Tall Story (1960)

One of the best films i have seen

An Exercise In Nonsense

A Brilliant Conflict

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

I noted that in this comedy about a college basketball star lanky Anthony Perkins sure looks the part. But if you watch closely there are no real shots of him actually playing basketball. I suspect that Perkins in real life was no athlete though the story focuses on him potentially missing a big game.A big game it is indeed with no less than a team of Soviet All-stars touring the USA and playing many colleges. Perkins missing the game would certainly affect the odds.So when money is dumped on him from a mysterious source to throw the game this throws Perkins in an ethical quandary. And because he's got Ray Walston his professor who is his ethics professor the whole thing becomes a mess as Perkins deliberately flunks Walston's class to miss the big game.Although Perkins and a young Jane Fonda as the coed looking to snare Tony for a husband, the real star of this show is Walston. When he flunks Perkins and then refuses to give him a makeup exam to make him eligible he's got everyone hating him including his wife Anne Jackson and next door neighbor and colleague Marc Connelly. In 1959 Tall Story ran on Broadway for 108 performances. Authored by the legendary team of Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse, only Connelly and Robert Wright as the college president repeat their Broadway roles in the film.Some mention has to be given to Murray Hamilton as the frantic basketball coach who has the idea that the university exists to give his basketball team a home. What could possibly give him that idea in the America of 1960 let alone today?The stars do well and the supporting cast is fine. But this film is a must for fans of Ray Walston.

I was surprised to see that the play on which this is based is from 1959 and not 1939; it has so much of the flavor of 30s college flicks. Just imagine it with a cast from a quarter-century earlier and it makes for a more comfortable fit. Who would you cast in the principal roles? The contemporary young 30s actors to play Tall Naive Guys could be say, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, even musical comedy hoofers such as Ray Bolger or Buddy Ebsen for a different flavor. For the go-getter girl June (who needn't be tall) the possibilities are broader. Ginger Rogers? Early Betty Grable or Lucille Ball? Toby Wing? One could amass quite a list of potential Junes... Let me confess that I didn't get to see this all the way through, but from what I saw I found it rather weird to find all these young people existing in a 1960 world devoid of young peoples' music, i.e. rock 'n' roll, doo-wop etc. When the couples are out spooning under the moon they're even singing "Cuddle Up A Little Closer, Lovey Mine", published in 1908 (the same year the director, Joshua Logan, was born). Granted this song had been revived to considerable success in the 40s during wartime and was still popular in the 50s, but it just didn't seem credible to me. However, once one accepts that "Tall Story" is set in a time and place all its own it's a perfectly enjoyable trifle. Perkins is likably boyish, callow and gawky, and a trifle awkward to be convincing as an athlete, but one can swallow that with the rest of it-- remember, Willing Suspension of Disbelief. So we can buy Fonda's character being so besotted with the guy and pulling every string to land him. She of course is a thorough charmer, which is fun to watch from the perspective of the present day, looking back on her life and career. This is a quite watchable piece of filmmaking, and a definite curiosity. Just put your brain in neutral and let it roll by.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this playing one morning on TCM. I didn't know anything about the film before, so I was completely unprepared for what turned out to be a truly delightful comedy. At first I thought the movie was serious, then it started turning sillier and sillier. Anthony Perkins and Jane Fonda do a great job. This was a perfect vehicle for Fonda to launch her acting career. And I must admit I agree with her - she does have quite beautiful legs, and I feel fortunate that we are treated to seeing them in her cute little cheerleader outfit.This movie is entertaining and I recommend viewing it on a lazy afternoon one day, it is much better than watching re-runs of Gilligans Island.

Perhaps most notable as Jane Fonda's screen debut, "Tall Story" is also remarkable for what it didn't do for Anthony Perkins: define his acting career. Released the same year as Hitchcock's classic thriller "Psycho," "Tall Story" shows the charming, naive and humorous side of Perkins. He stars as Ray Blent, Custer's star basketball player and star student who finds himself caught in an ethical nightmare just before the biggest game of his life against the Russian Sputniks. Fonda is adorable as a cunning co-ed whose one aim in college is to snare the unwitting Ray. Unfortunately, we didn't see more Perkins characters like this one because the actor was typecast as a psychotic madman following his admittedly excellent portrayal of Norman Bates in "Psycho." This movie shows the virtuosity of a great actor who regretfully didn't get the chance to demonstrate his full range of acting skills more often.