The Savage Eye *** (1960, Barbara Baxley, Gary Merrill, Herschel Bernardi) – Classic Movie Review 9101

Writers/ producers/ directors Ben Maddow, Sidney Meyers and Joseph Strick’s odd but engaging 1959 docu-drama The Savage Eye stars Barbara Baxley, who is believable as Judith McGuire, a disillusioned woman trying to see if there is life after divorce following a decade of marriage in wacky LA in this movie that is packed full of interesting detail.

Gary Merrill plays The Poet and Herschel Bernardi plays Kirk, the married man Judith involves herself with. Also in the cast are Jean Hidey as Venus the Body and Elizabeth Zemach as The Nurse.

This low-budget film festival prizewinner is beautifully shot in black and white by the esteemed photographers Jack Couffer, Helen Levitt and Haskell Wexler, and there is a notable jazzy score by Leonard Rosenman. So it is valuable even if only for the images of Los Angeles in 1959 and its music.

It won the Flaherty Documentary Award at the BAFTA Awards in 1960 and the Mannheim Film Ducat at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival in 1960.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9101

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