If nothing else, she’s lashing out as a defense mechanism. Her maledictions against the character of others might seem excessive (“Your filthy souls are too evil for hell itself”), and yet she’s not entirely wrong. Whatever Burt’s shortcomings, he has everyday, common decency. She sees people for who they really are and calls them on it. If it’s not righteous anger then it’s certainly indignant anger. Instead, she becomes devastated by the newfound revelations about her husband, and then must become protectorate shielding her love from the unfeeling world all but ready to exacerbate his condition.
AUTUMN LEAVES MOVIE MOVIE
There was a time when the movie could have easily been Joan Crawford’s Middle of The Night. His insinuating father (Lorne Green) is next to appear.
Then, Vera Miles shows up on her doorstep as a manifestation of all her sinking fears about Burt. First his hometown, then his military service, and there are other discrepancies. All very matter-of-factly and there’s nothing guileful about it it feels innocent enough, but she begins to realize they don’t match up. They have a bit of marital bliss below the border, and yet something starts happening. Milly loves him and after minor reservation, falls into his arms for better or for worse. I’m reluctant to say they complete you. Still, maybe with someone else’s hand to hold, it makes the world just a little less lonely and the pain a little less galling. Burt believes that sometimes you meet someone and you know they provide something you are lacking. Because while loneliness is not a foundational reason to get married, it’s true we need each other. If they do seem like an odd couple, they aren’t totally unprecedented. “Young people are too young for me,” he says. When she prods him about his old girlfriends, he shrugs them off. He becomes more of a person in the ensuing scenes. Can Joan Crawford have her own version of a 1950s manic pixie dream boy? But this is only a momentary suggestion. The former Army veteran shows off his beach body on one outing chasing Milly into the waves. In the most innocent ways, they just enjoy one another’s company, and it shows. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship, and yet I hesitate to use these terms because it makes it sound mercenary. They spend time together, going out more and even taking day trips. Rather you feel like you can get to know the guy and like him. Partially because there’s no threat to him though he’s still good-looking. It starts to melt the ice and break down the barriers between him and his new acquaintance. There’s a disarming approachability about him. When he steps into the bustling restaurant and eyes Milly in the one booth with an extra seat, he makes his way over. He’s still fresh-faced and Autumn Leaves was his second truly substantial movie role after the movie adaptation of Picnic with William Holden. Cliff Robertson was from the east coast and an actor forged out of his training at the Actor’s Studio. We have yet to meet our other primary player. “Autumn Leaves” feels less like a gimmick to cash in on the season’s newest love song, and it starts to pervade and then slowly suffuse throughout the entire movie until it becomes the tactful accent to almost every scene of the ensuing romance.īecause this all feels like a prelude. It felt so reminiscent of a scene in Penny Serenade where music, whether live or on vinyl somehow fills up the human heart and carries with it so many easily-tapped emotions.
There’s a moment in Autumn Leaves as Crawford sits in an audience, the lights go out so the spotlight is only on her, and the pianist on the stage takes her back into her memories. When she goes out to a show or dinner, she’s comfortable going alone - it doesn’t feel foreign to her - and she enjoys her time in solitude.
Although she leads a solitary existence alone, she’s buddy-buddy with her landlady and seems generally contented with life.
She’s known for her typing speed, working from home before it was en vogue, and banging out manuscripts for thankful clients. It presents the consummate leading lady with a lighter more congenial personality - the kind of Joan Crawford who seems easier to connect with. You might not immediately connect Joan Crawford and Nat King Cole, but his brand of velvet crooning provides a fine backdrop (and namesake) for Autumn Leaves.
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