LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER (1963)****

This was my Mom's favorite movie of all-time. Hands down. So it has a special place in my heart (what, you didn't think Pizzaboy had a heart? ). It was one of the first big studio films to concentate on Italian-Americans, and it did so without any cliches or a single reference to a gangster. Considering that it was made well before Italian-Americans started to really protest such stereotypes, I think that makes this film way ahead of it's time, even if the moral stance on abortion might seem little bit antiquated to some people.

Steve McQueen and Natalie Wood are outstanding as a musician and a sales clerk respectively in New York City. Even in a city of millions you still get involved with the lives of two families. While McQueen and Wood are standouts, the supporting cast help make this a solid and memorable film.

The movie begins with an empty hall and quickly it turns in to a musicians hiring hall. Here is where we first meet McQueen and Wood. Wood is coming to see McQueen about the after effects of a one night stand a few months earlier. Naturally, the woman remembers the man, but the man doesn't have a clue. What makes it tougher for McQueen is that he already has a girl friend when he meets Wood again. Eddie Adams is great here as McQueen's suffering girlfriend. When McQueen asks about maybe getting her help for a friend who needs a doctor for his pregnant girlfriend, the result is predictable but Adams is superb as she makes her opinion known.

The families of these two people are a great contrast. The family of Wood, all brothers and a mother, are suffocating her with their concerns about her. Her brother picks her up from work in the family truck. Her mother is of the old world. McQueen's on the other hand have accepted that he is out on his own and seem to be used to his occassional appearances.

The scenes dealing with the solution to Wood's "problem" are chilling. Waiting on a windblown street for a contact. Both trying to be inconspicuous and worry that they have enough money for the "doctor". When the contact shows, he tells them that they have enough for the "doctor" but not for his fee. They are given a deadline and then they set off to dig up the money. McQueen knows his folks will give him some money so he heads with Wood, to see them at a local playground. Here it turns into a race as Wood's brothers show up looking for her and they are also racing the clock to see the "doctor".

The actual back alley setting is sobering and a real shock of reality as it was in the years leading up to Rowe v. Wade. This is a good reminder about what an abortion involved. No sterile technique, more a process to keep the people from getting too blood stained.

This is not a lived happily ever after story. You don't know what happens to them other than that they both have a change of heart about each other.

The black and white photography is excellent and adds a great deal to the visual impact. New York, as always, provides it's own unique component to this excellent film.