Quelle disappointment!

I'm going to have to swim against the effusive majority opinion in my review of Breakfast At Tiffany's, because I found it a serious let-down.

I saw this movie ages ago, and without remembering much about the plot, had a vague recollection of madcap sophistication.  So my recent DVD viewing was a bit of a surprise.  Turns out the sophistication consists of chain-smoking, lots of drinking, and calling everyone 'darling'.  And the madcap involves shop-lifting.  And more lots of drinking.

The story begins when Paul Varjak (George Peppard) moves into a new apartment in New York City.  Paul is a blocked writer being kept by a rich married woman (Patricia Neal).  Paul meets and befriends his neighbor Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn). 

Holly is a party girl.  She's also a free spirit and/or wounded bird.  Holly has no visible means of support.  She dates a lot and seems to live on the powder room money.  (This is long ago enough that the powder room thing might require explanation.  Back in these olden days, upscale establishments had attendants in the rest rooms, and patrons were expected to tip them.  So when a date would give Holly fifty dollars for powder room money, she would obviously not tip the attendant that much, and the rest was hers to keep.) 

Holly is frustrated by her lack of money.  She tells Paul that she needs money for her brother Fred.  Fred is one of the most annoying aspects of the movie, even though we never meet him.  According to Holly, Fred can't really look after or support himself, so Holly needs money to be able to support both herself and Fred - her notion is to buy land in Mexico and raise horses.  Fred is currently in the Army.  So.... what exactly is wrong with Fred?  If he's in the Army, he can't be physically handicapped, or significantly mentally handicapped.  The movie never explains. 

Later, we do learn a little more about Holly's past.  Turns out her real name is Lula Mae, and she was the child-bride of the much-older veterinarian Doc Golightly (Buddy Epsen), who wants her to come home.  But Holly ran away to the Big City... because she needed money for Fred?  And if she came to the city to make money, shouldn't she be doing something besides dating and keeping the powder room money?

What.  ever.

Paul gets over his writer's block because Holly gives him a typewriter ribbon.  He regains some self-respect and dumps his kept-man arrangement because anyway, he's falling in love with Holly.  (And why is it that rich women in movies who decide to keep a man always choose a writer?  Could there be a more self-absorbed navel-gazer than a writer?!)

If any of this sounds cute and charming, I'm not telling it right.

If you decide to skip this movie, you'll thankfully miss Mickey Rooney as upstairs neighbor Mister Yunioshi, a buck-toothed Japanese stereotype so extraordinarily offensive that he seems to come straight out of WWII propaganda.  You'll also miss Holly's treatment of her long-suffering cat, non-named "Cat".  There's madcap, and then there's animal abuse. 

Back to Joyce's Pix of the Flix