The Chapman Report (1962)

Best movie of this year hands down!

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

"The Chapman Report" starts out with promise but plummets with sickening velocity to a painful finish.Dr. Chapman, renowned compiler of The Chapman Report--a survey of the sexual habits and mores of American women--plans to revolutionize the country by exposing the truths about women. He has an assistant played by Ephraim Zimbalist, Jr. and together they seek women who are willing to reveal their most private thoughts, as they sit behind a screen to protect their anonymity.The film is really about four women, three of whom become subjects for the Chapman men. Otherwise, the report has no bearing on the story.Kathleen (Jane Fonda) is a young widow who fears she is irrevocably sexually frigid. Sarah (Shelly Winters) is having an extra-marital affair because her marriage lacks romance. The kooky Theresa (Glynis Johns) and her husband consider themselves artistic and she is willing to go to great lengths to stretch her artistic "muscles". Naomi (Claire Brown) is a boozy brunette who hates herself for her lack of discipline and her nymphomaniacal ways.We see Fonda emoting with great talent, especially since this is only her third film role. The characters develop, and it seems as if this will be a solid film. But gradually, the wheels fall off. The acting becomes very melodramatic. The characters act in ways not true to their natures. And the number of ways this film speeds past mediocrity into the abyss become too numerous to mention. Most of it is driven by horrible writing. I have never seen a film get progressively worse like this film does.I suppose if you know that upfront, can you just enjoy its cheesiness. And you can try spotting some other talents: Cloris Leachman, for example. And Orison Whipple Hungerford, Jr. (aka Ty Hardin), whose biography in IMDb is more entertaining than this film. The stories end predictably, due in part to Legionnaires disease, which is to say the efforts of the Catholic Legion of Decency. The film has no lessons to impart. Well maybe...no, I can't think of even one.

A rarely screened curio adapted from Irving Wallace's novel which took off from The Kinsey Report, this trashy 1962 film is a shallow soaper not in the same league as Doctors' Wives(71); being so unintentionally bad it's a must see. Like Dctor's Wives, The Chapman Report is a "woman's picture", directed without distinction by George Cukor who directed The Women('39) and won an Oscar for My Fair Lady('64). Topped-billed Efrem Zimbalist Jr. is a dull leading man, and even for a movie his character's professional behavior stretches credulity;he becomes engaged to the frigid young widow he interviews. As the voluntary subjects of a scientific sex survey Jane Fonda is coltish and striking, Claire Bloom as a doomed alcoholic nymphomaniac has a couple of intense scenes, Shelly Winters is dullest as a women involved in an extra marital affair while Glynis Johns comes off best as intentional comic relief. There are some unintentional laughs but, The Chapman Report on the whole is rather pointless and mostly of interest due to the people involved. Cukor claims the film was recut, apparently without his consent. No matter how you slice it, it's pretty thin.

A late work of one of the greatest Hollywood filmmakers, George Cukor. This film is utterly devastating. The austere light and shadow, the brilliant and thoughtful color schemes, the tight framing that is characteristic of Cukor (and that, in the interview scenes, is simply suffocating, especially in Naomi's) combine to create images that somehow seem representative of the inner psyches of the characters. And oh so rarely in cinema do we feel so strongly the thoughts and worlds of the characters that are being shown on the screen. Cukor was one of the greatest directors of actors (want proof? see Hepburn in "Sylvia Scarlett"). The whole film is amazing, but the Naomi interview scene so wonderfully "sums up" much of what is special about Cukor's cinema (pay close attention to something she *does* early in the interview). This is a beautiful film...

almost as good as Janes other 62 release, A walk on the wild side, chapman Report is what passed as an adult film in 1962. Janes storyline is as flat as her acting, and Shelleys is only fair. This is definitely the British Mssrs Bloom and Johns film. Glynis' comic take with Ty Hardin is very hilarious, while the stunningly beautiful, superbly talented Bloom rises above the material, giving an Oscar worthy memorable performance as a nymphomaniac.If you can get this on DVD, and fast forward through Jane's sequences, except for the flashback scene("I'm not! I'm not!) you will have a great picture, with equal amounts of laughter and tears.