Me, Natalie **** (1969, Patty Duke, James Farentino, Martin Balsam, Elsa Lanchester, Salome Jens, Nancy Marchand, Al Pacino) – Classic Movie Review 3511

Young Patty Duke won the Golden Globe 1970 as Best Actress – Comedy or Musical for her performance in this independent film, though unfortunately it was a box-office flop. It was her second Golden Globe Award after winning Most Promising Newcomer – Female for The Miracle Worker (1962).

The 22-year-old Duke makes a tremendous lot of a well-written star role in Fred Coe’s nice and sweet little 1969 movie drama about an ugly duckling teenager, Natalie Miller, who finds love with artist David Harris (James Farentino) and acceptance when she starts a life of her own as a student in swinging sixties Greenwich Village. There she rents a loft apartment from an eccentric landlady and gets a job at the Topless Bottom Club. But then she discovers David is married…

It’s well written by A Martin Zweiback, based on a story by the film’s producer Stanley Shapiro.

Reliable old pros Martin Balsam, as Uncle Harold, and Elsa Lanchester, as Miss Dennison, beef it up in delicious scene-stealing star turns. Al Pacino is also in there somewhere in a tiny part as Tony in his film début, aged 29, just one other film (The Panic in Needle Park) and three years before playing his star-making role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972).

Also in the cast are Salome Jens, Nancy Marchand, Phil Sterling, Deborah Winters, Roland Hale, Bob Balaban, Matthew Cowles, Ann Thomas, Daniel Keyes and Catherine Burns.

Arthur J Ornitz’s cinematography, Henry Mancini’s score and George Jenkins’s production designs are other strong assets.

[Spoiler alert] Duke unsuccessfully fought to change the film’s ending. ‘It may not have been as noble, but there’s no way she was going to give up that man. It might have made a more successful picture had they stayed together. But, by then, nobody was interested in what I thought the ending should be.’

Patty Duke won an Academy Award for best supporting actress for The Miracle Worker (1962) and at 16 was then the youngest person to win an Oscar. She died on 29 March 2016, aged 69.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3511

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/