The drifters break into an empty house next door, eavesdrop on her, and learn that she is unhappily married to an older man named Roger.

Stevens and producer Colbert, a former literary agent,[8] called themselves "America's only authentic New Wave filmmakers," and were admirers of François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol.

[8][9] At the time of its initial release, it was denied a seal by the Motion Picture Production Code and was rated "C," or "condemned," by the Catholic National Legion of Decency for "highly suggestive sequences, dialogue and music.

One of the more favorable reviews called the film a "harrowing and extended clinical picture of physical, sexual and mental violation.

It said that the film failed to convey emotions, and that "Hollywood has always been addicted to its own distorted reflections of reality and Private Property is just a new example of this mythomania.

What lingers in the mind, he wrote, is "Stevens' flair for feelthy fetishism and the stupid blonde beauty of the late Kate Manx.

Their friend Ben Bradlee recalled that they joked that because the film was condemned by the Legion of Decency, it would have helped him with some Catholic-hating voters in West Virginia if they had known about it.

and that this "tense and upsetting film has more psychological depth and empathy than the comparable sensationalist fare of its time, and shudder-inducing cinematic style to spare."

Allen's portrayal of "an overconfident sociopath is consistently insightful enough to make you regret that he didn’t get more roles this meaty during his career.

"[6] Critic Matt Zoller Seitz wrote Private Property "deserves to be more widely seen for its ability to disturb artfully, without crude shocks, and for its sincere fascination with its characters’ tortured psyches.