Product: That Cold Day in the Park
Rating: 5.0
great creepy film
The plot of Cold Day In The Park is pretty simple: A sexually inexperanced spinceter-Sandy Dennis-sees a young man outside her house in the rain. She takes him in, feeds him, and cares for him. He makes himself at home for the next few days. Soon, his host gets the hots, but, she being very proper in 1969, can't quite bring herself to make the move. He, on the other hand, couldn't care less. He is more interested in eating her food.Eventually, the lady gets crazy, gets birth contol, and hires an ugly hooker, to do, I guess, what she can't bring herslef to. This women is a lot nuttier than we are first led to think, and things, let's just say. do not end well.This was the film Robert Altman made before M*A*S*H made him a big star. It was fillmed in Canada, and has a small, stage-like quality. The young man, played by Michael Burns--who played Blueboy on that famous Dragnet acid episode (I am the train, I am the train)-refuses to talk. So much of this film goes by without a lot of dioluge. There are also a lot of theatre games and pantamime Altman works into Cold Day In The Park.Personally, I like that late 60s style of flim making, where the pace is slow and there are long sections of quiet. The diolouge is almost written AROUND the plot, not in serivce of it, and you really have to sit quietly and watch the story slowly unfold.In our world of MTV and fast pace editing, 1969s Cold Day In The Park may seem tedious for modern viewers. But for those who enjoy a quiet film that works more on spareness and nuance than action, this is defiantely work watching.Inncidentally, the theme music is by Johnny Mandel, and Quincy Jones, on his Walking In Space album, covers it. This is also well worth checking out.