The Carpetbaggers (1964) Reviews

• Dressing Without Salad

  excalibur1072018-08-27

  Howard Hughes? Not really. George Peppard sketches a character without ever inhabit him. It's all effect. Carroll Baker, the brilliant Baby Doll, surrenders to the marketing demands and she revisits her aggressively sexual creature with more sparkle but less depth. Alan Ladd is the one that touches personal buttons and he is wonderful. Edward Dmytryck doesn't find a real center to Harold Robbins melodrama. Elizabeth Ashley's character exemplifies what I'm trying to say. Her journey is quite simply, absurd. She loves him and she hates him in a surprisingly unpredictable pattern. Absurd to such point that's not even entertaining but irritating. - As a side note, I had the experience to watch this movie on TCM with 5 twentysomethings - They laughed and laughed as if it was a hysterical comedy - I asked them what was so funny and their replay was, everything.

• "You've Become Your Father."

  bkoganbing2006-11-27

  On one of the Star Trek feature films Spock refers to Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins from his vantage point in the future as the 'old masters' of 20th century earth literature. Is that a frightening prospect or what? One of the earliest of master Robbins works to get to the silver screen was The Carpetbaggers. It's a novel about a young industrialist whose like a tornado in his business and personal life, destroying everything in the path of Jonas Cord, Jr. George Peppard is the younger Cord, based on Howard Hughes as you will know within the first 15 minutes of the film. Peppard is singlemindedly determined to outdo his father, Leif Erickson in every way conceivable. Erickson dies at the beginning of the film leaving an industrial empire to Peppard who rules it 24/7. There's also a young wife Erickson left, Rina Marlowe played by Carroll Baker. Think of Baby Doll grown up a bit and you have Carroll as Rina. The novel was an immense bestseller in its day and had a pre-existing audience so there was no way it was going to flop commercially. Knowing that is what attracted a very good cast of players to support Peppard and Baker who give some really good performances. My favorite is Robert Cummings as the sly actor's agent who doublebangs Peppard in a business deal and then attempts some blackmail. He is truly a slimeball. Of course you can't talk about The Carpetbaggers without talking about Alan Ladd. He plays Peppard's friend and confidante Nevada Smith, a cowboy who Erickson takes on to mentor young Peppard. And he does very well in the part. Alan Ladd's wife Sue Carol was his agent and managed his career. Or mismanaged it in one sense. She never let him gracefully transition into good character parts like Nevada Smith as so many of his contemporaries did. She insisted that he had to be the leading man as he was in his big box office days at Paramount. It's too bad Ladd didn't live to see the good reviews he got even from critics who trashed The Carpetbaggers. How good was it? Well if it was bad, I doubt a Nevada Smith movie would have ever been made. Ironically Ladd was also in a cast with Robert Cummings and Lew Ayres both of whom transitioned into character roles and got work the rest of their lives. The Carpetbaggers is trashy, no doubt about it. But it gets a good production from a good cast, a mixture of old and new Hollywood of the period.

• Oh what a glorious piece of smut.

  mark.waltz2017-03-22

  Don't let the length of this epic film version of one of the most popular trashy novels scare you away from it. This grabs at the viewer's hormones and sinful desires of lust, power and greed and doesn't let go. Cinema never looked so pornographic as it did with the screen adaption of Harold Robbins' best seller, even dirtier than the same year's "Where Love Has Gone", also by Robbins. I've seen this listed on compilations of "worst" for years; worst film of 1964, worst actress (Carroll Baker) among them. Baker was so panned by critics after a few successes that in 1965, she was listed for at least three films. While not as wretched as all that, she does have the habit of braying most of her lines, making both Natalie Wood and Elizabeth Taylor seem subtle in comparison. The focus of the story is George Peppard's Jonas Cord, a carefree and rebellious young man whose tirade against his father leads the old man to his grave. That leaves the sultry baker a wealthy widow and free to try to get Peppard into her bed. As Nevada Smith, Alan Ladd has pretty much been a father figure to Peppard, equally a rebel, if now a tired one. Ladd goes onto silent western stardom, ironically marrying the much younger Baker who goes onto becoming a Jean Harlow type star, tying this in both with Baker's next film (where she did play Harlow) and a prequel, "Nevada Smith", with Steve McQueen as the younger Ladd. With all his new wealth and power, Peppard sets off to become the most powerful man in the country (if not the world), leading to the revelation of a truly miserable life before, and certainly much more miserable going forward. The obviousness of who Jonas Cord is becomes fairly obvious early on, with various references to the real life people utilized as well. This covers big business, the movie business, and in keeping true to the title, the obvious analogy that everything that Cord gets involved in is through infiltration, just like the northerners did in the south decades before. This is at its best when it deals with decadence and showing off the fun of sinful lives which usually brings on great unhappiness years later. It definitely makes great use out of its epic feel, never shirking on the overabundance of too much living and too little sense to really be able to handle it all. You'll enjoy the lengthy cast list that appears in the sky writing credits with Baker getting special billing. Such veteran actors as Lew Ayres and Robert Cummings also have major roles, with the young Elizabeth Ashley standing out as the flirtatious daughter of a business associate of Peppard's who ends up in a miserable marriage to him. Martin Balsam is excellent as a movie producer who pushes Peppard into the movie business, further complicating his life. Martha Hyer is the actress whom Jonas fires, infuriating Balsam. Why does this not all come together? It's just really a bit too much, in retrospect an analogy of the characters and perhaps why this was panned. Peppard is completely unsympathetic, and often, the other characters are "types", not real people. If Robbins is trying to expose the hypocrisy of Hollywood, he succeeds somewhat, but "Sunset Blvd." this isn't. Written and filmed long before the creation of the TV mini-series, something tells me that this would have been better that way rather than a huge novel edited down to a still long movie that never the less feels choppy.

• Leaves one (carpet)begging for more.

  Poseidon-32004-08-30

  When a film is based on a Harold Robbin's novel, it's pretty clear that the story isn't going to be about Amish furniture building or love among the hollyhocks. His brand of fiction is usually racy, tawdry and more than a little tasteless, yet readers lap it up, page after page, book after book and moviegoers have lapped at several films based on his work. Unfortunately, since it was 1964, not all the dirt hits the screen this time around. Peppard is the ne'er do well son of a chemical company president who, when his father drops dead in mid tongue-lashing, proceeds to boss everyone around and acquire, acquire, acquire! He doesn't just accumulate businesses and wealth, he also likes to collect women, starting with his own step-mother (Baker) a girl he dated prior to her defection to his father. He marries a sassy young flapper (Ashley), but soon enough is neglecting her, turning her into a clinging nag. He becomes involved in the aeronautics industry and the movie business as well, all the time burning out the men and women around him who do most of the dirty work. Eventually, it takes a wake up call or two to make him see what he's become, but it may be too late for him to change. Peppard gives a very one-note performance. He is great at the forceful, demanding and cold-hearted aspects of the character, but offers no warmth or buried kindness that can allow the audience to care what happens to him. (As the film progresses, he is outfitted with ridiculously made up eyebrows that give him an extra-fiendish look!) Ashley is extremely attractive in a variety of Edith Head concoctions and is the epitome of patience as she lives through Peppard's humiliations. Baker also looks smashing in a wide array of Head's silk robes and slinky evening dresses. Both women have incredibly distinct voices and deliver quite a few amusing and/or suggestive lines of dialogue in their own special way. Several solid and professional actors give decent portrayals as well. Erickson is appropriately tough and overbearing as Peppard's father, Ayres is low-key, but effective, as Peppard's put-upon attorney and Cummings is deliciously slick and sneaky as an opportunistic talent agent. Other good work comes from Ladd as a friendly father figure with a past, Balsam as a cocky studio head, Hyer as a hooker-turned-movie star and Totter as a kindly prostitute. The whole film is lavishly appointed, beautifully scored and full of eye-popping sets, costumes, cars and furnishings. What's ostensibly bad about the film (the tacky storyline, the tart, suggestive dialogue, the unbelievability of the situations) now makes it that much better for an audience that delights in flashy, showy Hollywood cheese. If it had been made only a couple of years later, it could have really been a whopping piece of sexploitation. As it stands, it's more of a tease than anything, but it holds definite rewards for those in the mood. Ladd (who clearly shows the ravages of drink and drugs in this film) would be dead of an overdose within a year. Ashley (who later married Peppard in real life) soon gave up her promising start for about 5 years and never really regained her momentum entirely.

• RARE FACTS - Good Film/Disapointing DVD

  filmkr2003-06-16

  Back in 1963 I had the rare pleasure to attend a "sneak prevue" of CARPETBAGGERS at the Chicago Theatre long before its regular release. (In THOSE days a sneak REALLY was just that! No name of picture announced in advance!) This was the completed work print with splices at every scene (though fades and dissolves WERE included). Marks were at the beginning of every shot to sync sound & picture, and the sound track was run in sync from 35mm mag. Several differences occured in final release prints. The version I saw: Then George Peppard comes to the house after his dad has died and goes up to Caroll Bakers bedroom, when he walks into her dressing area, the scene cuts to Carrol sitting at a chair in front of a mirror, with nothing on. In the Release Prints, the shots holds on the master scene of the bedroom and we only hear them talk till they come back out, Carroll finishing putting on robe. Irronically, a number of film magazines of the day actually printed a shot of Carroll suggestively in the chair (though more was shown on film) in full color. When Carroll is dancing on the chandellear in Paris, there was a clear shot of her nude on top, angain not in Release Prints. I believe there was one more altered scene, but this was a LONG time ago! However, the ending that is now on DVD (and was seen a number of years ago when AMC aired it widescreen) IS the version shown at the sneak. But... it seemed SO abrupt with that "THE END" title coming up so fast and the quick fade out, that with the Release Prints the scene was frozen and a voice-over (like the one at the beginning) extended it out a bit and helped remove the abrupt ending. So what happened to that ending??? Also, while the DVD looks quite good (consistant with the IB Technicolor release prints), there are NO extras. Not even the well done teaser or regular trailers (of which the regular trailer even appeared on AMC years ago). By the way, I have always enjoyed the movie a great deal. Good Holloywood sleeze stuff wraped up in bright Technicolr packaging.