Robert Redford as "Bubber" Jackson, the object of 1966's "The Chase." |
The
Chase was a slog of a southern melodrama that teemed with great
talent, but was still a great big flop when it was released in 1966.
First a Horton Foote
play and later a novel, the film version of The
Chase came with a screenplay by playwright Lillian Hellman. Sounds so distinguished,
right? You wouldn’t know judging from the amateurish results. Perhaps it was
because neither Foote’s play nor novel was successful and Hellman hadn’t
written a screenplay in two decades. Producer Sam Spiegel, after his successful
epic Lawrence of Arabia, apparently
desired a southern epic, Tennessee Williams slathered with some Edward Albee scathing
social commentary. This was at odds with Foote's slice of life style and
Hellman's biting political agenda.
Marlon Brando is Sheriff Calder, who the small town disrespects, in "The Chase." |
The center of the
drama is around a bad boy loser, “Bubber” Jackson, who escapes from prison just
before he's supposed to get out. This impetuous move is made worse when his escape
partner kills a guy during their carjacking. Once again, Bubber's holding the
bag.
James Fox is Jake Rogers, who's in love with best friend Bubber's wife, Anna, played by Jane Fonda, in 1966's "The Chase." |
The locals of a small
town in Tarl County, Texas are alternately excited, angry, or scared that
Bubber is heading their way. It all climaxes over a Friday night where everyone's
emotions boil over, southern style. With a sheriff that nobody respects, the
town meltdown feels like High Noon
meets Twin Peaks.
Angie Dickinson, center, plays Brando's wife Ruby. E.G. Marshall, left, is Val Rogers, the town's rich man in 1966's "The Chase." |
Hellman disavowed the
final script and her criticism was apt, but her imprint still seems to be in
the mix. Like many mid-60s movies that seemed to have one foot stuck in the
‘50s, this all feels very back lot, glossy, and overdramatic. The foot that’s in
the ‘60s is very obvious in its “frankness.” Whoever really wrote the final script
seemed to lift some juicy stuff from Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Speaking of which, why on earth did Redford
turned down Nick to play Bubber!
Robert Redford chose "The Chase" & "This Property is Condemned" over "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" as his 1966 films. |
As often the case with
these big budget bombs, the allure of some legendary talents got other big
names to sign on: The combo of Brando as star, playwrights Foote and Hellman,
Sam Spiegel producing, enticed many to come on board.
The Chase’s four leads do well despite the dreary script: Marlon Brando, Jane
Fonda, Robert Redford, and Angie Dickinson are all solid and natural. Brando’s
performing could be quite variable from the '60s on, but as Sheriff Calder he underplayed
and is believable as a good man in a mean small town. Fonda is good as the town
bad girl, Anna, estranged wife of Bubber. Dickinson, playing a normal woman
instead of her usual man trap, is straightforward as Brando's wife, Ruby. And
Robert Redford, often remote as an actor, is intense as Bubber.
Another telltale sign that 1966's "The Chase" was stuck in Hollywood's earlier era: Even though Jane Fonda's playing poor white trash, her hair and makeup are fab. |
I laughed when I read
that Brando chose to gain weight to play the southern sheriff who’s in a rut.
Considering Marlon’s physique immediately before and after, I’d compare the
tale with Elizabeth Taylor being ordered to gain weight for Virginia Woolf . Despite that and claims
that he became bored during shooting, his performance is consistent and controlled,
without Marlon’s excessive mannerisms.
Marlon Brando as the sheriff & Miriam Hopkins as the convict's mother in "The Chase." Director Arthur Penn had to tread lightly with both--surprise! |
The
Chase should have taught Jane Fonda a lesson to let the script be
the deciding factor in her film career. But Fonda hadn’t learned from an
earlier southern camp classic Walk on the
Wild Side, nor did this keep her from rushing to Hurry Sundown shortly after The
Chase. The difference is Jane's actually good in the latter two movies,
instead of being amateurishly hammy in Wild
Side.
Jane Fonda looking just great in the junkyard scene of 1966's "The Chase." Much later, a friend told Jane her hair should have gotten its own credit! |
Redford, who doesn’t
interact with the other stars till the climax of the film, actually shows
subtle emotion as Bubber, whereas he often played it cool to come off like an
anti-hero. And while playing Marlon Brando’s loyal wife wasn’t really the role
of a lifetime, Angie Dickinson wanted to work with Brando and play a serious
role.
It's not easy wearing this shade of green! Angie Dickinson as the sheriff's wife, wearing a dress that the town's rich man bought her, in 1966's "The Chase." |
Then there's the
supporting cast. Robert Duvall is empathetic and underplays as the bespectacled
wimp Edwin to Janice Rule's brazen, slutty wife Emily. They are a Texas-style
twosome ala Virginia Woolf’s George and
Martha. Janice Rule, who boozily taunts him with another man, comes off more
like Bette Davis in Beyond the Forest than
Martha! Martha Hyer is basically a middle-aged Honey from Virginia Woolf, and is utterly
amateurish as the wife who can’t handle her booze or hubby. Richard
Bradford makes a great villain, as her creep husband Damon Fuller. E.G.
Marshall as rich guy Val Rogers and James Fox as his married son Jake, who’s in
love with Fonda’s Anna, are solid in cliché roles.
Was Tobey Maguire inspired by Robert Duvall's dazed expressions in "The Chase?" |
Janice Rule, as Duvall's trampy wife, is having an affair with town bad boy, Richard Bradford, in 1966's "The Chase." |
Miriam Hopkins really
slices the ham thick as Bubber's guilt-ridden mother, but she's still effective
in putting this over-baked drama over. Henry Hull, memorably awful as Gary
Cooper’s mentor in The Fountainhead,
is just as hammy here, as the town’s one-man Greek chorus, commenting on one
and all as he takes an evening stroll. Jocelyn Brando is aged up to play his
wife, but unfortunately she was just 45 to Hull’s 75, so it doesn’t work at all.
Despite a 30 year age difference, Jocelyn Brando played Henry Hull's wife in 1966's "The Chase." She would have been younger if she had been cast as Redford's mother! |
There are not one but three parties depicted on the fateful
night: a big birthday party for Marshall's big daddy; the trashy locals
swinging bash; and the teens rockin' out next door. A measure of The Chase’s over the top dramatics is
how ineptly these parties are depicted. The rich Val Rogers “colorful” party is
filled with suck ups straight out of Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof. The swingers’ soiree is like Virginia Woolf, but with guns. And the kids' rockin and rollin'
looks like Peanuts' characters
dancing like nobody's watching! Most hilarious of all is that a precocious teen
is played by future munchkin singer/songwriter Paul Williams—remember him?
Here, Paul looks like a bespectacled Chucky doll! Oh, and there’s a raucous
dental convention in town—heck, everyone but the Hell’s Angels are here partying
down.
Future singer/songwriter Paul Williams is center of the young crowd in "The Chase." |
The Texan characters
are nearly all trashy or rednecks. The allusion to the Kennedy assassination is
clumsily made with a Jack Ruby-style act in the finale. Producer Sam Spiegel
wanted to make an important statement film about the American dream going up in
flames. Hellman specifically wanted to make Texas the target as an indictment
on America, symbolized by the recent JFK assassination. Foote was brought back into
the fold to beef up Hellman’s script, bewildered by how his intimate work was
now blown out of proportion.
Janice Rule as the adulterous wife who comes between unhappy couple Martha Hyer & Richard Bradford in 1966's "The Chase." |
The Chase, whatever the message is striving for, is quite muddled. That all Americans are violent and racist?
That the capitalist system is rotten and had seeped down to all levels of the
economic caste system? The case for the ills of US society is presented about as
convincingly as the operatically absurd The
Fountainhead. The big problem with making The Chase was too many egos using the film as a soapbox, with non-Hollywood
director Arthur Penn not putting his foot down, like fellow neophyte Mike
Nichols did on controversial Virginia
Woolf.
Siblings Jocelyn and Marlon Brando on the set of 1966's "The Chase." |
Arthur Penn, whose
career had been pretty classy, but mostly on stage, had laid a few artsy bombs,
like Mickey One. Penn claimed the
cutting of the film by Spiegel was the culprit for The Chase’s failure. Well, that still leaves Arthur Penn to blame
for the horrible acting by half the cast, accepting an overworked script
without a fight, not insisting on location filming, and tip-toeing around
difficult actors like Brando and Miriam Hopkins.
Producer Sam Spiegel toots his own horn in this ad for 1966's "The Chase." Luckily for mere director Arthur Penn, he directed "Bonnie & Clyde" the next year! |
Producer Sam Spiegel
really played up his resume while presenting The Chase as his film.
And what Hollywood type wouldn’t brag, with these producer credits: The African Queen; On the Waterfront; The Bridge
on the River Kwai; Suddenly, Last
Summer; and Lawrence of Arabia.
Three won Best Picture Oscars. However, when you think of any of these films,
do you think of Spiegel, like you would a Selznick? While he wanted Carte Blanche
instead of collaboration, what Spiegel did inflamed the other talents’ egos,
along with his own. Too many chefs stirred the pot, resulting in an overcooked
film.
The Chase is worth watching once for the talent involved. But the
difference between this and the following year’s Hurry Sundown is that the latter is watchable trash and The Chase is a dull, muddled message
film.
Once again, Marlon Brando gets a beatdown on film, and he was all for it, in 1966's "The Chase." |
This is not a good movie, but with that AMAZING collection of performers, the unintentional camp, the decorous costumes/hair and some ripe situations I still like to watch it from time to time. I almost died the first time I got a load of Miriam Hopkins here....! The movie was brimming over with unsympathetic characters trapped in repellent situations. I thought Diana Hyland looked good, at least, while Martha Hyer took top honors for AWFUL acting, coming off very foolishly. Redford was at or near his peak of handsomeness, but isn't really right for the role he had. Such a mess of a movie, really. One reviewer wrote that the story of making the movie, with all its conflicts, was more interesting than the movie itself! I'd like to read the stage play sometime to see what it was like. IIRC, it wasn't much of a hit... Thanks! Poseidon3
ReplyDeleteThanks, Poseidon! Steve McQueen would have been a good "Bubber," put he was already playing an escapee in '66 with "Nevada Smith!" Imagine if Miriam's nemesis Bette had played Bubber's Mama! Pod person Martha Hyer was OUT of her depth. And Janice Rule's hamming was entertaining... as a kid I got her mixed up with Lee Grant... the hair and false eyelashes? Richard Bradford was kinda hawt. Amazing how so much talent can produce such a trainwreck! Cheers, Rick
DeleteOmigosh, what a cast! And look at Paul Williams! I might check this out for the cast alone!
ReplyDeleteHi Karen, Oh, it's worth a watch... once! Cheers, Rick
DeleteWhat an underderachiever! With these resources how could they miss? And boy did they ever. BTW Where was Rod Steiger when all of this was going on?
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Rod was probably making the far better southern drama, "In the Heat of the Night." But had he been in this, Steiger probably would have been on Team Ham with Miriam Hopkins, Janice Rule, and Henry Hull! Yes, with all the talent, and this was the end result. Cheers, Rick
DeleteThis movie used to show up on TV all the time during the 1970s, and I always had a great time watching it. What I remember most is Brando's Southern accent and the way he pronounced the name Bubber. I had completely forgotten that Miriam Hopkins was in it. They should have found a role for Bette Davis so the two of them could go at it again. Jane Fonda seems a little too pristine to be convincing as White trash, but, hey, that's Hollywood magic for you!
ReplyDeleteI have vague memories of it from my '70s childhood. I'm surprised Bette wasn't tapped for Redford's mama over Miriam, in the mid-60s, Davis was more of a name. Maybe here horror era status cancelled her out. And yes, Fonda looks pretty glam for po' white trash! Cheers, Rick
DeleteThe part is probably too small for them to consider Bette. Despite her proclamation that she would take any part, no matter how small, Bette is never too happy playing second fiddle. Whenever she had to take a supporting role, like she did couple of times in the fifty, she could be quite a handful.
DeleteThe reason why no one remembered Miriam Hopkins was in it is probably why Bette would have accepted it even if she was offered the part. Besides Bette is never happy playing a support role despite her proclamation that she was willing to take a amall part if it was good. Her own work history showed that when she had to take a smaller role she can be quite a handful.
ReplyDeleteAround the same time, Bette turned down the role of Paul Newman's mom in "Cool Hand Luke." Much younger Jo Van Fleet did it, instead. It was a great cameo role Bette should have taken. Cheers, Rick
DeleteThis movie kicked off Paul William’s songwriting career. He was so bored on set he started composing to kill time. So without “The Chase,” Kermit wouldn’t have had “Rainbow Connection.”
ReplyDeleteHa! Good to know something came out of all this! Cheers, Rick
Delete