AUTUMN LEAVES (1956)
70TH ANNIVERSARY PRESENTATION
Female-oriented melodrama seems out of character for he-man director Robert Aldrich. He took on this 1956 Joan Crawford vehicle partly in response to criticism of the violence in earlier films like Kiss Me Deadly (1955). Yet the violence remains within the characters. Crawford is an aging woman who thinks romance has passed her by. When she’s courted by a younger man (Cliff Robertson, in his first leading role), she resists at first but ultimately marries him. Before long, however, she realizes he has severe mental problems, forcing her to choose between leaving him or getting to the root of his issues. By her fifties, Crawford had embraced roles that acknowledged her age, something her many female fans appreciated. The film has only grown in stature over the years, with critics ranking this and Aldrich’s other melodramas among his most personal works.
d. Robert Aldrich, 106m, DCP
DCP courtesy of Sony Pictures.