taken one step further with the weird twists revealed later. Definitely not a film that general audiences will want to search out for.