CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

jadedalex Joanne Woodward is the one reason this movie gratuitously called 'The Stripper' is worth a look. She comes across as genuine and sincere in a movie that for the most part is full of clichés, a fair of them quite dated.To me, it seemed the screenplay was based on much of the heartbreak that was Marilyn Monroe, with Woodward's character never having a real family as a child, much like Norma Jean Baker.She's hardly a 'stripper', as Joanne's character is basically a platinum blonde magician's assistant who is led into the striptease world by the very capable actor Robert Webber as her cruel and sadistic 'pimp'. This transformation occurs very late in the movie, so by this time the audience is well aware that the title of the film was false titillation.And Joanne is pretty much covered with many balloons when her strip act is revealed. Tack on a rather phony happy Hollywood ending, and there you have 'The Stripper'. I did enjoy seeing the very talented and original Louis Nye in a comic part. And the inclusion of Gypsy Rose Lee was a bit of inspired casting. As I say, Woodward somehow manages to rise above the rather unimaginative script. Like Beymer's character professes to Woodwad's character in the end: you do 'care' about this woman. Too bad the script didn't.

Boomer-51 In the IMDb trivia section, it's stated that the role of Lila was originally intended for Marilyn Monroe. Of course, Marilyn was considered for a lot of roles that, had she not died, she may or may not have taken. What's interesting, though, is that just before her death she was fired from the 20th Century Fox production "Something's Got to Give." Fox owned the rights to the song entitled "Something's Gotta Give" because Johnny Mercer had written it for their 1955 Fred Astaire film "Daddy Long Legs." It had been re-orchestrated and re-recorded for the Monroe film. Then, it turns up in "The Stripper" as the song that Joanne Woodward sings as she strips. If my memory is correct (I saw the film in its first run when I was 8 years old) she's covered in balloons, and loud bunch of drunks burst the balloons with their cigars while she tries to sing. It was pretty tawdry business.In any case, Joanne Woodward got the part, and she was good. To the best of my recollection, "The Stripper," as other commenters have said, was a failed but interesting effort. It's too bad that it's not available on DVD.

ptb-8 Sad and lonely mid west American towns photographed in black and white seem to be a very potent atmospheric early 60s film drama location that should be recognized as almost iconic in this new century. Other films of the time that each look as though they are all filmed nearby or around the corner from each other: HUD, BUS RILEY'S BACK IN TOWN, BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL , LILIES OF THE FIELD, KISS ME STUPID, IN COLD BLOOD all make a great set of rural wasteland town settings each with potent imagery and lonely people going slowly mad or frustrated or hankering for a change. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW perfected this feel in 1971. Stills from all these films would make a superb coffee table book...all that lonely black and white, crisp and windy farms and streets etc. yet obviously sad 60s. THE STRIPPER must have been the only film made at FOX in 63 with every other dollar of Zanuck's money going to feed CLEOPATRA. Apart from the misleading title, THE STRIPPER offers Joanne Woodward in a Lee Remick performance or is that a Lee Grant performance or is that a Kim Novak performance...because either of those women are interchangeable in those above films as well. 40 years later, like CLEOPATRA, this early 60s era of film making is being celebrated as having produced atmospheric and enduring films of fascinating visuals and emotional performances. I was lucky enough to enjoy THE STRIPPER in a cinema seeing a 35mm cinemascope print, and even if the story was a let down, the visuals and feel for that period and location is so well captured that it almost becomes the most enjoyable part. I am also a great fan of BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL which captures this loneliness and isolation with B&W photography that now borders on masterpiece. See it as part of the above series of films if you can and be overwhelmed by what I have described. It is like sad memories created by someone else and they take that form especially because of the photography.

JulJoAnnicgraith What a good movie!!! Made to perfection. That Joanne Woodward never fails to amaze me! She is quite simply the greatest actress ever to set foot on stage or grace the screen. and I mean that. She is mind-blowing in every movie she does, this one is no exception. Her portayed of Lila Green is nothing short of genius. The rest of the cast is great too...though, like someone before me said, none of them are likable characters except Lila. Well, except for little Sandra. She's likeable.I recommend this movie to anyone! If for nothing else, see this movie for a stunning performance by Joanne Woodward.