Monday, August 18, 2008

Periwinkle Pussycat

I watched the 1966 film "Lord Love a Duck" this weekend, as it has been sitting in my TiVo for a while. I recorded it just because I love Tuesday Weld, so I didn't really know what to expect from it.

It is one weird, off-kilter movie. The tone is just plain bizarre, going from comedy to tragedy in the course of single scenes, and the plot, such as it is, is equally odd. Roddy McDowell, who was in his thirties at the time of filming, plays a high school senior who decides to make the every wish of new-girl in school Tuesday Weld come true. What he ends up doing for the girl runs from the mundane to the life-altering; I think McDowell may be playing Satan, but I can't be sure. One of the things Tuesday wants is twelve cashmere sweaters so she can be admitted into an exclusive clique in school. Roddy convinces her to get her absentee father to foot the bill for the sweaters, so the two of them go shopping. Yes, in the scene below, that man is her father.



I told you it was a weird movie. I wish it was better, so I could actually recommend it, but it's worth recording and leaving on your TiVo for watching when you're not feeling well and all your Netflix DVDs have been viewed.

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