JohnHowardReid 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!

seasprite211 In a conversation several years ago, I asked Ms Woodward about this film. It receives short shrift by those who would discuss her career. The story has several interlocking plot lines: a woman caught in the struggle to survive, the men who use and abuse the situation toward their own ends and the teenager who falls for her. A teenager becoming enamored with an older woman was nothing new. The teenager having an affair with the older woman was a story somewhat ahead of it's time in 1963. The Women's Liberation Movement did not start until the late 1960s and the word 'cougar' referred to mountain lions. Ms. Woodward talked about the confused or disjointed impression this film gives and stated that the original director, whose name I cannot remember, died half way through filming. Mr. Schaffner, who finished the project, had a different point of view. Regardless, Ms Woodwards' acting is, in my opinion, remarkable. She provided each director with the desired performance expressing his vision. Unfortunately, the final cut is reflective of each and gives the film a sense of choppy disconnect.

ptb-8 Sad and lonely mid west American towns photographed in black and white seem to be a very potent atmospheric early 60s film drama location that should be recognized as almost iconic in this new century. Other films of the time that each look as though they are all filmed nearby or around the corner from each other: HUD, BUS RILEY'S BACK IN TOWN, BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL , LILIES OF THE FIELD, KISS ME STUPID, IN COLD BLOOD all make a great set of rural wasteland town settings each with potent imagery and lonely people going slowly mad or frustrated or hankering for a change. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW perfected this feel in 1971. Stills from all these films would make a superb coffee table book...all that lonely black and white, crisp and windy farms and streets etc. yet obviously sad 60s. THE STRIPPER must have been the only film made at FOX in 63 with every other dollar of Zanuck's money going to feed CLEOPATRA. Apart from the misleading title, THE STRIPPER offers Joanne Woodward in a Lee Remick performance or is that a Lee Grant performance or is that a Kim Novak performance...because either of those women are interchangeable in those above films as well. 40 years later, like CLEOPATRA, this early 60s era of film making is being celebrated as having produced atmospheric and enduring films of fascinating visuals and emotional performances. I was lucky enough to enjoy THE STRIPPER in a cinema seeing a 35mm cinemascope print, and even if the story was a let down, the visuals and feel for that period and location is so well captured that it almost becomes the most enjoyable part. I am also a great fan of BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL which captures this loneliness and isolation with B&W photography that now borders on masterpiece. See it as part of the above series of films if you can and be overwhelmed by what I have described. It is like sad memories created by someone else and they take that form especially because of the photography.

Eric-62-2 "The Stripper" is not at all what you think it might be if you go only by the title and the posters and publicity stills. In fact, I think it wins the award for the most shamelessly misleading promo campaign in the history of movies. First off, Woodward's Lila Green (a well-acted performance I might say) is a failed actress/magician's assistant who is not a stripper by trade, except when forced against her will late in the movie by her sleazy manager. Second, the posters and ads all show a smiling, teasing Woodward in her stripper's outfit as though the film promises something out of the climax of "Gypsy" (and then on top of that, they cast Gypsy Rose Lee herself in a small part!) but in fact Woodward's only strip number is a brief one done very flatly to represent her character's disgust with her plight. Quite obviously Daryl Zanuck figured that by misleading the public he could lure a lot of lecherous men into the cinema who didn't realize that they were going to just get a very run of the mill drama story that is really saved only by Jerry Goldsmith's jazzy score and Woodward's performance.This was Franklin J. Schaffner's first feature movie after a decade in live television. Fortunately he went on to much better projects with "Planet Of The Apes" and "Patton", which are both cinematic masterpieces.