Inside Daisy Clover

source: Inside Daisy Clover

Trailer—Inside Daisy Clover

Inside Daisy Clover

It's always amazed me that this movie doesn't get more respect--sure it's campy, but the performances are fantastic: Christopher Plummer's speech to Daisy by the pool after she's been abandoned by her new husband (a super young Robert Redford playing a gorgeous pansexual for God's sake--what more could a person ask?) is stunning and Natalie Wood's "The Circus is a wacky world"-induced breakdown in the sound booth is brilliant and scary. Roddy McDowell's killing smile as he says "Good night, Miss Clover." Redford getting away with lines like "Good night, sweet, sad, lonely lady" and a drunken Malora (great name) screaming at Daisy "They say I've got a headache, BUT I'VE GOT A HEARTACHE!!!" The gorgeous black and white promotional video of Daisy singing and bouncing her way through the cardboard galaxies. All incredible stuff--why isn't this on DVD yet? Wake up, Hollywood, and give us this treasure on DVD!

Every time I watch this movie, I am more and more impressed with the range of ability that Natalie Wood exhibits. Terrific job on her part. As for the story itself, what really strikes me about "Inside Daisy Clover" is the countless times that she is alone, confined and boxed in. The entire time that Daisy is trying to break loose and make a noise in the world, she continuously finds herself practically jailed. The little booth where she makes her first records, the tiny shop where she sells star photos, the claustrophobic cabin she shares with "The Dealer," the sound room where she dubs "The Circus Is A Wacky World"--all of these create a sense of suffocation. With Daisy constantly placed in these pressure cookers, you just have to believe that sooner or later she is going to explode!

Natalie Wood was probably the right person to cast in Robert Mulligan's "Inside Daisy Clover". It focuses on a teenage girl wrung through the Hollywood machine, something that Wood herself experienced. Dolled up and presented as the next big thing, Daisy has all manner of unpleasant experiences with stardom. One particular parallel to Wood's life is Daisy's romance with a closeted gay leading man (Wood dated a number of gay men in real life, and even gave Mart Crowley the funds to stage "The Boys in the Band"). I figure that the depiction of homosexuality must've been risky for the time, considering that the Hays Code was still in effect. But whatever the case, the result is a fine and often intense piece of work. In addition to Wood are Christopher Plummer as a machiavellian executive, Ruth Gordon as Daisy's mom, and Robert Redford as the closeted gay actor.

NOTES: Ruth Gordon was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, losing to Shelley Winters in "A Patch of Blue". The film was also nominated for Best Sets (in color) and Best Costumes (in color), losing both to "Doctor Zhivago". COMMENT: Gavin Lambert's satire of Hollywood in the thirties, is well acted and conscientiously directed (Robert Mulligan). I'm not overfond of Lambert's obsession with insanity (cf. also "The Slide Area"), but in its exposé moments, the film is very entertaining. Andre Previn's score is atmospherically effective and Charles Lang's photography (unlike his poor quality work on "How To Steal a Million") is up to standard. Running times: 128 minutes (USA), 107 minutes (UK), 131 minutes (Australia).

Brassy, singing tomboy near Hollywood in the 1930s gets a screen test and is soon thrust into the crazy spotlight of Tinsel Town. Ham-handed soaper intends to paint show business as cool, decadent and uncaring, but director Robert Mulligan is unable to set an appropriate tone, and his bad guys are enigmatic shadies who conspire in whispers. This combined with Natalie Wood's raucous rendering of a 15-year-old results in some problems. Still, the look and atmosphere of the film are really extraordinary, and Christopher Plummer gives off sparks of neurotic heat as the head of the movie studio. Robert Redford is a good screen match for Natalie, although his love-interest role is steeped in the hypothetical; Wood herself runs hot and cold, though she has some very strong early moments. The pacing might've stood some picking up, and the movie is much too long, but it looks stylish and has a lot of talent behind it. **1/2 from ****