THE STRIPPER
US, 1963, 95 minutes, Black and white.
Joanne Woodward, Richard Beymer, Claire Trevor, Carol Lynley, Robert Webber, Louis Nye, Gypsy Rose Lee, Michael J. Pollard.
Directed by Franklin Schaffner.
The Stripper is based on a play, A Loss Of Roses, by William Inge, author of such plays as Come Back Little Sheba, Bus Stop, Splendor In The Grass (all of which were filmed successfully). The film takes a conventional theme of the innocent young man yearning for love and his encounter with a woman of the world. Richard Beymer, popular in the early '60s with such films as West Side Story and Hemingway's Adventures Of A Young Man, captures the role of the garage attendant in a small town very well.
He is matched excellently by Joanne Woodward's hometown girl who has gone to Hollywood in high hopes after winning beauty contests but has missed out on opportunity. She returns home and infatuation and love begin. Robert Webber portrays the stereotype of the brutal man dominating the victimised woman. There is an interesting performance by Claire Trevor as Beymer's mother. She captures very well the love and fussiness and over-protectiveness of the widowed mother. The film is made strikingly in Panavision and black and white. It was the first film directed by Franklin Schaffner who went on to make a series of striking films including The Best Man, The War Lord, Planet of the Apes, his Oscar-winning Patton, Nicholas and Alexandra, Papillon, the underrated Islands In The Stream, The Boys From Brazil, Sphinx. The film works interestingly on the level of plot; but the screenplay is rich in symbols which suggest a lot of the meaning for this small town encounter. (The title is Hollywood transforming a play to gain box office - and Gypsy Rose Lee herself appears in a supporting role, rather older than in her heyday.)
1. The focus of the title, its tone? The fulfilment of expectations about striptease? The ironic presentation of the stripping? The significance of the original title, Lila's explanation of her gift of roses to her teacher, her wanting them back, her being refused and her learning that one never gets anything back after it is given?
2. The style of the early '60s, the slices of life films, the realistic and pessimistic tone, the issues of relationships, violence? The look at the uglier side of the American way of life? The beginnings of what calm to be called the permissive era? The value of this kind of film in exploring the seamier attitudes and behaviour in life?
3. The choice of Cinemascope for opening up the film on a wider screen? The choice of black and white photography? The atmosphere of the American middle west? The use of tableau, close-ups for highlighting the characters, their pain, interactions? Musical score? The use of the popular song for the stripping and its ugly irony?
4. The impact of the introduction: the strident music, the tourists, Lila looking like such stars as Kim Novak and Jayne Mansfield and being described as 'nothing? The revelations about her going to Hollywood, her screen test and keeping it in her handbag, the taking up of the therm of her being a nobody when Rick rubbed her in the dirt and poured dirt over her? The expectations of the title from Lila's first appearance? The audience judgment on appearances - dress. hair, sexuality flaunted, manner of walk etc.? The irony of Lila turning out to be somebody, her loss of faith in herself and then her belief in herself? The clash of appearances and reality?
5. The sketching in of the group - their theatre background, the enjoyment of their performance and the build-up to the beheading of Lila? Olga and her matronly presence in the group? Ronnie and his effeminate manner? Rick and his hard-headed management of the group? Their arrival in the town, their second-rate background? The impact on the locals - as with Kenny and with Jelly at the service station? The indications of rivalry between Kenny and Rick at: the station? Rick's going off and abandoning the group? Olga and Ronnie and their selfish patronising reaction? Lila enjoying meeting Helen and Kenny, and memories of her past, the joy of the meal and the discovery of the truth? Her being abandoned - and her hugging the bear in her isolation?
6. The importance of the development of the them of appearances and reality? Helen and her propensity to judge - and her listening to the story of Lila's life? Her being welcomed into Helen's house? Her being able to be happy, talk about herself, feel at home? The pathos of her story - her mother, deaths, being farmed out to relatives, boarding, the sad experiences of school, the ugliness of her marriage and her husband's father and brothers, her taking up with the group, her Hollywood hopes dashed, her being stranded? Her use of cliches - ships passing in the night? The crisis for her and the gathering together of the pain of the past?
7. How did Lila gradually appear as a good person and not a nobody? Helen drawing herself out from her isolation? Kenny and the walk home and his listening to her - the story of the competitions, the screen test. leaving Hollywood? The gradual revelation that she had run away and attempted to kill herself? Lila and the comparison with Rick and his treatment of her? The importance of her trying to get a job and the humour of her interviews and, for example, typing test? Her going back to the school and reminiscing about the roses? The comparison of her style of life with that of Helen, with Miriam? The encounter with Sandra and the image of innocent childhood and the contrast with her own past?
8. The importance of the them of good being taken away in the loss of roses? Her low expectations of life? The importance of the themes of gifts e.g. Helen's unwillingness to take the birthday present of the watch from Kenny? Lila giving the rose to Sandra, giving her the bear? Kenny giving her the watch at the end? Happiness and the contrast with what might have been?
9. The development of the relationship with Kenny? The infatuation, flirtation, friendship? Lila and the possibility of growing in friendship? Kenny and his growing up? The importance of the walk home , the kiss, the drunken incident, the birthday party and the dance? The proposal and the night together? Kenny on the morning after and his failure of nerve? Self-centredness? Parallel with Rick?
10. Rick and the stereotype of violence and exploitation? His abandoning the group? His return and brutal treatment of Lila, his physical violence and rubbing her in the dirt, pouring it over her head, telling her she was nothing? His taking her off to the convention? The confrontation with Kenny? His making a livelihood out of Lila and the stripping? The final threats to Lila and giving her six months? A portrait of ugly exploitation?
11. The portrait of Helen as the small-town widow and mother - likable, kind to Lila, scandalised at her stories but being broadminded, nagging her son and worrying about him? Memories of her husband and Lila's idealising him? The image of a happy marriage? The build-up to the birthday party and Helen's inability to take the gift? Her growing suspicions and wanting Lila out of the house? A rounded portrait of this kind of woman? The parallel with Miriam - Helen in her younger days? Infatuation with Kenny, the outings, her primness, the skating rink sequence and her resistance to his advances? The prim women of the small American town?
12. Sandra and the innocent child image of what Lila might have been? The growing friendship, talking, smiling, the gift of the rose, of the bear? The hospitality of her mother - and Lila's inability to go into the house where she grew up?
13. The portrait of men in the film - by comparisons with one another? Rick and his stereotype? Kenny as a possibility of gentleness and love? Yet the image of the American male - work, talk, drinking, infatuation, sexuality, abandoning the woman? In the light of the stories about his father? The importance of his change of heart and his reaching out and offering care of Lila? Rick and his condemnation? Kenny and his offer of redemption?
14. How well was Kenny portrayed? His place in the small town, possibilities in life, love for his mother and exasperation? The comparisons with his father? Friendship with Jelly? Friendship with Miriam and yet being critical of her? Showing off at the skating rink and Miriam’s rejection of him? A rebel against the way of life in the town? His changing through communication with Lila? His failure after their night together? His fight with Rick, his offering care, the gift?
15. The detail of the small town and its way of life: the theatre group, the shops, the garage, Jelly and his family, the job applications, the skating rink?
16. The contrast with the glimpse of the large town - the convention and the ugly faces of the men watching the stripper?
17. The contribution of the symbols: gifts, roses, the bear, stripping and its significance of revelation and exposure, the freeway at the end?
18. A satisfying treatment within a commercial film of the significance of life and its meaning, the journey of life, opportunities, success and failure, the real world, illusions, the nature of goodness, relationships and commitment, changing and coping with life?
