THE CHAPMAN REPORT
US, 1961, 125 minutes, Colour.
Shelley Winters, Claire Bloom, Glynnis Johns, Efrem Zimbalist Jnr., Jane Fonda, Ray Danton, Ty Hardin, Andrew Duggan, John Dehner, Henry Daniell, Corey Allen, Harold J. Stone.
Directed by George Cukor.
The Chapman Report may have been ahead of its time. It is based on a novel by Irving Wallace and echoes the background of the Kinsey Report and enquiries about American sexuality. Veteran director George Cukor directs with his customary taste but with an eye to melodrama. The film is less sensational than it might have been although it echoes the attempts in the early '60s to move to franker treatment of sexual themes. This is especially highlighted in the Claire Bloom episode. However, the focus is on Jane Fonda as a frigid housewife and at the beginning of her career she carries off her performance quite well. Glynnis Johns overplays the comic style of her story and Shelley Winters is also somewhat satirical in hers.
The film echoes probably the broadening of outlook on sexuality in the United States in the late '50s and early '60s
and indicates historically the trends that were to be so prominent in the late '60s and '70s. The film is interesting
melodrama, it has the popular ingredients of all time, but is also a curiosity item of the '60s.
1. This film sounded as if it were a documentary with reference to the Kinsey Report. Is there any connection? or is this just a human melodrama for audience enjoyment? At what level does it work? Human emotions or popular magazine melodrama? Why?
2. Even if it is glossy magazine melodrama, what values does it explore? How well? Does it have a good estimate of human behaviour and human nature? Does it offer any insight into personalities and behaviour? Does it offer any insight into characters and inter-reactions? Into love and marriage? Or does it remain merely on the surface of soap opera?
3. What attitudes in the audience to sexuality and marriage does the film presuppose? A sense of realism? Curiosity? Sensation? The film points out the main characters are exceptions. Is this important? Is the film a fantasy story about such exceptions? What value is there in the visualising of these exceptions? How informative? How entertaining?
4. The film incorporates into its dialogue warnings about the investigations and their value? Particularly as regards stirring up deep emotions and problems. Are these warnings borne out in the drama? What caution does the film suggest as regards such investigations?
5. How important was the structure of the film? The arrival of the investigators, the focus of attention on Dr. Radford, the selecting of the four women and their stories, the implications of the stories and their resolution, the completion of the work? How does this structure retain interest and propel the drama forward? Or was the film too static?
6. How was the audience want to identify with Dr. Radford? As a young but objective observer? The fact that he received the confessions of the women?
7. Which of the women was the most interesting? Which story was the best done? Why?
8. (a) Sarah: Shelley Winters' performance and personality, the ordinary woman and housewife, bored with life and her husband, yet caring for him and her children? Her infatuation with the theatre director, the chances she took to met him, the passionate affair, her confession to Dr. Radford? What effect did the investigation have on her? Why did she make the decision to leave? What did it mean to her? The brutal discovery that Fred Linden was not interested in leaving his wife? Her predicament? The forgiveness of her husband? Did you expect this? What future could they build on this affair?
(b) Naomi: Was Naomi typical? Her unhappiness? The melodramatics of her story and performance? The incident with the delivery boy? Her alcoholic nature, her nymphomania? Her reaction with the jazzmen and the climax? Her death? Why did she confess to Dr. Radford? why did she receive no positive help? Was this story convincing? Why?
(c) Theresa: As a comic story to balance the others? Reaction to Dr. Radford? Frivolity, at the party, her mannered style of life and her husband? Affectation? What did she discover by going to Dr. Radford? Her excursion to the beach and the comedy of her poetry and the beach boy? Her wanting to paint him and the innuendo in this sequence - for comedy? The realism of her fright when he attacked her? Her complacency in going how and being satisfied with life? The social comment here?
(d) Kathleen: Was Jane Fonda's performance convincing? As the heroine for the film? What motivated her in going to Dr. Radford? Why was she so cold and precise? Her idealising of her father and its effect on her? The discovery of her husband's cruelty and her frigidity? Was it convincing that she should melt with Dr. Radford? Would they have any future together?
9. How interesting a picture of Los Angeles life was this film? Was it accurate social observation or not?
10. What effect on the audience would the film have? With whom would they identify? With whom would women identify? Was there anything to be learnt by the film? Was it value for entertainment? Was it in any way cheap?
