Private Property

Once considered lost, the 1960 thriller Private Property was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive and re-released in 2016. While not a lost masterpiece, this is a terrific little indie film, a sexually-charged psychological thriller set in a sunny California culture of affluence and trophy wives. Corey Allen and Warren Oates star as outlaw drifters on the California coast, and Kate Manx is the woman they follow to her Hollywood Hills home. Allen has promised her to his buddy as a kind of sexual gift, but his own desire for this lonely housewife creates tensions between them. In his directorial debut, playwright and screenwriter Leslie Stevens makes the most of a limited budget (the Hollywood Hills location is his own home), creating a visually evocative world that is taut with palpable tension as he nicely orchestrates his small cast. Method actor Allen plays his part as an angry young con man who has perfected the sensitive soul act while Manx, who was Stevens's wife at the time, is a limited actress though effective here. But Oates is the revelation, walking a tightrope between loyalty and suspicion while slowly figuring out Allen's games, although slow to act until practically pushed into action. The simmering resentments of class and money coupled with the desire for sex and power offer a prescient preview of the sociopolitical concerns of late-‘60s and early-‘70s cinema. Presented in a Blu-ray/DVD Combo set, extras include a bonus interview and an essay. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)