Penelope

I don't know where this movie has been all my life. I'd have enjoyed it immensely when I was an adolescent Natalie Wood fan. Back then it might have been a personal favorite. Looking back over more than sixty years of movie-watching, I reluctantly write "Penelope" off as just another comic heist caper, of the kind that proliferated in the 1960s, though an immensely enjoyable one.

Wood plays the wife of a banker who is also a kleptomaniac who holds up her beloved husband's bank. Do kleptomaniacs rob banks? Well, that's the premise. She sticks up her husband's bank for the fun of it. But what can she do with the money? Will the detective catch her (since, in retrospect, we know the detective is secretly Colombo under cover, we have preconceptions). And how does that impinge on her marriage? Did she rob her husband's bank as an attention-getting device? And how does she get the attention without confessing?

It's one of those silly-sixties comedies with a good cast and (thank goodness) no depth. Jonathan Winters is wasted in a tiny part, so don't watch "Penelope" for him. Dick Shawn, who was never able to flower the way he should have been allowed to, fares well in one of his better (albeit fairly straight) roles as a psychiatrist who needs a psychiatrist. Peter Falk is the detective on the case: but is he really on the right track as much as he seems to be? The cast keeps unfolding, like they did back then, from Lou Jacobi in a plum role he makes delightful with his light touch, to Arlene Golonka to, in a dinky part, Jerome Cowan (who goes back to Fred Astaire movies).

The weak link in the chain is Ian Bannen. Rumor has it they wanted Dirk Bogarde for the part and he would have been fine, but equally as stiff. Bannen's a good actor when let off the leash but one I've never found funny. Back in his little-English-movies days they'd shove him in something like the Peter Sellers movie "Man in a Cocked Hat" as the straight man. Bogarde would have been equally wrong. They needed Laurence Harvey, who could have brought a wry wit to the role (why couldn't I have been a casting director?) Bannen's terribly miscast and they seem not to have informed him this was a comedy. He's not bad, he's just playing like he belongs in another movie.

The writing's a bit on the silly side, as comedies tended to be in the 1960s, though Wood has some lovely lines (of dialogue, I mean) and Shawn's perfectly wonderful as her desperate shrink. Their several scenes together are precious, in a good sense of the word.

The movie is overblown. It's wide screen with luscious sets, where people live in rooms the size of ordinary people's houses. Everything is too big for the slender plot. It also has several (stylized) flashbacks that vary greatly in quality though they all work together in a "pulp fiction" sort of way to fill in exposition, as if a movie like this needed any. I think the writers just didn't have enough plot to stretch ninety minutes.

I enjoyed the movie overall but I have a high tolerance for silly-sixties heist capers and for Wood, who may be an acquired taste in the twenty-first century. It's sad she died the way she did but I don't think she'd have aged well. She might have ended up making special appearances on "Murder, She Wrote" and "The Love Boat" and people would have said, "Is that Natalie Wood? I thought she was dead." Only, in this case, she was.

Wood was perhaps not the world's greatest thespian, but she's solid and effective here even if her performance hardly varies from the performances she gave in movies as varied as "The Great Race" and "Sex and the Single Girl." She's Natalie Wood. That's all we, her fans, expected of her, and that's what we got. We were satisfied.

The score isn't really that notable though it's by John Williams and the theme song, pure 1960s schmaltz, is terrible. Nothing dates a movie so quickly as trying to be of its time. An enjoyable movie if you like that sort of thing, and I do.

Made in 1966 during the heigth of her starpower, PENELOPE is not one of Natalie Wood's better pictures, although she looks beautiful throughout and is adorable. Natalie was dating Arthur Lowe Jr around this time and he coincidentally produced this film. Natalie was also savvy enough to surround herself with an exceptionally strong supporting cast: Peter Falk, Dick Shawn, the one note Lila Kedrova, and small parts by Jonathan Winters, and the overlooked Amzie Strickland( who still does commercials today ). STORYLINE: Natalie as PENELOPE is a gorgeous rich young wife who feels neglected by her handsome banker hubby, so she robs his bank while wearing an expensive "Givenchy" suit and spends the majority of the film either trying to get rid of or retrieve the suit ! Neither plausible, nor side splittingly funny, it is however, standard 60's lite fare. TRIVIA: The film bombed at the box office and Natalie attempted suicide not long after. Natalie didn't make another movie for 3 years after this one, returning in the smash hit BOB,CAROL,TED & ALICE. Edith Evanson, who played the look a like bank robber died exactly 1 year before Natalie on 11/29/81.

I was 16 when this movie came out and completely overlooked it. I'm afraid I was more into the new wave at the Paris than this kind of thing at the mall.

I saw it 30 years later and was astounded by the beautiful and to my eye authentic documentation of New York City at a moment of awesome and perishable beauty--a phrase that describes equally well the amazing Natalie Wood. The screenplay is a failed attempt at a 60s 'modern' screwball comedy, but the film work and editing are wonderful, and the camera has loved very few people with the intensity it loves Natalie Wood who glows in the wonderful 60s fashions.

This was the first flick of Natalie's that I ever laid my eyes on, and, well, what can i say?... I was bedazzled, captivated, and why?, simply because it was Natalie. What is good about this movie?, 1-the cute little 60s outfits she wears!, you have to give her that. She embodied the true meaning of 60's style. 2-All the witty and light-headed arguments between Penelope and her therapist. 3-The persona created by Natalie as her Alterego Penelope seems to me now (with a wider knowledge of Natalie's Cinema) one of the finer representations of the charming and charismatic self that she in fact was, and well.... The movie in its wholesomeness turns to eye-candy before you can finish quoting it's title.

If you ever loved her, you love Penelope too.

Pretty dumb comedy about neglected wife Natalie Wood becoming a kleptomaniac to get her husband's (Ian Bannen's) attention. She even sees a psychiatrist (a very annoying Dick Shawn) to try to be cured. Then she robs her husband's bank and things just get sillier...

This isn't a total bomb. It's beautifully photographed--I've never seen NYC look like this; the settings and costumes are incredible; Wood is just gorgeous and Bannen is handsome and actually quite amusing as her husband. But two things destroy this--the script and Shawn. Shawn is WAY over the top in his performance--he's not funny just annoying. The script is pretty poor--there are a few good parts here and there but most of the comedy is just BAD!!! Wood and Bannen give it their all but the material just isn't there. The rest of the cast just overacts (horribly). It leads to a "happy" ending which had me rolling my eyes.

So it's worth seeing for Wood, Bannen, the cinematography (letter boxing is a must) and some mildly humorous material. Otherwise--forget it. I give it a 6.