Petulia
1968
Directed by Richard Lester
Cinematography Nicholas Roeg
Screenplay: Lawrence B. Marcus, from the novel Me & The Arch Kook Petulia, by John Haase
Music by John Barry
George C. Scott – Dr Archie Bollen
Julie Christie – Petulia Danner
Richard Chamberlain – David Danner
with
Arthur Hill – Barney
Shirley Night – Polo (Archie’s ex-wife)
Joseph Cotten -Mr Danner Snr.
Vincent Arias – Oliver
Posed shot much used for advertising the film
Continuing the series of late 60s films revisited …
This one was Karen’s choice. She remembered it as confusing and massively disappointing. It was released in June 1968 and so far beneath my radar that I hadn’t even heard of it. In June 1968, I was sitting on bare floors occupying the Administration Building at university. By the time I got back to Bournemouth for the summer, I assume it had come and gone. Even in the 70s when I was an assiduous film club member, I have zero recall of the film.
It looked like a major one at the time. Richard Lester was direct from How I Won The War (which will feature in this series), Julie Christie was direct from Far From The Madding Crowd. Richard Chamberlain was still mainly thought of as Dr Kildare. George C. Scott had done better with TV movies too, and Patton was in his near future. John Barry scored three films in a row which will feature here in the series … Boom, Petulia andDeadfall.
Julie Christie as Petulia with trademark pale lipstick
Julie Christie was undoubtedly the biggest draw, and at the time everyone warbling Waterloo Sunset imagined that “Terry & Julie” were her and Terence Stamp on a poster at Waterloo Station. Ray Davies has made it clear that they weren’t and chronology proves that the song was recorded well before any posters of Far From The Madding Crowd were on view.
It had some strong reviews back in 1968.
Richard Lester’s “Petulia” made me desperately unhappy, and yet I am unable to find a single thing wrong with it. I suppose that is high praise. It is the coldest, cruelest film I can remember, and one of the most intellectual. By that I don’t mean it’s filled with philosophy, like Bergman, or with metaphysics, like “2001.” On the contrary, it’s filled with nothing at all. It is lifeless, heartless bloodless, the expression of Lester’s abstract thought about the American way of life. And it is terribly effective. Roger Ebert
On the other hand:
A soulless, arbitrary, attitudinizing piece of claptrap. John Simon
Halliwell’s Film Guide summed it up as:
All very flashy, and occasionally arresting or well acted, but adding up to nothing.
It’s set in San Francisco, and the date immediately tells us that it was a year or two too late for the Summer of Love. The film is beset with 1968’s shot flashback mania, many of the club flashbacks with red psychedelic light show oils and water swirls projected over them. Otherwise, the whole San Francisco Late 60s scene seems peripheral, with trips to Alcatraz more prominent.
The film opens with a dreadful cacophony from Big Brother & The Holding Company with Janis Joplin singing, which on the soundtrack is vastly higher in level than music later. Terrible sound mixing. Later The Grateful Dead do Viola Lee Blues proving that old joke:
What did the Deadhead say when the acid wore off?
Jesus! This band is shite!
Jerry Garcia, before he became a brand of silk ties (I have one) and a type of ice-cream (Cherry Garcia is in our freezer), appears doing extra work with the rest of the band after the ambulance scene. Ace Trucking Company and The Committee also appear.
Otherwise, I think we can ignore the film’s fashionable nods to psychedelia. They’re not part of the story.
The story is a recently divorced surgeon, Dr Archie Bollen (George C. Scott) meeting a young beautiful socialite Petulia Danner (Julie Christie) who has been married six months and is seeking an affair. She does quirky 1968 things like breaking a window and stealing a tuba. As one did in 1968 apparently.
Petulia and Dr Archie go shopping
Her husband is an incredibly rich and spoilt lad, David (Richard Chamberlain). We know he’s rich because he drives a white Rolls-Royce convertible and has a yacht.
The Danners are rich … Richard Chamberlain as David, Julie Christie as Petulia
There is not much linear story, but the flashbacks involve a boy being run over in the street and taken to be operated on which is where Julie Christie sees George C. Scott (I’ve decided I can’t be bothered with character names) and admires his surgeons hands. The boy is Mexican and named Oliver. We eventually find that the boy jumped into the white Roller in Tijuana and they took him across the border (no Trump wall) and back to San Francisco. In another flashback, Julie flees the house with Oliver, berating a dressing gown clad Richard Chamberlain.
Unlike Easy Rider I reckon they’re going soft on why a white Rolls-Royce is going to Tijuana (drugs?) and failing to be explicit on why Julie rescues the boy from her husband’s clutches. Tijuana to San Francisco is a long drive too.
Dr Archie finds Petulia: Oh, no! She’s been beaten almost to death … (as he is to say repeatedly)
George C. Scott returns home to find Julie beaten “almost to death” and covered in blood. She is stretchered out past a bunch of hippies (The Grateful Dead) to hospital where she gradually recovers. In a brilliant cameo, the evil and politicaly powerful Father-in-law (Joseph Cotton) gets her released from the hospital and returned to his son. In a flash we see the nuns who are the nurses leaving the parking garage in a white Porsche sports car. We all know the son, Richard Chamberlain, beat her near to death. She seems content to return to him. The surgeon is left on his own. The end.
Back to the yacht. What’s being beaten almost to death between spouses? Looks like they had short shooting days between the San Francisco fogs.
No, not much of a story. It must have appealed to Richard Chamberlain to NOT be the surgeon for a change.
Summary. Confusing and disappointing. Basically a blot on Richard Lester and Julie Christie’s fine careers. Julie spends most of her time looking bruised and battered, accentuated by her trademark pale lipstick. Scott and Chamberlain had been doing so much TV stuff they were more likely to be grateful to be in it at all.
TECHNICALLY …
‘One of the decade’s top films’ ??? DVD case.
The DVD was Spanish, advertised as playable in English without Spanish subtitles and far cheaper than a secondhand English one. However, the film stayed in a 40″ box on our 65″ screen with a wide black band around it. Ten minutes with the remote control failed to correct it. Very odd. Avoid the Spanish DVD.
JULIE CHRISTIE … see also:
The Fast Lady (1963)
Darling (1965)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Far From The Madding Crowd (1967)
Petulia (1968)
RICHARD LESTER
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
The Knack (1965)
Help! (1965)
How I Won The War (1967)
Petulia (1968)
THE 60s REVISITED REVIEWS …
A Taste of Honey (1961)
Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963)
Tom Jones (1963)
The Fast Lady (1963)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Gonks Go Beat (1965)
Cat Ballou (1965)
The Ipcress File (1965)
Darling (1965)
The Knack (1965)
Help! (1965)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Morgan – A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966)
Alfie (1966)
Harper (aka The Moving Target) 1966
The Chase (1966)
The Trap (1966)
Georgy Girl (1966)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Modesty Blaise (1966)
The Family Way (1967)
Privilege (1967)
Blow-up (1967)
Accident (1967)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Is Name (1967)
How I Won The War (1967)
Far From The Madding Crowd (1967)
Poor Cow (1967)
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (1968)
The Magus (1968)
If …. (1968)
Girl On A Motorcycle (1968)
The Bofors Gun (1968)
The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil’s Bride) (1968)
Work Is A Four Letter Word (1968)
The Party (1968)
Petulia (1968)
Barbarella (1968)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Bullitt (1968)
Deadfall (1968)
The Swimmer (1968)
Theorem (Teorema) (1968)
The Magic Christian (1969)
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970)
Performance (1970)
I don’t know about avoiding the Spanish DVD. From your review, I think just avoid full stop. Thanks for watching it so we don’t have to!
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