Really Surprised!

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

This 1966 comedy is campy, silly, and a bit ridiculous, but on the other hand, it has Natalie Wood, and that rounds it up to an almost passable film - and if you adore her as I do, worth watching, maybe lightly, in the background while reading. She is absolutely beautiful in the role of an irrepressible housewife who turns to robbery because her husband doesn't pay enough attention to her. Jesus, talk about a plot hole right there. :P Peter Falk is good as the detective on her trail, and it was interesting to see Jonathan Winters in a small part as well (he's a sex-crazed professor who chases her around until her clothes rip off and she's left capering about in her underwear … not exactly politically correct).On a more somber note, it's sad to think of the troubles this 5' tall daughter of Russian immigrants had in her life, ultimately leading to her creepy drowning death at the age of 43. She took several years off from acting after making this film which speaks to some of the turmoil she was going through, and it's jarring to understand that in light of just how airy this film is, and how happy she seems to be in it.

Natalie Wood certainly looks spectacularly beautiful in this movie. She wears gorgeous clothes, stunning wigs, great jewels, and an astonishing number of breathtakingly beautiful fur coats. A different dead animal draped around her every 15 minutes! Is this a 'good movie'? I dunno. The plot is dumb, and actually I just watch it with the sound turned down, not even trying to follow the plot, because it is just such wonderful eye candy. Look at the divine Ms. Wood, tripping in high heels and glamorous outfits, down the street of a New York that is no more. Look at the divine Ms. Wood, in her eye-popping New York apartment complete with house boy, being neglected by her busy banker husband. It's like a screwball comedy of the 30's (think the idle rich in their all white mansions full of flowers, getting up to all kinds of funny business) updated to the 60's. And here is something else: this was made in 1966, at the height of the swinging' 60's - the miniskirts, the Beatles, the hippies, Viet Nam - and not a trace of the swinging' 60's can be found. It's all fur coats and jewels and little silk sheath dresses and hats and gloves. Made for and marketed to Natalie Wood fans of course, and people over 30 who turn their noses up at those crass loud young people! Not to mention those filthy hippies! . A whole different, parallel world existing side by side with the younger world. Mad Men ladies who lunch, in expensive Edith Head concoctions. Their day was already past, but you wouldn't know it from this movie.

It's always fun to see Nat again. She was so pretty. This movie hasn't very much going for it but Nat and her marvellous Head wardrobe which is really the star of the movie. It just shows how powerful Head became at this point in Hollywood. Edie was by now writing books on how to dress as well as appearing on TV regularly doing makeovers for civilians. It is a bit of a waste to see Peter Finch in his pre-Columbo days as well as some well-used character actors inc. the usual penny-pinching stealing Jew selling Penelope's designer clothes at marked up prices from a thrift shop. It's unfortunate that Hollywood was still stereotyping people, but as I always say, stereotypes come from a large portion of the population that is exactly that. I speak from firsthand experience. I'm a gay man who admits the stereotypical 'flaming faggot' does exist in great numbers in the community and is unfortunately still around (witness 'Queer Guy' and the worst designer queens available they hired for the show). So, yeah, NYC back in the 60s was rife with back-stabbing retail Jews and I suppose they included him as a token. So, go for the looksee at what was chic in 1966 and forget the other.

I wouldn't call it a classic, but PENELOPE is definitely a fun way to spend an afternoon. Natalie Wood is gorgeous and quite funny in the title role, and she has an amazing wardrobe. Dick Shawn and Peter Falk (practicing for COLUMBO?) provide strong supporting performances as a psychiatrist and a police lieutenant, respectively. Unfortunately, Ian Bannen lacks charisma, making it hard to believe that "Penelope" would choose his character over every other man in NYC. With its bright, bold colors and criminal exploits, PENELOPE plays like an extended episode of the "Batman" TV series. In fact, the film includes a reference to Batman. Definitely a must-see for Natalie Wood fans.