THE WILD ONE (1953)
Directed by Laslo Benedek
Produced by Stanley Kramer
With Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith & Lee Marvin
79 min
Special Features: Introduction by Karen Kramer. Commentary with film historian Jeanine Basinger. “Hollister, California: Bikers, Booze and the Big Picture” & “Brando: An Icon Is Born” featurettes.

It would be hard to imagine a more eclectic box set: a Carson McCullers adaptation, a psychedelic Dr. Seuss musical, the iconic Marlon Brando biker flick, an international drama on the high seas, and the last Hepburn-Tracy pairing – all produced and/or directed by the stalwart independent filmmaker Stanley Kramer.

Although dated in its gingerly approach to interracial marriage, the drawing room comedy-turned-message film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner stands the test of time acting-wise, thanks to Hepburn and Tracy as the liberal couple whose tolerance is tested when their only child becomes engaged to Sidney Poitier. Unbelievably, Hepburn was tense on-set because of partner Tracy’s failing health, according to her niece and costar Katharine Houghton, who also detected a bit of “brittleness” in her aunt’s performance. Refreshingly forthright for a DVD featurette, Houghton describes her role as the incredibly optimistic daughter as a concept, not a character. Her love interest, Poitier, almost had the same problem, as the too-good-to-be true good doctor/humanitarian. But maybe the world the young couple envisioned has arrived; the young bride-to-be imagines that one day their biracial children could become President of the United States. His reply, “I’ll settle for Secretary of State.” (This 40th anniversary disc is available separately.)

The only Germans not invited to the captain’s table in 1965’s Ship of Fools are a Jewish businessman and a dwarf; the rise of Nazism is one of the drama’s undercurrents, which holds a mirror as much to the ’60s as to the ’30s. Think a global village Grand Hotel, which smoothly hops from one passenger’s crisis to the next, including that of Vivien Leigh, playing another aging coquette, skirting the coarse, alcoholic ex-baseball player (and Southern racist) Lee Marvin. The most arresting pairing: aristocratic drug addict (Simone Signoret) and Oskar Werner’s reticent but charming doctor (both were nominated for Academy Awards). Their subtle relationship contrasts with the glass-shattering dramatics of Lee. Forty-three years later, the beautifully photographed black-and-white film has plenty of moments that still disturb.

The Wild One entirely rests on the shoulders of leather-clad Brando, the ring leader of a biker gang inexplicably terrorizing a small town. Even historian Jeanine Basinger, in her footnote-laden commentary, admits that no one really calls this a good movie. Her dry comments pick up steam, though, dishing on the rivalry between Brando and costar Lee Marvin. The featurette “Hollister, California: Bikers, Booze and the Big Picture” debunks the press coverage of the supposed 1947 riot that inspired the film.

Most of Kramer’s works are boldly theatrical. In Ship of Fools, one character introduces and closes the film, shattering the fourth wall. The observant and moving The Member of the Wedding, adapted from McCullers’s stage adaptation of her coming-of-age novel, features three of the play’s original cast members, including 26-year-old Julie Harris as the hysterically histrionic and needy 12-year-old tomboy Frankie. Harris has at least two emphatic mad scenes. Who needs I Puritani? It’s easy to imagine that this is very much like the performances that established Harris’s stage career. Gesticulating with flailing arms, she makes every action clear. In the extra, “On Board the Ship of Fools,” Elizabeth Ashley, another leading lady of the theater, confesses that director Kramer would whisper to her to take her acting down a notch. One wishes that Wedding’s director, Fred Zimmermann, would have done the same; Frankie’s frequent and ferocious breakdowns blur together. Still, have a Kleenex handy.

Unlike the set’s other films, it pays to watch the straight-to-the point featurettes for The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. before watching this candy-colored anti-fascist fable for kids cowritten by Dr. Seuss; you can then listen for the various musical influences in Frederick Hollander’s varied score and try to spot George Chakiris as one of the shirtless, green-skinned trombonists in the “Dungeon Schlim-Schlam” number. In what is really one long fantasy sequence, youngster Bart (Lassie’s Tommy Rettig) instinctually questions authority and rebels against his dictatorial piano teacher, Dr. T. (the comically vain and sinister Hans Conried, the progenitor for Christopher Lloyd of the raised eyebrow). Kent Turner
February 15, 2008