Disastrous Demise: The Acting Gene

In February of this year, two-time Oscar-winner Mr. Gene Hackman was found dead in his New Mexico estate. The 95 year-old had, understandably, been out of the public eye for some time as he and his second wife lived out the years of their retirement. (Hackman performed his final movie role in 2004.) He, his wife (former classical pianist Betsy Arakawa) and a crated dog were discovered on February 26th, though he'd been dead since about the 18th and she days before that. It was a bizarre and agonizing end for one of filmdom's most capable and versatile performers. I have to confess that this intro has been rewritten twice as new information kept coming to light about the incident! In any case, we now belatedly pay tribute to someone who headlined the very movie from which this blog gets its name. 

 

One of those sorts of actors who seemed to be "never young," Hackman was born on January 30th, 1930 in San Bernadino, California, though the family wasn't there long. He was chiefly raised in Danville, Illinois with his parents and brother, though the couple divorced when Hackman was 13 and his father left with only a distant wave goodbye. Eager to move on in another direction, he lied about his age and at 16 joined the US Marine Corp. He served as a radio operator in China, Japan and Hawaii until he was discharged in 1951.

 

Following his term of service, he pursued a journalism degree at the University of Illinois, but ultimately went to California in order to pursue acting. There he met Dustin Hoffman, both of them disdained by many of their instructors at The Pasadena Playhouse. The two moved to New York and began looking for work there. Hackman began to win roles Off-Broadway and eventually along the Great White Way as seen in the Playbill above. (This show closed after four performances...)

Finally, in 1964, he scored a hit with Any Wednesday, opposite Sandy Dennis. When the movie came out in 1966, these roles were played by Jane Fonda and Dean Jones. He left this play to work in Poor Richard with Alan Bates and Joanna Pettet.

Having worked in TV bit roles, followed by parts on series filmed in New York, Hackman secured a supporting role (his first credited movie part) in Robert Rossen's Lilith (1964) opposite a young (and exasperating) Warren Beatty. In show business, one fateful project with a person can later lead to another of greater import, as we'll soon see.

Relocating to Hollywood, he began appearing on west coast TV series and winning supporting parts in movies. Seen above, he played a doctor fighting measles in Hawaii (1966) and had roles in First to Fight (starring Chad Everett), A Covenant with Death (starring George Maharis) and Banning (which starred Robert Wagner. All were released in 1967.)

Of far greater importance that year was his reunion with the star of Lilith, Beatty, who was producing and starring in a violent little number called Bonnie and Clyde. Initially dismissed (or even disliked) by some critics, the movie became a huge, trend-setting hit.

What's more, the movie was nominated for ten Oscars and Hackman was among them (though he lost to George Kennedy of Cool Hand Luke.) Estelle Parsons, who played his wife in the film, won as did the cinematography.

The nomination didn't change the fact that he was still doing a fair amount of episodic television along with occasional mid-level movies like The Split (1968) and Riot (1969.) In 1969, he played one of three stranded astronauts in Marooned, which starred Gregory Peck, and also worked in The Gypsy Moths with Burt Lancaster and Downhill Racer with Robert Redford.

Finally in 1970 he was elevated to costarring position when he did the movie version of I Never Sang for My Father (1970), which had been on Broadway with Hal Holbrook two years before. Hackman was really the leading performer in the movie, but Douglas had an Oscar under his belt for Hud (1963) and would be nominated here again (losing to George C. Scott in Patton.)

Hackman was nominated as well, though in the supporting category, losing to John Mills in Ryan's Daughter. Parsons, who'd played his wife in Bonnie and Clyde was cast in this one as his sister. 

It might just be something as simple as the fashion trend of the era, but in Father, he sported the same sort of turtleneck and suit-jacket combo that would later become iconic to disaster movie fans...

Ever versatile and always in demand, Hackman found himself as one of the husbands of Doctor's Wives (1971), a very soapy murder story which had him married to a frigid (at least where he's concerned!) Rachel Roberts.

His success as an actor having been on an upward trajectory for a few years now, he achieved a breakthrough in 1971 with The French Connection, a gritty police drama in which there was no question whatsoever who was the star. As roughly-hewn drug-busting Popeye Doyle, Hackman was almost the whole show.

He was granted a Best Actor Oscar for his skillful performance. The film, a big hit with audiences, contained a frenetic car chase that sought to live up to the bar set by 1968's Bullitt. 

By the time of his Oscar win, he was already waist-deep in the filming of a movie that has lived on in the hearts of countless fans since its 1972 premiere, The Poseidon Adventure.

As a fiery, driven, highly-confident priest who makes it his personal duty to rescue a disparate group of survivors trapped in a capsized cruise liner, he made an indelible impression on moviegoers of all ages. (He also briefly revived a 1930s fashion trend, usually on women, of a top with exposed bits of shoulder. It didn't catch on in 1972, but can be seen again now all over the place! Ha ha!) 

I only speak the truth (or at least my truth) so I won't pretend that some of the relentless hollering that goes on between Hackman and costar Ernest Borgnine is a bit oppressive after a while. There's a sort of macho (alpha male?) give and take between them throughout.

He's nonetheless wonderful in the part and gives 100%. He later became dismissive of the movie, too cool, I guess, to allow himself to be the star of a popcorn box office blockbuster. However, as seen by this string of spittle oozing from his tear-filled head, he was all in at the time. I always found it notable, too, that when he won the BAFTA for 1972, it was for both The French Connection and The Poseidon Adventure.

At any rate, producer and "Master of Disaster" Irwin Allen couldn't have played it any better if he'd tried. By the time the movie opened, there were FIVE Oscar-winners in the leading cast instead of four as it had been beforehand. Here, he's given a celebration cake inscribed "Welcome to the Club" with his gilded costars. (Note director Ronald Neame taking Shelley Winters to task for gobbling the first bite of Gene's cake!)

In between his two big hits came a brief dry spell in which Hackman accepted one of his most "out there" roles to date. Opposite Lee Marvin, he played a corrupt, very sleazy slaughterhouse owner in Prime Cut (1972.) Not only was his character involved in white slavery (auctioning off nude girls - including newbie Sissy Spacek! - in a barn), but it was also implied that he and his on-screen brother (bald Gregory Walcott in the lower-right inset) were sexually involved with one another.

At this stage he could practically play any role he wished, even without the "movie star" looks that had heretofore been so key to cinematic success. His pal Dustin Hoffman was soaring, too. (Trivia Tidbit: Hackman was cast as Dusty's father in The Graduate, 1967, until being fired for being too young. No wonder. He was only seven years Hoffman's senior!) He opted for more meaningful work versus cinematic cash cows. Seen here, he costarred with Al Pacino in Scarecrow (1973.) He also costarred with Liv Ullmann in Zandy's Bride (1973.)

Still in very much a low-key role, yet a very successful one, he next did Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974.) He was a bespectacled wire-tapper in this paranoia thriller. The movie was a Best Picture nominee. (It lost to The Godfather, Part II, which was also Coppola's!)

Eager for a break from on-screen drama and angst, he took on a cameo role in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein (1974) as a blind, lonely hermit. It was Hackman himself who came up with his hilarious scene-closing line once the monster has departed.

A variety of movies followed, of varying quality and success. He costarred in Bite the Bullet and The Domino Principle (both with Candice Bergen), took on the belated - and not tremendously memorable - sequel French Connection II and then climbed on board The Lucky Lady (all 1975.)

George Segal had been cast opposite Burt Reynolds in the movie, but dropped out prior to filming. Hackman (who'd once been a guest star on Reynolds' 1966 series Hawk!) stepped in with only one week's notice (and a then-huge $1.5 million paycheck.) The project was a much-troubled fiasco. Robbie Benson had to wear a (bad) wig after having shaved his head for a TV-movie, but Burt's pants look fun...

With his features, Hackman well looked the part of Polish parachuter in the all-star WWII epic A Bridge Too Far (1977.) The long, name-filled movie was reasonably successful at the box office, though he was one of only a few big names on board such as Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Ryan O'Neal and James Caan.

1978 brought another iconic part his way. He was selected to play megalomaniacal arch nemesis Lex Luthor (along with above-the-title billing) in Superman: The Movie. Hackman, always sensitive about his lifelong battle with hair loss (in a time when only a handful of celebrities went bald) refused to appear without a wig except for a few brief moments even though the character had always been depicted without hair!

The movie was a smash and he appeared in two of its three sequels. (The third movie having been hijacked by the antics of Richard Pryor.)

People discuss the myriad of people Kevin Bacon has worked with, but I am startled at the wide array of notables that Hackman wound up acting alongside. Among one of the least expected would be Barbra Streisand in the "comedy" All Night Long (1981.) Still another troubled production from this period, she was brought in to replace the fired Lisa Eichhorn, suddenly taking it from a Gene Hackman movie to a Barbra Streisand movie (though he retained top billing.) A more fruitful venture that year was working with Clyde co-star Beatty again in Reds.

The Superman movies paid the bills, allowing him to explore more "artistic" ventures, sometimes with more experimental directors such as Nicholas Roeg in Eureka (1983.)  Under Fire (183), shown above, took place in Nicaragua around the time of a revolution and is fondly recalled by many fans.

Hackman made the rah-rah action flick Uncommon Valor (1983) with Patrick Swayze and sensitive fare like Misunderstood (1984) with Henry Thomas, followed by Twice in a Lifetime (1985) with Ann-Margret and Ellen Burstyn. Also in 1985, he re-teamed with his Clyde director Arthur Penn for Target, alongside Matt Dillon.

On location in New Richmond, Indiana, Hackman was cast as an inspirational high school basketball coach for a team consisting of only seven players. He was miserable throughout the filming and not only predicted complete failure for the movie, but was disruptive on the set on many occasions.

To his complete surprise, the movie Hoosiers (1985) was a sleeper hit and went on to be regarded as a well-crafted, highly-beloved sports movie. It's often cited by various notable men, athletes or otherwise, as a favorite.

I've actually never seen it, but having looked the team over real good in this publicity pic, I think maybe I need to... Soon!

As the 1980s pressed on, he found himself in a wide variety of films. Seen here with newly-minted movie performers Sean Young and Kevin Costner, he played a potentially dangerous politician in Now Way Out (1987.) Other films included Bat*21, Split Decisions, and Woody Allen's Another Woman (all 1988.)

Also in 1988 was the searing period drama Mississipi Burning, with a young Willem Dafoe. He received another Oscar nomination for his work, though the award went to his old roomie Dustin Hoffman for Rain Man. Hackman was just plain busy, not unlike Michael Caine, where one movie might be fluff and the next a film with biting social commentary or other importance.

He could still obtain leading roles, as in 1989's The Package or, as seen above, Narrow Margin (1990) with Anne Archer. The train-set thrilled was a remake of The Narrow Margin (1952), though it under-performed at the box office. Other films of this period include Loose Cannons, an ill-fated comedy with Dan Ackroyd, and Postcards from the Edge (both 1990.) In 1991, he costarred in Class Action opposite Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Company Business, another huge flop with Mikhail Baryschnikov.

As the 1990s dawned, even his good films weren't setting the world on fire and his bad ones were rather dire. But in 1992, he was selected by Clint Eastwood, actor-turned-exemplary-director, for his latest western. This served as a reminder that Mr. Hackman remained a force to be reckoned with on screen.

For Unforgiven, Hackman won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, the Oscar and a whole wagonload of other accolades from critics and others. And the movie won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Editing. He continued to perform, more often now in prominent studio fare such as The Firm (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), Crimson Tide and Get Shorty (both 1995.)

Still willing to tackle the unusual, he costarred in 1996's The Birdcage, a flamboyant remake of La Cage aux Folles (1978), in which he appeared near the finale in full-on drag! (He sort of uncomfortably reminded us of some of the performers who are unearthed on things like a 50th anniversary tribute to Lawrence Welk or the like!) It was a rare comedy of his to obtain considerable box office success.

In 1996, he essayed one of his most loathsome roles, that of a bigoted murderer on death row in The Chamber. Young Chris O'Donnell was the star while Hackman's old Bonnie, Faye Dunaway, was on hand. Only this time, the eleven years older actor played her father! (It's okay, her face was only about ten at this time... Ha ha!)

Hackman had married in 1956 and had three children, though the married ended thirty years later. At that time, he began dating the pianist Betsy Arakawa. They wed in 1991 and were together till the end. He remained in demand in the late-1990s and into the millennium, working in movies like Absolute Power (1997), Twilight (1998), Under Suspicion (2000), The Mexican (2001), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and his final movie, Welcome to Mooseport in 2004. Stepping away from his career at that time, he eventually developed Alzheimer's disease and it was complications from that, and the circumstances he found himself in when his wife and caregiver died, that claimed him at age 95.

Having begun life with the disruptions of divorce, desertion and an aching need to be validated, Gene Hackman was lucky to be able to channel a lot of his internal pain into many vital vibrant performances. And though he was always in demand, he could be difficult if he felt it was warranted. Men tend to get away with this behavior more often than women (who merely get labeled as "crazy bitches!")

He was in no way a "beefcake" actor, so scenes featuring a lot of skin were not the norm. In Night Moves (1975), he could be seen in bed with Susan Clark or in Bite the Bullet that same year, he was spotted in a bathtub next to James Coburn. (And in Banning, he was seen with a high-waisted towel in a steam room.)

Both actors were wearing flesh-toned briefs in the aforementioned Bullet bathtub scene. So, in other words, there won't be one of my patented "The End!" send offs! But, considering everything, perhaps that's for the best. 

The place of importance he holds in The Underworld goes far beyond any of the shallow, surface aspects that have drawn us to countless Tabs, Clints, Vans and Guys over the years.

We salute the compelling and inherently thoughtful Mr. Hackman for the amazing body of work that he achieved (doubly notable in light of the fact that his first credited movie role came when he was already 34!) The accomplishments he made, and the vast array of considerable people who acted with him, are quite staggering overall. Telling, too, is the way many of his costars near their dawn of their own careers wanted to bring him in for projects once they'd made it themselves. And now he knows the answer to the question that Mrs. Rosen posed to Reverend Scott in Poseidon: "There's something different up there than there is from down here?"

"Good Luck" With This One!

It would be hard to imagine today's featured movie not being considered controversial in practically any sector! Even though I strive to avoid controversy, it can nonetheless pop up anywhere anytime, especially these days. So off I go. But... the movie's myriad assortment of conversation-starting subject matters is something I will leave up to my readers to ponder rather than pontificating on them myself. A lot of my treasures are buried deep, but my waters often run shallow on purpose. I really felt that this was a flick that would likely never see the light of day, certainly on any broadcast channel, but was stunned to see it offered on Tubi. (Tubi is fast becoming a go-to for obscure, offbeat, oddball movies you figured you'd never bear witness to, if you'd ever even heard of them!) You might ask, "If the movie is so 'problematic,' then why are you watching it?!" Well... I have reasons. (The cast & crew, the setting & scenario, the era and the fact that anytime I feel like something is being "put away" from general viewing, I simply HAVE to see it! LOL) So what the hell is it?

Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff (1979) is one highly unusual movie. Its pedigree is considerable, though the result is quite schizophrenic. The first hour is a serious, penetrating, deeply-felt character study of a semi-middle-aged woman in emotional distress. The remainder of the movie plays like something from late-night Cinemax!

The first of only two novels written by noted playwright William Inge, this 1970 book drew (like many of his works) from the author's experiences as an adolescent and a schoolteacher in Kansas. His Midwest-set plays scored with audiences, became popular films and include Come Back, Little Sheba, Picnic, Bus Stop and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

The artwork used for Tubi (and the BluRay) merely suggests temptation versus the stronger aspects to be found within the movie. Lord help the hapless viewer clicking on it who thinks it might be a benign teacher movie such as Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955!) LOL

Things get off to a staggeringly arresting start as the title figure (played by Anne Heywood) steps out of a cab to find an explosive chalk-written message on the pavement outside her rooming house. (The whole message was clearly shown on screen, I cropped it out of sensitivity to anyone who might be triggered by such an in-your-face exclamation.)

Now seguing to flashback, we find that Heywood is a young, schoolteacher who lives in a home owned by R.G. Armstrong and his wife. Fellow schoolmarm Carolyn Jones also has a room there. Here, Jones is inviting her landlord to join the ladies and her at the local theater where A Streetcar Named Desire (1950) is playing.

In something of an in-joke, Armstrong's wife is played by Jocelyn Brando and it is her own real-life brother Marlon who starred in the aforementioned movie which the gals are dithering over! I'll tell you now that Heywood's character is 35, but the actress was 45 (!), not to mention British (which is not very well disguised), so there's already an oddball quality to the movie, right out of the gate... (Her boyfriend since 1960 produced this, so it's not like anyone else was going to essay the part!)

The next morning, Jones is all in a lather about Brando, telling fellow teacher Dorothy Malone how she feels, but Heywood is finding it difficult to focus.

Heywood spends her days teaching the youth about various romantic places like Italy, where she's even visited, though she wasn't there with anyone who could help to capitalize on that romance.

At an assembly, we meet a couple more members of the clique of teachers Heywood associates with. There's youthful Ronee Blakley (who really would have made a decent Miss Wyckoff herself!) and Doris Roberts (who, apparently, was never young...)

I had to chuckle as this story, concerning the repressed sexual awareness and fulfillment of a stifled teacher, had this big, phallic microphone placed dead center on the stage as a little boys begins to play a piano addagio.

Listening to the music, Heywood starts being overcome by a bubbling-over emotional reaction. This being small town 1954, such displays are unusual to say the least...

...not to mention frowned upon, in this instance by school principal Dana Elcar.

Little Billy Calvin's piano playing has awoken a sleeping dragon. Heywood is unable to leave her bed the next day and head to school. She's coming unglued, yet can't even express to herself how or why.

When her condition worsens, and her howls alarm all three of the other residents of the house, it's clear that something, somehow, has to be done.

She makes an appointment with local gynecologist Robert Vaughn, who has a coldly clinical approach to her highly-emotional condition.

Interestingly, she is lit and photographed the most flatteringly during her examination, dropping a hint, perhaps, that experiencing a sexual encounter might hold the key to freeing her of the overriding depression she's been experiencing.

Vaughn, with his first-hand knowledge that 35 year-old Heywood is still a virgin, alerts her to the fact that she's experiencing a case of premature menopause and prescribes hormones. (He hilariously tells her that "nature wanted us to use our bodies" and that if we don't, they "dry out!") He suggests that she see a psychiatrist he knows in Wichita. (Asking her if she's prejudiced against a Jewish doctor, she replies that she has no racial prejudice in her at all and, in fact, helped see that the school was fully integrated.)

Heywood's friends seem happy enough with their presumably similar lots in life. They sing and giddily giggle over all sorts of minutiae. Roberts clearly allows food to sublimate a fair amount of her desire while Malone lives in something of a dream world. Jones sometimes seems as if she may be actually doing something somewhere on the side, though that's never confirmed.

At a certain point Heywood can hardly bear another minute of their hen-like babbling and reacts in a very shocking way.

At last, Heywood boards the bus for Wichita, helmed by attentive driver Earl Holliman. A more bleak drive to the city could scarcely be imagined.

Once there, she meets with the austere, frog-like Donald Pleasance in his bland, paneled office.

Heywood cries a LOT in this movie and this sequence is no exception. She pours her heart out to the drily clinical Pleasance who startles her by bluntly asking her if she has sex. Soon enough, he determines that she has remained a virgin.

Back at school in Freedom, a male teacher is the talk of Heywood's lunch table. Malone goes on a tear about how he might be "a queer" and how inappropriate it is that he's teaching the philosophy of Karl Marx.

Heywood, while not necessarily subscribing to those beliefs, vehemently upholds his right to teach students about what they are at least.

During her long, dull trips to Wichita, she and Holliman strike up a tentative friendship. He thanks her for making the drive bearable and less lonely. At her most recent appointment with Pleasance, she reveals some details about her parents' relationship (and about the first onset of her period.)

Because Pleasance wants to see her several times over the Christmas holiday, she has to cancel plans to go home and visit her mother. Their strained conversation is overheard by the nosy Brando. (For the most part, there is no privacy to be had in that household.)

Lonely and bored, she visits the desolate school, one of the few places she's ever felt needed and comfortable...

...though there is the concern that she'll wind up as "dried up" as these wildflowers.

Even with a built-in hurdle or two, Heywood opts to pursue her utterly platonic relationship with Holliman somewhat.

They get to know one another a little bit better over some coffee at the bus station diner. He's clearly taken with her.

While describing this bit of blossoming with Pleasance, she begins to come alive a little bit more. There's color in her face and even a smile or two.

In light of the way her spinster fellow teachers behave and what passes for fun in their lives, she contemplates a love affair with Holliman.

One day, window shopping, she spies some "sexy" lingerie in a store window and begins to envision herself flouncing around in one of the filmy get-ups...

"I Enjoy Being a Girl...!"

Unfortunately, after she buys the nightwear and girds her loins for a romantic tryst with Holliman, she discovers that it is not going to happen....

While unable to do a great deal to solve her own issues, she is dedicated to the defense of others. She stands up before the faculty and members of the PTA in order to justify the teaching methods of her male cohort.

This being the McCarthy Era of anti-Communist witch hunts, her impassioned speech goes over remarkably well with the attendees.

Grateful as he is for her support, the teacher (J. Patrick McNamara) is a hopeless wimp, cowering in a nearby darkened room rather than face any of the people who were objecting to his methods of instruction.

Now we're about to get to the meat of the story...

The regular janitor for her classroom is gone for gall bladder surgery, replaced by a work-scholarship student played by John Lafayette. After complimenting her on the great work towards integration that she strove for at the school...

...the conversation seems to be taking an unseemly turn. Not the conversation, really, but let's say - the body language!

He proceeds to unzip his work suit!

Then reaches in to caress himself in front of her.

Are ya seeing this, y'all? The word of the day is "tumescence." Heywood is understandably thrown by this shocking behavior and bids a hasty exit for the door.

But Lawrence is hardly done. He returns the following day as her classes have ended. She attempts to get past him, but he impedes her escape. She tries to distract him with some benign conversation, but he isn't having it.

Instead, he mentions his "swelling" to her and takes her hand to places it upon his crotch! Not satisfied, he unzips again and places her hand inside! (And this is depicted - Heywood's hand being guided into his open zipper.) She's all at once horrified and yet vaguely intrigued, but ultimately breaks away.

This results in a violent scuffle in which she's hurled to the floor and warned not to make a sound.

She scrambles over to her desk as he draws nearer and nearer (and angrier and angrier.)

Next, he begins to peel out of his work suit. 

Reluctant and resistant as she is, she can't prevent herself from looking at "it" because it's most likely the first one she's ever been personally exposed to! (And we see it, too...)

What happens next is a fairly prolonged, intense and vividly acted rape sequence.

Heywood is very solid for the better part of this film, but really delivers a palpably unsettling performance here. It's a really uncomfortable scene to watch and it's mostly due to her realistically multifaceted acting during it.

In a not-exactly-subtle bit of symbolism, she's been "deflowered" (how could anyone have been mistaken of such a fact?!)

If she thought she had problems before, she's in even worse shape now! For a variety of reasons, she can't tell anyone about what's happened: Fear of Lawrence's retaliation, the shame of being molested amid all the small-minded residents of Freedom, the fact that it was a Black man (ditto!) She feverishly tries to get ahold of Pleasance on the phone, he being one of the few people in who she might confide, but he's unavailable.

She certainly can't trust any of her judgemental, simple-thinking co-residents at the boarding house.

Making matters that much worse, she has to face her attacker every day at school! Lawrence does time in the lunch room as well and gives her a stare down.

Then he takes to leaving her very direct instructions on her classroom blackboard!

There's a power struggle afoot and Heywood is quite overwhelmed. But she also has to face the ugly truth of the matter which is she is strangely drawn to Lawrence!

Thus, one week after he savagely raped her in her classroom, the two begin a tempestuous affair.

While the kids are playing outside...

...the adults are playing inside!

And regardless of the circumstances of her actions, no one can argue with the results. Her friends, such as Jones, take notice of the sea change that's come over the once-miserable teacher.

Stopping into a fellow teacher's classroom, she converses with another scholarship student who cleans classrooms. He informs her that his cohort Lawrence is older than he lets on and that he's had a past involving hustling for a living!

The next day, Lawrence is back in Heywood's room, doing his by-now-familiar strip show.

This time is different, though. Instead of presenting her with the gentle, loving version of himself that she got the last time, he is demanding and degrading to her.

He crudely forces her to crawl on her hands and knees to him.

And, though there are more of the requisite tears involved (and further nudity), she does it. And, once again, they partake in their almost-daily shenanigans.

The next day during lunch, Jones singles Lawrence out to Heywood and heads into a blistering take-down of the "uppity" young man. As Jones goes on, Heywood tries to defend him while being wholly unable to reveal what she's been up to.

Lawrence seems to want to make Heywood's life a living hell. He keeps calling her at HOME despite her having told him never to do so. It's all about dominance, submission and control. ("Fifty Shades of Black?") Anyway, he wants to see her right away, and she goes to him.

After their latest encounter, he posits the theory of what might happen if he told some of his buddies "what a nice piece of ass" she is...! She asks why he wants to hurt her and he says, "I don't know."

Later she is horrified to see Lawrence confidently holding court with some of the other work-study students and fears the worst.

But the worst is actually still to come! Lawrence's sadistic techniques during the couple's sexual trysts lead to them being discovered by two students who can hardly process what they've walked in on. It's as if he wanted to be found out. And maybe he did...

And now the fish is truly out of the frying pan and into the fire.

The jig is up and her secret is out. Now the anonymous notes begin appearing.

Heywood makes a vain attempt to proceed with business as usual, but soon finds that her classroom has been turned over to another teacher.

Then comes the expected meeting with a confounded Elcar. The movie can be viewed by those interested right here, free with commercials (and also here, if Tubi is not available to you.)

Needless to say, this is not going to be a movie for everyone. Still, I find it a fascinating curio. And, my God, the people involved... source material from Pulitzer Prize-winning Inge, script by Polly Platt, music by Ernest (Exodus, 1960) Gold, Emmy-winning editor and director (which may be why it, at times, seems like a racy TV-movie!) and the cast. I recall waiting like mad for Far From Heaven (2002) to be released, which was a modern rendering of an old-style type of film-making, and then abhorring it once I saw it. I have to give credit to Wyckoff for taking a similar tack, more than two decades earlier, and handling it better as far as I'm concerned.

Here's the trouble with Heywood. It's not that she didn't act the hell out of this. She was simply too old and too publicly experienced with daring roles to be exactly right for this part. A movie actress since the mid-1950s, she'd already played a lesbian in The Fox (1969), a lesbian nun in The Nun and the Devil (1973) a transsexual in I Want What I Want (1972) and God knows what else. So at 45, to play this prim, inexperienced virgin might just have been a bridge too far. And the very mid-western story called out for an American. But there was never going to be anyone else in the part as her lover-turned-husband had produced it for her. After his death in 1988, Heywood retired from the screen though she lived to be 91, passing away in 2023 of cancer.

It took me FOREVER to realize who it was she reminded me of during this movie, what with the late-70s attempt at 1950s styling and the same set of the jaw...

And, of course, Ms. Brando was on hand for that spectacle, too!

Not content to have a British leading lady in this inherently American story, the England-born Pleasance was brought on board as the psychiatrist. As the movie proceeds, his initially inexpressive and reticent character becomes a bit more animated. A highly-accomplished stage actor with four Tony nominations, he also made his mark in quite a few feature films. The Great Escape (1963), Fantastic Voyage (1966), You Only Live Twice (1967) and Will Penny (1968) were only a few of his credits before becoming rather immortal to horror fans with his role in Halloween (1978) and some of its sequels. We can't forget the very arresting Australian thriller Wake in Fright (1971) either. He passed away in 1995 from heart valve surgery complications at age 75, having worked up until that time.

Vaughn was an actor in many films, though secured a place in pop culture history through his mid-1960s spy-oriented television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Only in Hollywood could an actor star in I Was a Teenage Caveman in 1958 and yet be Oscar-nominated a year later for The Young Philadelphians! (The award went to Hugh Griffith for Ben-Hur.) Other notable movies of his include The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Caretakers (1963), Bullitt (1968) and, of course, The Towering Inferno (1974.) Vaughn worked right up until his death in 2016 when leukemia claimed him at age 83.

Holliman enjoyed a long career, beginning in early-1950s movies like Tennessee Champ, Broken Lance, The Bridges at Toko-Ri (all 1954), Forbidden Planet, The Rainmaker (for which he won a Golden Globe) and Giant (all 1956), to name but a few. Later, he balanced movies like Hot Spell (1958) and Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) with appearances on TV. (In 1962, appeared on the TV series version of Inge's Bus Stop.) Always in demand, he finally became a household name when he played opposite Angie Dickinson on Police Woman in the mid-1970s. He retired around 2000, though much of his time and energy still went to Actors and Others for Animals, a cause dear to him and an organization of which he was president for 25 years. Though he was never "out," he was gay and was survived by a male spouse when he died in 2024 of natural causes at age 96.

Jones is still another iconic performer from this line-up thanks to her role as Morticia Addams on The Addams Family. That came after she'd made appearances in quite a few movies including House of Wax (1953), The Big Heat (1954), The Seven Year Itch (1955), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Opposite Sex (1956) and The Bachelor Party (1957), for which she was given an Oscar nomination. (The award went to Miyoshi Umeki for Sayonara.) She then had roles in Last Train from Gun Hill, A Hole in the Head (both 1959) and co-starred in Ice Palace (1960) and How the West Was Won (1963.) Capable of portraying practically any type of role, she remained busy on TV for decades. Sadly, while she was headlining the daytime soap Capitol, she was stricken with colon cancer. She fought it for a good while, but it claimed her in 1983 when she was only 53 years old.

Singer-actress Blakley had burst onto the movie scene with Nashville (1975) and was Oscar nominated for that. (Lee Grant won for Shampoo that year.) What followed were less than blockbuster films like The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977), Renaldo and Clara, The Driver (both 1978) and She Came to the Valley (1979.) Fans flocking to Wyckoff to see her would've been heinously disappointed as her role is quite insubstantial. Her most notable movie after this turned out to be A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984!) She worked occasionally on TV through the late-1980s, later returning to her first love of music. She is still with us today at 79.

Malone has tributes here, thanks to her career before the cameras (including her Oscar-winning role in Written on the Wind, 1956.) She was the star of the smash prime-time TV soap Peyton Place (and had she been a more prominent part of this movie, I might have titled the post "Peyton Race!" Probably still could have, as it is apt.) As much as I adore her work, she is not an actress who aged well on screen. I don't necessarily mean her looks, because she's pretty in this shot above-right. I mean her style of acting didn't always come across the best in some of her later work (although she looked great and did well in a very brief Basic Instinct cameo in 1992.) Malone passed away in 2018 of natural causes, ten days prior to her 94th birthday.

A spirited lunch room discussion probably shouldn't include pop-eyed expressions far greater than the ones employed in The Last Voyage (1960), wherein she found herself helplessly trapped on a sinking ocean liner...!

Roberts began on stage and quickly won work on New York television as well. Transferring to the west coast in the early-1960s for Something Wild (1961) and Dear Heart (1964), she continued to keep busy on series like Ben Casey. Capable of both comedy and drama, she balanced guest parts on shows as varied as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, Baretta and Medical Center while also winning movie roles in Such Good Friends (1971), The Heartbreak Kid (1972) and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974.) Having toiled in small parts like this one on the big and small screen, she began to break through in the 1980s with an Emmy win for St. Elsewhere. By the time of Everybody Loves Raymond, she'd become an award and nomination magnet, taking home four statuettes. Roberts died in 2016 following a stroke at age 90. (Many of the people in this cast lived long lives!) 

A stage actor who very successfully segued into character work in movies and on TV, Elcar was found useful in countless projects. He worked on the daytime soaps The Guiding Light and Dark Shadows, guested on night time series like Mannix, Get Smart and Room 222. Some of his films include Fail Safe (1964), The Boston Strangler (1968), Soldier Blue (1970) and The Sting (1973.) A late-career boost came when he was cast in a semi-regular role on MacGyver. His final role came on an episode of ER in 2002. He died in 2005 of pneumonia at age 77. 

Lafayette, easily among the least known and lesser experienced among the cast at the time of filming, was at the dawn of what would become a lengthy career on screen. The same year this film was released, he had a role in Roots: The Next Generations. After this, he struggled to do more than play very small roles on television (guards, deputies, cops, paramedics, etc...) on a vast array of popular shows. In truth, a substantial amount of his nonetheless prolific career consisted of roles of this type, though he was busy at them. Occasional movie parts, in films like Switch (1991), White Sands and Patriot Games (both 1992) also came his way. His last series of credits (from 2013-2015) indicate one of his most regular gigs, appearing a dozen times on the Kevin Bacon series The Following.

You knew I wasn't going to be able to demur... The End!