Paul Newman stepped into the director’s chair for the fourth time (the IMDb curiously omits his now ironically-titled 1961 short, ON THE HARMFULNESS OF TOBACCO) in bringing Paul Zindel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play to the screen. Predictably, the depressing but whimsical domestic drama provided his actress wife Joanne Woodward with a meaty central role of a delusional, alcoholic and widowed mother of two girls; she won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival and earned a nod at the Golden Globes but was curiously bypassed at the Oscars. The girls are played by Roberta Wallach (daughter of actors Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson) and the Newmans’ own daughter, Nell Potts.
The film may wallow in the family’s squalid surroundings for the duration but is redeemed by disarmingly funny moments (Woodward’s foul-mouthed tirades against rabbit crap all over the house, Wallach’s uncanny imitation of her boorish mum for the benefit of her jeering schoolmates and the gleefully sadistic speech given by the little girl who boiled the skin off a cat for her science project!) and characters (the silent old lady they take on as a lodger). Another good sequence is when Woodward goes to her brother-in-law for a loan to start off her proposed tea-shop business and causes a scene in front of their guests. Thankfully, the alcoholic side of Woodward’s character only comes to the fore towards the end – culminating in the moving sequence of her dressing up for Potts’ science contest (which she eventually wins) but arrives late and, once again, embarrasses herself in public.
Maurice Jarre provides a fine score and Newman’s direction is practically invisible as he highlights the performances of his cast. Incidentally, the strange title must have turned a lot of spectators away back in the day – as the film is virtually forgotten nowadays; in fact, I only got to watch it via a pan-and-scan copy off U.S. Cable TV!
The film may wallow in the family’s squalid surroundings for the duration but is redeemed by disarmingly funny moments (Woodward’s foul-mouthed tirades against rabbit crap all over the house, Wallach’s uncanny imitation of her boorish mum for the benefit of her jeering schoolmates and the gleefully sadistic speech given by the little girl who boiled the skin off a cat for her science project!) and characters (the silent old lady they take on as a lodger). Another good sequence is when Woodward goes to her brother-in-law for a loan to start off her proposed tea-shop business and causes a scene in front of their guests. Thankfully, the alcoholic side of Woodward’s character only comes to the fore towards the end – culminating in the moving sequence of her dressing up for Potts’ science contest (which she eventually wins) but arrives late and, once again, embarrasses herself in public.
Maurice Jarre provides a fine score and Newman’s direction is practically invisible as he highlights the performances of his cast. Incidentally, the strange title must have turned a lot of spectators away back in the day – as the film is virtually forgotten nowadays; in fact, I only got to watch it via a pan-and-scan copy off U.S. Cable TV!