Sondra Locke

  • The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968)

    The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2021) Hollywood has always been in love with social-issue films, but until the mid-1960s there was only a very narrow range of social issues worth discussing under the Production Code. Things improved in a hurry from the mid-1960s onward, as the code was replaced by ratings, and the range of permissible, even desirable topics expanded at the same time as moviegoers expected more from American studios. But in films like The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, you can almost feel the repressed pile-up of social issues crowding each other for recognition — disabilities (physical, sensorial and cognitive), fatal diseases, racism, sexism, alcoholism, classicism, discrimination, sexual awakening, suicide and small-town violence all show up in the strange brew of this melodramatic adaptation of a best-selling 1940 novel. If it sounds like a lot, it is a bit much at times — especially as the film tries to keep up with a busy novel in barely more than two hours. If it’s any comfort, the cast is reliably more interesting than the narrative: Alan Arkin as a deaf-mute protagonist, Sondra Locke’s screen debut, and appearances by Cicely Tyson and Stacy Keach. Still, the film does feel like what we’d call Oscar-bait these days — a comparison that’s made easier by the film’s two Academy Awards nominations (for Arkin and Locke) among other recorded honours. It doesn’t exactly make The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter compelling viewing, though — unless you like that kind of overdone drama at a time when Hollywood was expanding its palette of permissible topics without necessarily getting more subtle about how to tackle them.

  • Willard (1971)

    Willard (1971)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, July 2019) You could call Willard “a boy and his rats,” because its idiosyncratic premise has an isolated mama’s boy discovering a particular affinity with the rodents and convincing them to do his bidding, including at least one justifiable murder along the way. Despite the silliness, there’s a surprising amount of thematic material here as the film spends a lot of time describing its protagonist and his interactions with his limited world. The rat effects are not always convincing, but it’s the thought that counts. Bruce Davidson is suitably off-kilter in an unusual character, while Sondra Locke has one of her earliest roles here as the love interest. The direction is a bit too bland to make for more than a creature chiller horror movie and the film doesn’t quite go as far in black comedy than it could have done. Still, the premise works in Willard’s favour, and quirkiness certainly isn’t a bad thing.

  • Any Which Way You Can (1980)

    Any Which Way You Can (1980)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, October 2018) The sequel to 1978’s Any Which Way but Loose once again features Clint Eastwood as a brawler looking for love (Sondra Locke, obviously) alongside his pet chimpanzee. As with its prequel, Any Which Way You Can also proves that Eastwood’s talent for comedy is … limited. Once again, the film is a comedy largely because it’s not a drama—it plays with incongruous elements, features Eastwood in a role when he can be cheered for punching people in the face and fighting Nazi bikers. Perhaps what’s most remarkable about this sequel is that it ends up giving to its protagonist what the original denied: The girl and the fighting victory. Whether this is a reflection of giving fans what they wanted or ushering the nicer, kinder, more entertainment-driven 1980s is a matter of debate, but it does make the sequel more conventional, more satisfying and somehow less distinctive. Any Which Way You Can is worth seeing if you’ve seen the first film or are an unconditional Eastwood (or Locke) fan, otherwise it’s not particularly memorable.

  • Sudden Impact (1983)

    Sudden Impact (1983)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, April 2018) Every entry in the Dirty Harry series has been a small but perceptible notch below the previous one, and Sudden Impact is no exception. By this time, the series has devolved in a near-parody of the character, as Callahan goes around shooting criminals and causing heart attacks with the film chugging along approvingly. It’s an excuse for Harry to get out of town, though and before long he’s out of the familiar San Francisco frame and stuck in a small seaside town where there’s a serious serial killing spree going on. Which brings us to the real story of the film, about a sexual assault victim taking revenge upon her aggressors, and Harry being dropped in the middle of that plot. In some ways, Sudden Impact is what happens when a serious (serious isn’t incompatible with exploitative) crime drama gets taken over by a franchise character tourist. Suddenly, Harry and his dog are in the middle of a story that could very well have been told without them. The clash is rather interesting to watch—at times, far more than taking Harry at face value as he gets a bigger gun, one less partner and even fewer enemies at the end of the film than at the beginning. Clint Eastwood is imperturbable as Harry Callahan—he also directs in a matter-of-fact fashion, and gives the lead female role to his then-long-time partner Sondra Locke, who’s actually quite intriguing in an unconventional way here. The result is misshapen, often ugly, not quite respectable and definitely another step down in the series, but those watching the Dirty Harry series box set will feel as if they got their money’s worth out of Sudden Impact.