Why A Duck?

One of my favorite movies of the 1960s is Lord Love A Duck.  Written and directed by George Axelrod, it's a take-no-prisoners satire of America at the time.  The movie is in some ways a mess, with a misshapen plot that lurches from one subject to the next, yet manages to be very funny and surprisingly powerful.  And it features fine performances from stars Roddy McDowall and Tuesday Weld, and good supporting work by Ruth Gordon (playing one of the first of what would become a series of batty old ladies) and Lola Albright, among others.

I've been fascinated by it for years, so was excited when I finally tracked down a copy of the Al Hine novel it's based on. It's not as if the novel is a classic--it would be forgotten if not for the film.  But it was interesting to see what Axelrod, an experienced Hollywood screenwriter, did with the source material. (I guess it goes without saying there'll be spoilers for both the movie and the book.)

The movie has the same basic plot as the novel.  Barbara Ann (Anne in the novel) Greene and Alan "Mollymauk" Musgrave meet in high school.  He's a brainiac while she's the cheerleader type.  He hypnotizes her and puts her under his control, and uses this control to get her what she wants.  This includes matching her up with a handsome husband, but ends in his attempt to kill the husband to help her get a Hollywood career.

Of necessity, the movie simplifies the plot.  The novel, after all, is more than 350 pages, while the movie is 105 minutes.  The book takes place during a year of high school, while the book starts in high school but spends about half its time in the year after graduation.

The book, written in the third person, tells most of the story from Barbara's point of view, but more and more as it goes along lets us in on what Alan is thinking. Perhaps this is necessary in a novel, where you don't want one of two main characters to be a total cipher.  But I think the movie actually improves on the book by making Alan mostly unknowable, and while his jail cell confession (the whole story is told by Alan looking back on why he committed his crimes) quickly mentions his motive, we're not sure it's that simple.  For that matter, we learn a lot more about Alan's family in the book, especially his mentally troubled sister, whereas the mysterious movie Alan has no family we know of--he could be a guardian angel for Barbara, or more likely the devil.

The book is satirical, as is the movie, though the satire is aimed at somewhat different targets.  It had to be this way, since the book came out in 1961 and is set in 1950s Iowa, while the movie is set in mid-60s Southern California.  This means, for instance, the film parodies the popular beach movies of the time (some mistakenly think Lord Love A Duck is a beach movie) which didn't exist a decade earlier.  Both book and movie satirize the emptiness of the American dream, mostly through the vacuous things Barbara wishes for, but I think the movie is a bit more ferocious, though the novel does have the advantage of accumulated detail.  The novel also sometimes stops you short with the casual bigotry of the times--I believe Al Hine is mostly making fun of it, but he's also faithfully representing how people felt and talked back then.

Then there's sex.  The novel, while tame by today's standards, doesn't hold back.  In fact, some women are pretty ill-used.  The movie, while it kids sex, doesn't have much of it simply because Hollywood films in 1966 weren't allowed to.

On the other hand, Axelrod knows you need a big finish, and while the novel ends with Mollymauk committing suicide in jail after he has failed to murder Barbara's husband, the movie ends with Mollymauk wreaking havoc at graduation, killing several people. (We don't see Mollymauk dying in the movie--his fate is still open--but in both cases, the trouble he's caused will lead Barbara to Hollywood stardom--her ultimate, empty dream--which was Mollymauk's intention.)

I'd recommend the book, though I like the movie better.  I wonder what I'd think if I read the book first?