Director: Leslie Stevens
MPAA Rating: NR
Run Time: 77 Minutes
Purchase: Amazon
This product was provided by Cinelicious for the purpose of this review.
The good folks over at Cinelicious Pics and the UCLA Film and Television Archive have unearthed Leslie Stevens’ controversial thriller Private Property, lost to the world for half a century, and have released a new 4K restoration of the film for our viewing pleasure.
Odds are you probably never heard of this film, but you should have, considering how far ahead of its time it was, from both a cinematic and narrative standpoint. From its exquisite framing and camera techniques to its voyeuristic and homoerotic plot, Private Property is B-movie gold that will now thankfully be preserved for the ages.
The film stars Corey Allen and Warren Oates as two drifters who set their sights on a beautiful woman, played by Stevens’ wife Kate Manx, they see her passing through a gas station on her way home to the Hollywood Hills. We learn that Oates’ character Boots has never been with a woman, and the two hatch a plan to rectify that by stalking and seducing the woman.
They shack up at a vacant home next door to hers and spend their time watching her from the window until Allen’s character, Duke, decides it’s time to make contact and begins a creepy and inappropriate courting process. Naturally, things spiral out of control until an inevitable violent conclusion occurs.
The majority of the film was shot in Stevens’ and Manx’s real-life home in Hollywood over a short period of time and for relatively little money. The crew was small, but the talent involved easily made up for the lack of manpower, with a fantastic-looking final product, rivaling any Hollywood production for the time.
Cinematographer Ted McCord would go on to be the DP for The Sound of Music, and cameraman Conrad Hall would later be the cinematographer for American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Marathon Man, just to name a few.
Every shot feels as if we’re watching something in secret, spying on these people’s lives through some bushes, a window or behind a carefully placed glass of whiskey. These expertly crafted shots add to the mounting dread as we bear witness to this poor woman falling deeper and deeper into the trap of these sadistic men.
The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) refused to grant their seal of approval when the film was completed, so it only received a small arthouse release domestically; despite achieving success overseas, the weak box office numbers and poor distribution in the States caused the film to fade into obscurity, seemingly lost forever. That is until new footage was found and used to produce a brand new 4K restoration for release on DVD and Blu-ray.
The transfer is nearly perfect, almost producing a jarring level of clarity with no visible scratches, dust or degradation. There are some strange scene transitions, including one where I swear they played the same thing forward and in reverse (when Duke is swinging on the tree), but having not seen the original 35mm print, I don’t know if these flaws were created in the original editing process. Either way, it looks fantastic, and I applaud everyone involved in this restoration.
The release comes in a two-disc set featuring the DVD and Blu-ray versions, but besides a newly created trailer, there is only one bonus feature, an interview with Alexander Singer, who was the still photographer and technical consultant for the film. It would have been nice to see some more bonus content, but considering this film has been lost for so many years, I suspect there probably isn’t a lot of material out there for this picture.
The set also includes a foldout insert with some still images and a fact sheet with some interesting bits about the film and its crew. I would have liked to see some more technical specifications in regards to the film’s restoration or, heck, even a featurette on the disc about the process because they did such a great job.
Cinelicious has been putting out some really interesting and quality releases recently, and this, the fifth entry in their home catalogue, is one I can absolutely recommend picking up.
