A Neglected Gem of the Late Sixties
"The Sterile Cuckoo" is one of those bizarre titles which appears to have nothing to do with the film to which it is attached; in the novel of the same name by John Nichols, which I have never read, the title is apparently explained, but the explanation was omitted from the film. In the UK the film was originally released as "Pookie", after one of the main characters, but today it is normally shown on television under its American title. (Perhaps someone pointed out that, in Malay, the word "puki"- same pronunciation- means something obscene. My Malaysian-born wife was baffled why a film with that title should have been released in Britain).The film tells the story of Mary Ann Adams and Jerry Payne, two teenagers who meet one another while waiting for a bus. Mary Ann is generally known by the nickname "Pookie". (I hope she never travels to Malaysia). They discover that they are both on the way to university and that their colleges are near each other. They begin dating, and slowly fall in love, but their relationship is a difficult one because of their very different personalities. Jerry is a shy, studious boy whose main interest in entomology. Pookie is, on the surface, more outgoing- during their initial encounter it is she who makes most of the running- but she is also an oddball eccentric. Both are loners, but for different reasons, Jerry because of his shyness, Pookie because she regards virtually everyone who does not share her eccentricities as a "weirdo". (Or as she would spell it, "wierdo").
"The Sterile Cuckoo" is a coming-of-age film with certain similarities to "The Graduate" from two years earlier. Both films were made early in their careers by rising new directors; "The Graduate" was the second film to be directed by Mike Nichols, whereas "The Sterile Cuckoo" marked the directorial debut of Alan J. Pakula. (He had, however, already had considerable experience as a producer). It is very different in style to the sort of political and crime thrillers ("Klute", "All the President's Men", "Presumed Innocent", "The Pelican Brief") for which Pakula was later to become famous. It is told in a simple, lyrical style with plenty of long, lingering shots. There are relatively few close-ups; characters are often viewed from a distance. There is some striking photography of the North-Eastern scenery (most of the movie was filmed in upstate New York), although the views we see do not always correspond to the ostensible time of year- trees in full leaf at "Christmas", autumn colours in "spring", etc. I presume that the film was shot over a much shorter period of time than the full academic year during which the action is supposed to take place.
Liza Minnelli was hitherto best known to me for "Cabaret" and for her insistence that her name is spelt with a "zee". (I always used to wonder how else her name could be spelt, until I learned that in America, unlike Britain, the name Lisa is occasionally pronounced "Lyza" rather than "Leeza"). If one excludes those films in which she appears as herself, her filmography is a short one; apart from "Cabaret" and "Arthur" I don't think I had previously seen any of them. "The Sterile Cuckoo" is one of her earliest films and the first one in which she has a starring role. She received a "Best Actress" nomination, which in my view was well-deserved. The strange, fey teenager Pookie is, on the surface at least, very different from Minnelli's vampish Sally Bowles character from "Cabaret", yet both women have at the heart of their existence an emotional vulnerability which they try to hide from the outside world in different ways, Pookie by difficult, unconventional behaviour and Sally by an outward show of seductive glamour. Wendell Burton, an actor with a filmography even shorter than Minnelli's- most of his subsequent work seems to have been in television- is also very good as the quieter, more conventional Jerry.
Another striking feature is the film's theme song, the Sandpipers' "Come Saturday Morning", with its simple lyrics and haunting folksong-like melody. It fits perfectly with the mood of the film, and reminded me of some of the songs of Simon and Garfunkel (which were such a feature of "The Graduate"), especially "Scarborough Fair" which was of course based upon a real folk-song. (It received an Oscar nomination for "Best Song" but lost to "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", which I was surprised to learn was specially composed for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"- I had always assumed the makers of that film had simply used a much older song).
This is not a well-known film, but in my view it deserves to be. It is a neglected gem of the late sixties, a gentle, elegiac and moving coming-of-age story and a reminder that not every college student of that period was an angry young radical. 8/10
score 8/10
JamesHitchcock 14 July 2012
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2642099/35286
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