James Hitchcock "Love with the Proper Stranger" tells the story of two young Italian-Americans from New York. Angie Rossini a shop girl at Macy's department store, and Rocky Papasano, a jazz musician, have a brief affair, as a result of which Angie finds herself pregnant. Angie tracks Rocky down, hoping that he will pay for her to have an abortion, something which was still illegal in the 1960s. The film is an uneasy mixture of two genres. The earlier part seems like an American version of the British social-realist "kitchen sink" dramas of this period. There is the same documentary-style black-and-white photography, the same concentration upon the seedier elements of working-class life, the same dance-halls and crowded, run-down apartments. I was particularly reminded of "A Kind of Loving" and "A Taste of Honey", both of which deal with the subject of an unmarried girl getting pregnant, a subject which would have been a controversial one on both sides of the Atlantic in the early sixties. Abortion was an even more controversial subject at this period than unmarried motherhood, so it was a brave move on the part of the film-makers to tackle it. Neither Angie nor Rocky raise any moral objections to the procedure, even though she was raised in a Catholic family who would have regarded abortion as a mortal sin. They only back out when Rocky discovers that the abortionist is not medically qualified and refuses to let Angie go through with the procedure, realising that a crude backstreet abortion would be very dangerous. It struck me, in fact, that the film-makers were arguing for abortion to be legalised to make it safer and to prevent young women from risking their health in this manner. After the abortive abortion, the tone of the film changes to that of a romantic comedy. Rocky proposes marriage to Angie but she turns him down, well aware that he is doing so not out of love but out of a sense of moral duty and under pressure from her family. Another suitor for Angie's hand arises in the shape of the unattractive cook Anthony. Anyone familiar with the conventions of the rom-com will be able to work out the ending from here. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, although three of those (for art direction, cinematography and costume design) were in categories reserved for black-and-white films, at a time when most films were being made in colour. (Separate black-and-white awards were to be abolished after 1966). It brought Natalie Wood the second of her two "Best Actress" nominations (she was to lose to Patricia Neal), and while Wood's performance as the naive but determined young Angie is a reasonably good one, it didn't really strike me as being of Oscar-winning calibre. Steve McQueen is also good as Rocky. The kitchen-sink films of the sixties are very much of their time, but that does not prevent their being of interest to the modern viewer, both as dramas and as pieces of social history, and I felt that "Love with the Proper Stranger" might have been more interesting had screenwriter Arnold Schulman and director Robert Mulligan made it as a straightforward social-realist drama without trying to turn it into a standard rom-com halfway through. It has its good points, but overall cannot compare with "To Kill a Mockingbird", Mulligan's great film from the previous year. 6/10

Red-Barracuda Love With The Proper Stranger is a romantic comedy with some very serious undertones. It basically tells the story of the result of a one night stand where a girl becomes pregnant and the chap responsible is forced to deal with the situation. At the time, the themes of unmarried pregnancy and back-street abortions were pretty shocking stuff. To today's audiences, this sort of stuff is now covered without a seconds thought in daytime soap operas, so it might be difficult appreciating the daring qualities of this production. However, the scenes where Natalie Wood visit's the abortion 'clinic' are still fairly grim. It has to be said that they sit relatively uncomfortably within the movie as a whole, as the tone otherwise is mainly light-hearted with quite a bit of comic interplay between the various characters. In my opinion it doesn't damage the film however, as it gives it a little bit of an edge and helps add our sympathies to Wood's character. It does have to be said that despite the presence of Steve McQueen, this is undoubtedly Natalie Wood's film. She is the heart and soul of the production and it's hardly surprising that she was nominated for an Oscar off the back of this. Although quite how McQueen's character could forget having a liaison with someone like Natalie Wood is a little mystifying, is he insane? Anyway, generally speaking, McQueen is forced to take a back seat in this film but he is good none-the-less. The film also boasts a fine comic appearance by Happy Days regular Tom Bosley. Quite amusingly he even looked middle-aged way back then! On the down-side, the film does seem to end perhaps too abruptly, it gave the impression that the film-makers had ran out of their allocated time and just wanted to wrap things up quickly. This is, however, a very minor complaint.Love With The Proper Stranger is a quality romantic-drama with comic moments. It's a nice showcase of 60's New York with a lush score accompanying it. However, at the end of the day, I would recommend it mostly for Natalie Wood. I thought she was terrific.

john_meyer I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, so I know first-hand what movies were like back then. The subject matter for this movie and how it is treated were definitely pushing the envelope of what the studios would allow, and what audiences were ready to see at that time. Often, however, films that are daring can't quite get beyond the self-congratulatory "look at us and how daring we are being" and actually take us somewhere we haven't been before or tell an original story.The overall structure of the movie is fine, but it fails on two main points. First, at no time are we given any reason to see why the two characters are attracted to each other. While they are both gorgeous people to look at, and both well-versed in the 1950s morality that says you should do "the right thing," there is no quality, no dialog, and little action that would make one character attracted to the other. It is true that Steve McQueen's character does some amazingly kind and considerate things, but I cannot think of one thing Natalie Woods' character does that would make anyone attracted to her as a person. He rescues her, helps her, tries to understand her, defends her, and gets in a fight for her, but she never does one thing to help him, elevate him, intrigue him, or motivate him. Other than her amazing looks, we are given no reason why McQueen would fall in love with this perfect stranger.The second and bigger failing is the direction. The screenwriter provides very sparse dialog, and most scenes find the actors posing, glancing, leaning, sitting, standing, moving, and generally fidgeting their way through scenes, as if random motion is going to convey some inner feelings. This is obviously entirely the work of the director. Emotions seem to turn on and off with almost every cut, and at times it is impossible to tell what the heck is going on.This random motion turns to random Emotion in the final scene of the movie, something I guess I should have expected, but something which does not logically follow anything that comes before it, especially the immediately preceding scenes.I have seldom seen a movie with a more thoroughly botched ending.And finally, while others see chemistry between McQueen and Woods, I saw absolutely nothing. To me, chemistry is what we saw many years later between McQueen and Faye Dunaway in the original "Thomas Crown Affair." That was pure electricity. By contrast, this is barely a spark.

Psalm 52 Underneath this desperately wanna-be social comedy about the wrong choices of early 60's casual sexual relationships, is a could-have-been brilliant static family drama about abortion, societal expectations & norms, and personal independence vs. family obligations. Unfortunately, every time Robert Mulligan's film heads correctly (the abortion sequence, Angela's brother's interference, the Colombo family dinner, Barbie's apartment, etc) in the direction of possible groundbreaking, uncharted drama it afterward veers OFF-COURSE into endless Natalie Wood histrionics! Less Natalie, more McQueen would have been a smart move. Especially, regarding his musical occupation and the background of how their sexual tryst landed them where they are when the story begins. The disappointing ending is SAPPY beyond words! Although, the entire film benefits from the New York location filming, but it's not terrific... regardless of Sally Field's recent selection of this film for presentation on TCM.com.