Twinky

Charles Bronson and Susan George starred in the Lolita-inspired Twinky (1969) about an affair and marriage between a 38-year old American writer of pornographic books living in London and a 16-year old redhaired school girl whose stiff, old-fashioned parents do not approve. Bronson, who teaches his young wife about sex, spanking, and how to cook a proper breakfast, enjoys the level at which he and Twinky communicate. She loves the way he smiles at her. Coming immediately off the classic Dirty Dozen (1967) directed by Robert Aldrich and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) by Sergio Leone, Charles Bronson (1921-2003) plays somewhat against type as the struggling writer Scott Wardman. Susan George, on the other hand--who is best known for her stunning performance in Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971) and for dating Prince Charles (pre-Diana)--was rather in type as the headstrong nymphet Lola Londonderry. Her clandestinely debauched Grandfather (Trevor Howard) was excellent in flashback scenes depicting his own reading of erotic novels and taking of bubble baths with a variety of young girls. The best part about Twinky is that it says fuck all to Blow-Up or Alfie and presents a picture of swinging London for the working-class. When the film switches to New York, it features night shots of the Silvercup sign in Queens and 59th Street Bridge, a few token scenes near South Street, a great Puerto Rican rights demonstration outside of Twinky's high school (where Bronson goes to jail for accidentally punching a cop), and many images of Twinky bicycling through the city streets. The film, renamed Lola in the United States, as if the Lolita connection was somehow not obvious enough, was directed by Richard Donner, whose long career has included movies such as The Omen (1976), Superman (1978), The Goonies (1985) and also TV, including episodes of The Rifleman, The Twilight Zone, Kojak, Gilligan’s Island, and Tales From the Crypt (Donner once appeared on a funny episode of the self-indulgent Jon Favreau show Dinner For Five (IMC), where Favreau warns him "you don't want me talk about Gilligan's Island do you?")(in another episode Favreau admits he yearns to one day be considered a Hitchcock or a Coppola)(the drinking on the show was apparently not faked). Twinky is not for the Bronson fan of The Magnificent Seven (1960) directed by John Sturges or even Death Wish (1974) by Michael Winner, but rather the Bronson fan who might rewatch House of Wax (1953) with Vincent Price or enjoyed the sly Breakout (1975), about a complicated Mexican jailbreak of Robert Duvall (in a helicopter) that Bronson undertakes to woo Duvall's wife (Jill Ireland). Breakout also features John Huston as the mysterious man who sets Duvall up and Randy Quaid as Bronson's loyal assistant.