Here, in "Autumn Leaves," Joan Crawford is a writer who prefers her own company over having just anybody – unlike so many today. She has been burned. So, when Cliff Robertson asks to sit down at her table, (the only seat in a packed restaurant,) she replies, "I'd prefer it if you didn't." But he stands right beside her table, waiting for an available table. She meant for him to go away. She can't have him stand there. She couldn't enjoy her lunch. She gives in. They get to talking and they start to form a relationship, quickly. He's a jovial and nice-lookin' guy, but there's something not quite right there. It seems that everything he says can't be taken at face value. Despite the fact she hasn't been this happy in years, there's something wrong. He has mood swings, and she takes it all on her shoulders, taking care of him. Then Vera Miles and his father Lorne Greene show up, telling her that he should be in a "home." If you love someone, you take care of them, she says. You can't just throw them away. Then an unsavory truth comes out. All actors are excellent in their roles, especially Cliff Robertson, who gives an eerily and captivating off-balanced performance. The quiet moments of his desperation and depression are most convincing. "Autumn Leaves" is not your usual romantic movie. Maybe it's not trying to be. Can love cure? Can one's sanity be found through the thick fog of muddle? "Autumn Leaves" is for those who appreciate good performances in good movies and who know that love can be found in dark places.

This film starts out extremely interestingly as we get to know sex-starved "spinster" Millicent Wetherby, a sensitive writer who never had a real relationship because she spent her good years attending to a sickly father.The movie creates genuine interest and suspense as we try to figure out what motivates Burt (a 33-year-old Cliff Robertson) to pursue Milly, played by Joan Crawford when she was 52.The film takes a garish turn when we realize that Burt has been driven mad by his philandering wife (a slimy Vera Miles) and lascivious father (Lorne Greene), and the film's best moment pits Millicent against this incestuous pair: "Your filthy souls are too evil for hell itself!" Crawford, wearing a strikingly unflattering bob, is nevertheless the heart of this film. She plays prim and prissy well and comes up with a number of memorable zingers, i.e., "The only trouble with the future is it comes so much sooner than it used to"..."There's something unladylike about a black eye on a woman." Though an asylum psychiatrist does a creditable job of normalizing the option of mental-health treatment, I found Burt's symptoms to be overdone and over-the-top.Crawford's unwavering sympathy for her mate strained credulity at times. For example, when he smashes a leaden typewriter onto her hand she doesn't seem to mind at all! The final scene, in which Burt gains his "walking papers," is interesting, although a bit facile. Can six months in an asylum cure pathological lying? The happy ending would have us believe as much.

There's something very rewarding about discovering a well-acted mid-20th century movie you never heard about, in this case, Autumn Leaves starring Joan Crawford and Cliff Robertson, which I saw on TCM. In some ways dated, this movie shines with excellent acting by the two leads - one a star of the film noir era, and the other, a future star making his film debut. The story involves a romance that work-at-home secretary Joan Crawford only reluctantly embraces because her lover is a much younger man. Cliff Robertson falls head over heels in love with her and they marry. Of course, you know the wheels are going to come off this match. The young man becomes traumatized by the appearance of his father, played by a distinguished looking but thoroughly evil Lorne Green and his femme fatale, Vera Miles. Crawford is confused by the bizarre situation and her husband suffers a complete mental breakdown. There is some surprisingly strong language and domestic violence for a movie of the 1950's. Crawford and Robertson deliver strong performances, particularly as the movie moves to its climax. For his first movie, Robertson shows surprising range and strength as an actor. Presented with a husband who is now unhinged, Crawford, takes action to help him, knowing it might have unintended consequences for both of them. This is a movie that keeps its momentum and doesn't disappoint. Highly recommend.

Sometimes in Hollywood, motion picture style seemed to come about just through force of habit. Film noir was never recognised as a genre in its own era, but there was a time in the 1950s when it seemed every low budget drama was automatically shot in that stark, eerie, chiaroscuro fashion – regardless of how "noir"-ish it really was.Autumn Leaves, in some ways, IS quite a grim little melodrama. Many of the most pessimistic pictures of the 40s and 50s dealt with the romance-gone-wrong scenario, where one partner turns out to be not what they claimed they were – check out the excellent Scarlet Street (1945) for the cruellest example thereof. But Autumn Leaves is different. This isn't a nightmarish "what if?" thriller – it has too much respect for its characters to be that. It is more a bittersweet and, at times, very mature look at how insanity and mental trauma can impact upon human relationships. Above all it is a romantic picture from its first frame to its last.And yet, director Robert Aldrich insists upon giving it the noir makeover with his usual penchant for slanting shadows, odd camera angles and foreground clutter, all of which is hardly necessary and just a little tiresome. Still, to his credit, this hard-boiled action director does find room for a more tender, person-centred approach, with some long takes and clarity of image in key scenes. There are also some truly wonderful subtleties to watch out for. For example when Joan Crawford fails to answer Cliff Robertson's proposal, we cut from close-up to mid-shot, where in the background a receptionist puts down a phone – a little note of rejection that we will subconsciously pick up on.Crawford and Robertson at least seem to understand what this picture is about. You can see how good an actress Crawford was by reading up on the kind of abusive and maladjusted person she was in real life. She gives a totally believable presentation of someone with absolute loving purity and patience, and her character's devotion to Robertson's gives the picture its emotional weight. Robertson, in his earliest lead role, demonstrates that combination of warmth and endearing frailty which characterises his most memorable roles, without ever quite descending into a corny caricature.Speaking of corniness, Autumn Leaves is not without its slightly cringeworthy moments. There is the overly extravagant musical score, including a fuzzy blur as we segue into a flashback. There is the somewhat trite peachiness with which Crawford and Robertson's romance unfolds. There is even a barefaced rip-off of the beach scene out of From Here to Eternity. But to be honest, all of this adds to its charm. Autumn Leaves is, in many ways, the opposite of film noir cynicism. It shows people struggling to make romance work in spite of the desperation of their circumstances.