A Cold Wind in August
| A Cold Wind in August | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Alexander Singer |
| Written by | Burton Wohl John Hayes |
| Starring |
Lola Albright Scott Marlowe |
| Music by | Gerald Fried |
| Cinematography | Floyd Crosby |
| Edited by | Jerry Young |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $163,000 USD |
A Cold Wind in August (1961) is a low-budget independent drama film directed by Alexander Singer and adapted from the eponymous novel by Burton Wohl. The film stars Lola Albright as a mentally unbalanced burlesque show stripper in her thirties who becomes involved in a torrid romance with a 17-year-old boy played by Scott Marlowe. In reality, Marlowe was actually 28, only eight years Albright's junior.
Iris (Lola Albright), a woman with a background as a burlesque show stripper, is visited at her New York City apartment by her estranged husband. He requests that she star in an upcoming show in Newark, New Jersey, for which he is obliged to supply performers. She resists the idea, as she maintains her privacy by not working in shows local to the New York area. However, her husband is desperately in need of assistance. While she has no romantic feelings for him, expressing puzzlement as to why she ever married him, she nonetheless is friendly with him and feels sorry for his predicament, so she agrees to consider it.
In the meantime, Iris meets Vito Perugino (Scott Marlowe), the 17-year old son of the superintendent of the apartment building (Joe De Santis) and experiences an instant and powerful physical attraction to him. In their first meeting, she is shamelessly flirtatious; in their second, she completes her sexual seduction of him, marking the start of a passionate affair between the two. Iris unexpectedly finds herself experiencing an emotional attraction on top of her sexual one and a relationship she had originally intended to be brief turns serious. Vito asks Iris "to go steady" with him, and though she laughs a bit the teenager's use of that phrase to describe a committed relationship, she nonetheless happily accepts.
After Vito's immaturity brings turbulence into the relationship in the form of jealousy, Iris makes an attempt to pull away from him, but the attempt only serves to make her miserable. She finds herself obsessed and wanting nothing but to return to him and resume a sexual and emotional satisfaction she's never experienced with any other man. She returns to Vito and they begin to patch up their relationship, declaring their love for one another, but Vito is still unaware of her occupation, believing her to be a model or actress.
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