- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,425
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
Road to Salina may be one of the stranger films to come out of the early '70s.
Directed by the prolific French filmmaker, Georges Lautner, I've always found it so bad that it needs to be viewed as a representative of a certain kind. It's also poorly edited, especially in action sequences.
The basic plot is about a young man (Robert Walker, jr.) who stops by a roadside rest stop, is incorrectly identified by the owner (played by an aging Rita Hayworth - more on that later), as her long-lost son, and who moves on to have a torrid relationship with Hayworth's daughter, her purported brother.
All of this was apparently too much for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which reviewed it as follows:
"Dreadfully pretentious European production set in the middle of a baked salt flat where Lana Turner runs a gas station-cafe and mistakes Robert Walker for her runaway son. Her daughter (Mimsy Farmer) goes along with the situation by engaging in a sexual relationship that had originally sent the son packing. Directed by Georges Lautner, the muddled incest theme is conveyed with many arty scenes of graphic lovemaking."
They apparently disliked the content so forcefully, (it includes full frontal of both Ms Farmer as well as Mr. Walker) that while they were able to identify the ever-lovely Mimsy Farmer in all her natural glory, they identified the older woman as Lana Turner.
While Miss Hayworth would have been 51 during the filming, Miss Turner was a few years younger, and both were notable blondes, so they're easily confused.
The new Blu-ray courtesy of Kino is generally lovely, except at cut-in dissolves, but that's a minor point. Audio is fine for a lowish budget film. Color, densities, grain structure, black levels, all appear fine.
Part of my problem with Miss Hayworth is her appearance, and I'm not referring her age. It's the way that she was made up and photographed, that made her appear far less the beauty that she was when she was in her prime.
Shot on location in the Canary Islands, with interiors at Billancourt, where much of Napoleon was filmed a few years earlier.
Image – 4.5
Audio – 5
Pass / Fail – Pass
RAH
Directed by the prolific French filmmaker, Georges Lautner, I've always found it so bad that it needs to be viewed as a representative of a certain kind. It's also poorly edited, especially in action sequences.
The basic plot is about a young man (Robert Walker, jr.) who stops by a roadside rest stop, is incorrectly identified by the owner (played by an aging Rita Hayworth - more on that later), as her long-lost son, and who moves on to have a torrid relationship with Hayworth's daughter, her purported brother.
All of this was apparently too much for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which reviewed it as follows:
"Dreadfully pretentious European production set in the middle of a baked salt flat where Lana Turner runs a gas station-cafe and mistakes Robert Walker for her runaway son. Her daughter (Mimsy Farmer) goes along with the situation by engaging in a sexual relationship that had originally sent the son packing. Directed by Georges Lautner, the muddled incest theme is conveyed with many arty scenes of graphic lovemaking."
They apparently disliked the content so forcefully, (it includes full frontal of both Ms Farmer as well as Mr. Walker) that while they were able to identify the ever-lovely Mimsy Farmer in all her natural glory, they identified the older woman as Lana Turner.
While Miss Hayworth would have been 51 during the filming, Miss Turner was a few years younger, and both were notable blondes, so they're easily confused.
The new Blu-ray courtesy of Kino is generally lovely, except at cut-in dissolves, but that's a minor point. Audio is fine for a lowish budget film. Color, densities, grain structure, black levels, all appear fine.
Part of my problem with Miss Hayworth is her appearance, and I'm not referring her age. It's the way that she was made up and photographed, that made her appear far less the beauty that she was when she was in her prime.
Shot on location in the Canary Islands, with interiors at Billancourt, where much of Napoleon was filmed a few years earlier.
Image – 4.5
Audio – 5
Pass / Fail – Pass
RAH
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