Barbara Loden Movies
Actress/screenwriter and filmmaker Barbara Loden started out as a fashion model in the late '40s. After taking acting classes in New York, Loden's acting career began to take off in the late '50s when she began performing on Broadway. She made her film debut in Elia Kazan's Wild River. It was a small role, but Kazan was impressed and gave her a much larger role in his 1961 film Splendor in the Grass. Three years later Kazan starred her in the debut production of the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater that he had just founded. For her work in that play, Arthur Miller's After the Fall, Loden earned her first Tony. She finally married Kazan in 1968 after appearing in a couple more Kazan stage productions and in his theatrically unreleased film Fade-In.Shortly after her marriage, Loden went into partial retirement. She made her directorial debut in the critically acclaimed independent drama Wanda(1971), a film she also wrote and edited. It was the first major American feature to be directed by a woman since Ida Lupino began her directorial debut. Later that year Wanda earned the International Critics Prize at the Venice Festival; it was the only American film to appear at that year's festival. Despite the great praise she received for her film, Loden did not attempt another until around 1980 when she had begun production plans for an adaptation of The Awakening, a novella by Kate Chopin. Unfortunately Loden died of cancer before the project even started. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1972
In 1972, John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, made a strategic and historic week-long guest appearance on the hit talk/variety television program The Mike Douglas Show hoping to get their counterculture message across to middle America. Day two, February 15, 1972, features yippie political provocateur Jerry Rubin alienating Douglas with an antiwar, anti-Nixon diatribe. Douglas sings "With a Little Help From My Friends" and Yoko Ono, John Lennon, and the Plastic Ono Band With Elephant's Memory sing "Midsummer New York," with Rubin and filmmaker Barbara Loden accompanying on vocals and bongos. Other guests include Dr. Jesse Steinfeld, who was the U.S. Surgeon General, and Yellow Pearl, an Asian-American folk/protest musical duo. Highlights include a music video of "Oh My Love" from Lennon's Imagine LP, and several performance art pieces, including "Audience Shouts Spontaneously," "Unfinished Painting," and "Mend Piece," the latter two continuing from the previous day. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
Actress/filmmaker Barbara Loden both directs and stars in the stark little character study Wanda. She plays a girl from a remote mining town, timidly searching for security and love in the big city. After several desultory and abusive relationships, Wanda is "saved" by Dennis (Michael Higgins), who turns out to be a petty crook. Stylistically, Wanda is spare, lean, and understated -- on every level. Loden originally shot the film on 16 mm, then blew it up to 35 for arthouse showings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Loden, Michael Higgins, (more)
1961's premiere "date" movie represented the screen debut of Warren Beatty. Set in the 1920s, William Inge's screenplay concerns the superheated romance between working-class high schooler Natalie Wood and rich kid Beatty. Trying their best to keep their relationship from going "all the way," Beatty and Wood go through a series of unsatisfying interim romances. The troubled Wood attempts suicide and is sent to a mental institution, while Beatty impregnates freewheeling waitress Zohra Lampert. Wood and Beatty still carry a torch for one another, but circumstances preclude their getting together -- and besides, Wood suddenly realizes that she's outgrown the still-floundering Beatty. Scriptwriter William Inge shows up as a minister in Splendor in the Grass, while comedienne Phyllis Diller does a cameo as famed nightclub entertainer Texas Guinan; also, keep an eye out for Sandy Dennis, making her first movie appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, (more)
- 1960
Filmed on location in the Tennessee Valley, Wild River is set in the early 1930s. Montgomery Clift plays an idealistic TVA agent, assigned to convince the locals to move from their property so that a beneficial dam can be built. The principal holdout is feisty octogenarian Jo Van Fleet, who refuses to budge from her land, convinced that she will die if she ever gives an inch. Her prophecy turns out to be true, as Van Fleet becomes yet another sacrifice to progress. Clift also runs into opposition because of his fair treatment of the local black population. Lee Remick costars as Van Fleet's granddaughter, who comes to love and understand the sensitive Clift. Some dated fuzzy-headed liberalism aside, Wild River is a masterful recreation of a difficult, complex period in American history. Watch for an uncredited Bruce Dern in his film debut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, (more)
