850 Something Wild (1961)

[HerrSchreck]

Something Wild



A complex exploration of the physical and emotional effects of trauma, Something Wild stars Carroll Baker, in a layered performance, as a college student who attempts suicide after a brutal sexual assault but is stopped by a mechanic played by Ralph Meeker—whose kindness, however, soon takes an unsettling turn. Startlingly modern in its frankness and psychological realism, the film represents one of the purest on-screen expressions of the sensibility of the intimate community of artists around New York's Actors Studio, which transformed American cinema in the mid-twentieth century. With astonishing location and claustrophobic interior photography by Eugene Schüfftan, an opening-title sequence by the inimitable Saul Bass, and a rhythmic score by Aaron Copland, this film by Jack Garfein is a masterwork of independent cinema.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New, restored 2K digital transfer, supervised by director Jack Garfein, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New conversation between Garfein and critic Kim Morgan
• New interview with actor Carroll Baker
• New interview with scholar Foster Hirsch on the Actors Studio's cinematic legacy
• Master Class with Jack Garfein, a 2015 recording of one of the director’s world-famous lectures on acting technique
• PLUS: An essay by critic Sheila O'Malley

[Dylan]

I just caught this for the first time over the weekend on the Sundance channel late nite.

From IMDB:

Directed by Jack Garfein

Mary Ann Robinson, a young woman living in The Bronx, New York, with her neurotic, overbearing mother and kindly but ineffectual stepfather, is raped while walking home one night. Keeping the attack to herself, Mary Ann runs away, seeking to lose herself in Manhattan by renting a seedy flat and taking a job in a dime store. Overwhelmed by people's hostility and her own despair, Mary Ann tries to jump off the Manhattan Bridge, only to be stopped by Mike, a garage mechanic who takes her back to his modest basement apartment nearby. At first appreciative of Mike's kindness, Mary Ann becomes terrified when he refuses to let her leave. Is Mike really Mary Ann's rescuer - or is he another rapist?

It stars Carroll Baker (director's once-wife) in the lead, and has a young Jean Stapleton (fahrkin Edith Bunker) as the post-rape lead's seedy tramp of a next door neighbor walking around inna slip & blasting jolts of whiskey with sailorboys keeping the whole Lower East Side fleatrap Baker moves into awake with gigglefucking. It's almost all location shooting in the old vanished Bronx neighborhoods & elevated subways, down in the Lower East Side, etc... and features magnificent photography by Eugen Schufftan.

Besides the fact that I'm somewhat of a collector of Old NY-location Films, I loved this film on it's face. I loved it's sparse dialog, minimalist strangeness, how understated the subtext-- or what the film is actually "about"-- is, how the young Baker wanders through the plot like a sleepwalker.

Does anybody out there know of any editions of this strange little ditty being available on DVD? You would make my day & earn my instant gratitude. I could probably plug into a VHS with a phone call but owing to the collectability of the film I'd really love a first-tier edition of the transfer.

I didn't even know this film was in circulation, so it's good to hear that it's been on Sundance. I believe it is a 20th Century Fox film, and what little I know about it mostly has to do with Aaron Copland's score (which was released on CD for the first time a few years ago, though I haven't heard it). Ever since I first read about it I thought it sounded interesting though, so I'll have to check it out next time it's on.

I believe Sundance is the first place it's seen the light of day in perhaps decades so perhaps a DVD release will follow sometime this year.

How was the transfer, and what aspect ratio was it?

[HerrSchreck]

I didn't even know this film was in circulation, so it's good to hear that it's been on Sundance. I believe it is a 20th Century Fox film, and what little I know about it mostly has to do with Aaron Copland's score (which was released on CD for the first time a few years ago, though I haven't heard it). Ever since I first read about it I thought it sounded interesting though, so I'll have to check it out next time it's on.

I believe Sundance is the first place it's seen the light of day in perhaps decades so perhaps a DVD release will follow sometime this year.

How was the transfer, and what aspect ratio was it?

Crap, I knew there was something I was forgetting to mention-- Copland's score. Although it got a little modernly-busy (sustained moments of atonality which-- and don't get me wrong, I'm a Stravinsky/Ives/Bartok/Zappa/etc nut-- due to the linear & ambiguous thread of the narrative, could serve to unhinge one's investment in places as this is not a film which openly tells you what to feel) I had little problem with it otherwise and in fact was digging it so much I jumped online to find out who the coomposer was (I caught the title in the lead credits but hardly paid attention to the rest as they rolled as I had no intention of sticking with it... didn't even know it was Shufftan either until I looked-- believe me this thing sucked me right in & started blowing me away from the getgo. )

The transfer was pretty decent... the blacks were nice & sharp-- I was watching it on a studio sony WEGA so the transmission repro was basically accurate. I believe it was a standard 1:1.37 AR but don't quote me on this-- if it was a widescreen it was just the first notch or so out ie 1.66 to 1. The print was in excellent shape.

I hope you're right that this makes it to DVD. I love finding obscure pleasures like this. A lot of talent in full bloom came together on this film and disciplined themselves into keeping it richly poetic, choosing a quiet, intimate strangeness over loud pathos. The only time it loses it's way a bit is during the last third of the film while she's holed up in this quiet, slightly off-balance mechanic's apartment. I don't wanna give it away so I won't say any more. I will say that something about this film reminded me of Leopold Jessner's BACKSTAIRS, the rare German silent film from 1921. The seedy apartments, in the musty, aging buildings in the low-rent parts of town, the mutely off-balance, almost sleepwalking personalities, almost Travis-Bickle-like in their disconnectedness. Loved it.

[tryavna]

Re. the Copland score: As far as I know, the only recorded versions in existence are based on the 4-movement suite entitled "Music for a Great City" that Copland arranged in 1963. I own the version recorded by Slatkin, which seems to be out of print. But this version, conducted by Copland himself, still seems to be in print.

Personally, I don't really care for it, but then again, I don't find that Copland had much to say as a composer after his opera The Tender Land (1952-54) -- with a couple of interesting exceptions, most notably Connotations (1962). At least, I don't find that he's doing anything from the mid-1950s on that other composers (like Stravinsky) aren't doing better.

By the way, Schreck, I don't know what you mean about Copland's score for Something Wild being atonal -- or even experimenting with atonality. It certainly has moments of dissonance, but it is most definitely not atonal.

[tryavna]

Well, I'll be darned. Varese did release the full score on CD. Apparently, it's still available here, if anyone's interested.

I guess the lesson here is never to trust Amazon too much about whether any given CD is still in print.

[HerrSchreck]

Re. the Copland score: As far as I know, the only recorded versions in existence are based on the 4-movement suite entitled "Music for a Great City" that Copland arranged in 1963. I own the version recorded by Slatkin, which seems to be out of print. But this version, conducted by Copland himself, still seems to be in print.

Personally, I don't really care for it, but then again, I don't find that Copland had much to say as a composer after his opera The Tender Land (1952-54) -- with a couple of interesting exceptions, most notably Connotations (1962). At least, I don't find that he's doing anything from the mid-1950s on that other composers (like Stravinsky) aren't doing better.

By the way, Schreck, I don't know what you mean about Copland's score for Something Wild being atonal -- or at least experimenting with atonality. It certainly has moments of dissonance, but it is most definitely not atonal.

Tryavna... clearly you own the sheet music or have examined this score thoroughly enough that you've ascertained that this spacious, linear score with few repeating figures of thematic signature or recognizable character lietmotif/melody has no moments free of a tonic center.

That assumed & hopefully true owing to you Calling Me Out on this I'd simply say I just saw the thing for the first time. On a cinema chat board as in life, when talking with mostly non-musicians, atonal can be a description as well as a proper term... the way if I said "it sounded bluesy", I wouldn't expected to be Guaranteeing A Pentatonic Scale.

The score, which you've heard (probably as a lone piece of music) more than I (who was distracted boucning offa the walls Loving A Great Unseen Film during my 1st & only hearing), clearly does nothing for you.

Duly noted.

[Dylan]

More information about the soundtrack CD, from Varese Sarabande's website:

Though it was believed to have been completely lost, a recent discovery has made this release possible. Unfortunately, however, the master tapes for this score have not survived the years.

At the time of the film's release, Aaron Copland and director Jack Garfein produced the score for a soundtrack release and had just a few copies of an LP privately pressed on high quality vinyl. It was hoped that they could be used to interest a record company in releasing the score. Unfortunately they were unsuccessful. One of these LPs was presented to President Kennedy. The others disappeared over the years. The director's wife recently discovered a still-sealed copy in their attic and, from this never played LP, a transfer was made using the best of today's technology. Further and extensive work was performed to improve the sound as much as possible. Copland's riveting score, in the album presentation he had always hoped for, can finally be heard, sounding better than ever.

CD packaging features original artwork by Saul Bass and Al Hirschfeld.

For soundclips: http://www.varesesarabande.com/details. ... %2D469%2D2

Additional review: http://www.musicfromthemovies.com/revie ... 30&ID=1100

[tryavna]

Tryavna... clearly you own the sheet music or have examined this score thoroughly enough that you've ascertained that this spacious, linear score with few repeating figures of thematic signature or recognizable character lietmotif/melody has no moments free of a tonic center.

That assumed & hopefully true owing to you Calling Me Out on this I'd simply say I just saw the thing for the first time. On a cinema chat board as in life, when talking with mostly non-musicians, atonal can be a description as well as a proper term... the way if I said "it sounded bluesy", I wouldn't expected to be Guaranteeing A Pentatonic Scale.

The score, which you've heard (probably as a lone piece of music) more than I (who was distracted boucning offa the walls Loving A Great Unseen Film during my 1st & only hearing), clearly does nothing for you.

Duly noted.

Jeez, Schreck, you've been awful touchy lately. I didn't mean to "Call You Out" (as if that somehow scores me points).

I was simply curious about your use of the word "atonal." Copland did indeed compose atonal pieces around the same time as Something Wild, though I've never detected atonalism in the score (or, rather, in the "Music for a Great City" suite). And based on your stated enthusiasm for Stravinsky, who also composed atonal pieces late in life, I thought you were using "atonality" in its specific sense. (Normally, I would argue that, as opposed to "modern," "atonal" can/should be used only in its specific sense and not as a vague description, since it typically refers to a very specific approach to composition. But why quibble now?) I readily buy the assertion that the score is "modern." But to somebody with a little musical training, your use of "atonal" suggests an argument that it's apparent you aren't really making. My apologies if I've offended you, but if so many of us quibble over cinematic or industry-related terms elsewhere, then why not at least offer a fairly benignly worded correction here?

By the way, "atonality" isn't really that difficult to detect. At its most basic level, it merely requires attention to whether or not a piece or section of music possesses a tonal center or key. As far as I can tell, Copland remains firmly committed to tonality throughout "Music for a Great City," despite his frequent use of dissonance.

[tryavna]

Both Copland and Virgil Thomson are what I would certainly class as non-atonal composers, but that's straitjacketing them. They both employ idiomatic music (both Concert and film) and can drift into pentatonics and such.

David, in the case of Copland, it depends on which period of his career you're talking about. In the mid- to late-1960s, Copland often employed textbook serial techniques in his compositions -- Inscape in particular comes to mind -- which would have made Schoenberg proud. In fact, there's a wonderful story about the premiere of Copland's Connotations (at the opening of the Lincoln Center, I believe): Jackie Kennedy was in attendance and, like most of the people there, was expecting typical Americana from Copland, whose work was specially commissioned for the opening. After the performance, Mrs. Kennedy supposedly approached Copland with a horrified expression and could only blurt out, reprimandingly, "Oh, Mr. Copland!"

Don't know much about Thompson's work, though -- apart from his scores for Flaherty and Pare Lorentz, of course. In general, his music strikes me as less daring than Copland's, but film music is never the best means of judging just how avant-garde a composer might be. They tend to reign themselves in considerably for film scores.

[Ishmael]

Another review of the Copland score:

http://classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=9745

[tryavna]

Let's leave the lectures to people who need them (although I don't really want to articulate that score.)

I didn't realize we had been lecturing; I thought that we were discussing Copland's musical context -- and perhaps sharing a couple of interesting, if irrelevant, anecdotes. (By the way, re. Copland's sexuality, do you know much about his bizarre relationship with Paul Bowles? Apparently, as far as mentoring was concerned, Copland was only interested in mentored other gay musicians/composers. To make a long story short, Bowles, who I guess was quite a catch in the gay concert hall world at the time, led Copland on for months/years in order to use the older man and get a boost to his career. Yet Copland never seems to have harbored ill feelings towards Bowles afterwards.)

Anyway, I agree with you about Debussy's long shadow. He was the first composer to try to design a wholly new theory of musical composition, an idea that clearly influenced Schoenberg and others. In some ways, I've always wished he had spent more time composing than theorizing, as I quite like his music.

One final note (no pun intended): Not sure if I agree with you on Copland's work never going further than "discordant," though. His approach to serialism was always idiosyncratic, but he was certainly attempting to produce some atonal music in the 1960s. (Again, Inscape seems to me the clearest example.)

[HerrSchreck]

Tryavna... clearly you own the sheet music or have examined this score thoroughly enough that you've ascertained that this spacious, linear score with few repeating figures of thematic signature or recognizable character lietmotif/melody has no moments free of a tonic center.

Jeez, Schreck, you've been awful touchy lately. I didn't mean to "Call You Out" (as if that somehow scores me points)...
By the way, "atonality" isn't really that difficult to detect. At its most basic level, it merely requires attention to whether or not a piece or section of music possesses a tonal center or key.

Before answering the first question, I'd like to point out that your last statement was just a rep of my last line quoted above, so the instruction wasn't nec. Second time this week with this sort of thing. As to me being touchy "lately", I dunno. Am I a little bit sick in the head & sense conspiracies the way those are suposed to be "children" petting the "yearlings" (whattam I a fucking baby chick already?) at the children's zoo, and with the way those are supposed to be "pedestrians" on the street and is it a problem how yeah right okay that's supposed to be my older brothers "son" running around like a 5 year old in the pajamas with the feet connected to the ankles? Yes. It'll only be a problem til I find the transmitter. Just because they say "they're" not poisoning your water or kidnapping your doo doo from the toilet to promptly rush it to a room where a big crowd laughs at it as they apply stethescopes to it & study it under the light & put it in a room & yell at it & program it's mind with feelings of Special Guilt doesn't mean that if you lift my blanket at night you won't see tears of stark terror streaming down my face.

But that's old news. What was going on w you was that the only time I ever hear from you is when you get snippy (I think this is you) over a Milestone release and decide It's time to reply to Schreck. Act purely adversarial and I'll think of you as one. Share an agreement here & there, even for the sake of Form, and wa la-- 2 way convo.

Part of my difficulty is also this -- I couldn't even hum you a single bar of the score. I have no capability of having a technical discussion with you on this until I gave it another listen for listening sake. I just liked the movie quite a bit and am dying for a DVD. I noticed before I checked that the music was written by somebody beyond the usual realm of score-hacks, I thought it's linear nature worked opposite of any narrative support for the film story in a number of areas, worked well in corresponding to the spaced out ambiguity of the narrative in other zones... there were some interesting things there but I'd really need to give it more of a listen. Many, many stretches of dissonant woodwinds, no?

Speaking of Debussy-- Dave, is that PRELUDE TO THE AFTERNOON OF A SEXUALLY AROUSED GASMASK I mean PRELUDE TO THE AFTERNOON OF A FAWN that Rohauer laid against Herman Weinbergs AUTUMN FIRE on the Kino set?

[tryavna]

Schreck, the last time I responded to a post of yours was only a few days ago in the Father Sergius thread (regarding Aelita) here. That's hardly snippy, imho. If you're referring to a recent response from me, it might have been here in the now-detached thread on All Quiet on the Western Front. I may have been snippy at first with my "it's a given" response, though that might have been out of sheer disbelief that you'd think somebody talking about Lewis Milestone wasn't familiar with his most famous film. At any rate, if I was being snippy in the first post, I don't think my later post about Westfront, 1918 is anything but conversational. Could the fact that you decided not to respond to it be read as a snub? I don't really care to think of it one way or the other because, quite frankly, I don't keep track of whom I respond to in this forum or who responds to me. It strikes me as being more frighteningly paranoid than the surely-comic paranoia in your post above. So if you think I'm out to get you, I can assure you that I'm not. But if my comments about Aelita don't convince you that I'm open to conversation and generally pretty civil around here, then I don't know what more I can say to convince you otherwise.

As far as the first line of your post is concerned, all I can say is "Sorry if I sounded condescending." I only meant to point out that atonality isn't difficult to discern in a piece of music. You do indeed define "atonality" in your previous post, but you seem to imply that it requires close study of a composition's written score. While that's useful, it's not necessary.

As for your third paragraph, I agree entirely with you. The fact that Copland scored the film certainly does distinguish it from most others, since Copland was a major American composer and scored so few films. (I still find it less interesting than most of his scores, which he composed between 1939 and 1949, but I also personally think that he was at the height of his powers during that 10-year period.) If you wish to explore the music by itself, I hope you'll find the links I provided above useful. (See, I do try to be helpful, even when I might not be a big fan of the music or film under discussion.) I even agree that there are MANY stretches of dissonance throughout the score -- in windwinds, brass, and strings, too.

At any rate, this is a much longer post than I usually write, but I hope it qualifies for "2 way convo." At the very least, consider it an olive branch from someone who never meant to appear as the adversary you obviously felt he was.

[HerrSchreck]

Indeed it is - and the speediest performance of it I've ever heard. And -given Dave Kehr's great description of Rohauer as "that copyright speculator", I bet he didn't pay any royalties for it.

Re music more generally. Has anyone come across CD collections of scores by Georges Auric and Maurice Jaubert? These two are an intrinsic part of French 30s and 40s cinema. And more. Aside from Auric's well known Cocteau scores, I'd love to piece together some others.

WAGES OF FEAR & RIFIFI for Auric for sure... maybe CHILDREN OF PARADISE if I'm not wrong (all & specifically latter off the top of my head, dont clobber me if I'm wrong). I love Jaubert's QUAI DE BRUMES... if ever a theme expressed the thru line of a film, this does... ah, as Jean Gabin looks out the window of Panamas at sunrise that first evening. Not too far OT here but god, I get invested in the love story in that film in an unusually deep fashion... romance-novel-reading bored-housewife deep.

As to Rohauer, he reminds me with his ownership-shenanigans (without losing sight of the 'keyness' of his role) of Shepard & Kino's copywriting "special contents" of their editions... which means, in addition to menus & extras, little defects & speckles that they add after telecine to the fillms themselves so that if someone rips a dupe by itself & tries to sell it they can 'prove' 'ownership' of that original telecine by the existence of these artifacts. Odd world.

EDIT: I meant Jean & Michele Morgan looking out the window of Panamas that first morning.

[HerrSchreck]

Schreck, the last time I responded to a post of yours was only a few days ago in the Father Sergius thread (regarding Aelita) .

I read you loud & clear-- and I stand corrected about the Aelita thread. I forgot that was you. Let's bury the hatchet & move forward as we're both a lot smarter to sink into the mire over something I basically agree with you over: I don't own a single Copland work.

[tryavna]

Re music more generally. Has anyone come across CD collections of scores by Georges Auric and Maurice Jaubert? These two are an intrinsic part of French 30s and 40s cinema. And more. Aside from Auric's well known Cocteau scores, I'd love to piece together some others.

I don't know of any releases of Jaubert's film music. (In fact, I've never run across any albums of Jaubert's music at all.) But there are a couple of good CDs of Auric's work in film.

This Chandos release is a compilation of excerpts from his better known British scores and Moulin Rouge. Unfortunately, it doesn't contain any of his music for French films, which is what you specifically asked for. I do, however, think it's worth picking up for Dead of Night. Pity it's such a short suite.

And you may already know of Marco Polo's re-recording of his score forBeauty and the Beast. If not, you'll want to pick it up, too. Not an outstanding recording, but a good one, and it's the full score, forunately. It's available via the Naxos site.

Finally, here are some albums I don't know but found:

One on Amazon that includes Lola Montez.
One from Amazon.UK that apparently includes Rififi.
Another from Amazon.UK that includes more Cocteau stuff.

Actually, it looks like the latter three are all Naxos releases and so are available via the Marco Polo link I posted above. But as you can see, not a lot from his work in the 40s and especially the 30s, but it's a decent start. Hope it's helpful.

EDIT: And I see you and Schreck have both posted as I was writing this message. Looks like we're all back on friendly terms. (That's good. I hate conflict, even when it's online and anonymous.)

[tryavna]

Tryavna's not my real name, but don't tell anybody.

:-$

[tryavna]

In case anyone's interested, the FLIX channel will be showing this movie tonight in the US. FLIX's schedule tends to run in cycles, so presumably it will be shown a few more times over the next few weeks.

[Gordon]

DVD-R from a TV broadcast available HERE.

Sounds like an interesting film, especially the now-vanished NY locales and Eugen Schüfftan's cinematography - he had just finished working on The Hustler, I believe.

[Dylan]

7/10 isn't very good on SuperHappyFun's scale is it? By the way, they've had that for a while, so it's possible that the TV recording dates back 10-20 years. The Sundance/FLIX print probably looks a lot better.

[Gordon]

The Sundance/FLIX print probably looks a lot better.

Undoubtedly. But what are the chances of it coming to DVD?

[HerrSchreck]

The Sundance/FLIX print probably looks a lot better.

Undoubtedly. But what are the chances of it coming to DVD?

Hopefully its' current recirculation with a (most likely newly struck w digitized telecine) clean print bodes favorably viz the odds of a DVD. 'Specially since studios are really sweeping out the vaults these days looking for surprise gems to slap on DVD.

[HerrSchreck]

DVD-R from a TV broadcast available HERE.

Sounds like an interesting film, especially the now-vanished NY locales and Eugen Schüfftan's cinematography - he had just finished working on The Hustler, I believe.

Has anybody had a look at this Super Happy Fun disc/boot of SOMETHING WILD? The memory of my one viewing of this film is kicking & squiriming down inna roots of my head, and I'm jonesing to see it again. Beautiful film & still no sign of DVD, so willing to go with a boot. If it's decent.

[HerrSchreck]

Those who havent managed to catch a look at this rare gem-- it's coming up on TCM on April 9th.

[Person]

Those who havent managed to catch a look at this rare gem-- it's coming up on TCM on April 9th.

Rip that joint, someone.