Privatbesitz

This legendary, presumed lost film is now available is very good print on blu-ray and DVD. Was it worth the wait? I'd say yes. PRIVATE PROPERTY is artfully photographed and has a very capable cast who give convincing performances. The film is short and to the point: a crime thriller with some subtext, that holds a viewer's interest and sustains plenty of tension. It's not some lost masterpiece, but an accomplished minor film that is somewhat ahead of its time in frankness about some sexual matters.

Corey Allen (Duke), Warren Oates (Boots) play drifters who have apparently just met. Duke is the stronger personality and clearly a manipulating sociopath. He dominates Boots, promising a sexual initiation with a beautiful suburban housewife Ann (Kate Manx). The men have followed Ann to her home by way of nearly car-jacking another driver (Hollywood veteran Jerome Cowan). They hole up in an unoccupied house next door and watch Ann as she swims and sunbathes. All the while, Duke stokes Boots' sexual frustration. It's never clear just how much Boots actually wants Ann. He's clearly under Duke's spell, and soon Ann will be as well. Once Ann's husband leaves on a business trip the film kicks into high gear. There is a nice, moody, late-50s feeling to much of this film, especially in the scenes set inside Ann's home. But unlike most films of the era, PRIVATE PROPERTY has a frankness about sexual matters and sociopathy. Possibly only PSYCHO or PEEPING TOM (both also released in 1960) dared to openly portray violent sexual deviancy in similar ways. PRIVATE PROPERTY is nowhere near those films, artistically speaking, but it's still pretty strong stuff to watch. Leslie Steven's direction is economical and well paced. Thanks to Ted D. McCord, the film has an attractive look, occasionally resembling TV drama from the period. Pete Rugolo's score adds a lot to the atmosphere. Best of all are the actors. Manx is very affecting and it's too bad she did not appear in more films. Corey Allen (always underrated, even after a well- remembered sequence in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) gives the strongest performance. He's very adept at playing on the other characters' weaknesses to achieve his own ends. And Warren Oates at the beginning of his career is a standout as the weak-willed, sexually conflicted Boots. It's great to finally have this film in such a terrific edition.

Two drifters become obsessed with and annoy a frustrated house wife in the Hollywood hills until things become dangerous. This feels like most indie movies today that are a few people in a house and then some stuff happens, so I wasn't suprised to see that it's being remade.

This was scandalous in the 50s and even earned an X rating in the UK. It's mostly innocuous, but it does have a very dark ending with some implied things. Overall, I'm not sure it's the "lost classic" as I've read and really dosnt need a modern remake. I guess it was way ahead of its time, but I generally don't really like the films it's way ahead of. Fortunately, it's only 80 minutes and the last 10 minutes was great.

Watched on Kanopy.

This movie has a high artistic quality. It was filmed by experienced veteran Ted McCord in the typical clinically clean black and white-style of the era. The main setting is an elegant house in the sun drenched hills of Los Angeles - and the location is very well used indeed. The bright setting is sharply contrasted by sexual frustration. The main character seems to be a piece of decoration for her husband, a successful, mainly absent businessman. Her constant stereotype Pepsodent smile renders her somewhat subhuman - well a part of the property. Yet she has a yearning which is unfulfilled. At one point she pulls a broad black belt around her neck, pulls it tight and lies down on the bed. Her lonelyness is relieved by two doubtful characters, one of them a young Warren Oates. Very well filmed underwater swimming pool scenes at the dramatic climax at the end.

It wouldn't be fair for me to rate this 1959 flick. On one hand, it has historical significance since it was one of the first movies denied release by American censors who found it forbidden fruit. On the other hand, as entertainment, I found the 79-minutes unfortunately too talky and boring to endorse. Hence, it doesn't seem fair to choose between the two poles.

The flick starts off well enough, at a filling station where two seedy drifters, Duke and Boots, look to fill their empty lives by pursuing a wealthy blonde for seduction purposes. Now that's a promising start, but from there on, except for the brief ending, the narrative flattens out into a basically one-note affair. After all, how long does it take wily Duke to infiltrate blonde Ann's hilltop mansion where she usually lives alone, her businessman husband out making money. Then too, it's a stretch that wealthy hubby would leave her alone without household help.

Thus, it appears budget constraints flatten the main storyline into a series of hilltop one-on-one talk-fests. Sure, Duke wants to insinuate himself into Ann's life by pretending to be a gardener. But needed suspense in his manuevers is sorely lacking. Still and all, the hilltop setting does furnish a good scenic view of greater LA that kept me watching.

All in all, it looks like the indie effort was a well-intended effort to escape the bonds of 50's studio productions held captive by a strict censorship code. But what might have been cutting edge then, seems banal now when much looser public standards prevail.

My advice: if you're looking for more than mainly talky flatlining, skip it. But if you're interested in former forbidden fruit grab it and bite.

Private Property is a great little neo noir vehicle, outstanding in that its inherent quality, belies the shoestring budget upon which it was made. All the creative elements fortuitously came together for writer/director Leslie Stevens. He gets a great central performance from Corey Allen as deviously shrewd drifter Duke, as well as a distinctly arousing turn from Kate Manx as domestic goddess Ann, seemingly the object of every man's desire, apart from her husband Roger. Then on top of all that, he manages to score the highly experienced Ted McCord as his cinematographer. He must have thought all his Christmases had come at once.

One part home invasion, one part voyeuristic thriller, and one part social critique, considering it was made 60 years ago, Private Property still manages to be quite confronting. It's fairly upfront in its treatment of sexual themes and desires. It looks remarkably good for a film made on such a low budget, even going as unexpectedly far, as featuring some quite extensive underwater photography. I have to be honest and balance my praise, when adding the musical soundtrack however is frequently over-intrusive and not always quite appropriate, for the accompanying scenes.

Stevens comfortably helms the project making excellent use of both his car and home to site the majority of the action. On the evidence of this film, one feels it's a pity we didn't see more cinema work from him, as for much of his career, he worked in theatre, later transitioning to television, where he is arguably best remembered as being the creator of the original Outer Limits.