Frances **** (1982, Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, Sam Shepard) – Classic Movie Review 2869

Jessica Lange as Best Actress and Kim Stanley as Best Supporting Actress were both Oscar and Golden Globe nominated and burn into the memory as the tormented Thirties movie star Frances Farmer and her demented mother Lillian in director Graeme Clifford meticulous, painstakingly made 1982 biopic.

It relates the self-destructive Frances Farmer’s meteoric rise from Seattle to stardom in Hollywood, her tragic blacklisting and on to her life in a series of barbaric mental institutions.

The rousing performances, the fully fleshed screenplay by Eric Bergren, Christopher De Vore and Nicholas Kazan, and the impeccable period production sustain a long (140 minutes) and harrowing film that’s moving but quite painful to watch.

However, it is a pity that the details of Frances’s illness remain so mysterious and unexplained and that the fictitious sub-plot about a man called Harry York (Sam Shepard) standing by Frances dents credibility rather than adding any poetic dimension. Nevertheless, it is a very fine movie and a great credit to producer Mel Brooks and his Brooksfilms company.

There are two other film versions of the story: Committed (1984) with Sheila McLaughlin and a 1983 TV movie Will There Really Be a Morning? with Susan Blakely and Lee Grant.

On the subject of showbiz’s swings and roundabouts, some people are luckier than others: Kevin Costner has a single line of dialogue, as a man in alley, in his struggling pre-stardom days. Anjelica Huston appears as a mental patient.

Also in the cast are Bart Burns, Jeffrey DeMunn. Jordan Charney, Lane Smith, Jonathan Banks, Bonnie Bartlett, James Brodhead, Rod Colbin, Daniel Chodos, Donald Craig, Sarah Cunningham, Lee de Broux, Jack Fitzgerald, Gerald S O’Loughlin, Woodrow Parfrey, Anne Haney, John Randolph, Biff Yeager, M C Gainey and Zelda Rubinstein.

Jessica Lange went on to win Oscars as Best Actress for Blue Sky (1994) and Best Supporting Actress for Tootsie (1982).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2869

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