4/16/07: Katherine (1975)/The Ballad of Andy Crocker (1969)We’re back just in time to strap on the old barrel with suspenders, as the IRS takes our money so that it can be better spent on assorted art projects mocking everyone’s religions. (Well, at least those religions that don’t scare sensitive artists.) The good news is that our trash comes cheap, as seen by this DVD double-feature that can easily be found for $1.
Katherine has one of our favorite opening scenes ever. A hippie gal straps on a vest full of dynamite, and then gets a big group hug from her revolutionary comrades. Sadly, this isn’t an early run at a big-screen take on
The Darwin Awards. Sissy Spacek—formerly known as
Rainbo—is playing a corrupted ’60s gal on the fast track to solo martyrdom.
Katherine’s final stroll bookends other characters who reminisce about how the sweet rich girl turned into a dot-brained dead diva. This made-for-TV film is surprisingly strong stuff, although Spacek’s role was quickly overshadowed by her turn in
Carrie. The film’s tone is nicely fatalistic, and Art Carney is particularly touching as the truly good father who can’t fight a zany zeitgeist.
The film’s best politics, however, are served by Henry Winkler as Katherine’s boyfriend. This guy’s a masterpiece of passive-aggressive wimpiness calling for armed aggression against imperialism. In real life, he’d turn into a college professor like
Richard Berthold. It’s no surprise that the boyfriend stays alive while Katherine gets the dykey haircut and sacrifices her life for the cause.
Katherine is a sad film about stupid people, but it’s a typically strong effort from director Jeremy Kagan—who’s made several good movies about the worst remnants of the ’60s.
In contrast,
The Ballad of Andy Crocker is directed by Stuart Margolin, who’s best known as a bumbling comic character actor. He usually plays the kind of characters who’d direct this movie. It’s a touching drama about a Vietnam vet, but contains three deadly missteps. An actual ballad plays throughout the movie and tells us what we just saw. A metaphysical attempt at portraying a phone conversation remains one of the most laughable moments in made-for-TV cinema. And there’s a moronic opening that contrasts actual war footage with Lee Majors running around on what looks like a leftover set from
Gilligan’s Island.
But you get a cast that includes Marvin Gaye, Agnes Moorehead, and
Jimmy Dean. Joey Heatherton also shows up to announce, “I’ve always
been crazy—and I want to get wet.” Majors is pretty good as Andy Crocker, who comes home from the war to find his business and love life in shambles. He’s playing a complicated character in what might have once been an amazing script. At least Margolin doesn’t screw up an ending that’s both sad and inspiring—and there’s an impressive early scene where Majors finds himself trapped in a den of counter-culture creeps. If one of them had been Henry Winkler, then
Katherine would’ve never happened.
Make it your own: Did we say this DVD double-feature could be found for one dollar? You can
do a lot better than that.
