Something Wild (1961)

Interesting facts

Something Wild is a 1961 American neo-noir psychological drama film directed by Jack Garfein and starring Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock, Jean Stapleton, and Martin Kosleck. It follows a young New York City college student who, after being brutally raped in a Bronx park, is held captive by a mechanic who saves her from committing suicide on the Manhattan Bridge. The film is based on the 1958 novel Mary Ann by Alex Karmel, who cowrote the screenplay with Garfein.

Production

Prometheus Productions, formed by director Jack Garfein and his wife Carroll Baker, obtained film rights to Mary Ann, the first novel written by Alex Karmel, published in 1958. Karmel and Garfein wrote the script, and pitched the project to multiple studios who declined to produce it, deeming the subject matter too controversial and demanding alterations to the screenplay that Garfein was unwilling to make. Eventually, Max E.

Garfein wrote and developed the film with his then-wife, Carroll Baker, intended to portray the role of Mary Ann. Ralph Meeker was cast as Mike, the mechanic who eventually takes her in. Rehearsals began in the early summer of 1960.

Principal photography of Something Wild began on July 20, 1960, and was completed by mid-October 1960. The film was shot exclusively in New York City, with location shooting occurring at the Manhattan Bridge, a real Woolworth's department store in Harlem, the City College of New York main campus, and several locales on the Lower East Side. Some interiors were filmed in Manhattan at the studios of Himan Brown.

In photographing the landscape of the city with cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan, Garfein sought to portray the city in a poetic manner as opposed to a "documentary" approach, intent ending to position the protagonist of Mary Ann as an isolated figure navigating the "horror and beauty" of urban life. Commenting on the location shooting, Garfein recalled:

The Screen Actors Guild closed me down for a day because I went down the street on which we were shooting on the Lower East Side and talked actual people on the block into portraying themselves. The excitement of making a film lies in using people in their neighborhoods, and capturing the actuality of drama going on without people being aware of it. The people were much better than extras.

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