The Strange One

This film is a real sleeper. It launched some brilliant careers, especially that of Ben Gazzara. But also those of Pat Hingle, George Peppard and Arthur Storch, who became a fine stage director. Look for this one to see some interesting characters and a compelling story.

Film takes place at a military academy. Cadet Jocko DeParis (Ben Gazzara) concocts an elaborate scheme to get another cadet thrown out of the school. He has the unwilling help of two freshman--Simmons (Arthur Storch) and Robert Marquales (George Peppard). He orders them to keep quiet--but they're not sure if they can and Jocko is a very dangerous man...

Bizarre movie. I hated it at first--it took some time for me to get used to the characters and figure out what was going on but I eventually did. It's not an ordinary Hollywood movie--it was independently made and had trouble with the censors. There's a VERY obviously gay character named Cockroach (Paul E. Richards) who has a crush on Jocko and a shower scene that is homo erotic to a strong degree. There's also a hint of sex between some of the cadets. Pretty raw for 1957.

The acting is just OK. Gazzara and Peppard made their debuts with this film so their overly mannered performances can be forgiven. The rest of the cast is pretty good and carry the film. This was not a commercial success and is rarely screened but it's so strange and different it deserves some recognition. Worth catching if you're interested in offbeat films. A 7.

Ben Gazzara stars (in his film debut) in this military drama about a vicious Alpha male getting his comeuppance from 1957. Gazzara is the big dog at this military academy where he rules w/an iron hand making his fellow cadets cower in his wake. Things take a turn when he messes w/the son of the commander (getting him drunk where in a fit of rage & trickery he ends up beating up another) prompting Gazzara to visit the commander's office where in a turn of events, Gazzara threatens him! Finally the rest of the cadets band together to confront Gazzara where he'll either talk the talk or walk the walk. Adapted from his novel, Calder Willingham (The Graduate) eschews a sadistic hierarchy among the soldiers who are at a point in their careers when they're the most malleable & impressionistic, letting Gazzara hold sway over them like some fascist keeping his underlings beneath the knuckles of his tyranny. There is also (whether intentional or not) an undercurrent of homo-eroticism, since women are almost non-existent on the campus, letting our despot control his minions w/every tool in his arsenal. Also starring Pat Hingle (Commissioner Gordon from Tim Burton's Batman series) as one Gazzara's loyal boys, Clifton James as a military higher up & George Peppard (from the A-Team in his film debut) as one of the cadets who fight back.

Back in the 1950s the movie Production Code in the U.S. censored topics and dialogue that it considered morally offensive or too provocative for a general audience. To get around this, Hollywood disguised the plot and dialogue in some films. The disguise allowed the presentation of underlying subversive themes, but in veiled form. "The Strange One" is a film with a provocative premise rendered opaque by its plot and dialogue.

A Machiavellian-minded Cadet named Jocko DeParis (Ben Gazzara) throws his weight around at a Southern military academy. DeParis is a terrible human being: bullying, manipulative, and sadistic, yet unemotional, always in control of the situation. In the film's plot, he carries through on a well-thought-out scheme to have a cadet he doesn't like expelled. He uses other cadets to implement his plan, so that he personally cannot be blamed. One of his puppet cadets is a visually unappealing Cadet Simmons (Arthur Storch), a guy with a mouth full of conspicuous teeth, who doesn't approve of alcohol and doesn't like women.

Another Cadet in Jocko's orbit is Perrin, (a.k.a Cockroach), a slightly effeminate guy, played by Paul Richards. Cockroach hero-worships Jocko, which thus allows Jocko to humiliate him in front of others. Yet, Cockroach, who refers to Jocko as "Night Boy", has his own plans, disguised by the script's dialogue, when he tells Jocko: "All I want to have is your confidence and your friendship". Well, you can see where this is headed in one sense, though the plot implies something else. The dialogue is heavy on subtext. And the film was quite subversive in its day.

The film's B&W visuals are rather dark, in keeping with the story's subversive theme. A jazzy score amplifies the seedy nature of these inter-relationships. The film's casting and acting are quite good, Arthur Storch's bizarre performance notwithstanding.

On the negative side, the plot doesn't explain why Jocko had such a grudge against others at the academy, nor do we learn the basis for his apparent political hold on the academy's higher-ups.

Yet these are fairly minor issues. And my overall impression of "The Strange One" is highly favorable. In addition to a deeply thematic story, we get to see a number of actors early in their careers, including Gazzara, Pat Hingle, James Olson, and George Peppard, among others. This is a film that would have been all but forgotten had it not been released recently on DVD. It's worth a look.

Jack Garfein made "The Strange One" in 1957. It was adapted by Calder Willingham from first his novel and then his play "End as a Man". Actually the title "The Strange One" doesn't really do it justice; a better, if somewhat declamatory, title might have been 'The Evil One' since its central protagonist, Jocko De Paris, is one of the most sadistic and warped anti-heroes in all of fiction. The setting is a military academy in the Deep South and Jocko is cock of the walk. He rules with a combination of charm and viciousness but it all goes belly-up for him when he targets a young cadet and his father, who happens to be an officer there. His scheme involves four other cadets whose fear of him he's counting on. It's a melodramatic scenario that culminates in a bravura, sustained passage of mounting hysteria but it's brilliant in the way that the best of Tennessee Williams or William Inge are brilliant. Willingham's dialogue has the ring of poetry to it and Garfein, whose first film this was, (he's only made one since), directs it superbly.

Of course, it would have been nothing were it not for its cast, many of whom were totally unknown at the time. Ben Gazzara may already have been a star on the New York stage, (he was Brick in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"), but was an unknown quantity in the movies, (it was also his first film). His performance as Jocko should have made him a much bigger star than he ever became and it remains a career-best performance. Those who fall under his spell include Pat Hingle, James Olson, Arthur Storch and George Peppard. They are all terrific; Peppard, also making his screen debut, shows real promise and Hingle in outstanding.

There's also one overtly gay character, (though the whole picture is suffused with homo-eroticism), a cadet who fancies himself a writer and who is obviously in love with Jocko. He's played by Paul Richards as a grotesque and flamboyant queen, part Truman Capote and part Gore Vidal. In any other film this character would be offensively out of place but here he's just one more poisonous plant in this insidious hothouse. The film wasn't successful and is almost impossible to see now, at least here in the UK but it's a masterpiece and one of the best American films of the fifties. Essential.