William Alland: Look In Any Window (1961) Welcome To This Neighborhood

"Teen idol Paul Anka plays Craig Fowler, the troubled son of dysfunctional parents Jackie and Jay Fowler (Ruth Roman and Alex Nicol). When Jay loses his job as a aircraft mechanic, he goes on a drinking binge to end all, passing out on the floor in front of his bored and disappointed wife. Meanwhile, across the back fence, Betty Lowell (Carole Mathews) confronts her philandering playboy husband Gareth (Jack Cassidy) about his extracurricular activities at work - activities which she has conveniently rationalized, as his success has made them the envy of their neighbors. While the parents fight, Craig and Betty's daughter Eileen (Gigi Perreau) indulge in a growing interest in each other - but what role models do they have for "normal" behavior? And how long can Craig hide his dark secret: a compulsion which drives him to prowl the neighborhood's quiet streets at night and peep in windows? Cast members Jack Cassidy and George Dolenz both were fathers of future rock star sons, David Cassidy ("The Partridge Family") and Micky Dolenz ("The Monkees").—

Source:IMDB with a look at Jackie & Craig Fowler (played by Ruth Roman & Paul Anka)

From IMDB

Suburban Confidential: "Look in Any Window" is a cheap, sleazy exploitation film about the shenanigans going on behind the scenes in suburban America. While it could have been well made and intelligent, the filmmakers really just wanted sensationalism. However, despite being pretty crass, it is entertaining.

The film is like a soap opera and it consists of many different vignettes involving really screwed up people. The most obviously messed up person is Craig, played by Paul Anka. He is an out of work teen who loves peeking in windows. Eventually, his behavior escalates and the police are looking to find him. His father is emotionally and physically impotent and the film is trying to say this is why the young man is a creepy sex offender...which is a bit of a stretch. As for nearly all the adults in the film, they seem to love cheating on their spouses and are too wrapped up in themselves to notice that Craig is a real head case!

The film often features very broad acting that is anything but subtle. The worst of these is played by Alex Nicol, who is Craig's alcoholic father. Subtle, he is not! But none of the characters seemed subtle...not even the cops investigating the peeping Tom case! I am a bit surprised the film didn't cast Jayne Mansfield or Mamie Van Doren as well...they would have fit right in to the story. Overall, a bad but fun movie...the type you watch if you could use a laugh or if you like over-the-top stories." 

From IMDB

"Dad's Kinda Feeling Last Night's Booze Today. If you don't laugh when he falls down, I don't think we can be friends." 

Source:Kavin Lafferty with a look at The Fowler's. (Played by Alex Nicol & Ruth Roman)

From Kevin Lafferty

If you are familiar with the movie "Peyton Place", then that makes me feel a helluva lot younger and less lonelier because now I know I'm no longer the only classic film fan on social medial and in the blogosphere, who doesn't write for this blog... besides Turner Classic Movies and the other classic film and TV networks. But that's not really my point here.

Again, if you are familiar with "Peyton Place (1957)", this movie is sort of like that. Before the Cultural Revolution, before integration became mainstream and standard in America, later in the 1960s and really ever since, Americans had a stereotypical view of what it meant to be an American, (or as MAGA might say: a real American) and if you lived in or around a big city, (like Los Angeles) the goal and preference back then was to live in the suburbs, or at least in what people thought was a nice, clean, safe, well-educated, and middle to high-income community, in a big city, like Los Angeles. 

Well, "Look in Any Window", pretty much blows up the stereotypes of what it meant to live the American dream in the 1960s. I mean this film is just a raging soap opera, where you have 2 what looks like on the surface, successful couples living next door to each other, in Reseda, Los Angeles. But where the husbands are rarely home and don't know their kids very well: 

In 1 house, Garrett Lowell (played by Jack Cassidy) is a workaholic, who has his own car dealership, who is much happier at work, then being home with his wife and daughter... who sleeps with every woman who says hi to him... who is not his wife. (That's not an exaggeration)

And next door, you have Jay Fowler (played by Alex Nicol) who is a traveling airplane mechanic (whatever the hell that is) who gets fired, (which is probably the only reason why he gets home from Alaska) because he says he was laid off. But the man is an alcoholic, so unless his company is run and owned by alcoholics, safe bet his drinking (perhaps on the job) was at least 1 reason for his dismissal. 

And then you have 2 bored and lonely housewives... I mean homemakers,  (not really) Jackie Fowler and Betty Lowell (played by Ruth Roman & Carole Matthews) who are exactly that. Who take the attitude, "If I can't have my husband, I'll have the guy next door". 

And if all of this not enough for you, along with the fact that the beautiful, adorable, and curvy Ruth Roman, is wearing hot shorts in and outside of her house, for the entire film, the Fowler's son, Craig (played by Paul Anka) is a freakin peeping tom, who is essentially antisocial and doesn't know how to communicate with females... except Eileen Lowell. (Played by Gigi Perreau) 

I agree with this IMDB review: 

"Look in Any Window" is a cheap, sleazy exploitation film about the shenanigans going on behind the scenes in suburban America. While it could have been well made and intelligent, the filmmakers really just wanted sensationalism. However, despite being pretty crass, it is entertaining...

But it was close to July 4th, 2021, perhaps the night before and I was flipping around 1 night and ran into this film on TCM. And I've been watching it at least once every year ever since... saw it again last night, in anticipation of another slow news day in Washington. And this movie, is a great soap opera episode, or TV film... as far as the cast, and the story, the location, it's pretty funny... the fact that it really blows up what upper middle class life was like back in the 1950s and early 60s, at least for some people. That life back then, even for successful Americans, wasn't just an episode of Pleasantville, at least for some Americans, including European-Americans. 

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