There is a bit of cheek, and at least the suggestion of an alcoholic haze involved, in rounding up old films and calling them Martini Movies. But Sony persists. The third wave in the labelled series debuts Tuesday.
You do not actually have to mix gin and vermouth and plop in an olive to enjoy a Martini Movie, although it would help in one case. The attraction of the series is that each of these Columbia Pictures titles makes its DVD debut. So it really doesn't matter how they sell them, if you're buying them anyway for their historical value.
This wave has five obscure titles dating 1969 through 1973, an interesting period in cinema because of the tumult in society. The five are: Model Shop (1969), The Buttercup Chain (1970), The Pursuit of Happiness (1971), Summertree (1971) and Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing (1973). Stars range from a youthful Michael Douglas to French star Anouk Aimee and British institution Maggie Smith.
The pedigrees of the movies differ. Buttercup, the embarrassing dud in the bunch, is British. Model Shop is a co-production of France and the U.S., with French New Wave director Jacques Demy slumming the strip of Los Angeles. The rest are Hollywood movies. All five are in English, in colour and presented on DVD in their original widescreen.
The late 1960s and early 1970s were rife with conflict and social change: Woodstock, free love, the Vietnam War, student unrest, the rise of feminism, the maturing of the Civil Rights Movement, economic upheavals. Some of that background is reflected in the five movies, sometimes with purpose, sometimes by happenstance.
An interesting example is Summertree, starring Douglas as a 20-year-old American student who argues with his father (Jack Warden) over his education while his mother (classy Barbara Bel Geddes) tries to mediate.
The stakes are high. If Douglas drops out, he is eligible for the draft. Kids are being sent for mutilation or death in the jungles of Vietnam for a self-destructive war the Americans will inevitably lose. Even Warden turns from hawk into dove when faced with the prospect of losing his own son.
Watching Summertree today is emotional because of obvious parallels to the twin wars of tragedy and attrition in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 1970, Summertree explored the issue emotionally, not through geopolitics. At one point, Douglas' character simply admits, with good reason, "I'm scared!"
Of course, Hollywood was often simplistic then, as now. Summertree could not just chronicle Douglas' internal conflict and his parents' emotional roil. A crazy little love story involving Brenda Vaccaro had to intrude. But the serious stuff from Ron Cowen's Broadway play is maintained, even if the movie version of the romance is over-emphasized.
The movie came about because -- according to legend -- Kirk Douglas bought the film rights as a gift after his son was fired from the play. Kirk Douglas would later pass on the rights to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to his son, who then helped created an American masterwork as a producer. In the case of Summertree, Kirk served as producer.
I do not want to oversell Summertree, or any of the Martini Movies, but there is merit in it. Likewise with Model Shop, for its trippy retro look at L.A. Likewise with Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing, a timeless story of mismatched lovers played by Maggie Smith and Timothy Bottoms. Less so with The Pursuit of Happiness (which is not to be confused with the Will Smith drama). Forget The Buttercup Chain altogether.
And it doesn't matter if any of these Martini Movies is shaken or stirred.
