I Never Sang for My Father **** (1970, Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, Dorothy Stickney, Estelle Parsons) – Classic Movie Review 7210

Producer-director Gilbert Cates turns a 1964 flop play by Robert Anderson into a showcase for a group of powerhouse performances in his 1970 drama I Never Sang for My Father. It is a guarantee of quality that it was nominated for three Oscars: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Melvyn Douglas), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Gene Hackman) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Robert Anderson).

Gene Hackman stars as a middle-aged New York professor, Gene Garrison, who wants to get married to his girlfriend and move to California but first tries to re-establish a loving relationship with his difficult old father, Tom (Melvyn Douglas).

Dorothy Stickney plays Douglas’s sick wife Margaret and Estelle Parsons plays Alice, the daughter he turns his back on because she has married a Jewish husband. Alice tells Gene he must cut free and live his own life.

This sterling drama is still stage bound on screen, but that only helps to concentrate the attention on the scintillating performances. The piece’s strong dialogue detracts from the sense of déjà vu in what would otherwise be a derivative saga of yet another dysfunctional American family at loggerheads.

Anderson provides the screenplay, adapting his own play. On Broadway the parts went to Hal Holbrook and Alan Webb. Hackman and Parsons are reunited from the 1967 Bonnie and Clyde.

Also in the cast are Elizabeth Hubbard, Lovelady Powell, Daniel Keyes. Conrad Bain, Jon Richards, Nikki Counselman, Carol Peterson, Sloane Shelton, Jean Dexter, James Karen, Valerie Ogden, Beverly Penberthy and Gene Williams.

Hackman is a five-time Oscar nominee (Bonnie and Clyde (1967), I Never Sang for My Father (1970), Mississippi Burning (1988)) and two-time winner: The French Connection (1971) and Unforgiven (1992). He has three Golden Globes: for The French Connection (1971), Unforgiven (1992) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7210

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