{"id":13770,"date":"2016-06-18T12:04:40","date_gmt":"2016-06-18T16:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13770"},"modified":"2016-06-18T12:16:27","modified_gmt":"2016-06-18T16:16:27","slug":"richard-brooks-the-happy-ending-1969-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13770","title":{"rendered":"Richard Brooks’ The Happy Ending (1969) + $ (1971)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cinematic chronicle of a perfect marriage’s breakdown and the gradual disintegration of a wife\u2019s mental state seemed to have come into their\u00a0own during the sixties and seventies, with writers and directors fixating on the dilemma of the bored housewife. In The Stepford Wives <\/strong>(1975), humanism and freedom were eradicated through robots, and in Larry Cohen\u2019s Bone<\/strong> (1972) \u2013 yes, that Larry Cohen \u2013 the drama centers around a stranger who tears through the fa\u00e7ade of a perfect marriage, exposing sexual tension and a recent family tragedy.<\/p>\n

\"HappyEnding_Sp_poster_s\"A decade later, Leon Marr would explore the ruined psychological state of a bored suburban housewife in the brilliant drama Dancing in the Dark<\/a><\/strong> (1986), whereas in Richard Brooks\u2019 The Happy Ending<\/a><\/strong> (1969), new on Blu from Twilight Time, the crackup comes after a wealthy housewife literally crashes after being a zombie for the bulk of her 15 year union with a nice guy.<\/p>\n

Brooks\u2019 movie has dated, and its fixation on the bored wealthy archetype might fail to generate sympathy among middle class viewers \u2013 glee at a wealthy figure\u2019s \u2018poor dear\u2019 dilemma is likely \u2013 and yet the film succeeds because Jean Simmons underplays Mary Wilson as a once bright, vibrant, happy soul anesthetized by complacency.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also Michel Legrand and Alan & Marilyn Bergman\u2019s main theme which has a lovely poetic intro and melody, and Conrad Hall’s gorgeous colour cinematography, which should come as a shocker to fans of his stark B&W work in TV shows like The Outer Limits<\/strong> (1963-1965) and his prior work for Brooks, the brilliant In Cold Blood<\/strong> (1967).<\/p>\n

\"Dollars1971_poster_s\"Brooks\u2019 next film, $<\/a><\/strong> (1971), was typical of the era \u2013 a comedic heist movie \u2013 and had Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn playing eccentrics plotting a vault robbery in the heart of Hamburg’s greedy, seedy, wintry red light district.<\/p>\n

Quincy Jones scored the film with Don Elliott and His Voices, and the location cinematography is superb. Sony released the film as part of their weirdly branded \u2018Martini Movie\u2019 series \u2013 no martinis are consumed by anyone in the film \u2013 and while a nice transfer, $ <\/strong>is in need of an HD upgrade with an isolated score – something that\u2019s never happened to any of Quincy Jones\u2019 film work. (Criterion\u2019s gorgeous release of In Cold Blood<\/strong> should\u2019ve come with an isolated score track, given the music\u2019s only appeared on LP in a rerecorded form, but I digress….)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m currently having the (non)pleasure of apartment hunting, but coming shortly is a podcast with composer Nima Fakhrara, and a review of Michael Radford\u2019s 1984<\/strong>, comparing that production with the 1956 version plus two prior live teleplays.<\/p>\n

Cheers,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviews of two classic Richard Brooks films – the housewife crack-up drama The Happy Ending (1969) on Blu from Twilight Time + the heist comedy $ (1971) from Sony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[2562,2563,4493,4494,639,668,139,1319,429],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/JeanSimmons_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3A6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13770"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13790,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770\/revisions\/13790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}