Jack Garfein

Something Wild

Something Wild

A complex exploration of the physical and emotional effects of trauma, Something Wild stars Carroll Baker, in a layered performance, as a college student who attempts suicide after a brutal sexual assault but is stopped by a mechanic (Ralph Meeker)—whose kindness, however, soon takes an unsettling turn. Startlingly modern in its frankness and psychological realism, the film represents one of the purest on-screen expressions of the sensibility of the intimate community of artists around New York’s Actors Studio, which transformed American cinema in the mid-twentieth century. With astonishing location and claustrophobic interior photography by Eugene Schüfftan, an opening-title sequence by the inimitable Saul Bass, and a rhythmic score by Aaron Copland, Jack Garfein’s film is a masterwork of independent cinema.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1961
  • 113 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.66:1
  • English
  • Spine #850

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored 2K digital transfer, supervised by director Jack Garfein, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New conversation between Garfein and critic Kim Morgan
  • New interview with actor Carroll Baker
  • Behind the Method, a new interview with scholar Foster Hirsch on the Actors Studio
  • Master Class with Jack Garfein, excerpts from a 2014 recording of one of the director’s world-famous lectures on acting technique
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Sheila O’Malley

New cover by John Sellards

Purchase Options

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored 2K digital transfer, supervised by director Jack Garfein, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New conversation between Garfein and critic Kim Morgan
  • New interview with actor Carroll Baker
  • Behind the Method, a new interview with scholar Foster Hirsch on the Actors Studio
  • Master Class with Jack Garfein, excerpts from a 2014 recording of one of the director’s world-famous lectures on acting technique
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Sheila O’Malley

New cover by John Sellards

Something Wild
Cast
Carroll Baker
Mary Ann
Ralph Meeker
Mike
Mildred Dunnock
Mrs. Gates
Jean Stapleton
Shirley Johnson
Martin Kosleck
Landlord
Charles Watts
Warren Gates
Clifton James
Detective Bogart
Credits
Director
Jack Garfein
Screenplay by
Jack Garfein
Screenplay by
Alex Karmel
Based on the novel Mary Ann by
Alex Karmel
Music composed and conducted by
Aaron Copland
Cinematography by
Eugen Schüfftan
Credits by
Saul Bass
Produced by
George Justin
Art direction by
Richard Day
Art direction by
Albert Brenner

Current

The New York of Something Wild
The New York of Something Wild
One of the most striking elements of Something Wild, Jack Garfein’s psychologically complex examination of trauma and attachment, is the 1960s New York City its distressed characters inhabit. Shot by Eugen Schüfftan, an Oscar-winning German cinema…
Something Wild: Last Chances
Something Wild: Last Chances

Jack Garfein’s no-holds-barred account of sexual assault and trauma captures the volatile sensibility of the Actors Studio.

By Sheila O’Malley

Beauty and the Beast: Ralph Meeker in Something Wild

Performances

Beauty and the Beast: Ralph Meeker in Something Wild

Known for playing sexy noir toughs, Ralph Meeker underwent a startling transformation as the anguished, slovenly male lead in Jack Garfein’s psychological drama.

By Imogen Sara Smith