Flowers in the Attic ** (1987, Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, Kristy Swanson) – Classic Movie Review 12,321

Writer-director Jeffrey Bloom’s 1987 American psychological drama film Flowers in the Attic stars Louise Fletcher and Victoria Tennant, and is based on V C Andrews’s extremely popular 1979 Gothic novel.

Flowers in the Attic is the bizarre tale of a disturbed mum (Tennant) of four sweet kids (Kristy Swanson, Jeb Stuart Adams, Ben Ganger, and Lindsay Parker) and her even more deranged mother (Fletcher). Grannie hides the children in the attic so that their violent grandpa (Nathan Davis) won’t get angry.

V C Andrews’s 1979 novel, on which this is based, touched on dark, incestuous themes, but the film sets these aside for a heavy dose of hammy, slightly kinky melodrama, with maniacally overblown performances. Cast, the general weirdness and moments of unintentional humour produce a certain fascination.

Jeffrey Bloom had no involvement in the final edit of the film as he quit, refusing to shoot a new ending, which was filmed by someone else and later inserted. He said scenes involving incest between Chris and Cathy were cut after a test screening left the audience uncomfortable and also because the studio and the producers wanted a lower PG-13 rating.

Wes Craven was to direct the film and completed a violent and graphic screenplay, which was rejected by the producers.

V C Andrews’s 1979 Gothic novel Flowers in the Attic is the extremely popular first book in the Dollanganger Series, selling more than 40 million copies worldwide. It was filmed in 1987 and again in 2014 as Flowers in the Attic.

The cast are Louise Fletcher as grandmother Olivia Foxworth, Victoria Tennant as Corrine Dollanganger, Kristy Swanson as Cathy Dollanganger, Jeb Stuart Adams as Chris Dollanganger, Ben Ganger as Cory Dollanganger, Lindsay Parker as Carrie Dollanganger, Marshall Colt as Christopher Dollanganger, Nathan Davis as Grandfather, Brooke Fries as Flower Girl, Alex Koba as butler John Hall, Leonard Mann as Bart Winslow, Bruce Neckels as Minister, Gus Peters as Caretaker, Clare C Peck as Narrator (Cathy as an adult), and V C Andrews a cameo as a window-washing maid, scrubbing the glass in Foxworth Hall.

Estelle Louise Fletcher (July 22, 1934 – September 23, 2022) died at her home in Montdurausse, France, on 23 September 2022, aged 88.

Miloš Forman saw Fletcher in Robert Altman’s 1974 Thieves Like Us and cast her as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, becoming only the third actress to win an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for a single performance, after Audrey Hepburn and Liza Minnelli.

She followed Cuckoo’s Nest with Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Cheap Detective (1978), The Lady in Red (1979), The Magician of Lublin (1979), Brainstorm (1983), Firestarter (1984), Invaders From Mars (1986), Flowers in the Attic (1987), Two Moon Junction (1988), Best of the Best (1989), Blue Steel (1990), Virtuosity (1995), High School High (1996), and Cruel Intentions (1999).

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,321

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