The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds [1972]

http://bayimg.com/KAjbgaAdI The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068528/ The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds is a 1964 play written by Paul Zindel, a playwright and science teacher. Zindel received the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for the work. The play's world premiere was staged in 1964 at the Alley Theatre in Houston, after which it premiered in New York City Off Broadway. It was adapted for the screen in 1972, directed by Paul Newman and starring his wife Joanne Woodward, daughter Nell Potts, and Roberta Wallach, daughter of Eli Wallach. Woodward won the award for Best Actress at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. Joanne Woodward ... Beatrice Nell Potts ... Matilda Roberta Wallach ... Ruth Judith Lowry ... Nanny David Spielberg ... Mr. Goodman Richard Venture ... Floyd Carolyn Coates ... Mrs. McKay Will Hare ... Junk Man Estelle Omens ... Caroline Jess Osuna ... Sonny Ellen Dano ... Janice Vickery Lynne Rogers ... Miss Hanley Roger Serbagi ... Charlie John Lehne ... Apartment Manager Michael Kearney ... Chris Burns An air of Northeastern, lower-middle-class provincialism is echoed in the disappeared Newman directorial effort, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), which was having a well-received Paris revival the week Newman died. It's a doting husband's gift, in which Newman hand-picked a showpiece role for spouse Joanne Woodward. The source was Staten Island science teacher Paul Zindel's debut play, written as an exercise in empathy (and revenge) toward lax parents he'd seen "holding back" their kids at Tottenville. Woodward's Beatrice Hunsdorfer is a single mother who never left the hometown she always hated, and is now a wenchy domestic train wreck trailing monologues and beer cans around a dungeon-dun house. Locals remember her by a high school nickname ("Betty the Loon"); traffic-cop ex-classmates indulge her with calm condescension. Zindel echoes the Tennessee Williams idea of home as an incubator of dysfunction (Newman had a career-long dialogue with Williams—his last film was an effective Glass Menagerie). But Gamma Rays has a bleak humor all its own: Beatrice uses an ancient, sepulchral lodger as a sounding board; a schoolgirl with unblinking psycho eyes presents a home-peeled cat's skeleton for a science assembly. Beatrice's girls, Tillie and Ruth, are played by Newman and Woodward's daughter, Nell Potts, and Roberta "Eli's girl" Wallach, respectively. Each looks for a shelter from mother's home-school curriculum of shut-in misanthropy and bathetic self-pity; Tillie's escape is a passionate, private comfort in the cosmos (stoked by—you guessed it—an understanding science teacher). Her final statement of faith in the atom might just leave you with a catch in your throat. Joanne Woodward's performance is not like anything she'd ever done before; coming after "Rachel, Rachel." It serves notice that she is capable of experimenting with roles that are against type and making them work. Paul Newman's direction is unobtrusive; he directs as we expect an actor might, looking for the dramatic content of a scene rather than its visual style. This means that the material has to carry the movie - for Newman, story comes before form - but he has found a story strong enough to do that. And the performance by Nell Potts (Newman and Woodward's daughter) is extraordinary. She glows. Watching Man-in-the-Moon is watching an exploration. It’s not a character study, since Woodward’s character isn’t the protagonist, and the differences between the film and a character study make it all the more interesting. We learn all about this woman, who we’ve prejudged–there are a few moments when we might be wrong about her, but there’s really only like three–and the film goes and confirms everything we’ve already decided. It’s an strange formula, since it breaks one of those major tenets of good fiction, never let the reader prejudge the character. The reader engages a work to make that decision. This observation leads me to Man-in-the-Moon’s quality as fiction. I’m not sure it’s particularly good. It comes from a play and Newman does a great job making it not feel like a play, but the film wallows in a stifling helplessness. It’s good, but it’s good because the writing–by Alvin Sargent, who also adapted Ordinary People and knows how to make things work–and the acting and the directing all go together. There’s also the setting, some sad Connecticut town, populated with people who never went anywhere. Idealism is absent from Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds and Newman makes you work for anything positive. As a director, I’m not sure who Newman learned from. Some actors (George Clooney) have very obvious influences, but Newman’s beyond quiet. He does let composer Maurice Jarre carry some of the weight, but otherwise, the camera isn’t even present. Still, its absence doesn’t make the adapted play feel stagy, Newman just doesn’t let the viewer interact with him. It’s a great approach and probably the one to make this material work. All of the performances are perfect, not just Woodward and real-life daughter Nell “Potts” (you’ve seen her on the Newman’s Own labels), but also the other sister, played by Roberta Wallach (Eli Wallach’s daughter–love that IMDb). After seeing the film version–and I know Woodward is a big supporter of the theater, so I’m sure this reaction wasn’t at all her intent–I have no interest in seeing a staged version. It couldn’t be as good, which is the greatest compliment an adaptation can get.

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WestEgg (2011-11-03)

Wow, this is a brilliant and poignant hard to find movie. Out of print I believe. Thank you!