Wyler's THE COLLECTOR

[Johann]

I saw this film on Saturday night with Wait After Dark, on another "at the movies" program on TV.

This is a true classic, and I love Terence Stamp's performance.
Wyler had just come off Ben-Hur with a cast of thousands to this, a cast of primarily two.

*NOTE* "The Children's Hour" was made in 1961- apologies for the error- I've never seen it.

Stamp is a butterfly collector and he has a crush on a woman he's been following for some time. He kidnaps her and takes her to his recently bought home "nowhere near Redding".

She wakes up from her sedation to find Stamp bringing her breakfast, dressed in a suit and tie. He eventually explains that she is held captive because he wants her to fall in love with him.
She must stay a month before he lets her go.

That's all I'll say about it.
Wyler's direction makes one think he's a master filmmaker.

The interviews after the film sadly didn't include Stamp.
Samantha Eggar is a bitch.
Sorry but I don't like her in the film or almost 40 years later in interview. She seemed like a pompous, "refined" twit, who slams Stamp, saying he ignored her on set all the time, and that working with him was "oblique " and "detached". Worked well for the film, didn't it, Sam?

The ending to the book is very different from the final product in the movie, and I absolutely love it.
The reason is simple- this movie if made today would NEVER end the way it does. NEVER.

And I hadn't seen this film in a while on Sat, and when I realized again what the ending was I shouting at my t.v: "Hell Yeah!"

[cinemabon]

As everyone knows on this site, I am a huge fan of Willie. Your choice of Wyler films is an interesting one. "The Collector" was an 'in-between' film for Willie. He was on the verge of retirement at the time. He meant "The Children's Hour" to be his last. No director in Hollywood was more honored or respected by his peers than Willie. He was an unassuming man and quite courageous. Despite the enormity of his pictures, his direction reflected his own personal depth in ways few have ever expressed on film.

Watch the "bedroom" scene in "Best Years of our Lives" where Wyler took non-actor veteran Harold Russell and coaxed out a performance the man never knew he had. (Russell won that year for Supporting Actor). Then sit back and wonder how many directors in Hollywood would have taken that chance? There is only one I know of.

[Johann]

Thanks for your comments.

Wyler is one of the golden age directors, and he was a master. I have no problem saying it.

I learned a lot about him in the interviews part of the Collector that I saw. He's always been a name in my head but I've never been overly enthusiastic about seeing all of his work.
I should be.
The Collector is my favorite of his, but Ben-Hur is a hulk.
He's a pure filmmaker, with methods that no one can really argue with.

But that's like Scorsese: Greenaway said "as much as we admire Scorsese, his cinema is still the cinema of Griffith".

They stick to true filmmaking forms, the same filmmaking forms.
I'm not complaining, not at all, but I see Greenaway's point.

[cinemabon]

Perhaps that is why Wyler was successful, Padawan.