Up the Sandbox *** (1972, Barbra Streisand, David Selby, Ariane Heller, Stockard Channing, Paul Dooley, Anne Ramsey) – Classic Movie Review 4,074

The awkward but ambitious 1972 comedy-drama film Up the Sandbox stars Barbra Streisand as a pregnant New Yorker, who feels bored with her life and neglected by her husband (David Selby), and takes to fantasising, increasingly bizarrely

Director Irvin Kershner’s awkward but ambitious 1972 American comedy-drama film Up the Sandbox stars Barbra Streisand as pregnant New York housewife and mother of two Margaret Reynolds, who feels bored with her life in New York City and neglected by her history professor husband Paul (David Selby), and takes to fantasising, increasingly bizarrely.

Streisand said: ‘This story interests me more than anything else I’ve ever done. It’s a departure from the romances, slapstick comedies, and musicals I have worked on up till now.’ But Kershner thought they started with a weak script that was troubled with a number of alternate endings.

When Streisand asked Kershner some days into filming why they were having so much trouble, he told her they had started shooting with a weak script. So Streisand said: ‘If a script isn’t good enough, let’s work to improve it.’

Indeed, Kershner’s mild, odd, flop Streisand comedy starts with a sticky, fanciful screenplay by Paul Zindel, author of the Pulitzer-prizewinning play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds, based on Anne Richardson Roiphe’s 1970 novel.

But, keeping it grounded, the talented, fresh and appealing young Streisand gives it enough comic life and interest. And, in a good cast (also including Ariane Heller, Stockard Channing in her debut, Paul Dooley and Anne Ramsey typecast as Battleaxe), Jane Hoffman especially helps out as a stereotypical Jewish mother. But the uneasy fantasy sequences (just imagine Fidel Castro seducing Streisand!) remain an unresolved problem.

Streisand’s son Jason Gould (aged six) appears as a kid.

Also in the cast are John C Becher, Jacobo Morales as Fidel Castro, Janet Brandt, Paul Benedict, George S Irving, Jane House, Pitt Herbert, Paul Shear, Carl Gottleib, Joseph Bova, Mary Louise Wilson, Conrad Bain, Jane Betts, Danny Black, Marilyn Coleman, Cynthia Harris, Rita Karin, Barbara Rhoades, Isabel Sanford, Carole White, Iris Brooks, Marilyn Curtis, Mark Vahanian, and Margo Winkler.

This and All Night Long grossed roughly only $4 million each, making them Streisand’s lowest-grossing films. In 1981 the box office bomb All Night Long cost $15 million and grossed $4,454,295. Streisand was paid $4 million to star, the highest salary for an actor up to that time. On the other hand in 1972, Up the Sandbox cost $2,926,000 and grossed $3,500,000.

Streisand sings in the film only briefly, in a comical duet with her daughter at bedtime. ‘If I Close My Eyes (Theme from Up the Sandbox)’ was released as a single but is not in the film.

It was planned to shoot entirely on an MGM backlot, but Streisand convinced producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler to shoot some scenes on location in East Africa, with Samburu tribesmen as extras, portraying the fabled Masai tribe.

Streisand recalled Kenya as quite beautiful: ‘I remember it being so hot. We had no air conditioner or anything, so I had a little, dinky trailer filled with flies. But I loved the Samburu people, and I made very good friends with a woman of the tribe, who showed me how to dress.’

The cast are Barbra Streisand as Margaret Reynolds, David Selby as Paul Reynolds, Ariane Heller as Elizabeth Reynolds, Jane Hoffman as Mrs Koerner, John C Becher as Mr Koerner, Jacobo Morales as Fidel Castro, Paul Benedict as Dr Beineke, George S Irving as Dr Keglin, Conrad Bain as Dr Gordon, Isabel Sanford as Maria, Paul Dooley as Statue of Liberty Guard, Anne Ramsey as Battleaxe, Lois Smith as Elinore, Lee Chamberlin as Jan, Jennifer Darling as Joanne, Marilyn Coleman as Rose White, Stockard Channing as Judy Stanley, Janet Brandt, Paul Benedict, Jane House, Pitt Herbert, Paul Shear, Carl Gottleib, Joseph Bova, Mary Louise Wilson, Conrad Bain, Jane Betts, Danny Black, Marilyn Coleman, Cynthia Harris, Rita Karin, Barbara Rhoades, Isabel Sanford, Carole White, Iris Brooks, Marilyn Curtis, Mark Vahanian, Jason Gould and Margo Winkler.

There’s a very interesting 1972 Paul Newman-directed film of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds.

Kershner was to direct Streisand again in 1978 but she dropped out of the title role in Eyes of Laura Mars and Faye Dunaway took over.

Irvin Kershner (born Isadore Kershner; April 29, 1923 – November 27, 2010). He said: ‘I like to fill up the frame with the characters’ faces. There’s nothing more interesting than the landscape of the human face.’ He moved on from quirky independent drama films to high-budget blockbusters such as The Empire Strikes Back, the Bond film Never Say Never Again and RoboCop 2.

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