Private Property (1960) was an independently-produced low-budget feature that achieved notoriety at the time of release due to running afoul of both Hollywood's Production Code and The Catholic Legion of Decency. After a brief arthouse run in the U.S. and a successful reception in Europe, the film virtually disappeared--too suggestive to air on television and without studio-backed protection, after a time no prints were known to exist and it was considered lost for more than 50 years. When re-discovered, restored and exhibited in 2015, Private Property was recognized as a smart, subversive late-era Noir from a first-time director aided by a first-rate crew and a small but talented cast.
Synopsis: Two men arise, almost as if tossed up from the ocean itself, as they trudge up a hill from the beach in Malibu. Their clothes are weather-beaten; Boots (Warren Oates) has his shirt off and slung around his neck. Duke (Corey Allen) approaches the owner of a small gas station and immediately takes a thuggish posture, asking him where the Sunset Strip is and demanding bottles of pop for he and his buddy as well as a pack of Viceroys. Bullying to get what they want, they sit leering outside the ladies restroom as Boots observes, "He's got a calendar in there--it's a broad in a cowboy hat." Duke asks, "Boots, how come you never made it?" and Boots replies, "I've been ready to make it ever since you took that redhead away from me in that orange grove! I coulda scored but you had to grab her for yourself, doncha?!" Duke assures his pal that he will "fix him up," (setting the unsavory tone for the entire picture). Appliance salesman Ed Hogate (Jerome Cowan) pulls up in his limited-edition Skylark (during the film much attention is paid to status symbols and brand names) and Duke turns on his grifter charm, cajoling the fellow to give he and Boots a lift to Sunset Blvd. Another visitor to the gas station is Ann (Kate Manx), a lovely blond woman in a Corvette. Duke asks Boots if he is interested, saying "I said I'd get you one..." and Duke insists that Ed follow the woman to her house. At the point of a knife, Ed complies and follows Ann to her home in the Hollywood Hills. Duke and Boots are dropped off and they immediately start stalking their prey, hitting pay dirt when they discover that the house next door is vacant and they can watch the blond housewife skinny-dipping in her backyard pool nestled on a cliff overlooking Los Angeles.
Private Property originated with writer/ director/ producer Leslie Stevens (1924-1998). Stevens was a playwright for the stage and television; following the massive success of The Marriage-Go-Round, a 1958 Broadway hit starring Julie Newmar, Stevens formed a production company with his press agent Stanley Colbert. They decided to make their first project a low-cost feature to prove that they could deliver a quality film on a budget. To this end, Stevens wrote a script centered on just a handful of characters and shot it largely in the least expensive setting imaginable--his own house! (This was not a new approach for a first-time director; see Arch Oboler's Five [1951] for another good example although this film is much more accomplished, both technically and dramatically, than Oboler's). The only cost for sets was the $500 rental fee for the house next door. Consequently, Private Property was produced for just under $60,000, paid out of Stevens' pocket. Following two weeks of rehearsals, shooting on the film took just 10 days, with Stevens careful not to let anyone go into expensive overtime hours.
One of the wisest moves that any first-time director can make is to hire an experienced, first-rate DP (director of photography). Credit co-producer Colbert for taking advantage of a stroke of luck: according to Don Malcom (in his article "Ten Properties of Private Property" written for the film's home video release), Colbert bumped into a young camera operator he knew named Conrad Hall in an LA supermarket and told him about the film's need for underwater photography. Hall had experience with underwater shooting and said he'd love the chance--better yet, he suggested his mentor, respected Hollywood veteran Ted McCord, as DP. McCord had worked for years at Warner Bros. where he'd lensed such pictures as Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), East of Eden (1955) and dozens more. Stevens wisely shot the underwater climax of the film first, in case technical difficulties required any re-working of the shooting schedule. Hall proved to be as good as his word and the shots were captured in short order. (Hall would go on to become a DP himself and have his own spectacular career, winning Oscars for his work on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid [1969], American Beauty [1999] and Road to Perdition [2002]).
In casting the three main roles, the producers were once again cost-conscious. Stevens cast his own spouse Kate Manx in the key role of neglected trophy wife Ann. Manx had previously appeared in small parts on television, but Private Property would be her first lead and feature film. Stevens originally sought out Ben Gazzara to play Duke but was turned down. Corey Allen had a good amount of experience and had the sort of contradictory qualities Stevens was looking for--he could be smooth and soft-spoken one minute and explode into a psychotic fit the next. Allen had already appeared as a troubled presence in such films as The Big Caper and The Shadow on the Window (both 1957) and, most notably, as the hood racing with James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Warren Oates had been acting for four years in bit parts--mostly on episodic television--where he racked up more than two dozen credits. In Private Property, one of his first featured parts, his twitchy, slightly distracted mannerisms are a striking contrast with Allen's smooth blue-collar socializing. In the best "George and Lennie" tradition, however, Oates and Allen are tightly wound--they let on that either one of them could snap violently at any moment. Kate Manx is sexy and vulnerable as the part requires, but also projects a quietly desperate, tragic quality in her performance--the frustration in her marriage goes beyond loneliness. In poolside shots with the sprawling, smog-laden city far beneath her, she seems to be the only person on Earth, and when she later mentions feeling "watched" Manx doesn't register fear, but a sort of relief.
In fact, if the viewer cares to look for underlying commentary in Private Property, themes of capitalism, suburbia, class divisions, Ike-era repressed sexuality, and marriage politics lay just below the surface of the plot. For example, any planned violation of Ann by Duke is preceded by a violation of the social order set up early in the film when Ed tells Duke that he wouldn't have a chance with Ann--that "these things are broken into groups...you wouldn't mate a bird with a snake--it just can't happen." Duke takes this as a challenge and when he violates the barrier of Ann's backyard gate (while posing as a helpful gardener), he abruptly breaks the surface of her swimming pool, boasting "you don't know what it means to a guy like me--to take a dip in a private pool!" For her part, Ann later finds Duke's discarded belt next to the diving board and handles it like a precious totem, provocatively tightening it around her neck, taking it to her bed and protecting it in a hat box--treating it as more valuable than any of the expensive items her husband's money buys. Ann's standard upper-class suburban trappings can be surprisingly shallow--when she offers Duke and Boots a chance to experience the expensive new stereo system her husband has bought her, she blandly puts on the demonstration record that came with the purchase, complete with sound effects as well as music samples.
Since the very premise of Private Property hinges on the random stalking of a woman for the purpose of rape, and thanks to the disturbing way that knowledge hangs over the entire film, it should be no surprise that it was denied a Production Code stamp of approval and given a "C" for Condemned rating by the powerful Catholic Legion of Decency. Stevens was savvy enough to know this would be the case; as a devotee of New Wave cinema from Europe, he frequented arthouse theaters in the States and was comfortable with his picture playing to that crowd. (In 1965 he wrote and directed the very peculiar feature Incubus with the intent of appealing to the arthouse audience--though shot in California with English-speaking actors, the entire movie was spoken in Esperanto so that it would have subtitles!) The ploy with Private Property paid off--it made $2 million in rentals worldwide, although it was most popular overseas in countries like Denmark and France.
Though Private Property received only sparse distribution in the States, it was attended by a certain couple who were also known to be devotees of arthouse cinema. In a 1964 interview with historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jackie Kennedy recalled the night of John F. Kennedy's West Virginia Democratic primary in 1960. Killing time before the results were tallied, the couple went to the movies and, the film they intended to see being half-over, saw Private Property instead. She called it "some awful, sordid thing about some murder in California--really, I mean, just morbid." She and the future president were "terribly depressed by the movie" but that feeling presumably abated after learning he had won the primary.
Stevens and Colbert parted ways following the release of Private Property but Stevens continued with his Daystar Productions, writing and directing another feature, Hero's Island (1962). Island was a sober, authentic pirate story co-produced and starring James Mason. Kate Manx played the female lead and Warren Oates also appeared in support. McCord and Hall again handled the photography. Stevens then turned his attention to series television, in part to keep his growing Daystar crew together for consistent work. His first series was Stoney Burke (1962-1963, ABC), a modern cowboy show about a rodeo rider played by Jack Lord, with Warren Oates as his sidekick. (Kate Manx appeared in one episode, but it was during the run of this show that Stevens and Manx divorced--tragically Manx committed suicide just one year later, at the age of 34). It was with his next series, however, that Leslie Stevens made his greatest mark on popular culture. He created the well-loved and highly regarded anthology show The Outer Limits (1963-1965, ABC), using his Daystar crew including DP Conrad Hall (McCord had retired by this time) and producer (and unofficial script supervisor) Joseph Stefano. Stefano was an old friend of Stevens'--a former songwriter-turned-scenarist who had written the screenplay for another controversial 1960 film that received much more attention from the public and the press than did Private Property: Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
Producers: Stanley Colbert, Lou Brandt
Director: Leslie Stevens
Screenplay: Leslie Stevens
Cinematography: Ted McCord
Camera Operator: Conrad Hall
Music: Pete Rugolo
Film Editing: Jerry Young
Cast: Kate Manx (Ann Carlyle), Corey Allen (Duke), Warren Oates (Boots), Jerome Cowan (Ed Hogate), Robert Wark (Roger Carlyle), Jules Maitland (Robbery Victim).
BW-79m.
by John M. Miller
SOURCES:
"Ten Properties of PRIVATE PROPERTY" by Don Malcom--booklet included with the Private Property Blu-ray, 2016.
The Outer Limits: The Official Companion by David J. Schow and Jeffrey Frentzen, 1986 Ace Science Fiction Books, New York
"Leslie Stevens' Private Property (1960): Noir's Edge of Wetness" by Don Malcom, Bright Lights Film Journal, July 31, 2012.
