Frankenheimer when he was still at the top
of his game. He made "The Gypsy Moths" in 1969 and if it isn't quite in
the same class of his earlier sixties work it is still a very fine and
underrated film. The Gypsy Moths of the title are three daredevil
skydivers, (Burt Lancaster, Gene Hackman and Scott Wilson), who land,
literally, in a small mid-western town one 4th of July weekend where their presence disrupts the lives of a few of its female citizens, chief of whom is Deborah Kerr as the unhappily married aunt of the Wilson character and who has a brief tryst with Lancaster.
Although the
film deals with an activity that has all the potential for excitement
its main concern is the relationships that develop between the
characters. It's a beautifully written and acted picture, (Kerr,
Lancaster, Hackman and Wilson do some of their best work here), and
Frankenheimer conjures up the atmosphere of a small town sweltering in
the summer heat superbly. Today the film is seldom revived which is a
pity as it remains one of the best American films of its period.
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