Cinema Revisited: 2 Weeks in Another Town (1962)

Directed by Vincente Minnelli. Cast: Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charrise, George Hamilton, Claire Trevor, James Gregory. Released August 17, 1962. 107 minutes.

It's hard to understand why "2 Weeks in Another Town" was such a resounding failure upon its initial release, losing nearly $3 million at the box office. It is probably Vincente Minnelli's last truly great film, with exceptional performances by Kirk Douglas and Edward G. Robinson.

Douglas is a movie star whose life and career has hit bottom due to his alcoholism and a recent car crash. The film opens with him at a sanitarium, recovering from a nervous breakdown. He receives a cablegram from a director friend who was once his mentor and a top American filmmaker, but was now considered a Hollywood has-been. The director has secured a project in Rome featuring an up-and-coming young star, who is a troublesome rebel.

From here we get a look at the struggles of once-great film people who are fighting their way back to significance. Robinson plays the director as a loud tyrant on the set, but introspective and distant at home. Claire Trevor plays his volatile wife who is bitter about the filmmaker's past womanizing and present difficulties. These two actors, so remarkable in "Key Largo" over a dozen years earlier, manage to once again light up the screen in their scenes together.

Kirk Douglas is outstanding as a creative type who is plagued by demons and the need to find his way back on top. Robinson is willing to give him "any kind of job" even supervising the dubbing on his latest project, while Douglas wants to return to his leading man status. Their conflicts and inflated egos can't mask the fact that they still genuinely care about each other.

"2 Weeks in Another Town" confronts a lot of issues that were quite contemporary in the film industry at the time. Mostly it is the end of the studio system, where stars were part of a stable and protected from their own excesses. Left alone to their own decisions, an actor like the one Kirk Douglas plays, is very nearly destroyed, while a filmmaker like Robinson is overshadowed by those who have newer, more contemporary ideas.

The film is insightfully directed by Minnelli, further enhancing the already strong acting. Perhaps the most emotionally stirring scene, among many, is when the director suffers a heart attack, and as he is about to be taken to the hospital, confesses to the Douglas character that he once had an affair with his wife. "I never could turn down anything that was handed to me on a silver platter," the director confesses with remorse.

Director Minnelli offers some expansive tracking shots to establish certain scenes, and tightens up the visuals during a harrowing car sequence toward the end of the film. In either case, he effectively conveys what is necessary, and offers a real artistry to the proceedings. The throwbacks to his earlier film "The Bad and the Beautiful" (in which Douglas also appears) offer a neat correlation.

Sometimes a movie doesn't resonate at the time of its release, but the genuinely good work finally allows it to emerge over time. "2 Weeks in Another Town" is just such a movie. This was a good period for Kirk Douglas. The same year he starred in David Miller's insightful western "Lonely Are the Brave," released a few months earlier (now on blu ray and reviewed HERE). But it can be argued that "2 Weeks in Another Town" holds up just as well