The Gypsy Moths (1969)

I've always enjoyed the films of Lancaster, Wilson, Hackman and Kerr. I saw that this movie was going to air on TCM so I recorded it and watched it today... First thing I noticed was the blurred out magazine on the guys lap at the root beer stand 2 minutes into the movie, what the hell was that all about ??? Why blur it out ?The movie takes place in a small Kansas town where these three barnstorming skydivers pull into to put on a 'thrilling' show over the 4th of July holiday. The scenes show the cast members sweating it out in the hot Kansas sun, yet throughout the film we see folks dressed in suits and long sleeved shirts, wearing jackets and other things that just don't seem to fit.One of the jumpers (Wilson) has relatives (William Windom and Deborah Kerr) in this town so they are invited to stay there with a girl tenant who goes to school there (portrayed by Bonnie Bedilia). This is summer, so there is no schooling session and the town looks too small to have a college so it made me wonder what the girl was there for. So after only being there for a few minutes things are heating up between Kerr and Lancaster, for no apparent reason really... Lancaster gives a speech at the local ladies club which Kerr attends and she is there, at the end, alone with Burt, to ask why he has contempt for them and everyone else. Wow, what dialogue, it just floats in from thin air and makes little sense either. The skydivers have a dinner with the couple later and explain the extreme danger and thrills of jumping. And Lancaster leers across the table at Kerr while the husband does nothing...Then it is time to take in the local strip club with the twirling tassels and the horny waitress... Really tasteless stuff actually, does nothing for the film and seems to have been added for the sole reason to have nudity in the film. Makes no sense again...Later Lancaster and Kerr take a long walk in the evening while Windom watches his wife from an upstairs window walk off with a complete stranger. Kerr seems to walk, talk and act in a slow motion effect in this film, she never smiles and stands in rooms in the house looking totally depressed. It takes her a full minute to shut some doors in the parlor so her and Burt can screw on the couch... and now we get a nude scene with Kerr, a very bad nude scene with Kerr, a scene that again was added for the sole reason to have a nude scene... And where in the hell was Windom while this is going on ??? I kept waiting for Wilson to drive off looking for the Clutter's place.Next a fight scene between Wilson and Hackman that is altogether pointless, and then on to the big Sunday skydiving extravaganza at the local airfield... Finally after an hour of crap we get to see some more skydiving, which of course means the lead actors in front of a movie of the sky while they are hung by cables to fool us into thinking they are really jumping out of airplanes... The stuntmen take over at this point and do some 'stunts' that I wouldn't pay a dollar to see. They jump, land on the ground, go back up, jump etc etc... Now who would sit around for the half hour between jumps in a hot Kansas sun to see this ??? The whole point of the movie is whether Lancaster will do the 'cape' stunt in the act on Sunday... The 'cape' stunt is just like it sounds, you wear a cape and jump and spread it out to resemble flying, I guess, it is never really explained and looks as ridiculous as it sounds. But the actors drum it up as something that takes great skill and is absolutely the most dangerous part of their show... So Burt puts on the suit, jumps from the plane and rather than open his parachute he plows into the ground at a thousand miles an hour... I mean it was filmed so badly with the crowd reactions I had to laugh at the stupidity... Why didn't he open his chute ??? Suicide ? That is never represented... Accident ? After the jump they test the chute and it opens fine... So I guess it just follows the rest of the film and makes no sense...One other distraction in the film is the high school band practicing for a parade that never happens. We are treated to at least three scenes with the band director looking like a complete lunatic trying to get the band ready for the big day, just utter and complete nonsense... In the end we watch as the remaining crew of Hackman and Wilson decide to perform the idiotic 'cape' routine the very next day as a tribute or remembrance of Lancaster buying the farm the previous day... The whole town shows up again and pays to see one jump with the stupid cape and Wilson pulls it off and the crowd goes wild and gathers around him. Another unexplained part of the movie is every time a chute opens, you hear a 'pop', like a gunshot going off, and just as loud as a gunshot would be... At the end of this horrible movie before Wilson jumps off the plane, he pulls a wire on a device on his shoes which triggers a smoke trail and produces the same noise... Yet when we hear it earlier we never see any smoke trails at all... Watch this movie for a lesson on how not to make a movie....

As George Peppard said in The A-Team he did all that he did with the A Team for 'the jazz'. The Gypsy Moths is a film about 3 parachute jumpers who entertain in small town red state America in the late sixties. One is a young man Scott Wilson and he's brought the show back to his small Kansas town of Bridgewater. His two fellow jumpers are Burt Lancaster and Gene Hackman and these guys are at varying degrees of having their fill of 'the jazz'. Especially Lancaster, not too many notes left in his horn to blow any jazz.But all three feel they have an image to maintain especially in Wilson's home town. They all get invited to a home cooked meal at the house where William Windom, wife Deborah Kerr, and daughter Bonnie Bedelia live. There's some unusual history with Wilson and that family and all three are drawn into this unhappy family's domestic dispute.Burt Lancaster who was one of the most vitally alive men on the big screen is great as that vitally alive parachute jumper who jumps out of airplanes for people's entertainment. Alive only when he's in the air and even that's coming to an end. But he's one who wants to be in control of his own destiny and will be to the very end. Gene Hackman has his doubts and fears and gets them exorcised he feels at the midnight mass of the Catholic Church of wherever he's performing. Otherwise he's the original good time man who's in the business because it makes him money and gets him women. Lancaster and Hackman both have qualities that Wilson should emulate and distance himself from. This was the 6th and final collaboration between director John Frankenheimer and Burt Lancaster and all six of their films mark some of the best films of the Sixties. Gene Hackman was continuing to break out after his rave reviews from Bonnie And Clyde. And Deborah Kerr ignites some of that old From Here To Eternity chemistry with Lancaster as she realizes he might be her chance at happiness.The aerial and jump sequences are photographed beyond reproach. Those spectacular stunts and the men who do them stand in sharp contrast to some empty lives they lead.Definitely for fans Lancaster, Kerr, and Hackman.

Dialog which is a little "off", and a certain kind of pointlessness pervade this film. Lancaster is a suicidal parachutist but we're never told why, nor do we get hints (why he's suicidal, not why he's a parachutist). Kerr's attitude is perplexing, unclear. Half of the time one is either wondering what a particular dialog was about or why a character said something or reacted in a certain way.The aerial sequences are the highlight of the film... Basically, this is a mediocre drama, but whenever one stumbles on a mediocrity and Frankenheimer's name is attached to it – it's never a surprise.What IS surprising, to say the least, is that Le Grande Dame of British Cinema actually shows her breasts! I am referring to Deborah Kerr. This completely threw me away; the absolutely last thing I expected to see in this film was Kerr topless. And now the big question is: how did Frankenheimer convince Kerr - of all actresses - to bare her bosom in 1969?... And at the age of 48?... Did they drug her (like they did with Julie Andrews's character in "S.O.B.")? Or is she really that dumb to be duped by a slime-ball such as Frankenheimer that "it's all for the good of the ART"? Whatever the answer, one thing is for sure: Frankenheimer must have special talents we know nothing of! (Certainly very little directorial talent, but otherwise…) His power of persuasion must be immense. What a diplomat he would make. They should send this guy to the Middle East. Or Kashmir. Or the Balkans. Or East Timor.

This movie is an overlooked gem, and deserved better than what it got. I remember it coming out in theatrical release in the late 1960s, and it received very good reviews but for some reason it quietly died off; or so it seems. The director, in the commentary on the DVD, tells why this occurred and that was basically due to a change of management at MGM shortly after this movie was released. Now, it can be appreciated with the new DVD technology.The technology used to film this movie was very sophisticated for its time and gave results that would challenge the technology of today. Film cameras instead of video cameras were used by the skydivers; nevertheless they obtained tremendous aerial shots that are thrilling even today. It is hard to believe that these scenes were filmed thirty six years ago.The documentary film on the DVD about the making of this movie is absolutely essential to fully enjoy and understand the skydiving associated with this movie; including the "Bat Wing" stunt skydiving that forms a sort of particular drama with this movie. A better film documentary film about this movie, which I doubt exists or will be shown, would be about the making of the love scene between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. The had a love scene, of sorts, in the 1953 movie, "From Here to Eternity". That scene, on the beach, is quite well known. However, due to the Code restrictions then not really that much could be shown.I believe that one unspoken reason this movie was made was to allow a reunion between Lancanster and Kerr. Also, she was willing to be naked in a movie, very rare for the late 1960s. Those would be the primary reasons why she was in the movie as she was actually somewhat miscast due to her accent; a definite British accent in Kansas is somewhat incongruous (nowhere in the movie are we told that she is, say, a war bride or a British girl who somehow otherwise married a Kansas man).Having said that I am actually very glad they cast her! Nowadays I look a lot like her and worry about whether or not I can find another husband (divorced and looking). Debby showed that a girl could still get a gorgeous hunk like Burt even when she was 48! You guys just can't imagine what us middle aged gals feel when we see Debby and Burt finally doing the wild thing in that living room! It gives us hope that we can still get a man! Deborah Kerr still had a great body at 48, and that is why I think she did not mind doing the nude scene. I think she was not near as nervous showing off as Burt was and certainly not near as nervous as the director. Her performance was certainly a highlight of this movie.Puzzling was the performance of William Windom; who portrayed her husband. His role is somewhat out of place; and I don't understand why his fine acting skills weren't use more than they were. His role is disjointed at best and it is hard to understand how the character is supposed to fit within this movie. There are absolutely no husband-wife dynamics shown between him and Kerr. Even in the most disjointed of marriages (such as the second of my two marriages) there is generally some sort of attachment between the two even though they may both be in the divorce court! Interestingly enough, when Lancaster was on this film he had just gone through a divorce. His wife was upset due to all the flings he had been through while married to her. Well, it is easy for this gal to see why he was not totally loyal to his wife; he had all those sexy women throwing themselves at him! And, if I had been around that area when this film was being made I would have been one of them! He was a good looking fellow then! Debby, you were a lucky gal!