Catch Me, Please!

PENELOPE (1966)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

A phosphorescently lit romantic comedy from the 1960's always has a nostalgic hold on anyone who loved watching them, even if some felt like warm do-overs from the Marilyn Monroe and Doris Day 1950's relics. But when it comes to a powerhouse actress like Natalie Wood, it is either fittingly funny (as in her so-so "Sex and the Single Girl") or full of slapstick gags left and right as in "The Great Race." Natalie rarely disappoints so I was delighted to see a frothy confection with sugary residue glue me to the screen. This is no great movie comedy nor is it nearly as roaringly funny as it should have been, but it is a classy, spirited movie with Natalie shining on screen like the captivating movie star she was.

The plot could've been mined for more laughs than it gets in its first half-hour or so. Penelope is married to a wealthy banker (Ian Bannen) and since she's not getting any attention from him (he shamefully fools around with other women right in front of her!), she decides to start robbing his bank. First, she convincingly pretends to be a wrinkly old woman who wants a few thousand dollar bills, you know the ones with Grover Cleveland on them. Then she starts teasing the cops and detectives, almost as if she wants to get caught. One bright detective (played by pre-"Columbo" Peter Falk) knows Penelope is behind it yet contains his delight in how she doesn't even try to deceive anyone. It turns out, through a series of flashbacks, that she is something of a kleptomaniac. Some flashbacks feel ill-timed and hardly memorable, especially a cringe-inducing cameo by Jonathan Winters as a lecherous chemistry teacher (not to be seen to be believed - you have been warned). Far better are flashes of Penelope's developing romance with the banker where it turns out she was some sort of fun-loving hippie (her singing of the song "The Sun is Grey" is eye-poppingly groovy in its slight nod to psychedelic colors of the time) rather than the mink-loving, Givenchy-dress wearing Penelope we see through most of the film.

"Penelope" is mutely spirited and not too free-floatingly funny in the first half of the film - it just merely amuses. Then it becomes a bit of a laugh riot especially the shenanigans involving Penelope and her smitten psychiatrist (a hilariously over-the-top Dick Shawn), or Peter Falk's bemused concern at Penelope's crying fits and her disbelief that the police can't catch the real thief. We get a few oddball characters like a wealthy couple (Lou Jacobi, Lila Kedrova) who discover Penelope is the thief and try to bribe her. And through and through, Penelope wants to get caught and keeps thinking that her husband will eventually see she is not lying. Then we get a sequence at a cocktail party where she starts returning jewels and pearls to friends who don't want them and they insist they never had anything stolen. Huh? I still don't get the point of that sequence unless Penelope only imagined stealing from her group of friends but not from the bank? Were those flashbacks real? Or do these rich folks simply not care because it is only money? 

"Penelope" is a wonderful if slightly off balance comic vehicle for Natalie Wood. With truly gorgeous array of costumes by Edith Head, Natalie burns the screen fast with her charm and sophisticated elegance that also allows for a little girlishness. The film flopped at the box-office but I will take it over "Sex and the Single Girl" any day.