You’re a Big Boy Now **** (1967, Peter Kastner, Elizabeth Hartman, Geraldine Page, Rip Torn, Karen Black, Julie Harris, Tony Bill) – Classic Movie Review 4706

Writer-director Francis Ford Coppola’s welcome 1967 New York comedy You’re a Big Boy Now is delightfully quirky and amusing.

Peter Kastner stars as innocent, over-cossetted 19-year-old virgin Bernard Chanticleer (Kastner), called Big Boy by his parents, living in Great Neck, New York, and suffering from being around and tormented by a possessive mum Margery Chanticleer (Geraldine Page), a weird dad (Rip Torn) and a teasing actress-dancer, Barbara Darling (Elizabeth Hartman).

Lots of good Sixties people are on great form here and Coppola’s unusual, quality writing (based on a 1963 novel by David Benedictus) and direction make this a special little connoisseurs’ item that was largely ignored by the public of the day.

Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Page can do this in her sleep, and so can Torn, but they are good value. Kastner is rather good, but never became a star, though (in her second film) Karen Black, playing Amy Partlett, a young woman who takes a shine to Bernard, did. Also in the cast are Julie Harris as nosy, prudish Miss Nora Thing who runs a rooming house where Bernard goes to live, Tony Bill as his duplicitous co-worker Raef del Grado, Michael Dunn, Dolph Sweet, Michael O’Sullivan, Ronald Colby, Len De Carl, Rufus Harley, Frank Simpson and Nina Verela.

The score is by Robert Prince, the songs are written by John B Sebastian and title song, Girl Beautiful Girl, Wash Her Away, and Darling Be Home Soon are performed by The Lovin’ Spoonful.

Page and Torn were married for real, from 1961 till she died in 1987.

The film, Hartman and Page were nominated for Golden Globe Awards but did not win.

The idea for the film came from actor Tony Bill, who hoped to play Bernard but was cast as Raef del Grado. Coppola wrote the screenplay on location in Europe working on Is Paris Burning? for Seven Arts Productions. Coppola was paid $8,000 for the film, made on a budget of $800,000, as his thesis project for UCLA film school in 1966, earning him a Master of Fine Arts degree, though he had quit film school some years earlier. The film ended up going over budget and costing nearly $1 million, which it did not recoup until sold to TV.

The film was shot at Chelsea Studios in New York City, and on Manhattan locations, including Times Square, Central Park, and the New York Public Library. Coppola secured a permit to film in the library with the help of Mayor John Lindsay. They were reluctant as they hated the script’s idea that the library had a vault full of popular erotica.

The chase through the department store was done at 11 am in normal operating hours, with only cast and crew having advance knowledge of the filming. The store is identified as Mays’ former Herald Square location.

The film scenes projected on the disco walls are from Coppola’s debut film Dementia 13 (1963).

It was the only American entry at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival.

The cast are Elizabeth Hartman as Barbara Darling, Peter Kastner as Bernard Chanticleer, Geraldine Page as Margery Chanticleer, Rip Torn as I H Chanticleer, Tony Bill as Raef del Grado, Julie Harris as Miss Nora Thing, Karen Black as Amy Partlett, Dolph Sweet as Patrolman Francis Graf, Michael Dunn as Richard Mudd, Michael O’Sullivan as Kurt Doughty, and Ron Colby, Rufus Harley, Frank Simpson, Nina Varella and Len De Carl as stage play crew members.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4706

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