Natalie Wood’s Farewell in “Brainstorm” 1983

Natalie Wood completed all but two scenes in "Brainstorm" before her untimely demise.

While 1983’s Brainstorm is not flawless filmmaking, the sci-fi film was made with good intentions, talented artists, and some intriguing ideas. Given the circumstances that Brainstorm was made under—the battling director and studio plus the death of a star—it’s a miracle that the resulting movie nearly two years later was even completed.

Christopher Walken plays the scientist husband of Natalie Wood in "Brainstorm."

Brainstorm is about research scientists who devise a system that allows people to experience recorded events, thoughts, and feelings of others—virtual reality. The military wants in on this government project and they don’t want to use the innovation for good, of course. The two lead scientists are Christopher Walken as Michael Brace and Louise Fletcher as Lillian Reynolds. Natalie Wood is Walken’s estranged wife, Karen, who is the project’s designer. Cliff Robertson is their boss, Alex Terson, who gives in to the government.

Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood play an estranged couple in "Brainstorm."

Though Natalie Wood had done some fine work in television after her return to acting, The Cracker Factory and a mini-series remake of From Here to Eternity, Wood sought to make her mark again on the big screen. Two prior efforts, Meteor and The Last Married Couple in America, despite good directors and co-stars, could not elevate the weak material. Though Wood had kept her face and figure, Natalie was acutely aware that she was now over 40, tough for golden era stars.

Natalie Wood hoped "Brainstorm" would be a step in the right direction
for her film career, but admitted the special effects were the real star.

Christopher Walken was then a hot young star, on the verge of becoming a leading man, like DeNiro or Pacino. Instead, Walken became a quirky star character actor. Did the Wood scandal taint Walken and give his odd looks and peculiar persona an even more sinister edge?

There's times when Christopher Walken's nerd scientist looks like Dwight Schrute.

First time director Douglas Trumball was prior a special effects director on classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Blade Runner. Trumball had a vision for the film, with use of a new process called Showscan. This was a high-speed, large-screen process that would show a picture with absolute clarity. The process would also require theaters to be retrofitted to accommodate this film. MGM was a studio that seemed to be strapped for cash many times over the years, and not the studio to foot the bill. But that’s never stopped a problematic production from getting the green light in Hollywood.

Louise Fletcher, excellent as Walken's co-scientist, Lillian Reynolds, in "Brainstorm."

Ironically, the studio's attempt to stop the film maker parallels Brainstorm's major plot point, when the scientists get their project taken away. When Natalie Wood died, MGM had already gotten cold feet over this expensive production. Even though all but two of Wood’s scenes were shot, they seized on her tragedy as an excuse to shut down production. The studio even locked the sets, much like when Brainstorm’s scientist gets locked out of his lab.

Cliff Robertson, as Alex, the smiling bad guy, in "Brainstorm."

Insurance company Lloyds of London offered to pay out for the completion of the film, instead of the whole write-off that MGM wanted. Trumball's fight with the studio to finish embittered him from directing again, and the studio dumped the film after the fact. Ultimately, the standoff was a lose-lose, but along the way, Brainstorm became a bit of a cult classic.

The premise is fascinating; the effects are terrific and imaginative for their time. The fine cast does what they can with the film's biggest problem: a script and characters that feels like a sketch, not a full-bodied portrait. The dialogue, especially in some of the crucial scenes, feels very flat-footed. There's a lot of short-hand for characterization, like Cliff Robertson's old-school rich alpha male wardrobe, Louise Fletcher's incessant smoking, and Chris Walken's absent minded professor routine. Natalie Wood has nothing to work with, but the star is warm, sincere, and beautiful, so that's something. More than a few film stars have gone out with far less fanfare.

Christopher Walken's scientist "sees" a sad memory via his wife in "Brainstorm."

Louise Fletcher has a beautiful death scene, elegantly depicted by the actress and director. Robertson’s got the smiling villain down pat, since Three Days of the Condor. Walken is perfectly cast as the brilliant but tunnel vision scientist. The actor plays his part well, not afraid to look like a nerd or a jerk in flashbacks.

The supporting cast is particularly good. Note that one of the “food fantasy” girls is 19-year-old Lana Clarkson, who would come to her own tragic end, murdered by Phil Spector in 2003.

Lana Clarkson, center, was just 19 in this food fantasy scene in "Brainstorm."

Trumball was admired by his stars, gave his all to the produce a breakthrough in special effects, fought the good fight with the studio, and he deserves great credit for that. I can only fault Trumball for not paying as much attention to the script as the special effects. Yes, the final result falls short of the original vision. But the story still has resonance. 

In happier times: Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood in "Brainstorm."

Natalie Wood was having better luck on television than film, and that is probably where she would have ultimately worked. Would Nat have settled for quality work on TV or would she have ended up as a guest star on one of the ‘80s many night time soaps? Wood was also exploring theater; Anastasia was to be her stage debut in early 1982.

Like other stars that died young, Natalie's death has kept her in the public eye. Sadly, that tragedy at times overshadows the legacy of Natalie Wood. And while Brainstorm is no classic, at least Natalie exited the big screen with her class intact.

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Encouraged by friend Elizabeth Taylor's success in "The Little Foxes,"
Natalie Wood had planned to make her stage debut in 1982 with "Anastasia."

 

 

“The Legend of Lylah Clare” 1968

Kim Novak as Elsa Brinkmann, facing the press in "The Legend of Lylah Clare." 
The scene is afternoon, but the window's view always says sunset in Transylvania!

Robert Aldrich, one of the least subtle directors ever, made one of his most outlandish and personal films in 1968, The Legend of Lylah Clare. The 130 minute Tinseltown tale was taken from a 60 minute ‘63 TV drama. Aldrich loved showbiz gothic—imagine The Big Knife, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, and The Legend of Lylah Clare in a triple feature.

How many camp classics feature the star madly slashing away at a portrait?!

This type of hothouse Hollywood story was out of style by the late '60s, when gritty new movie realism had taken hold. What we have here is a Sunset Boulevard-esque show biz mystery: What Really Happened to Lylah Clare?

Those Kim as Elsa portrays '30s star "Lylah Clare," Novak's style says '60s, baby!

Kim Novak plays the legendary title character AND wannabe Elsa Brinkmann. Lylah’s agent, Bart Langner, who discovered the late star, comes across the dead ringer starlet. Thinking he’s struck lightning twice, Bart takes her to Lewis Zarken, Lylah’s late director—and husband, for a day! Skeptical, he runs roughshod over Elsa, though she turns out to be a diamond in the rough. Soon, the starlet is groomed to play Lylah in a big screen bio epic. Along the way, Elsa starts channeling Lylah that borders on obsession…or possession? To describe the byzantine plot any further would require many spoilers and a flow chart.

Tuesday Weld at 20 played Lylah as a fragile Monroe-type starlet.

While Tuesday Weld played TV’s Lylah as a Marilyn Monroe-esque type, Kim's movie Lylah is written as a Garbo/Dietrich-esque icon. Both Lylahs are controlled by a domineering director and claustrophobic Hollywood mindset. The TV version focuses on what Hollywood does to fragile personalities, having been filmed a year after Marilyn Monroe's sudden and shocking death. The expanded movie version gives director Aldrich ample opportunity to take his pot shots at Hollywood, both old and new. Some criticisms are still relevant today, like moviemaking as a mainly tie-in venture, the public's acceptance of anything that's dished up to them as truth, etc. And old Hollywood gets skewered with their crass moguls, bitchy gossip columnists, and movie legends with lurid off-screen lives. 

Kim Novak at 35 played Lylah ala Dietrich/Garbo, here portraying "Anna Christie."

With the exception of Kim Novak, the cast cannot be faulted for the mind-bending awfulness of The Legend of Lylah Clare. It's the absurd, literal screenplay. Robert Thom wrote the original teleplay, but some Aldrich associates with slim resumes wrote the film screenplay, along with Bob’s heavy hand, no doubt.

Elsa/Lylah gives the hunky Italian gardener the Hollywood handshake 
in "The Legend of Lylah Clare, as the Svengali director looks on.

The supporting cast plays types, often stereotypes, but they get the job done. Peter Finch has great fun as the egotistical director, based on Svengali-types of Hollywood past like Josef von Sternberg, Mauritz Stiller, and Erich von Stroheim. Peter's at his most rugged, silver fox best, and he's quite convincing in this cartoonish role. Notice how Peter Finch in flashback as the evil genius sports the same goatee as Kenneth Branagh in his flashbacks from Dead Again. Finch has the film’s most absurd lines and relishes every one of them! Yet, in the few moments of melancholy, Finch is genuinely touching.

In one of the many absurd flashbacks, Peter Finch as the mad director sports a goatee.

...which reminded me of Kenneth Branagh
in HIS maestro flashbacks from "Dead Again!"

 

Everyone assumed that Coral Browne as Molly Luther was playing a mix of Louella Parsons, with her grumpy cat face, and Hedda Hopper, all queen bee snappishness. Perhaps, but it's also a takeoff on lesser-known columnist Radie Harris, who had a wooden leg due to a childhood riding accident, and was usually in a wheelchair. Ironically, Browne was sued by Harris years prior, when she publicly asked Radie how it felt to have showbiz at her FOOT. Browne lost, but got her revenge later!

Coral Browne does a take-off on imperious columnist Radie Harris in "Lylah Clare."

Rossella Falk is quite convincing as ... Rossella! The drug addict lesbian loves Lylah, but seems to have a love/hate feeling toward Zorken, is an interesting character. Why does she stick around and put up with the director’s abuse—the drugs, their secrets? Falk makes this all very believable and empathetic.

Rossella Falk plays imaginatively named Rossella in "The Legend of Lylah Clare."

Ernest Borgnine has a ball hamming it up as the forever shouting movie mogul, Barney Sheean. His exact opposite, mild-mannered Michael Murphy, plays the son, who wants to make films! Aldrich fave George Kennedy has a cameo as Lylah's co-star in a movie within a movie of Anna Christie. 

Ernest Borgnine as the loud studio head, bargaining with Peter Finch's director,
with demurely dressed Kim Novak looking on.

Of the huge cast, the one big problem is Kim Novak. As mousy Elsa Brinkmann, Kim is vulnerable and awkward in the Vertigo mold. Kim's face and figure found her aging far more beautifully than such screen beauties as Rita, Ava, and Liz. However, Kim was 35 and a bit long in the tooth to be playing an aspiring actress. Sharon Tate, a decade younger, might have been a better choice. But that's the least of Kim's problems as Lylah Clare.

I think Kim Novak is actually prettier as "plain" Elsa Brinkmann
than as bleached blonde Lylah Clare.

Once Kim gives up Elsa's dowdy clothes and long brownish wig, Novak gets the Hollywood makeover and is transformed into the late, great Lylah Clare. Kim Novak also seems to have her own version of Wigstock going on in Lylah Clare. Kim looks fab in the Renié wardrobe and sports a variety of puffy platinum wigs and falls, accented with Novak's trademark black eyeliner and frosted lipstick. Oh, wait, isn't Kim supposed to be playing an old-time Hollywood star? Novak's about as convincing a '30s star as Carroll Baker was as Harlow. Authenticity apparently wasn’t “in” during the '60s.

Kim as Elsa starring in a Lylah Clare bio pic, got all that? With Peter Finch.

Kim Novak's 60s's style reminded me of another star
who loved wigs, black eyeliner, and frosted lipstick!

Though Kim looks more like Dusty Springfield than Hollywood golden era, Novak handles the gorgeous part, but doesn't have the flair to play the flamboyant film diva. As Lylah seems to possess Elsa, Kim throws her head back to laugh so far and wide, that you can see all of her fillings. And out from her mouth spouts a baritone German accent that sounds more like Mercedes McCambridge in The Exorcist than Hildegard Knef mimicking Marlene Dietrich. The dubbing comes off especially bad because it seems broadcast in Stereophonic sound compared to Kim’s whisper! The excruciating dialogue makes the accent sound even more absurd: "Keep your FEEL-THEE hands off me!" And her bwah-hah-hah laugh makes me think of Rocky and Bullwinkle's Natasha Badenov! Finally, in the flashbacks, the voices are slowed down, making the dubbed baritone sound especially bizarre. It’s all insane, and instantly undercuts Novak, who looks helpless as the late volatile screen siren.

Photographer Richard Avedon took a series of pictures of Kim Novak as Lylah Clare,
which are more subtle than anything in the film!

Elizabeth Taylor and Bette Davis dished up over the top self-parodies in Boom! and The Anniversary in ’68. Lana Turner and Jennifer Jones were oblivious in their late '60s camp misadventures, The Big Cube and Angel, Angel, Down We Go. But Kim seems painfully aware that she's out of her depth in Lylah Clare. She doesn't just cruise along in like Lana and Jen, or ride the wheels off like Liz and Bette. Novak looks like she wants to leap out of her vehicle!

The finale of "Lylah Clare" is a circus scene. Why? Don't ask! And don't look down!

The last act of Lylah Clare takes the cinema cake. The circus climax that “explains” Lylah’s mysterious death is beyond absurd. The film within a film finale at the premiere is a major eye roll. And the gun-wielding Rossella watching a deranged dog food commercial in the last scene is beyond “what the hell?!”

Kim Novak as Lylah Clare in her swan song... dive. Lylah dies with her tiara intact!

Gossip girl Molly Luther asks Zorken, “Aren't you borrowing from Sunset Boulevard?” Yes, and Vertigo, and Baby Jane, too. And as usual, Aldrich’s film is at least 15 minutes too long.

Rossella and director Louis' reaction to Lylah's bio pic! Bingo to the "BS" logo!

That insane soundtrack by DeVol, especially the theme, is like being put on hold by ‘60s showbiz hell. The music seems more suitable for a sitcom or romantic comedy, not a Hollywood horror story.

I loved all the paintings of Kim as Lylah Clare, which makes me wonder if artist Novak got to keep any mementos. Jaroslav Gebr is the same artist who did the paintings for the Night Gallery pilot, including the famous Joan Crawford painting, and the nostalgic title cards for The Sting.

Artist Jaroslav Gebr with his collection of Kim as Lylah Clare paintings.

Director Robert Aldrich deserves credit for owning up to this debacle and for his mishandling of Kim Novak. Classic film fans will probably find The Legend of Lylah Clare fascinating to watch. More casual movie fans will probably reach for the remote!

Kim at the "Lylah" premiere, channeling more Lylah than Elsa!

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Like many movie paintings, I wonder who owns Kim's "Lylah Clare" portrait now?

 

Buoyant “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell” 1968

 

Mamma Mia! Gina Lollobrigida is an unwed mother with three possible fathers!
The diverse daddy candidates are Telly Savalas, Peter Lawford, and Phil Silvers.

As far as ‘60s sex comedies go, Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell has the advantage of getting made in the latter half of ‘60s Hollywood. Most early ‘60s sex farces give me whiplash, with their storyline contortions to appease the censors. Made after the groundbreaking The Graduate, unwed mother Mrs. Campbell is not shamed or contrite over her youthful indiscretions that set the story in motion. This in turn makes Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell less dated and more fun than most ‘60s bedroom farces.

Gina Lollobrigida is Carla Campbell, the Italian mama whose life's got a lot of drama!

While Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell is no cinema classic like The Graduate, the film is bright, frothy fun. Longtime Bob Hope comedy writer Melvin Frank writes and directs with a sure hand for character-driven laughs. Perhaps Mrs. Campbell is not deep, nor is it dumb, either.

The pithy plot on a platter: 20 years ago, near the end of WWII, young Carla has passionate—and passing—flings with three soldiers. She soon finds herself pregnant; Carla no idea which one is the actual father. So, she writes to them with her tale of woe, asking for aid. All three offer to help, and being most pragmatic, the pregnant Carla starts collecting checks from the trio—for twenty years! And now, as the village plans to honor the American soldiers, Carla’s crew wants a reunion. This is not in Carla’s grand plan, and sets her in a panic. Does this sound familiar? Musical fans should instantly recognize the plot, though the creator of Mamma Mia! denies taking “inspiration” from this movie’s story. Of course, or the creator would have to pay damages through the nose if there was any admission.

Gina Lollobrigida was 40 when she played Carla.
Italian movie divas sure aged differently from their American counterparts!

Aside from the clever plot, bubbly score, clever plot, and great cast, the main draw is most delicious: Gina Lollobrigida as unwed mama Carla. Gina is gorgeous at 40 and has a fine flair for antic comedy. Lollo also is in fine form and looks lovely in her late ‘60s frocks.

Telly Savalas & Lee Grant are raucously funny as the New Jersey couple.

Then there’s that great cast as the three couples visiting the Italian village: exasperated Phil Silvers and an especially hilarious Shelley Winters; Telly Savalas and Lee Grant are a brazen hoot as the Jersey couple from hell; and Peter Lawford and Dina Merrill-look-alike Marion Moses claw away as the brittle British couple.

Phil Silvers and Shelley Winters are the couple with a bevy of boys.
Winters is in full-Shelley mode here and is quite funny.

Marian Moses & Peter Lawford are the brittle British couple in "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell."

The rest of the cast is just as delightful. Janet Margolin is simply gorgeous and warmly charming as Carla’s daughter Gia. Naomi Stevens as the maid Rosa reacts hilariously to the proceedings, a comedy pro from The Apartment (as the neighbor doc’s wife) and the cat-loving secretary of Valley of the Dolls, plus Sister Teresa from The Flying Nun. Philippe Leroy is one fine, feisty Italian lover as Vittorio, the hunky squeeze of Gina’s Carla.

Janet Margolin is appealing and lovely as Gina's daughter Gia in "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell."

Italian star Phillipe Leroy is Gina's hunky boyfriend.

An interesting footnote: Of this big cast, most have since passed on. But three of the stars enjoy longevity as of Nov. 1, 2021: Gina Lollobrigida turned 94 July 4^th; Lee Grant is 90-something Oct.31; and Philippe Leroy turned 91 on Oct. 15. Cheers!

If you’re in need of bubbly comfort cinema, may I suggest the lovely Mrs. Campbell?

"Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" benefits from a bright script, 
put over by an stellar group of actors. Enjoy!

For the backstory on Lee Grant's '60s comeback, read here: 

https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2021/04/lee-grants-great-comeback-peyton-place.html

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