I've watched some curious movies in my day, and still this one has me scratching my head a bit. I recognize in 'A cold wind in August' the cheeky, winking sensibilities of a sleazy B-movie: Gerald Fried's music is unquestionably over the top; Lola Albright's portrayal of Iris Hartford is one of unfettered sensuality, Scott Marlowe's Vito is as hopelessly excitable as a puppy that hasn't been trained, and as the length progresses they both just totally abandon even these guidelines. The performances of the supporting cast are mostly either wildly over the top or pointedly dull and limp, with no middle ground and yet just as much purposefulness to that end as Albright's and Marlowe's acting. The dialogue and scene writing are emphatically overdone and unsubtle, almost painfully inauthentic. Between the screenplay, Alexander Singer's direction, Floyd Crosby's cinematography, Alvina Tomin's costume design, and all these other bits, there's a playful, deadpan sense of tomfoolery that flits between a few different types of movies. This hovers somewhere over an intersection of the Very, Very Serious and very, very Outrageously Overblown crime films like 1936's 'Reefer madness' or 1954's 'Girl gang'; low-brow exploitation flicks of the 60s and 70s, even those as far removed from this as Nazisploitation or "women in prison" titles; and abjectly insincere and melodramatic romps like the early movies of John Waters ('Multiple maniacs,' 'Pink flamingos') the most hilarious bombast of Lifetime's original movies (see 'My killer client' or 'Wheels of beauty'), or even soap operas.
And still, for all this, 'A cold wind in August' nevertheless mostly keeps itself well within the boundaries of an earlier era of film-making sensibilities. Save for that some scenes toe the line with depictions of Iris and Vito's intimacy, the fundamental appearance of the feature more closely resembles the 1950s in terms of obeisance to censorial standards, especially those concerning skin or otherwise interaction between genders. There's an odd duality here in which the picture wants to both push limits, and respect them; to be as outlandish as it can in some ways, while coloring strictly within the lines in others; to embrace the zeal we'd see more of in the years to come, and to check impulsiveness with the strictures of preexisting notions of cinema. Already applied unevenly from one moment to the next, this dichotomy becomes more severe as the movie progresses. The first half mostly comes across with that blustery oddball energy, and is decidedly bewildering at first for the fact of it - while the second becomes a more straightforward, almost earnest drama. The tonal shift is off-putting, to say the least, and comes while it's still hard to get a grasp on exactly what the feature is trying to do, and whether or not it's something that's enjoyable.
For what it's worth, weird as all this may be, I also think 'A cold wind in August' is well made such as it is. Albright gives the best performance of the film; Fried's music is sometimes peculiar, but always appreciable. The direction and cinematography are actually just splendid, as they are, and the production design and art direction are quite fine - and so on, and so on. This is fun, despite the conflicting flavors. Whatever entertainment we may or may not derive from other titles in the suggested genres, however, I'm not convinced that this rendition is able to pull it off with the same level of success. Maybe it's just the coincidence of both hyperbolic and restrained approaches, but I think 'Cold wind' rides a lines between adjacent but exclusive spheres of "I get it, and it works" and "This is, after all, just a lot of ungenuine hot air." On the balance it's more worthwhile than not, yet if you're looking for a total lark, the more plainly honest facets countermand such strains; if you're looking for a proper drama, the more ridiculous aspects countermand any search we might undertake for Themes, Major Statements, or Investment. When all is said and done 'A cold wind in August' can be a good time, but given the study in contrasts that it represents, I'm not even sure who I'd recommend it to. One way or another, watch with tempered expectations.