Little Murders

Little Murders (1971)

Runtime: 108 minutes

Directed by: Alan Arkin

Starring: Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd, Vincent Gardenia, Elizabeth Wilson, Jon Korkes

From: 20^th Century Fox

What an acerbic, satirical look at life in 1970 NYC. Years ago I heard of the film; while YouTube is another way to view Little Murders, might as well support the Criterion Channel, which won’t stream the film in less than 24 hours after the posting of this review. Little Murders was a rare film directorial credit for actor Alan Arkin, although not the only feature film he did; more on that at the end.

Murders was another example of major Hollywood studios releasing outrageous, outré cinema around this time, soon after the abolishment of the Hays Code. While not shocking and controversial to the degree of A Clockwork Orange or The Devils, the movie still featured audio of what sounded like a hate crime outside the window of Marcia Rodd’s apartment. Turns out, thugs are beating up Elliott Gould, constantly calling him THAT homosexual slur, which is a word heard often throughout the picture. Gould is a cold, unemotional person who sometimes stares off into space as if he’s not always mentally present in this world.

Now, the first act is off-kilter. From there, the movie becomes incredibly dark, with pitch-black humor and several jaw-dropping moments. Certain demographics of the modern movie-watching universe stand a chance of loving Little Murders… there’s awkward humor, loud, kooky families, a nihilistic tone, an incredibly uncomfortable dinner, etc. Movies like this aren’t always my bag no matter the year of origin. However, this kooky picture did amuse me.

This was originally a stage production; some of the cast reprised their roles for the screen. It wasn’t a surprise to read that if the original script had been better, none other than GODARD would have been the director instead of Arkin, who directed stage productions himself. Others made comparisons to Luis Bunuel. The cast as a whole uniformly did a nice job, whether it be the names I knew (Doris Roberts, Vincent Gardenia) or those less familiar, like Jon Korkes and Elizabeth Wilson. Gordon Willis shot the movie; thus, it looked quite professional.

The most memorable scene involved Donald Sutherland’s cameo as a reverend; the soliloquy delivered by him which was quite the skewering and roasting of the institute of marriage was something else. Little Murders is one of those motion pictures which I could never recommend to someone outside a film community, is also the sort that I likely won’t watch again in full and the stage origins are obvious. At the same time, Murders managed to be a surprise, and that wasn’t meant as a negative. Again, it’s wild that a movie like this was released by 20th Century Fox.

They also released the only other feature film Arkin directed: 1977’s Fire Sale, an obscurity where a TV edit is on YouTube/The Internet Archive but you have to visit The Bowels of the Internet for the original cut. Hearsay tells me that film is even more divisive and more off-kilter; opinions from modern audiences (i.e. my fellow Letterboxd users) are sharply divided.