KLEPTO CUTIE ROBS HUBBY'S BANK.....(HOW COULD WE MAKE UP A MOVIE LIKE 'PENELOPE'??)

Penelope (1966)    Nothing, but nothing delights the BQ more than uncovering the oddest, nuttiest movies that somehow escaped out of studios in the 60's.......

              And this one's a demented gem.......like finding a star-shaped piece of sea glass while beachcombing.......

               MGM was still cranking out movies firmly anchored in the slickness and glamour of its 1940's and 50's output........even as films like this, in the mid 1960's,  were looking as ancient and arthritic as curated museum pieces.

                "Penelope", a vehicle for Natalie Wood, stood out for the sheer madness of its premise.......with Wood in the titular role, an adorable, high-fashion socialite wife of an uptight bank president...(the oddly cast Ian Bannon, making Loch Ness Monster jokes to cover his Scottish burr).

                 Neglected by her husband, Penelope pulls off an outrageously daring robbery of his bank in the hopes of getting some attention........yes, you heard that right.

                  With one lone exception, Wood and her dedicated supporting cast of farceurs (Dick Shawn, Jonathon Winters, Lou Jacobi, Lila Kedrova) work themselves into an addled frenzy. You almost fear that Wood's wonderful huge brown eyes are in danger of popping out of her head.....

                  The one actor who underplays and almost steals the show.......Peter Falk, playing a soft spoken, sardonic police detective......clearly a warm up to his eventual signature role as the beloved TV detective 'Columbo'.....

                   You can take some perverse fun out of watching this film desperately gasping for its few laughs.......it only slows down to admire Natalie Wood's wardrobe changes, some of which involve her stripped down to her underwear........

                 We'll leave our readers to decide what to make of a nutso flashback sequence in which Jonathon Winters chases a scantily clad Wood with who-knows-what in mind......we know MGM probably viewed it as harmless as Harpo pursuing blondes in the Marx Brothers films, but watching it in this current #metoo culture, it comes off as damn creepy....

                "Penelope" proved too hysterical, unreal and not funny enough for audiences weened on Rock Hudson-Doris Day comedies.  Wood despised the film and stayed off the movie screen for 3 years, until nailing the 60's zeitgeist with her grand comeback in "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice"........

                But we managed to excavate a few scattered laughs from all the weirdness......and renewed our youthful crush on Natalie Wood.  And we'd almost forgotten to mention the sprightly, can't-get-it-out-of-your-head music theme by....who else.....none other than 'Johnny Williams' himself.....

                For Natalie, Johnny and the way-out-there plot, we'll steal 2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2)......how it rolled off the MGM assembly line we'll never know......and you'll certainly never see the likes of it. again.