Toys in the Attic (1963)

(On Cable TV, November 2022) The more you know about Dean Martin’s debonair screen persona (whether it’s as a contemporary lush or as a western hero), the more his presence in heavy southern-gothic melodrama Toys in the Attic will surprise you. If so, you’re in good company—cinephiles since 1963 have been raising eyebrows at this oddball entry in his filmography. Martin, as certified King of Cool, was far better known as a sometimes-lazy actor who took on roles where he could transfer his public persona without doing too much work so that he could go golfing the rest of the day. Any role that didn’t have him wearing a suit with a glass of amber liquid on hand (or a cowboy outfit with a liquor bottle on hand) was considered a departure. That’s far, far away from starring into a theatrical adaptation of an intense family drama featuring resentment, jealousy, implied incestuous lust, large sums of money and, eventually, a man breaking free from his sisters in order to have a functional marriage. Legend has it that Martin’s agent got the role for him, but legend also has it that Martin worked hard to be good at the role, and the film somewhat bears this out: he’s not bad (albeit not great) as long as you manage to forget about the rest of his filmography. He doesn’t overpower the rest of the film as one might have feared. The rest of the cast is not bad (what with Yvette Mimieux being a bit too good at playing the naïve newlywed bride, Geraldine Page as the heavy, and Gene Tierney also going for darker-than-usual) but Martin remains the centre of attention here. The film itself is not all that good: coming from a play by Lillian Hellman, Toys in the Attic feels like a bit of a Tennessee Williams-light tale of the decadent South, but without really committing to the bit. Despite a few fine westerns, Martin wouldn’t play as intense a dramatic performance ever again as he aged and became even more golf-focused.