Alan Arkin

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Strange, Small & Forgotten Films: Little Murders (1971)

February 21, 2011 in Film | Permalink

Elliott Gould also played the lead role in the 1969 stage version of "Little Murders."

Both romantic and a comedy though neither in the usual sense, Little Murders is a nihilistic love story set in New York during the late ’60s, when the city was notable for blackouts, blue language and brown tap water. Originally a Jules Feiffer play, the film adaptation remains the only feature directed by Alan Arkin, who certainly didn’t get cheated with this dark vision of life during an age of steep decline.

Photographer Alfred Chamberlain (Elliott Gould) doesn’t defend himself when muggers punch him in the head because he knows their flailing arms will eventually tire. He’s given up his commercial photo career so that he can take pictures of excrement left on the filthy sidewalks. And it barely permeates the fog on his shoulders when Patsy (Marcia Rodd), a brassy woman with an eye for renovation, storms boldly into his damaged life. She introduces him to her severely dysfunctional family and gets him to marry her, but Alfred still can’t snap back to consciousness, if he was ever there to begin with. The photographer is a portrait of the seemingly hopeless turmoil he inhabits, a mean era only getting meaner. When Alfred does manage to awaken, it’s certainly not for love.

Little Murders manages to make some truly appalling, depressing things funny, but it’s obviously after more than just laughs. “Every age has its problems,” Patsy says, trying to bring cheer to her listless new husband, “but people manage to be happy.” But what if the things that make you feel happy–or feel at all–just cause more problems?

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