Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)

Directed by Robert Mulligan. Starring Natalie Wood, Steve McQueen, Edie Adams, Herschel Bernardi, Tom Bosley, Harvey Lembeck, Penny Santon, Mario Badolati, E. Nick Alexander, Augusta Ciolli.

Small, quiet, refreshingly unsentimental NYC-set romantic drama between a sales girl (Wood) and a trumpet player (McQueen). They spend the night together without any delusions of long-term prospects, but she tracks him down after learning she’s pregnant. Mature, even daring for its time—the story directly addresses abortion as the most sensible response to their scenario—but it only has limited success trying to plumb the grubbiness of the kitchen sink realism all the rage across the pond. McQueen and Wood were attractive movie stars who never had great range as actors, but both do fine work here. Good black & white photography by Milton R. Krasner, enhancing the local atmosphere; title tune from Elmer Bernstein and Johnny Mercer (with a Jack Jones vocal). Bosley’s film debut; Mulligan’s brother, Richard, makes an uncredited appearance.

72/100