Two Moon Junction * (1988, Sherilyn Fenn, Richard Tyson, Louise Fletcher, Burl Ives, Kristy McNichol) – Classic Movie Review 12,320

Writer-director Zalman King’s steamy 1988 erotic thriller sex film Two Moon Junction has a very good cast but is dismally handled. It is much more of a sex film than a romance.

Sherilyn Fenn plays April Delongpre, an upper-crust Deep South fiancée about to marry her semi-arranged fiancé Chad Douglas Fairchild (Martin Hewitt), but throws caution to the wind by embarking on a unbridled love fling with a rugged carnival man, the roustabout and drifter Perry Tyson (Richard Tyson).

Louise Fletcher and Burl Ives play the grandmother Belle Delongpre and the lawman, local sheriff Earl Hawkins,  who plot to stop the hanky-panky.

There is plenty of sex and tongue-in-cheek passion, but a sense of humour doesn’t really save it.

Kristy McNichol, playing Patti Jean, was the winner of the award for Worst Supporting Actress at the 1988 Golden Raspberry Awards.

Sherilyn Fenn said she thought it ‘felt really exploitative’.

Richard Tyson recalled: ‘It was magic to get cast in that role. I was nice to a girl for the last time ever in a movie. I thought I did a good job.’

Zalman King recalled: ‘It was romance, although not much of a plot, and I needed someone who was bold and strong to play the rugged carnival roustabout, and was cut and ripped. Tyson had charm. I don’t think he was everybody’s cup of tea, 100 per cent, but I thought he fit quite well.’

The cast are Sherilyn Fenn, Richard Tyson, Louise Fletcher, Burl Ives, Kristy McNichol, Martin Hewitt, Juanita Moore, Millie Perkins, Don Galloway, Milla Jovovich, Kerry Remsen, Dabbs Greer and Hervé Villechaize.

It is the final film appearances of Burl Ives and Hervé Villechaize, and the theatrical film debut of Milla Jovovich.

It was shot throughout Los Angeles County, with the major sequences filmed at the Shambala Animal Preserve, owned and operated by Tippi Hedren.

The score is by Jonathan Elias.

The film was followed seven years later by the sequel Return to Two Moon Junction, with Louise Fletcher as the only significant player to reprise a role.

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 12,320

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