Plot Details: This opinion reveals everything about the movie's plot.

Between the excess that was "Queen Bee" in 1955 and the sparseness of "The Story of Esther Costello" in 1957, Joan Crawford made this Columbia film. In her element and the center of attention, Crawford plays Millicent Wetherby. She lives in a drab court bungalow, she wears drab clothing, even her JOB is drab. She is a home typist (remember carbon paper?).

Millicent is wrapping up a rush job when her landlady Liz (Ruth Donnelly) rolls in with the evening paper. Not much is happening and Millie doesn't even expect much anymore. When the customer comes to pick up his manuscripts, he offers Millie two tickets to Symphony Hall. She is reticent at first, until he explains his girlfriend doesn't like that music.... No he wasn't asking her out.

Millie ditches Liz's great invitation to spend the night watching her brother and sister-in-law fight, gets herself dolled up, buys herself an orchid, trades her two balcony tickets for an orchestra seat, and slides into a flashback. It seems Millie missed her big chance at happiness because she wanted to take care of her sick father. Director Robert Aldrich (who would later direct JC in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?") does a nice job of jolting us around in Millie's life.

After the concert, Millie throws her shoulders back and skips the bus back to her house. She enters a bar and grill and within a few minutes, to her regret, she is joined at her table by Burt Hanson (Cliff Robertson). There is some dialog tossed back and forth. Millie plays "Autumn Leaves" on the juke box. Burt tells her some details about his life. And Millie is seduced into revealing some of her feelings.

There is a date on the beach. "I should have gone on that diet!" Millie says looking at herself in her bathing suit. Within a few minutes she and Burt are rolling around on the sand in a direct visual steal from Kerr and Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity." This is particularly prescient since Crawford was a top choice for Kerr's role in that movie. She would have played it, but she insisted on a designer wardrobe! Later there is a movie date and Millie tries to break up with Burt -- the age difference is too much!

Burt brings her presents - cries - and takes her to Mexico and marries her. All would seem well. Except....

How does Burt pay for the presents he keeps bringing home? Why does his story keep changing? Is his father dead or alive?

All becomes clear when Virginia visits Millie. It seems Burt had been married to her...and his father is still alive. They need Burt to sign some papers to settle a legal matter. Joan confronts Burt and he breaks down. She sends Virginia and Mr. Hanson on their way after discovering that they are in fact - LOVERS!!!! Millie calls Virginia a slut and a tramp and declares them both too evil even for hell!!

At her wits end - but in lust/love with her hot husband, Millie has Burt committed as....a mental case! After therapy and electric shock treatments - he is cured and he still NEEDS Millie! Thank you, God!

"Autumn Leaves" was written by Lewis Meltzer and Robert Blees and Jack Jevne. The latter was actually a "front name" for Jean Rouverol and Hugo Butler a couple of blacklisted writers. It was produced by William Goetz, son-in-law of Louis B. Mayer. This was a Columbia A project that is part of the Columbia Classics series. It is also available in some areas on Goodtimes video.

If only Cliff Robertson could be called - in the nicest sense - handsome or sexy, this movie would have worked. Crawford has nothing to play from or to. But she is the center of this berserk movie. And later on in her life, she had that to lean on when the leaves began to fall.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day