All-Star Cast Can’t Save ‘The Chase’ 1966

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."

Bette VS Miriam: “Old Acquaintance” 1943

 

Bette Davis & Miriam Hopkins toast each other at the end of "Old Acquaintance." 
AFTER their two hour acting bout!

I never saw 1943’s Old Acquaintance until I wrote this essay—gasp!—but have caught the famous shakedown scene between sparring stars Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins. I tend to gravitate toward Davis in her “bad Bette” roles and this movie seemed soapy and sappy. The WB film was based on the Broadway hit by John Van Druten, famed for smart stage comedies, so I was pleasantly surprised. 

The famous moment from "Old Acquaintance." Bette shakes Miriam like a Polaroid camera!

Old Acquaintance takes place over a near two decades in the rocky course of Kit Marlowe and Millie Drake's friendship. Davis’ Kit is a smart, no-nonsense writer of critically acclaimed but commercially-challenged books. Hopkins’ Millie, an indulged young wife, is forever competitive with Kit. With her bestie’s help, Millie wants to be a published author, too. However, the silly but steel-willed Millie wants to write commercial crowd-pleasers, and eventually succeeds.

Miriam Hopkins & Bette Davis as life-long friends & rivals in "Old Acquaintance."

Over the years, Kit becomes close to Millie's husband Preston, and daughter Deirdre, which becomes a bone of contention. Millie manages to wreck her marriage all by herself, yet has no problem in trying to pin the blame on Kit. In the final act, Millie's husband plans to remarry, her daughter is a grown woman, and Kit has a younger beau. All comes to a head when Millie discovers Preston professed his love to Kit, and daughter Deirdre is in love with Kit's young man. 

The roles of Kit and Millie offer a field day for Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins. The stars were re-teamed for Old Acquaintance after their 1938 hit, The Old Maid. Once again, Bette is the subdued, more sympathetic one, and Miriam is the glamorous gadfly. Interestingly, these two movies were the biggest hits from Miriam Hopkins' leading lady days. Hopkins has a ball as the high-strung trash novel writer. Miriam’s performance as a comic bitch is much more on-target than Candice Bergen's hit-and-miss performance in the remake, Rich and Famous. Miriam’s kinetic energy is funny, yet fearsome. Hopkins, a bigger star during the first half of the ‘30s, was also six years older than Davis, but now Bette was the bigger star. However, Hopkins more than held her own in Old Acquaintance!

Art imitating life? Miriam Hopkins & Bette Davis dig deep into their psyches to play frenemies! 

As for Bette Davis, I particularly enjoyed her relaxed performance as Kit in the character’s younger years. An idealized portrait of the Davis persona, Kit is wryly humorous, smart, straightforward, and sympathetic. Davis plays with restraint against Hopkins' dervish of a diva. This works for the movie and their performances.

Bette Davis as young Kit Marlowe in "Old Acquaintance." If that name sounds familiar, it's because that's what Columbia's Harry Cohn wanted to name Kim Novak!

While Bette has great moments as the 40-something Kit, Davis turns rather first lady-ish, as critic James Agee noted of her later WB performances. Bette snaps her lines as crisply as when Margo Channing chomps that celery stick in All About Eve. Also, why would sensible Kit slather on more makeup and sport a candy cane-style silver streak in her hair? Still, Bette has some stellar scenes, as when Kit and the young beau are at cross purposes regarding marriage. Davis’ finale with Hopkins, as they toast each other in friendship, is genuinely satisfying. Some critics carped as to why these two women were friends in the first place. Well, I've had some unlikely friendships that I've sometimes questioned, too!

Shellacking Bette Davis with makeup and a silver streak seems out of
character for the older Kit Marlowe. With Gig Young.

I found Old Acquaintance's story surprisingly adult for the era, with some great lines, and plot turns. The one major beef I have is with the last act. I realize older movies and plays had conventions that were less than realistic. But Old Acquaintance has one that’s just illogical: Kit puts off younger beau Rudd's marriage proposal. Rejected, he immediately is charmed by Deirdre, who he has just called a spoiled brat. They now instantly fall in love. Beau goes back to Kit, to tell her he will now marry Deirdre. And the young woman is hurt when she finds out Rudd had planned to marry Kit. If the former romance was a secret, I missed that plot point! If this had been presented gradually, it would be more believable. 

Though Kit acts as a surrogate mother toward Dolores Moran's Dierdre, she later is shocked that Gig Young's Rudd was romancing Bette's writer. John Loder at left.

John Loder as Preston Drake is solid if not exciting; Delores Moran is decent as daughter Diedre, but I can see why her career didn't go anywhere. Anne Revere has a delicious bit as a sharp reporter. I was shocked to find that Kit’s handsome young beau was Gig Young. Just five years younger than Davis, Young is impossibly youthful and gorgeous; a far cry from his later craggy good looks that were marred by alcoholism.

Gig Young was always distinguished, but I had no idea he was so handsome.

Vincent Sherman does another good job with a "woman's picture" as they were once called. He keeps the episodic story moving and stylish, to boot. Sherman keeps the ladies from chewing the scenery. I'm sure the WB director had his work cut out for him, as this was Bette and Miriam’s acting bout all the way.

Bette Davis & Miriam Hopkins feud was thus publicized on their first film, "The Old Maid!"

Old Acquaintance is far superior to the dreary remake, 1981’s Rich and Famous. Star and producer Jacqueline Bisset opted for the Davis role, with Candice Bergen cast as the crass pulp writer. While Bisset is a subtle actress and Candice has a flair for comedy, their remake felt even more old-fashioned than the original, despite the sex scenes. Bisset's writer isn't just serious, but morose through much of the movie. While Candice is often fun as the catty rival, Pauline Kael rightly pegged Bergen as giving a drag queen performance and that Bisset's character is more of a gay male fantasy. I thought this watching Rich and Famous because it reminded me of criticism about Sex and the City. Perhaps this is because gay men were at the helm of the respective productions?

All eyes back on Old Acquaintance: If you want to watch a stylish comedy-drama, with two great stars creating sparks, Old Acquaintance is a great match. 

 

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Bette as older Kit in "Old Acquaintance." Off-screen, Davis was working to form
the Stage Door Canteen, to benefit WWII troops.