Taglines: she needed him…he needed her…if they only realize it!
Love with the Proper Stranger movie storyline. Italian-American Macy’s shop-girl Angie Rossini still lives at home with her widowed mother and her three protective brothers in a small apartment. Angie considers her life to resemble living in a fishbowl: her brothers control everything, from what she does to who she sees and to whom she should marry. That intended husband is Anthony Columbo, a shy, clumsy man, with whom she doesn’t hear the “bells and banjos” she envisions with romantic love.
As an act of defiance, Angie has a one-night stand – her first and only sexual encounter – with womanizing jazz trumpeter Rocky Papasano, a man she doesn’t even know. Rocky escaped a life much like Angie’s. His Italian-American parents still live in the Bowery where he grew up. He doesn’t visit his parents often as it reminds him of the repressive lifestyle of unhappy married people as witnessed by his old neighborhood friends.
Angie manages to track down Rocky to tell him that she is pregnant with his child. Despite barely remembering Angie, Rocky decides to help Angie with the one and only thing she requests: the name of a doctor to abort the pregnancy. As Angie and Rocky spend the day together leading up to the scheduled abortion, they begin to get to know each other, the good and the bad. This day begins the process of Angie and Rocky actually figuring out what it is they want out of life.
Love with the Proper Stranger is a 1963 American romantic comedy drama film made by Pakula-Mulligan Productions and Boardwalk Productions and released by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Robert Mulligan and produced by Alan J. Pakula from a screenplay by Arnold Schulman.
The film stars Natalie Wood, Steve McQueen, Edie Adams, Herschel Bernardi and Harvey Lembeck. The film also marked the screen debut of Tom Bosley and features a brief, uncredited appearance by the director’s younger brother Richard Mulligan, who later became a well-known television actor. The film’s title song, written by Elmer Bernstein and Johnny Mercer, was recorded by Jack Jones.
The film was nominated for five Academy Awards for:
Best Actress in a Leading Role (Natalie Wood)
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Black-and-White (Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Sam Comer, Grace Gregory)
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Milton R. Krasner)
Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Edith Head)
Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen (Arnold Schulman).
The film was also nominated for two Golden Globes Awards for Steve McQueen and Natalie Wood in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories.
Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)
Directed by: Robert Mulligan
Starring: Natalie Wood, Steve McQueen, Edie Adams, Tom Bosley, Herschel Bernardi, Harvey Lembeck, Penny Santon, Virginia Vincent, Nina Varela, E. Nick Alexander, Marilyn Chris, Augusta Ciolli
Screenplay by: Arnold Schulman
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Milton R. Krasner
Film Editing by: Aaron Stell
Costume Design by: Edith Head
Set Decoration by: Sam Comer, Grace Gregory
Art Direction by: Roland Anderson, Hal Pereira
Music by: Elmer Bernstein
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: December 25, 1963
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