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Mental Minor 
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TITLE |
Autumn Leaves (1956) |
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A woman
marries a much younger man. Then she finds out |
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he was
traumatised after finding his first wife having an affair |
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with his
father. When these two return he becomes disturbed |
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and violent
and she considers putting him in a mental |
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I've little
time for Joan Crawford, put her next to Victor Mature |
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and you'd
take them for twins. Here she's a woman who has |
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scorned any
romantic attachment though her actions show |
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she's on the
lookout. Sitting alone in a restaurant a young |
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man
(Robertson) inquires if he can sit in the empty seat. At |
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first she
makes a big show of saying no but in no time at all |
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it's a
whirlwind romance. Not so whirlwind for viewers since |
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this is a
slow, unengaging build-up. |
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When they
are married she learns that he's been lying about |
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practically
everything. He claims not to have been married |
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and then his
first wife turns up. She tells Crawford what a liar |
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he is and
how he's been convicted of shoplifting and generally paints a
picture of a psychotic individual. |
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Crawford
rages at her husband when he returns home even |
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throwing a
typewriter at him (and in the fifties typewriters were heavy). But
all is not as it appears and behind lies a dastardly
plot by his ex-wife and his father. |
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The film is
only interesting for the way some people are easily fooled into
thinking a sane person is mentally ill, a theme better
handled by Hitchcock. |
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Notes
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