PENELOPE
US, 1966, 97 minutes, Colour.
Natalie Wood, Ian Bannen, Dick Shawn, Peter Falk, Jonathan Winters, Lila Kedrova, Lou Jacobi.
Directed by Arthur Hiller.
Penelope is a star vehicle for Natalie Wood at the time that she was making such films as Sex and the Single Girl and The Great Race. It is a comedy, she is married to Ian Bannen, he is neglectful and is promoted in his bank, she decides to rob his bank. She discusses her problems with a psychiatrist, played by Dick Shawn. Peter Falk – before Colombo – is the investigating lieutenant. The trouble is with Penelope, she is so charming that nobody believes that she did the robberies.
The film is light and witty – and has some serious reflection on people being overwhelmed by the rat race. It was directed by Arthur Hiller who was beginning his career and was soon to make Love Story. It was written by Howard Fast, author of Spartacus and of a number of other novels on which films were based including Cheyenne Autumn, Sylvia, Mirage.
1. How entertaining a robbery comedy? The ingredients for enjoyment? The harshness of the critics? justified?
2. The style of the opulent and affluent comedy? The humour and style of the credits sequences? Use of colour, New York backgrounds, Panavision, bright music? Natalie Wood and her impact?
3. A robbery comedy of the sixties reflecting the values, the atmosphere of counter-culture, money?
4. How well did the film fit into the robbery genre? The visual presentation of the hold-ups, the impact and effect of robberies, banks and money? The introduction to Penelope in her various disguises, for example, the old lady? Her other disguises and her relish of them? Why do audiences enjoy robbery films? especially with the comic touch?
5. The presentation of the banks and the paraphernalia of security? The continual temptation to break through this? What motivated Penelope? the bank, her husband, the risk? The combination of these? Can audiences identify with Penelope and her reaction to banks?
6. The psychological aspect of the film, the psychologist and his motives, the humour and seriousness of the sessions, jokes, the theory of compulsion? How enjoyable were the pop psychology solutions? (how seriously were they to be taken?)
7. The film as a Natalie Wood vehicle? her attractiveness, her enjoying of the disguises, the singing, the fooling about? The light touch and audience response?
8. The presentation of Penelope as a kook of the sixties? The various sequences with her husband, the comedy attitudes, the erratic and seeming amoral behaviour? The testing and denting of traditional values?
9. The contrast with the portrait of her husband, his stuffiness especially about the bank? Could he believe that his wife would be robbing him? As a target for the satirical touches and the parody of the film?
10. Peter Falk as the detective? anticipating his Columbo style and audiences enjoying this? Character, humorous attitudes and styles? Did the audience believe that he realized that it was Penelope doing the robberies?
11. The character of the psychiatrist and his effect on Penelope, infatuation with her? The parodying of psychologists and psychiatrists and their influence?
12. The gallery of Penelope's wealthy friends, the society sequences, robbing them and the humour? The details of Penelope's kleptomania and their humorous consequences?
13. Even though the film had the light touch, how well did it portray aspects of the pressures of modern life, society? Comedy as a vehicle for presenting these touches?
