Private Property

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Irving Lerner's "murder by contract' (1958) meets the French Nouvelle Vague,although the latter was never rebellious;this one is : it's a sentence which sparks off both heroes' resentment :human being are like animals :there are different species: birds,snakes ....A bird would not kiss a snake . Whereas this kind of film would today be full of violence,gore and rape, this one keeps the usual clichés to the minimum :violence in the car with the well off driver is purely verbal but makes one's hair stand on end though . Although a threatening atmosphere hangs over the desirable property, Duke's and Ann's relationship has something romantic ; he really tries to seduce her ; the best moment is the dance to a score strongly influenced by the Bolero de Ravel ,which perfectly enhances the rise of desire .As for his buddy "Boots' ,he's the voyeur whose lust is all the more intensified . In spite of a "moral" denouement ,the movie displays the grudge the "Have-nots" bear against the "haves" ;(check the title) and the pre-lib woman ,in spite of her resistance, is perhaps not really satisfied in her role of the prefect housewife whose husband provides her with everything,as she tells us so.

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.