The Stripper (1963)

Copyright 15 May 1963 by Jerry Wald Productions. Released through 20th Century-Fox. New York opening simultaneously at the Astor, the 72nd Street Playhouse and other cinemas: 19 June 1963. U.S. release June 1963. U.K. release: 26 May 1963. 8,516 feet. 94½ minutes. U.K. release title: WOMAN OF SUMMER.NPTES: Film debut for TV director Franklin Schaffner. Travilla was nominated for an Academy Award for his black-and-white costume design, losing to Piero Gherardi's 8½. Running a disastrous 25 performances, "A Loss of Roses" opened on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on 28 November 1959. St Subber and Lester Osterman were the producers and Daniel Mann directed. Betty Field was Mrs Baird, Warren Beatty was Kenny and Carol Haney was Lila. For this film version, Robert Webber and Michael J. Pollard repeat their stage roles.COMMENT: Anyone expecting anything spicy either because of the film's title or its advertising, is in for a mighty big disappointment here. True, Miss Woodward looks more attractive than usual, thanks to skillful photography and a becoming hair style, but the climactic strip tease is so tame it makes a mockery out of the script. At the conclusion of the so-called "strip", she is wearing more clothes than she usually does to walk down the street!The screenplay is so talkative, it obviously derives with little alteration from the stage play — and such boring dialogue it is too! The fatal casting of that unattractive and uninspiring actor Richard Beymer in a pivotal role doesn't help matters, though it must be admitted that even Claire Trevor is hard put to get anything out of her banal and commonplace dialogue.Despite her prominence in the billing, Gypsy Rose Lee has a minuscule role and drops out of the film altogether at a very early stage. Miss Woodward herself brings a bit of life to her part and Robert Webber is adequate as her villainous manager. Michael J. Pollard has a small but recognizable part as Beymer's sidekick. Schaffner's direction is disappointingly dull and unimaginative, almost all the scenes being handled with a maximum of uninspired close-ups. Production values are distinctly mediocre.This was the last film of the late producer, Jerry Wald — he died before any responsibility at all for this unbelievably sloppy production could be charged to him It was originally intended as a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe, for whom William Inge is said to have designed the play on which it is based ("A Loss of Roses"). Monroe could not have been worse in it than is Joanne Woodward.Director Franklin Schaffner, who hails from TV, was ill-advised to fix upon this confusion for his movie debut. To add insult to injury, the movie is full of errors. I make it twenty-three! See how many you can find. For example, a woman giving testimony in the witness box is at the very same time shown to be sitting in court among the spectators!

As a young kid in Junior High School (Middle School) I was fascinated when the movie crew came to our small town of Chino, California to film "The Stripper". I hate to ruin the perception of some that it was actually filmed on location somewhere in the mid-west. But since we were only about 35 miles from downtown Los Angeles, and Chino was a small farming and dairy town of about 10,000 population, we looked like many mid-western towns. But back then some of the crew told me that the film had a working title of "Celebration". Every day after school I would ride my bike to whatever part of town they they happened to be filming in. I think it took about a week or two to film all of the outside shots. They were filming at my school, Chino Junior High School, with some classroom shots and a shot outside on the steps of the old building. That was really exciting to me as a 13 year old student. Other days they were filming in other various spots in our small town. One day I spent all afternoon watching them film the shots of the old car pulling into Esparzas' gas station in the old downtown of Chino. I think Louis Nye, Gypsy Rose Lee, Joanne Woodward and Michael J. Pollard were in that scene. Another day watching Joanne Woodward walking up and down the front walk of an older wood frame house in her nightgown. She was very nice. As she saw me watching she smiled and said "Hi". Have to admit though, when the movie came out, I was a bit disappointed. Having all of those scenes stored in my mind in vivid color, the way that I remembered it and saw it acted out, the resulting black and white version seemed somewhat dull and dreary.

William Inge play "A Loss of Roses", originally written with Marilyn Monroe in mind, becomes showy dramatic vehicle for Joanne Woodward playing Lila Green, low-rent actress passing through her hometown in Kansas, ditched by her manager and boarding with an old girlfriend and her teenage son. The screenplay is entirely too straightforward, too rounded off; it should be more mercurial, mysterious, but instead it's routine soapy business. The character of Lila is an unconvincing creation: full of stories of users and hangers-on, she's a dreamer at the dead-end, hopeful but pathetic. Lila has been divorced, yet she's a little naive around men--it's never established how much of a tramp she is or where her reputation stands (as shown, she's more smoke than fire, more sad than sex-driven). It's to Woodward's credit the film is still quite interesting, yet the actress is too innately refined to be convincing as a kittenish tart. She is entirely serviceable, yet one can only watch and think what a more appropriate actress might have done with this material, weak as it is. This is one cleaned-up "Stripper" (awful title!), a film which never sinks to the sordid levels depicted, but remains a tidy middle-of-the-road tale. **1/2 from ****

What a good movie!!! Made to perfection. That Joanne Woodward never fails to amaze me! She is quite simply the greatest actress ever to set foot on stage or grace the screen. and I mean that. She is mind-blowing in every movie she does, this one is no exception. Her portayed of Lila Green is nothing short of genius. The rest of the cast is great too...though, like someone before me said, none of them are likable characters except Lila. Well, except for little Sandra. She's likeable.I recommend this movie to anyone! If for nothing else, see this movie for a stunning performance by Joanne Woodward.