Details
Movie Description
Playwright William Inge adapted James Leo Herlihy's novel for John Frankenheimer's film which stars Warren Beatty as Berry-Berry Willart. When the young man wires his family home in Ohio from Florida for $200 to save his ailing business, his worshipful 15-year-old brother Clinton (Brandon De Wilde), arrives with the money, only to find that his brother needs it to bail himself out of jail for beating a hooker. Clinton would like to stay with Berry-Berry, but his brother sends him home, the last place the restless teenager wants to be. Conditions there improve, however, when a beautiful boarder, Echo O'Brien (Eve Marie Saint) arrives to teach school, charming Clinton's parents, the aggressively gossipy Annabel (Angela Lansbury) and the amiably alcoholic Ralph (Karl Malden), and completely captivating the boy. Berry-Berry returns, and his overwhelming sexual magnetism soon works its magic on Echo. For the first time in his life, it almost seems as though the callous womanizer has fallen in love, but complications arise, and his true nature reasserts itself. An overwrought blend of Inge and Tennessee Williams cliches, the film boasts a powerhouse clicking on all cylinders, and an effectively moody score by Alex North (STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, SPARTACUS).
Synopsis
The story of a young man whose adolescence is complicated by his adulation for his cruel, emotionally troubled older brother. Although he realizes he must break with his older sibling in order to come of age on his own terms, he cannot do so until the wayward brother's actions destroy a woman to whom the young brother is hopelessly attached.
Film Notes
Theatrical release: March 28, 1962.
Shooting location: Key West, Florida.
Actress Evans Evans is Frankenheimer's wife.
While shooting in Key West, the director wanted a genuine brothel for a scene early in the film, so he got the city to reopen one that the police had recently closed. The location was so rank that Frankenheimer ended up using incense from a local church so that they could shoot.
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