We Are Movie Geeks

“Paul, I think I’m gonna be a lousy wife. But don’t be angry with me. I love you very much – and I’m very sexy!”    

BAREFOOT IN THE PARK screens at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater this weekend as part of their Classic Film Series. It’s  Saturday, February 11th at 10:30am at the Hi-Pointe located at 1005 McCausland Ave., St. Louis, MO 63117. The film will be introduced by Harry Hamm, movie reviewer for KMOX. Admission is only $5

Romantic comedies don’t come much lighter than BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, an early Neil Simon confection based on the early days of his first marriage. The youthful, fresh-faced pair of Robert Redford and Jane Fonda play Paul and Corie Bratter, hot-to-trot newlyweds who after spending seven passion-filled nights at the Plaza, find the everyday trials and tribulations of marriage rather rough going. Corie has secured them a sixth-floor walk-up studio in Greenwich Village surrounded by eccentric neighbors, chief among them an aging lothario, Victor Velasco. Her widowed mother comes for dinner, which Corie transforms into a blind date with the wily Velasco. In the meantime, the personality clash between the button-down Paul and the free-spirited Corie comes to a head with Paul walking out drunk and sick with a head cold. The ending for all four characters is inevitable, but the journey there generates some nice giggles. It’s all pretty generic and filmed rather flatly by Gene Saks as a movie barely opened up for the movie screen.

The young leads show why they are still around fifty years later. This was the second of three screen pairings for Redford and Fond (though they barely had any screen time together in 1966’s THE CHASE) Redford repeated his hit Broadway performance in BAREFOOT IN THE PARK with rueful, self-effacing wit. He makes his staid lawyer character likable in spite of his initial rigidity and seems to regale in the liberation Paul experiences when he walks out. In what was her last Hollywood ingénue role before BARBARELLA and political activism beckoned, Fonda is a ball of energy as Corie, effortlessly sexy and flirtatious but surprisingly pure of intent in becoming a housewife. Charles Boyer is ideally cast as Velasco, using his well-worn boulevardier style to great effect, and Mildred Natwick plays Corie’s jittery, pink-pill-popping mother with genuine warmth and crack timing. BAREFOOT IN THE PARK is worth a look if only to see two stars well before they became icons and you’ll have your chance this Satiurday when BAREFOOT IN THE PARK plays on the big screen at St. Louis’ beloved HI-POINTE Theater.

The Hi-Pointe’s site can be found HERE

http://hi-pointetheatre.com/