Screaming Mimi - English Language Review

Screaming Mimi

(USA, 1958)

Directed by: Gerd Oswald

Starring: Anita Ekberg, Philip Carey, Harry Townes

Rating: 3.5/5

A very attractive young woman (Ekberg) is left traumatized after being attacked by an escaped lunatic. While recuperating in a sanatorium, her psychiatrist (Townes) falls *madly* in love with her. Obsessed both with curing her and with jealousy, he takes her away, changes her name and pretends to be her manager. She is now an exotic dancer in a club. But, very soon, she is targeted (in an unsuccessful attempt) by a Jack-the-Ripper-type serial killer. This brings into the scene a nosy reporter played by Philip Carey, who also falls in love with Virginia (or Yolanda as she's now called). Could the two attacks on the young woman possibly be related?

"Screaming Mimi" borders on exploitation at times. Ekberg's (almost) strip-tease routine is clearly only in this movie for men to have something to leer at. Other times, the movie reminds of classic melodramas, such as "Gilda" (the same song is performed in both movies). However, for all it's worth, I think "Screaming Mimi" is an underrated movie. Despite its flaws (which are obvious), at its best it is a shockingly honest film noir, infused with sexuality and with hitchcockian plot devices (the numerous references to psychiatric illness) as well as even more hitchcock-ian tricks of light and shadow (the revisiting of the street where the attack on Yolanda took place or the neon lights intermittently shedding light on the two protagonists during the love-making scene).

Ekberg is not much of an actress. But she has her place set in stones in the history of cinema because of a famous scene involving a certain fountain in Rome. Other than that, I also find her interesting in low-budget noir-ish dramas such as this one or "Valerie", of which I've also written some time ago, directed by the same Gerd Oswald. As for "Screaming Mimi", it's worth mentioning that the novel on which it is based was adapted again a decade and a half later by Dario Argento, in the very stylized "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage", which was a more notable success than Gerd Oswald's forgotten little movie.

Valerie - English Language Review

Valerie

(USA, 1957)

Directed by: Gerd Oswald

Starring: Sterling Hayden, Anita Ekberg, Anthony Steel

Rating: 4/5

A noir in a western's clothing

This strange and forgotten gem begins with John Garth (Hayden), a cattle rancher, showing up at his in-laws' house. He goes in, shots are fired, then he comes out and quietly leaves the scenes. No words are spoken. Then, the camera follows a dog inside the house, where we pan across the dead bodies of the old man and woman and we pause on Anita Ekberg's wounded body in an armchair, an image which remains in the background of the opening credits. The rest of the movie uses Garth's trial as a plot device for a "Rashomon"-style account of Civil War veteran John Garth's marriage to Valerie Horvat (Ekberg), the daughter of two immigrants. Firstly, we hear it from the point of view of the new preacher (Anthony Steel), who kinda falls in love with Valerie, then from Garth's perspective and, finally, Valerie tells it. 

While one of the stories turns out to be more truthful than the others (the filmmakers were probably concerned about the fact than an ambiguous ending would make viewers angry), you cannot doubt the fact that everybody who takes the stand either lies, or o.mits facts, in the interest to create sympathy for himself. It's the reverse of Kurosawa's picture, where everybody blamed themselves. I find this approach more realistic, although undoubtedly less poetic.

"Valerie" was a good stage for Ekberg (much more famous from a certain scene in "La dolce vita") and Steel to show some acting abilities, but it's Sterling Hayden who dominates the screen. The powerful star of so many great movies ("The Asphalt Jungle", "The Killing", "Johnny Guitar" and, of course, "Dr. Strangelove") creates a unique and complex character, whose portrayal changes from one account of the story to another, from the concerned and cheated husband he is in his side of the story to the drunken, abusive maniac he is in Valerie's.