NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

JLRMovieReviews Here, in "Autumn Leaves," Joan Crawford is a writer who prefers her own company over having just anybody – unlike so many today. She has been burned. So, when Cliff Robertson asks to sit down at her table, (the only seat in a packed restaurant,) she replies, "I'd prefer it if you didn't." But he stands right beside her table, waiting for an available table. She meant for him to go away. She can't have him stand there. She couldn't enjoy her lunch. She gives in. They get to talking and they start to form a relationship, quickly. He's a jovial and nice-lookin' guy, but there's something not quite right there. It seems that everything he says can't be taken at face value. Despite the fact she hasn't been this happy in years, there's something wrong. He has mood swings, and she takes it all on her shoulders, taking care of him. Then Vera Miles and his father Lorne Greene show up, telling her that he should be in a "home." If you love someone, you take care of them, she says. You can't just throw them away. Then an unsavory truth comes out. All actors are excellent in their roles, especially Cliff Robertson, who gives an eerily and captivating off-balanced performance. The quiet moments of his desperation and depression are most convincing. "Autumn Leaves" is not your usual romantic movie. Maybe it's not trying to be. Can love cure? Can one's sanity be found through the thick fog of muddle? "Autumn Leaves" is for those who appreciate good performances in good movies and who know that love can be found in dark places.

LeonLouisRicci Director Robert Aldrich's Sharp Approach to this Heavy Tale of Mental Breakdown and Family Secrets gives Joan Crawford one of Her better 1950's Films and brings along Cliff Robertson in a Breakout Role.Like most of the Director's Movies this is a Different Take and His Style Lends a Matter of Uncertainty and Unsettling to this Already Uncomfortable Story. He includes His Trademark Bizarre Angles and Varies the Contrast Considerably as the Thing Cracks Open and Robertson Cracks Decisively.It Tackles Themes that Fifties Audiences were not at all Wanting, Like Sexual Deviance and Psychological Dementia brought on by that most Nuclear of Familial Anchors, the Father. Here the Father Knew Best on how to Subvert His Son's Marriage and at the same time Fracture His Psyche and Steal His Inheritance. Not the most Reassuring, Safe, Unit for the Docile Decade.Joan Crawford, for once, in this Stage of Her Career goes to Great Lengths to make it Clear that there is a Huge Age Difference in Her Romantic Entanglements and that makes this Work just Fine. Robertson Plays the Child-Like Burt, very well as He Searches for a Mother Figure and a Warm Refuge.This is Offbeat and Never goes Over the Top. It Remains Believable Today, in Spite of the Psychiatry Cure All. It has a Wrap Up that may be a bit too Hollywood but it is Only one of the Few Flaws in this Otherwise Different Kind of Film for the Decade and Aldrich, Crawford, and Robertson all Deliver Fine Work.

vincentlynch-moonoi When a Joan Crawford movie pops up on TCM, I'll usually watch it. And there are some great ones...but not this late in her career. Add to it that after all we have learned about the real Crawford, it was impossible for me to buy her as such a totally sympathetic wife, particularly under the circumstances of this story. In fact, she literally made me cringe here. Perhaps it would have been more believable back in 1956, but not in this day and age. In my view, there was virtually nothing credible in her performance here, although you can revel in the scene where she tells of Vera Miles and Lorne Greene.And then there's the way they met -- in a restaurant over chicken salad, in one of the most awkward and asinine scenes I have ever seen in a movie.On the positive side, Cliff Robertson -- no favorite of mine -- is very good here. I guess he was bi-polar in the film, and he was believable in that role. Kudos to Robertson. Lorne Greene and (in a very atypical role) Vera Miles play sleaze-balls here. Given their typical roles it's a little difficult to swallow...but okay, it's acting. And, in fact, the initial mystery in what they are up to is one of the highlights of the film.Also, the scenes of Robertson undergoing electric shock treatments are quite powerful (pun intended), but the downer at the end of the film is that after all Robertson and Crawford have gone through -- spousal abuse and intense psychiatric care -- there is a totally happy ending. Well, gag me with a spoon.It's worth watching for the camp, but not for the overall quality of the movie.

Steffi_P Sometimes in Hollywood, motion picture style seemed to come about just through force of habit. Film noir was never recognised as a genre in its own era, but there was a time in the 1950s when it seemed every low budget drama was automatically shot in that stark, eerie, chiaroscuro fashion – regardless of how "noir"-ish it really was.Autumn Leaves, in some ways, IS quite a grim little melodrama. Many of the most pessimistic pictures of the 40s and 50s dealt with the romance-gone-wrong scenario, where one partner turns out to be not what they claimed they were – check out the excellent Scarlet Street (1945) for the cruellest example thereof. But Autumn Leaves is different. This isn't a nightmarish "what if?" thriller – it has too much respect for its characters to be that. It is more a bittersweet and, at times, very mature look at how insanity and mental trauma can impact upon human relationships. Above all it is a romantic picture from its first frame to its last.And yet, director Robert Aldrich insists upon giving it the noir makeover with his usual penchant for slanting shadows, odd camera angles and foreground clutter, all of which is hardly necessary and just a little tiresome. Still, to his credit, this hard-boiled action director does find room for a more tender, person-centred approach, with some long takes and clarity of image in key scenes. There are also some truly wonderful subtleties to watch out for. For example when Joan Crawford fails to answer Cliff Robertson's proposal, we cut from close-up to mid-shot, where in the background a receptionist puts down a phone – a little note of rejection that we will subconsciously pick up on.Crawford and Robertson at least seem to understand what this picture is about. You can see how good an actress Crawford was by reading up on the kind of abusive and maladjusted person she was in real life. She gives a totally believable presentation of someone with absolute loving purity and patience, and her character's devotion to Robertson's gives the picture its emotional weight. Robertson, in his earliest lead role, demonstrates that combination of warmth and endearing frailty which characterises his most memorable roles, without ever quite descending into a corny caricature.Speaking of corniness, Autumn Leaves is not without its slightly cringeworthy moments. There is the overly extravagant musical score, including a fuzzy blur as we segue into a flashback. There is the somewhat trite peachiness with which Crawford and Robertson's romance unfolds. There is even a barefaced rip-off of the beach scene out of From Here to Eternity. But to be honest, all of this adds to its charm. Autumn Leaves is, in many ways, the opposite of film noir cynicism. It shows people struggling to make romance work in spite of the desperation of their circumstances.