Word: madigans
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...Elvira Madigan--For such a beautiful film, pretty ugly. At the SYMPHONY 1, 262 Huntington...
LESS flashy than Aspic, Donald Siegel's Madigan is a quiet tour de force. Describing his own style as "classical," Siegel (director of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Killers) subordinates camera pyrotechnics to dramatic purpose, his close-ups often revealing an obvious love for the excellent performances of his actors. His stated admiration for Richard Widmark is completely justifiable, and Widmark remains one of the finest and most underrated actors working. Siegel likes to keep his camera on the actors as long as possible, often following them in medium close shot over long distances, thereby establishing character detail...
...plots, Russell's ordeals and Madigan's manhunt, alternate formally, cross on occasion, finally come together tragically when Madigan dies and his wife accuses Russell of indirectly murdering him. Russell doesn't know his life has influenced Madigan's, and the film ends ambiguously with no one either innocent or guilty, no one understanding himself or his effect. The small troubles that pervade the film become more tragic in retrospect: Madigan's domestic squabbles are at first banal, finally significant because Madigan dies before they can be resolved in such manner as usually satisfies audiences; his wife's final lament...
...this respect, Madigan is a truly realistic film, complemented by Siegel's lean, often tough, style. Occasional spurts of fast cutting, Madigan intimidating a suspect and the final gun battle, are doubly powerful because of the stylistic restraint in the preceding scenes. Steve Ihnat's high-style performance as a psychopathic satyr is a welcome change from the suave ruthlessness of Aspic's urbane spies...
Sorting out the sex lives, remoralizing he turpitude, and tracking down Benesch at the same time, makes for a taut, tough film that manages to survive such ludicrous lines as "This adultery is a lonely business, isn't it?" Commendably long on documentary detail about police procedure, Madigan is refreshingly short on sadism. Henry Fonda is at his uptight best as the up-from-the-ranks commissioner, so righteous that as a cop on the beat he sent back the butcher's Christmas turkey. Richard Widmark is engaging as the detective who lives "on the arm"-accepting...