Richard Brooks' Looking For Mr. Goodbar

 

Alright, now we are going to look at that film that has rarely been seen on television and hasn't had an official video release since VHS and Laser Disc were still going concerns: 1977's Looking For Mr. Goodbar. Although Diane Keaton won the the Oscar for Annie Hall, most people think she really won it for Goodbar, for the same reason Marlon Brando won the Oscar "officially" for The Godfather and not for his superior performance in Last Tango in Paris--because it was considered "safer." We have been told that the reason why Goodbar has not seen an official studio release (there are only poor quality bootlegs out there), is because of the music rights issues, the problem of which are discussed in detail here: https: //www.vox.com/2014/11/3/7145231 but we can surmise that there are other reasons as well.

There are definitely a great many songs on the soundtrack that were big hits at the time, although I now note that there were actually only four "sung" songs in the opening credits montage, of which the Thelma Houston and Donna Summer numbers were the only hits. Shout Factory apparently thought they had the best shot at getting a deal on the music rights because of their relationship with publishing companies, but it just couldn't get done; some suspect that because of the "controversial" aspects of the film, some of the artists who performed the songs found "religion" and demanded more money. 

Of course one would think that if Paramount can spend $500 million producing and marketing a film, they can spend a million on securing the music rights for Goodbar, so obviously there has to be political reasons for not doing it. I've already discussed those reasons on the post here https://todarethegods.blogspot.com/search?q=goodbar so I won't rehash them again, except to note, as Ben Mankiewicz in his introduction to the TCM broadcast noted, that the film courted politically-incorrect controversy in its portrayal of a woman who made one mistake too many.

But we live in a world of self-deception. Just look at Amber Heard; on the stand she claimed that she never hit anyone she loved, yet during the "teaser" of the Dateline interview (which I skipped, watching the Blu-ray of Ed Wood instead), Heard claimed that she "still loves Johnny"--which of course she has been demonstrating for the past six years--and also admitted to doing "horrible, regrettable" things in their marriage, which of course if people choose to read that correctly should be enough to kill any chance for an appeal. But Heard won't quit there: she apparently signed a multi-million dollar deal for a revenge "tell-all" book; whoever the publisher is should have waited to see the ratings for the Dateline interview--the show's second worst since last November. There seems to be a dwindling audience for Heard's narcissistic fantasies.

Anyways, Goodbar was based on a novel by Judith Rossner, which I have a used first-run hardcover edition of.  It is based on the actual case of Roseann Quinn, a New York City school teacher of deaf children who apparently roamed the singles bars; her studio apartment where her nude body was found was in this disheveled condition:

 

 The apartment building she lived in still stands...

 

 

...and she met her last pick-up at this bar across the street, then called W.M. Tweeds:

 

Her neighbors claimed that Quinn often brought random, unknown men to her apartment, and occasionally heard shouting and screaming, which they assumed came from "rough" sex. There is otherwise very little known about her private life, other than that she frequently barhopped and had no regular boyfriend. The Rossner novel is  thus an almost entirely fictionalized account, and although many criticized the film's director, Richard Brooks (The Blackboard Jungle, Elmer Gantry), for only loosely basing his screenplay on the novel, he defended this by stating that he based the film more on his discussions with women who told him of their experiences on the singles scene.

So lets get into the film itself and find out if it is that "controversial" that some people don't want this thing out "officially" on home video. As mentioned recently, TCM streamed this on their website in January and the webrips culled from that are better than what has been seen in bootleg releases; as can be seen in the screen captures, some images have clear detail, while others are "fuzzy," which suggests that there was no attempt to restore any of the prints (only using the "best available"), which then would have been used in digital format for either the broadcast or future home video release versions. 

Goodbar opens with that credits montage which I suspect for many of those who remember the film found to be the "best" part of it:

 

 

The tone of the montage suggests a world of loneliness and casual sex. We first see Theresa Dunn (Diane Keaton) on a subway, when a jostle flips open a copy of Hustler magazine a man is "reading" next to her, and she take a curious peek at it:

 

 

We then see her in a college classroom, where her essay paper on "temptation" is being read allowed as an example of something above kindergarten level. While the class hears Theresa describing her jealousy of her sister's boyfriends...

 

 

 ...she daydreams of the class bell ringing and falling into the arms of Prof. Engle (Alan Feinstein)...

 

...before being brought back to the living when he asks her if there is anything wrong. Theresa says it is just her back, and then casts a gaze on him suggesting carnal thoughts:

 

 

Next we see Theresa working as Prof. Engle's assistant, grading the "drivel" of her fellow students. He tells her the only reason why he hired her is because she is the only one of his students who knows grammar, syntax and can spell:

 

Theresa gets up from the desk and retrieves a bottle of aspirin from her purse, drops it on the floor where it is picked up by Prof. Engle. He remarks about how he practically knew nothing about her until what she confessed to today in her essay. Isn't it obvious, she says? Nothing about you is obvious, he says:

 

Theresa explains the problem with her back. As a child she suffered from curvature of the spine, and eventually had to be placed in a full body cast, which she spent a year in:

 

Her mother prayed that God would forgive her, but Theresa could never figure out what she had done to make God so mad at her. When the professor expresses sorrow for her plight, she tells him she doesn't want his pity, she wants something entirely different from him:

 

Which she implies by unbuttoning her dress:

 

Prof. Engle at first indicates that what she wants from him is wrong, but it is too tempting for him to pass up:

 

Theresa loses her virginity...

 

... and the professor promises next time "fireworks":

 

So what we discover here is that the "good" Catholic girl succumbed to sin from her first "crush," with an older man who happened to be married, beside doing something else here that was not ethical in his position. But although Theresa certainly was aware of the "sinful" nature of what they were doing, she clearly has no "faith" or fear left in a God that punished her regardless of what she did.

Theresa still lives with her parents. Arriving home, she is informed by a neighbor that her sister Katherine (Tuesday Weld) has arrived home, looking more "beautiful" than ever, which Theresa appears to take as a personal slight:

 

While her domineering father, Mr. Dunn (Richard Kiley) tells Theresa to answer the phone, he explains to her mother (Priscilla Pointer) why Katherine can't stay for the holidays, but has to fly to Puerto Rico on stewardess business:

 

The phone call was from Dennis, Katherine's husband. Theresa confronts her sister about their break-up. Katherine admits that there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for her, but his eyes were always "begging" and she couldn't stand it. She admitted she had lovers in New York and Chicago, and she was pregnant by one of them, and was going on a special trip to Puerto Rico where she was told other stewardesses would go to get an abortion:

 

 

Theresa supports her sister, reminding her how "beautiful" and "perfect" she is. Katherine admits that she is a "mess," telling Theresa that she is her "rock":

 

 

Next we see Theresa being instructed in the education for deaf children. This seems to indicate a superficially admirable caring for special needs children that seems in conflict with what we will see later:

 

Theresa is doing some Christmas shopping when she stops to look at her reflection in a store window. She imagines herself as an Olympic figure skater, winning a gold medal...

 

 

...and Prof. Engle hugging her, calling her "perfection":

 

 

Again ignoring the fact that he is married--albeit an apparently unhappy marriage--Theresa sprays perfume all over herself and sneaks up behind him while he trying to work...

...and he responds by accusing her of attention-seeking. To the gift she offers him, he informs her that Christmas is commercialized "crap" and that if she wants to celebrate the birth of Christ, she should do it church:

 

On New Year's Eve, Theresa stays home to babysit the infant son of her younger sister, Brigid. Katherine calls, and she informs Theresa that she met a Jewish man on the plane and after just a few days decided to get married; Theresa tells her she should tell papa herself:

 

 

Theresa fondles the baby, asking him if he wants to be her "fella." On impulse, she decides to call Prof. Engle at his home to wish him happy holiday, but she hears his wife's voice on the other end:

 

Of course he is not happy about this, asking her if she was drunk or doped-up:

 

Theresa seems unperturbed, and the professor again succumbs again to the pleasures of the flesh:

 

Later, the family meets Katherine's new husband, Barney, who is greeted with suspicion by everyone except Theresa:

 

There is a phone call for Theresa, and Katherine tells her that only a married man won't give his name:

Theresa meets with Prof. Engle in his car and they have sex. Afterwards she asks why they never talk after sex, and he tells her that he doesn't like being in the company of a woman right after he's had sex with her:

 

Dropped off at the subway, Theresa is taken aback when a train door opens and she is confronted with a nun, with a seemingly knowing, accusatory expression:

 

The next morning Brigid announces that she is pregnant again. Mr. Dunn says that his mother had four boys, all "perfect." Theresa reminds him that he keeps forgetting about his sister, Maureen, which seems to upset him:

 

Mrs. Dunn says "God forgive her," and Brigid wonders "What did she do?" causing Mr. Dunn to angrily leave the breakfast table and out of the house. When Theresa arrives at Prof. Engle's office, she discovers that someone else is already there:

 

 

At the school for deaf children, Theresa seems too envious to hang around when it is announce that two of the teachers are getting married:

 

And is further disturbed by Prof. Engle's insistence at the end of the school term that they both have to "move on":

 

Afterwards, Theresa appears to contemplate suicide...

 

 

...by walking in front of Prof. Engle's car in a fantasy sequence:

 

She is in a hospital emergency room, where Prof. Engle is desperate to find out how she is...

 

...but she becomes alarmed when the doctor (Brian Dennehy in his first film role) tells her she is pregnant:

 

 

Theresa decides to try out the singles bar scene, and her curiosity is aroused when she is almost immediately the target of a pick-up:

 

 

Theresa wanders the streets until she arrives at the apartment building that Katherine and Barney are living in that he apparently owns just for themselves. They and another couple are watching a porno film...

 

 

...which Theresa seems to be at first embarrassed about, then fascinated by:

 

Theresa stays overnight, but she didn't call home to tell anyone because Katherine had told their father that she wasn't home. Mr. Dunn angrily informs her that they called all the hospitals and police stations to find her. She tells them that she was at Katherine's, but is called a liar; if she wants to live "rent free" in this house she has to obey the rules of the house:

 

 

Which leads to Theresa declaring that she is moving to her own place, following her own rules:

 

Katherine assures father that she will look after Theresa, who is moving into what appears to be a studio apartment in the building: 

 

Of course the first thing Theresa will need is a bed big enough for "everything":

 

Theresa spends her first night out on her own cruising the red light district to the tune of "She's Lonely" by Bill Withers:

 

Back in her apartment, she looks in the mirror reflecting on her being alone with no lover...

 

...imagines herself in bed with Prof. Engle...

 

 

...before going to bed, putting a pillow between her legs and probably masturbating:

 

Next we see Theresa in her teaching job, trying to get through to a black girl named Amy who doesn't seem interested in school and won't write her name on the chalkboard:

 

After school, her brother Cap (LeVar Burton) arrives to pick her up, and he is mistrustful of Theresa's interest: 

But Amy seems to have been touched by Theresa's concern, and she rushes back into the class room to write her name on the board:

 

Yet at night it is back to cruising, with Theresa imagining herself to be a streetwalker:

The next morning it is back in school...

 

...and then barhopping again, where we see lonely women...

 

 

...and Tony (Richard Gere) poking around in a woman's purse:

 

 

Tony notices that Theresa is watching him. He saunters over, asks her about the book she is reading (The Godfather); he mentions that he saw the movie...

 

 

 ...before disappearing with an older "sugar mamma." The next day, a still distrustful of white people Cap allows Theresa to take Amy on a shopping trip...

 

...and returning her home Theresa asks her mother about getting her a hearing aid, which the mother says is not possible...

 

...because the man over there is threatening to pull the plug on her welfare. The "man" is a social worker named James (William Atherton), who takes an interest in her. They discuss his job (he's a lousy liberal out to save the world) and if it is possible to get Amy a proper hearing aid so that she can learn better...

 

...but he is unhelpful. When he drops her home, he asks if he can see her again. What for? In her apartment the phone rings. It is Katherine, and she is in trouble again. She is alone in a car, sick after having another abortion; she didn't tell Barney because their marriage isn't real:

 

 

We next see Theresa in a doctor's office; she tells him she wants to make certain she can never have children:

 

At school, Amy arrives with a new pair of proper hearing aids, provided by James:

 

Theresa is so appreciative of this gesture...

 

 

...that she takes him to show off to her parents:

 

However, the attention he is given backfires, since Theresa senses that her parents are presuming that he is already part of the family or is expected to be when she marries James:

 

 

But Theresa has no intention of settling down with one man. Back to barhopping, she finds a bible that her mother put in her purse...

 

...before encountering Tony again, who doesn't remember their first meeting:

 

 

Theresa convinces him to come to her apartment, where Tony wonders where everyone else invited to the "party" is. Theresa shows him where the "party" will be:

 

They have a little roll in the sack when a knife falls out of Tony's pants...

 

...and he does a ninja dance around the apartment before sticking the knife near Theresa's throat before laughing it off as a joke:

 

He tells her he was in Vietnam and admits to killing a lot of the enemy. They presumably have sex, and then we hear an alarm clock go off. Theresa tells him he has to leave, which seems to anger him...

 

...but then he is confused about why a teacher of kids is doing what she is doing:

 

Convinced she is just a party girl, Tony promises to show up at 6 on Sunday. Theresa thinks she has just found her "fella." forgetting all about James:

 

In the only scene where she is seen interacting with her fellow teachers, joking about what a student did in class...

 

 ...and returns to find out that Katherine is divorcing Barney because their marriage was based on lies, and now he is shacking up with a barefoot teenybopper. He left her the apartment building, so Theresa can stay, and take whatever she wants...

 

...which happens to be hanging glass ornaments with images of various sexual positions:

 

On Sunday she waits in vain for Tony:

 

Tony didn't show, but James did, and they go to a bar to party...

 

...and on a lark she buys some "shit," which she doesn't realize is a dime bag of cocaine:

 

 

James suggests a date  on Saturday. Theresa finds that Tony has broken into her apartment while she was gone:

 

She berates him for not showing up before. He finds the dime bag, and shows her how to "snort" it:

 

We see Theresa going deeper and deeper into the abyss, but just how far remains to be seen. They have sex, and later when Tony sees that she is completely out of control, gives her a quaalude to bring her down "fast" so she won't be crawling all over the walls at school:

 

Unfortunately it knocks her completely out, and she wakes up to the sound of a phone call from school; looking at the clock, she sees that she is already two hours late for class:

 

Theresa arrives to find the class jumping and goofing around...

 

...she has a difficult time convincing the children that wasn't her fault for being late, she claims she took a sleeping pill...

 

...and things only get worse when she discovers that her father was in the hospital and the family had been unable to reach her:

 

After comforting her mother, she is met by the parish priest who hasn’t seen her church in a long time, but is pleased by the “good news” that she is involved with a good man:

 

 

Theresa isn’t pleased by this revelation, since she has no intention of settling down and is angered by the way that James is insinuating himself into her family:

 

James is clearly infatuated with Theresa, and she has become torn between the promise of a stable life, and her desire to play the field and do her own thing. James suspects that she may not be what he believes a Catholic girl should be. Inside her apartment for the first time, he observes the glass ornaments, surprised that this girl with a supposedly strict Catholic upbringing would openly display such sexual imagery:

 

Theresa asserts that this is who she is, and sits on the bed in a posture inviting—or rather, daring—him to take her:

 

He doesn’t accept, as he prepares to leave she mocks him as not liking women. He asks her why she hurts people because that’s not who she really is:

 

There is another dream sequence, in which her father apparently has died...

 

…but as Theresa expresses her sadness, he suddenly opens his eyes and starts laughing at her. Reality finds him still in the hospital, deriding the seriousness of his prostate cancer diagnosis:

 

James is there again, adjusting the pillow for Mr. Dunn…

 

 

…while Theresa looks at him with exasperation:

 

Back to the bars, Theresa encounters the former Prof. Engle, who announces that he is divorced and presently writing a novel. He suggests they get back together again, but she rebuffs him, telling him he is still a “shit”:

 

Next we see Theresa outside with her class, and James shows up, impressing her by his taking the time to learn enough sign language to spell his name:

 

 

Theresa keeps their date. James wonders about the pens and candy he doesn’t remember them buying; she admits she shoplifted them because it’s more “fun” than buying them. He also notices the unwashed dishes and the roaches; the roaches have to eat too:

 

 

Sitting in her bathtub, she titillates him by drawing his hand toward her bare breast as he passes her a glass of wine:

 

While James washes her dishes, he tells her a story about his father and mother having a sadomasochistic encounter, the memory of which still leaves him disturbed:

 

Theresa comforts him, and they have sex. But she laughs at him when she finds that he is wearing a condom, because she can’t ever have children:

 

Shamed, James leaves, but not before laughingly telling Theresa that the story he told her never happened.

 

 

Wanting to get away from that scene, she leaves the apartment looking for “Jesus” the cocaine seller, buys two dime bags and snorts them:

 

Returning home, she encounters Katherine, who tells her she has a desk job with the airline, in public relations. No more dealing with a planeload of “ass-grabbers.” No more booze and drugs for her, just group therapy. She’s getting her life together finally:

 

That’s the opposite of where Theresa’s life is headed. Here we see her talking to an unknown person about her various one-night sexual encounters…

 

 

…until one night Tony arrives to interfere with one:

 

  

Theresa demands he leave, and there is an altercation with the emotionally unstable Tony—who apparently has a bad relationship with his mother (she and Theresa are the two biggest “cunts” in the world) that leaves Theresa with a split lip:

 

This time, it is Katherine arrives to save the day, and who is the “rock” while Theresa is the one who is “messed up”: 

 

  

In school with a music lesson, Theresa sees Tony waiting for her in the playground…

 

 

…and demanding that he leave her alone, he threatens to tell the principle about her night life and drug use unless she pays him off:

 

Cap, who has been watching what is happening, arrives to get Theresa out of this jam; Tony accuses him of being Theresa’s “nigger lover”:

 

As Theresa gets away Cap leaves Tony sprawled on the ground with a knee to the kidney:

 

Theresa receives a threatening phone call for Tony…

 

 

…the decides to find all the drugs she has hidden away…

 

…but then the police break into her apartment…

 

…the school principle arrives…

 

…Theresa is arrested…

 

 

 …and she is all over the papers and the television news:

 

Except that it is all dream sequence again. Theresa dumps all her illegal stuff in the toilet, and runs out of the apartment just in case Tony shows up—and then runs into James:

 

He has a gift for her—one of those “disco” lights. She likes it, and he says it reflects her personality, “on” and “off”:

 

And then James offers her an engagement ring, which she angrily refuses. She doesn’t want a permanent relationship; she is “alone,” not lonely. James points out the emptiness of her life; she doesn’t even have any female friends to talk to:

 

James wants a relationship with her, but only with him, not sharing her life with other men. She has to decide what kind of life she wants to lead. Theresa again rebuffs him. His jacket is caught on the ornaments…

 

…and in frustration tears them down from the ceiling, crying out “stupid, stupid, stupid” as Theresa runs out of the apartment:

 

Back at her parents’ house, her father confronts her, rejecting her Christmas gift and telling her he doesn’t want her "Judas kiss." James wasn’t “man enough” for her?:

 

Eventually the conversation comes to Theresa’s decision not to have children because she has congenital (“in the blood”) scoliosis from her father. Mr. Dunn finally acknowledges his own sister who died from scoliosis, confessing that there was more love in Maureen’s twisted little body than in all her “perfect” brothers. How do you escape the terrible truth, he asks Theresa before she leaves:

 

  

Theresa finally decides to start cleaning up her act, washing her dishes and wiping things down:

 

She is surprised by Katherine and her new boyfriend on New Year’s Eve, who invite her to join them, but she declines. Big mistake:

 

Instead Tony shows up jimmying the lock, but can’t get past the chain:

 

Theresa pretends to call the police…

 

 

…and Tony tells her “you’re dead” before leaving:

 

Theresa escapes and seems to be enjoying hanging out with partiers:

 

Among them are what appear to be members of the gay community, including Gary (Tom Berenger, on the left):

 

Some “straight” guys attack them…

 

…and Gary berates his partner George for making him wear that outfit…

 

…George pleads with him to come back with him, he’ll give him some money. Gary says he might come back, but George has to remember that Gary is a “pitcher,” not a “catcher”:

 

Theresa tell the bartender that this is going to be her last night of barhopping, who agrees this is a good idea:

 

Gary is playing a pinball machine, and becomes angered when he is propositioned by another man:

 

James finds Theresa in the bar and tries to force her to come with him, but she breaks away…

 

 

…and persuades Gary to pretend to be her latest one-night stand…

 

…they kiss at the stroke of midnight, and James leaves, finished with her for good:

 

Theresa invites Gary to her apartment to prepare for sex…

 

…he tries to make love with her, but can’t get it up:

 

Theresa says its OK, but doesn’t realize that Gary’s sexuality has already been called into question. He lays back in the bed, refusing to leave:

 

  

When Theresa is more forceful about it, he doesn’t just leave like Tony and James did; he’s got “issues” that she hasn’t encountered yet:

 

The disco light is turned on as Gary prevents Theresa from escaping the apartment…

 

…forcing her down on the bed. He grabs a kitchen knife…

 

…and apparently this violence manages to “excite” him sexually and he forces himself into her…

 

…and because Theresa will not stop screaming he starts stabbing her with the knife…

 

…and the last images we see is Theresa’s face slipping away along with her heartbeat, finally fading to black:

OK, so what is so "controversial" about this film? I would hazard a guess that up until the final 15 minutes of the film, this is really no more "shocking" than those "girls in trouble" films we might have seen in the 1950s, just not as explicit. People who were familiar with the novel or the original news story knew what was supposed to happen. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that once Theresa set her eyes on Gary, we knew what was going to happen next, because it was known that Quinn's killer, John Wayne Wilson, had a homosexual relationship at the time, and Gary in the novel was also a "bisexual" man, whose manhood at the moment was bothering him. 

In the novel, however, Gary not only "got it up," but kept it "up"; he just quit from exhaustion.  He had nowhere else to go, and he assumed that since he had "satisfied" Theresa she would just let him stay the night. Otherwise, the plot point was the same, where Gary's mental state was pushed over the edge by Theresa's insistence that he leave; when he refused to behave as her other sex partners had done, it was at that point that fear took over.

Since the finale wasn't precisely unexpected, and for the most part the film kept to the essential elements of the novel, perhaps the "issue" was that it was tougher to face them on film than on the pages of a book. Brooks apparently sinned by not altering the "essential" element that not just a woman whose lifestyle courted this result, but the murderer was "gay"--thus two politically-incorrect insinuations. Jane Campion avoided the issue in her film adaptation of the Susanna Moore novel In the Cut, which was thematically similar to Goodbar, and like in Goodbar, the female protagonist made a fatal error in judgement. In Campion's film version of Cut, it wasn't so much a "happy" ending tacked on, but a politically-correct one, which essentially destroyed the point of the novel, and this would have happened if Brooks had tacked on a "happy" ending to his film. But Brooks really had no choice about the ending, since everyone knew this story was supposed to end the way it did. 

Should Brooks have removed the "gayness" from the killer? Sure, he could have made the killer just some guy with erectile dysfunction; but that wouldn't have been sufficient motive to commit murder as would a man whose sexual identity was in question. The other, "bigger" issue, of course, is whether a woman is capable of making deliberate life choices that put her safety at risk? Why should we doubt that may be true in some cases? Roseann Quinn apparently did; according to witnesses in the apartment building Quinn lived in, on more than one occasion they saw or heard loud, apparently abusive encounters with men they had not seen before. Yet Quinn still cruised the bars and took home strange men. Of course she wasn't the only woman who did this; her story was "news" because it ended in murder:

There were those at the time of the murder who blamed it on the dangers of "sexual liberation" and faltering morality. The novel and the film certainly played to the theme of a rejection of religion in one's life, although in Theresa's case it was because of its hypocrisy. We see in the film that her religious upbringing did, however, have an effect: she didn't know what cocaine was or how to ingest it, and she seemed to assume that people would behave in the way she either fantasized they would (Prof. Engle), or as she expected everyone to behave in the "normal" way people she associated with in her "day" existence would. She was not "streetwise," and her way of dealing with people was often incongruous with the reality of uneducated and even criminal element who didn't abide by the rules of behavior that she had been raised onto. 

Yet Theresa could have escaped all of this had she not rejected out of hand the one safety line thrown to her back to "normality," instead reaching for "safety" with a man she knew nothing about. It may have been only a one in a thousand chance that this encounter would end deadly, and that it did shouldn't be seen as a question of "fault" but one of fate.