LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER (1963)

After converting the noisy-but-loving Jewish family of his B’way play A HOLE IN THE HEAD into the noisy-but-loving Italian family of Frank Capra’s 1959 film, Arnold Shulman doubled down with two noisy-but-loving Italian families in this ‘daringly’ adult comedy romance. (He’d return to noisy-but-loving Jewish families adapting Philip Roth’s GOODBYE, COLUMBUS/’69.) This one, from directing/ producing partners Robert Mulligan/Alan J. Pakula, just off TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD/’62, has young Macy’s Department Store clerk Natalie Wood tracking down itinerant jazz musician Steve McQueen when she finds herself, after a half-remembered fling, pregnant. Hence our ‘daring’ element: raising the cash & finding a ‘doctor’ for an illegal abortion . . . and falling in love thru the ordeal. This section of the film really is handled in a new, grown-up manner; with the center of the story played in street-wise/near documentary style, still coming off as freshly felt & new.* And fun to watch established, but still young stars handling untested waters and different expectations. McQueen easily catching everything thrown at him; Wood, very fine when she doesn’t have to hit emotional extremes beyond her natural range. In doubt, she pulls out her default one-size-fits-all staccato delivery. But she’s at her best here, and so lovely, you might not care . . . or notice. Too bad the rest of the film is book-ended by far more traditional situation comedy family tiffs & tussles. Fine as far as they go, but the heart of the film, which feels as if Mulligan & Pakula actually tossed the script after watching some of the new British working-class New Wave cinema, works on a different level.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: As McQueen’s fallback gal, Edie Adams not only gets everything done with minimal screen time, but shows where Christina Hendricks picked up her MAD MEN shtick & style.

DOUBLE-BILL: *Specifically, Mulligan & Pakula must have had the revolutionary filming techniques of Tony Richardson’s A TASTE OF HONEY/’61 in mind. Yet PROPER probably holds up better.