The Strange One

The Strange One is a 1957 noir film set in an unnamed military academy in the American south. The film follows Jocko Deparis, a charismatic senior cadet who manipulates those around him into following his will. Over the course of the film, Jocko's most devious scheme is gradually revealed, and threatens to ruin the academic careers of not only himself but his fellow students.

Plot Synopsis

Jocko De Paris, cadet leader in a Southern military academy, so manipulates events that George Avery, Jr., son of the school's executive officer, is found drunk and expelled. Through various pressures, Jocko silences such involuntary accomplices as his roommate Harold Koble, football star Roger Gatt and freshmen Robert Marquales and Maynard Simmons, a girl-fearing cadet whom Jocko terrorizes into dating Rosebud, a town girl.

Homosexual Undertones, Censorship, and the Hayes Code

With so much of the original play's content and themes removed, many found the final film to be lacking. The New York Times critic wrote,

The plot for corrupting one boy with a prostitute is sketched vaguely in a feeble scene wherein Julie Wilson ably plays a slack-jointed dame, and the suggestion of the homosexual angle, so strong in the play, is very cautiously hinted here.

Even without ever being able to see the removed scenes, though, the final film is still packed with homosexual undertones. The Cinema Museum put it best when they wrote:

Despite changes made to appeal to the Hays Code censors, much of the play’s homoeroticism is apparent in the film. This includes fetishization of military uniforms, the Freudian use of swords and other military gear, murky fraternity rituals in the middle of the night, languid shots of boys in the shower, and not to mention references to gag reflexes!

Adaptation

The Strange One is adapted from a play called End as a Man, written by Calder Willingham. The play is, itself, based on Willingham's book of the same name. The movie shares much of the same cast, as Jack Garfein, the director of both the play and the film, thought many of the theater actors' portrayals of the characters were perfect. Because of this unconventional casting process, many of the actors had never been in a feature film before.

"Let's go to college and get some knowledge."

Production

The production of The Strange One was famously troubled, with tensions running particularly high between producer Sam Spiegel and director Jack Garfein, who would ultimately be blacklisted from Hollywood following his falling-out with Spiegel. As TCM's Paul Tatara writes,

Initially, Garfein had a close relationship with Spiegel, but he eventually grew to dislike the producer intensely. For starters, Spiegel had problems with the play's powerful, open-ended final act, and he also felt that Willingham was a long-winded bore. To get a small amount of revenge on Spiegel for his needless antagonism, Willingham would actually steal expensive cigars from the producer's desk when he wasn't looking; he'd open his jacket and show them to Garfein after their meetings. Tack on that Spiegel couldn't stand hot weather, and that most of the picture was shot in central Florida, and the kettle boiled over on a regular basis.

During filming... Garfein finally grew irritated with Spiegel's unexpected, angry appearances on the set, so he asked director George Stevens, who was obviously a heavier hitter than Jack Garfein, what he should do about it. Stevens' answer: throw Spiegel off the set! One day, Garfein, who had already learned how to be pushy from his experiences with Lee Strasberg, did exactly that, thus completely poisoning Spiegel against him. Spiegel ended up taking the film away from Garfein before he even had a chance to edit it and add a score. When several pivotal scenes dealing with homosexuality were removed by the censors, Garfein's original vision had been altered beyond recognition. "Sam's vengeance was long-lasting and far-reaching," Gazzara stated in his autobiography. "The Strange One was a good movie, very well made, but Jack's film career was hurt badly by his run-in with Sam. He messed with the wrong man, and it hurt all of us. Sam never promoted our movie. It was as though he wanted to do nothing to help Jack Garfein succeed. There was no publicity junket, no screenings for opinion-makers. I don't remember doing even one interview. There was a small ad in the New York Times and the movie opened at the Astor Theatre on Broadway to decent reviews, but business was soft. At the same time, though, it had opened to spectacular notices in London - for the movie, and particularly for my performance. Many people in England went to see it. But that didn't help any of us in the United States."

Casting

Most contemporary reviews, even the negative ones, highlight Ben Gazzara's performance as Jocko Deparis as one of the highlights of the film. Gazzara, and many of the other actors, were already deeply familiar with their roles, having performed them in the theatrical production End as a Man for years by the time the film was made.

"[Gazzara] gives a tantalizing picture of devilish cleverness and of impudence and arrogance that make the blood run cold."

From Gazzara's memoir, In The Moment: My Life as an Actor:

[Garfein's] "command of the film surprised me. It was the first movie for all of us but he seemed especially comfortable and assured. There were two actors who had not been in the Actors Studio production: the young, handsome George Peppard, who I had never heard of, replaced William Smithers, and James Olson played the dumb football player that Al Salmi portrayed so well. Jack got them to blend in perfectly. Peppard brought an innocence and vulnerability to the part that helped the story, and Olson got all the same laughs Salmi had gotten. Arthur Storch, who played the butt of all the insults and hazing, took the additional step of having a dentist fit him for an upper plate of very bucked teeth. Onstage he used no visual device to demonstrate how unattractive his character was, but it was decided that on film it would work well. And it did. Paul Richards' comic take on a homosexual who is writing a book about Jocko was as good as ever. And my sidekick, Pat Hingle, with his fear of flouting protocol, was even better on film than he was onstage."

Aside from Gazzara, Hingle and Peppard are certainly the most likeable and relatable characters, as Jocko's regretful companion and straight-laced freshman victim, respectively. Arthur Storch's portrayal of Simmons, while providing some welcome comic relief, is so exaggeratedly unlikeable as to distract from the otherwise serious tone of the rest of the movie. Paul Richards' effeminate blackmailing villain, Cadet McKee, definitely relies on homophobic stereotypes in his performance, but in my opinion that's more down to Willingham's writing, and very true to the original book. Ultimately I can't hold it against either of them because the tension and interactions between Jocko and Perrin are some of the best parts of the entire movie.

Reception

From the Harvard Crimson, ca. 1957:

The Strange One is unquestionably something of a technical achievement. Garfein's direction is brilliant. With an acute sense of timing, he carefully constructs each scene to extract the greatest possible amount of tension from it; and although this is his first motion picture, his camera work, which makes extensive use of probing close-up shots, is that of an expert. Equally accomplished is the acting of Ben Gazzara, who in his first film makes De Paris into an intense and haunting, if not exactly lovable, figure.

The Most Fascinating Louse You Ever Met!