I Never Sang for My Father **** (1970, Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, Dorothy Stickney, Estelle Parsons) – Classic Movie Review 7,210

Gene Hackman stars in the 1970 drama film I Never Sang for My Father as a widowed college professor who feels dominated by his aging father (Melvyn Douglas), but has regrets about his plan to leave him behind when he remarries and moves to California.

Producer-director Gilbert Cates turns a 1968 flop play by Robert Anderson into a showcase for a group of powerhouse performances in his 1970 American drama film 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).

Robert Anderson adapts his own Broadway play for the screenplay. He won the award for Best Drama – Adapted from Another Medium from the Writers Guild of America Awards. It is produced by Jack Lemmon’s company Jalem.

Gene Hackman stars as a middle-aged New York professor, Gene Garrison, who wants to get married to his girlfriend, Norma (Lovelady Powell), 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 Broadway play, which opened on 25 January 1968 at the Longacre Theatre, 220 W. 48th St, New York, and ran for 124 performances. On Broadway the parts went to Hal Holbrook, Alan Webb and Lillian Gish. It lost most of its $195,000 investment. Cates was one of the producers of the play.

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.

Release date: October 18, 1970.

I Never Sang for My Father is directed by Gilbert Cates, runs 92 minutes, is produced by Jalem, is distributed by Columbia Pictures, is written by Robert Anderson, is produced by Gilbert Cates, is shot by Morris Hartzband and George Stoetzel, and is scored by Al Gorgoni and Barry Mann.

The cast

The cast are Melvyn Douglas as Tom Garrison, Gene Hackman as Gene Garrison, Estelle Parsons as Alice, Dorothy Stickney as Margaret Garrison, Elizabeth Hubbard as Dr Peggy Thayer, Lovelady Powell as Norma, Daniel Keyes as Dr Mayberry, Conrad Bain as Reverend Sam Pell, Jon Richards as Marvin Scott, Nikki Counselman as Waitress, Carol Peterson as Nurse #1, Sloane Shelton as Nurse #2. James Karen as Mr Tucker, Jean Dexter, Valerie Ogden, Beverly Penberthy and Gene Williams as Dr Jensen.

Eugene Allen Hackman (January 30, 1930 – February 17, 2025)

Gene Hackman won two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.

Gene 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 four Golden Globes: for The French Connection (1971), Unforgiven (1992) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), plus the 2003 Cecil B DeMille Award.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7,210

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