Heller in Pink Tights

Other than My Fairy Lady, I don’t think that the 60s was the greatest period creatively or artistically for George Cukor. The 50s had plenty of successes – anything he made with Judy Holliday is worth a viewing – but something happened in the 1960s. Maybe it was fatigue, but Heller in Pink Tights is missing that creative spark, that combination of romantic poetry and glorious wit that makes films like The Philadelphia Story, Dinner at Eight, The Women or Adam’s Rib such enjoyable classics.

The story is a clouded and muddled affair, less a western than a rambling tale of a group of actors who happen to be in the Old West. A few jokes hit, namely any time Sophia Loren is tasked to play the part of card-shark and seductress to get out a tight spot and any sequence involving Eileen Heckart, an underrated supporting actress if there ever was one, but mainly it rambles incoherently from one plot strand to another with relatively little connective tissue between. It starts as a western, but ends up being a romantic comedy and love poem to the life of a theatrical actor.

What it lacks in strength of narrative, it makes up for in beautiful cinematography, costume and production design. The sets are lovely to look at, the natural beauty of the Arizona desert is used to good effect, and Sophia Loren alone is enough of a work of art to take in. I prefer her more voluptuous and full figured to the cinched waist figure she sports here, but she still looks amazing. And she manages to make her olive skin and blonde wig look very fetching.

That’s the problem with Heller in Pink Tights, it’s only worth a look because of the enchanting visuals on display. They’re not serving the story like Johnny Guitar or Written on the Wind, color coded films which use these tools as an expressive means to symbolic enrich the story. Heller is pure visual opulence and has nothing much to show for it. Its fleeting inspirations can’t overcompensate for the fact that it miscasts Anthony Quinn as an everyman fop, meanders hither and yon without reaching much of a destination, and offers supporting players more interesting things to do instead of charismatic leads who strike beautiful poses but not much else.