Something Wild

Not to be confused with the Jonathan Demme comedy/thriller of the same name, 1962's Something Wild is a provocative drama about a teenage girl recovering from rape. The film opens with the assault, a frank scene that communicates both the violence of the assault and the terrible sense of violation and helplessness felt by Mary Ann (Carroll Baker), a middle-class New York girl who is attacked on the way home from school. Adapted from Alex Karmel's 1958 novel Mary Ann, director Jack Garfein presents the ordeal in discomforting, fragmentary close-ups, and the aftermath in a long, wordless scene in which Mary Ann picks herself up and shuffles home. As a traumatized Mary Ann becomes more alienated from her familiar world, she runs off to the city but continues to wall herself off from all human contact. Ralph Meeker costars as Mike, a gruff but lonely mechanic who stops Mary Ann from killing herself and ultimately makes her his prisoner in his basement apartment. While one might expect the film to turn into a captive thriller, it is actually a sensitive character drama about two damaged people who are unable to articulate or communicate their feelings to others. Their ambiguous relationship may be troubling to some viewers, but this is a compassionate, thought-provoking film featuring powerful performances, newly rediscovered and reevaluated after years of neglect. Restored for this Criterion special edition on Blu-ray and DVD, extras include new interviews (with director Garfein, star Baker, and film scholar Foster Hirsch), a 2014 recording of a Garfein lecture on acting, and an essay by film critic Sheila O'Malley. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)