Un vent froid en été

I shall never forget my excitement at first viewing this probably never revived film. Scott Marlowe and Lola Albright were both excellent.There was a general feeling around New York that we were seeing the birth of a new star in Scott Marlowe and that Lola Albright was definitely moving out of TV detective films into a much higher bracket.Instead the director moved into a lifetime of steady but highly inconsistent popular TV productions and Marlowe made only one more film, which had virtually no distribution, before disappearing for over a decade.

I admit this low budget effort,at times,strives too hard for slice of life realism. There is a really awful scene with Albright, her older boyfriend and a neighbor where everybody tries so hard to make it look as if they were not acting that they don't.

But that is neither here nor there.I can not remember a Spring-September romance that carried more impact.That the gritty protagonists are an Italian-American street kid and a stripper adds to the incredible and unexpected poignancy of the situation.Too bad Marlowe and Albright weren't allowed to shoot five more when they were on a hot winning streak but they needed only one such performance to insure that some younger generation will feel the answering cord.This should do really well on DVD reissue and high time.

This isn't a movie loaded with big name stars, although Lola Albright and Scott Marlowe both had busy enough careers, but it has a pretty good story to get your interest, and Albright and Marlowe are both pretty good in their roles. This is an "older woman romances younger guy" story. Albright's Iris is a lonely 30-something woman who happens to work as a stripper at a burlesque club. Marlowe's Vito is the 17 year old son of her building's superintendent who enters her apartment one day to fix her air conditioner, after which sparks fly between the two.

The sparks are well portrayed. Albright was excellent and quite captivating as the sultry, sexy seductress who sets her sights on Vito. I doubt any normal 17 year old guy could have resisted her. Marlowe was marginally less convincing as Vito, but still good enough. The evolution of their relationship from what seems to be a mere fling to a full blown love affair is believable (although it seems perhaps a bit abridged) as is Vito's angst when he finds out that his new love is a stripper, and as is Iris's pain when Vito dumps her afterward. The burlesque scenes were - in the context of 1961 anyway - fairly graphic (although tame by today's standards) and the whole movie had an overtly erotic feel to it from beginning to end.

It's a bit grainy at times, and it has the feel of its era, but in subject matter it's ahead of its time and was probably shocking to many when it came out. It's a very enjoyable and interesting movie to watch.

Kael in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," Waters in (I think) "Crackpot." Ever since I saw Kael's comment (circa 1970), I've wanted to see this. I finally tracked down a DVD pirated from TBS. And it was worth the wait. Yes, it's florid and overstated, but so is opera, and this is the film equivalent of "Traviata": older, "experienced" woman, young man who can't deal with her experience. It reminded me of "Who Killed Teddy Bear?" in that it's another film that is much better than it should be. I can't really say that Albright gives a good performance, but it is a great one, at least in its impact. Her lack of depth feels right for this character, more right than a more subtle performance would have been. It's a paradox of this kind of film.

The film is also surprising frank for 1961. No euphemisms here. Even the boy's father understands what's going on, and is amazingly understanding about it. It's adult, not just in its subject matter, but in its refusal to be coy about it.

I do want to point out one problem with the film. Scott Marlowe's character is supposed to be 17, but Marlowe was about 29 when he made this. Albright was only 7 years older, so you don't get the effect of the age difference, and Marlowe just feels too old to be so innocent. But it's not a killer problem.

I was not yet alive when A COLD WIND IN AUGUST made its initial theatrical go-round, but I suspect that it generated a magnitude of criticism during those less permissive times(in response to its ostensibly unprincipled premise and erotically-charged underpinnings). It's a rather prurient melodrama, but far too gracefully formulated to come off sleazy or sexually exploitive in its portraiture of a brassy mid-life burlesque queen who finds herself in a fiery romantic entanglement with a giddy seventeen year-old boy.

Considering that this film is a product of a far less lenient America, it smolders with audacious sexual intimations which surely raised more than a few eyebrows in '61. Still, it generally approaches its subject matter with sincerity and sensitivity...this is a film of uncommon veracity for its time, and could be mentioned in the same breath as BABY-DOLL, LOLITA, and THE NAKED KISS, films which their era's more priggish types may have found to be of questionable social graces. The makers of these and similarly polemical films should be admired for their fortitude in the face of stifling puritan objection.

Commanding performances are provided by two criminally under-appreciated talents, Albright and Marlowe. They have a unique and entirely believable chemistry on screen which is keynote to the film's success. Joe DeSantis shines as well in the role of Marlowe's cautious but understanding widower father.

A COLD WIND has its share of forgivable blemishes, and it may come off rather stilted, possibly even campy to some with its fifty-year vintage...regardless, it was/is a brave undertaking, professionally appointed and deserving of greater appreciation.

7.5/10

Losing herself in alcohol and New York City, sexy stripper Lola Albright (as Iris Hartford) gets hotter than hot after her air conditioner "craps out" in the middle of summer. When seventeen-year-old Scott Marlowe (as Vito Perugino), the superintendence's handsome Italian son, is sent to fix her busted switch, Ms. Albright seduces him with liquor and lipstick. The couple enjoy their "older woman, younger man" romance, but Albright keeps her "dirty" profession on the back burner. Mr. Marlowe thinks she's a model or actress. All goes well until Albright accepts a stripping job from one of her ex-husbands. Cued in by a streetwise pal, Marlowe goes to see his lover swivel her bikini-clad hips for a mob of horny old men...

The "strip show" makes Marlowe reconsider his feelings for Albright, but she wants to keep "going steady" with the younger man. This ridiculous story is strengthened by the fact that the co-stars play it straight. Albright is sexy and serious, even when exclaiming lines like, "I want him, I want my baby!" Marlowe is clearly too old for the part, but stays in character. The unbelievable "Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" teenager Skip Young (as Al) actually makes Marlowe look younger. There are sensitive supporting performances from Herschel Bernardi as one of her castaways, and Joe DeSantis as his understanding papa. Debuting director Alexander Singer and cameraman Floyd Crosby give "A Cold Wind in August" a fresh look.

******* A Cold Wind in August (7/26/61) Alexander Singer ~ Lola Albright, Scott Marlowe, Herschel Bernardi, Joe DeSantis