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I am amused that this film based on Tennessee William's work got nominated as a comedy for two different cinema awarding bodies. If this is a comedy, so would Albee's "Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf" be termed a comedy. Can this work be called a black comedy? Even this is doubtful--you could call "MASH" a black comedy but not "Period of Adjustment."

The play made me sit up, not laugh. The play may not be of the same caliber as William's other work like "The Night of Iguana" or "The Streetcar named Desire" but it forces the audience to look inwards. Unfortunately, director George Roy Hill in his first regular film effort as a director does not display the capability that he showed in directing his later films ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Sting," "A Little Romance," etc.). He fumbles with his editing: the shift of scene from the Baitz' to the Haversticks on stage would have been aided by a curtain or the lights going off, but in this film the switch from Fonda/Hutton to Franciosa/Nettleton is too abrupt and confusing. Yet Roy Hill shows his capability of eliciting fine performances from his cast, especially Jane Fonda (as he did later with Redford, Newman and Lord Laurence Olivier), and the dog!

Viewing this film 40 years after it was made, one cannot but appreciate the values of Tennessee Williams (and George Roy Hill) and the subject under discussion. How many contemporary directors would venture to make a film of the play today?

The film is fine entertainment value for those who like a good play on film (you need cinema to show visual shock of viewing the hearse for the first time, the stage can never provide the same effect).

Hold Tennessee Williams in very high regard indeed, and although his plays work better performed as filmed productions or television films that doesn't mean that they don't translate well to film. Even when toned down thematically there are good to great film adaptations, 'A Streetcar Named Desire' being the best. Come to think of it, 'Summer and Smoke' is one of the few to not do much for me and that was still watchable because of the incredible lead performance.

'Period of Adjustment' is not one of the best Tennessee Williams film adaptations and may not have the complex characterisations or as mature themes as others. It is a very easy and likeable watch though and is a good adaptation of a lesser known play that is actually one of Williams' most accessible, that it is also one of his most light-hearted for many will work in its favour. The film manages this light-heartedness as well while avoiding over-syruping and still taking the content seriously enough.

It's not perfect. The message could have been delivered with more subtlety, one of the biggest traps often fallen into with messages in film is heavy-handedness which is the case here.

Williams' work can be very melodramatic, 'Period of Adjustment' is no exception and for a play as comparitively light-hearted compared to other work of his as this the melodrama here can get over-heated. George Roy Hill did go on to do better with 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and 'The Sting', he was an inexperienced director at this point and it can show in some awkward shifts here and there (mostly though all things considered he does pretty well).

However, 'Period of Adjustment' looks great. Especially the photography, which is positively luminous and really enhances the sumptuous production design. The music suits the tone, without too much syrup or bombast. Williams' writing really shines through, it's funny, it's touching and it has the right amount of intensity. The story manages comedy and drama well individually, with the comedy well timed and rarely less than amusing and the drama poignant but never dreary, and balances them with coherence and without imbalance.

A big part of 'Period of Adjustment's' appeal is the cast. A cast against type, her more homely look very different from her usual glamorous image, Lois Nettleton is absolutely sublime and gives to me the film's best performance in a difficult role. Anthony Franciosa is excellent too in a role that actually does him justice, and Jim Hutton does bring charm and adept timing to a character that is very different to Hutton himself, a likeable actor playing an unlikeable character but one one doesn't completely hate. Jane Fonda is the biggest surprise though, am not a fan of her usually but her sparkling performance here is one of her better ones.

Summing up, there are better Tennessee Williams film adaptations but this does justice to an undervalued play. 7/10

Jim Hutton and Jane Fonda are a pair of newlyweds, she's a nice, but not terribly bright young lady and he's a bit of a blow-hard. But it will all work out they're told because they're just going through a Period Of Adjustment to each other and to their new status as marrieds.

But the viewer might not think so at first when after a minor quarrel mushrooms the two of them arrive unexpectedly at the home of Hutton's Korean War buddy Tony Franciosa on Christmas Eve. But he's having some marital problems of her own. His wife Lois Nettleton has just walked out on him, taking their young son with him. As gently as he can put it, Franciosa's not one for giving marital advice, especially not at this time. But war breeds some interesting bonds and what's an old army pal to do?

Tennessee Williams whose work is usually heavily laden with dramatic angst about sexual issues, takes a lighter tone in Period Of Adjustment and while it might not always work the film does have some good laughs in it. Of course I'm a bit prejudiced with the presence of Anthony Franciosa in the cast, one of the best and most underrated actors around. Jim Hutton also proves to be a good comedian.

I was a bit confused however because the play was written and debuted on Broadway in 1961 where it ran 132 performances. Hutton looks to be a bit young for a veteran just coming from the war and Williams doesn't really date the play as 1953 when the war ended. I'm sure revivals of the play have made appropriate corrections for the Vietnam War, Gulf War, Iraq War whatever war as Hutton's character says they're working on starting now.

Part of the problems that Franciosa and Nettleton are facing is that he really didn't love her when he married the richest girl in town, but was looking for a leg up economically and socially. He's made a bad bargain, now having to be under foot and dominated by Nettleton's parents, John McGiver and Mabel Albertson. Turns out though that McGiver made the same kind of bargain back in the day.

I can't forget a very adroit performance by Jack Albertson as a philosophical police sergeant when the whole kit and kaboodle of the cast winds up in front of him on Christmas Day. If they didn't make his Christmas merry, they sure made it interesting. I think Tennessee Williams borrowed from Garson Kanin in My Favorite Wife drawing from Granville Bates's performance as a judge.

Period Of Adjustment is not one of Tennessee Williams better works, but there's still enough of his ideas in the play to satisfy his admirers, even if they are served on the funny side.

... because it is just so doggone depressing! Only Williams can take Christmas Eve and turn it into a dysfunctional family fest that makes me want to throw myself out of a window, and definitely not have good will towards mankind! I didn't see the opening credits, so at the end it was no surprise who wrote the source material.

Jane Fonda and Jim Hutton play newlyweds Isabel and George Haverstick. And they apparently did not spend enough time together beforehand to see if they were compatible before hastily marrying. George is an inconsiderate jerk towards Isabel. Isabel is whiny and scolding. And each just ratchets up the unpleasantness in the other. They visit George's old Korean War army buddy, Ralph (Tony Franciosa), on Christmas Eve on their honeymoon. But in the meantime Ralph is having his own problems because he married his wife without love or physical attraction five years before, because of her father's money and position and him pushing the union, and she realizes this and has just left him.

So George seems more in love with Ralph and the idea of them running a dude ranch together than with this woman he just married, and the whole thing just turns into a shrill production. Humor is attempted with a bunch of drunken carolers who get more drunken with every house they visit, but by the end of the film they have just worn out their welcome. You can't convince me that there is going to be a happy ending for any of these people any more than you can convince me that there is deep snow in the deep south at Christmas, which in this film apparently there is.

I'd recommend it only for the players - Hutton, Fonda, and Franciosa, - who always turn in good performances like the troopers that they are.

Watched this again yesterday and I guess I never really paid much attention to it before. Even though I claim to dislike movies made based on Tenn. Williams plays, I have seen most of them (I dislike the intensity most of the time even though there are usually good performances that sometimes tend to be over the top--and this one is no exception.) However, I found this one a good film about 1950-1960's marriages before women realized they had other options. I laughed at Fonda, cringed at Hutton, sympathized with Nettleton but the greatest surprise was Tony Franciosa. Probably one of the best things about the movie was him. Although not exactly likable, he combined the sides of most men--mature by experience but a little despicable in intimate relationships. Mable Albertson and John McGiver were great in supporting roles as the disapproving in-laws.

There was a couple of things in the movie that kind of bothered me though--and they are minor things. For one thing, if they're in the South, it's a pretty good bet that there's no snow at Christmas. I've lived in the South all my life and don't ever remember a White Christmas. But to the credit of the performers, they all have pretty good Southern accents. Another thing was Hutton's character. I had a hard time with him having such a beautiful wife (and Fonda does look great in this) and treating her so miserably. I realize it was all bravado but it still didn't sit well with me. Too much ego and not enough understanding. I suppose it was a reflection of the times but still wasn't pretty. It's hard to like someone who's pretends to be overconfident when it's obvious they have problems that need to be addressed. I guess it's called denial.

A point in favor of the movie is that it wasn't set in the steamy South because that's one of the things that turns me off about Williams' movies based on his plays. Everyone seems to be required to be hot & sweaty. Yuck.

Nurse Isabel Crane (Jane Fonda) rushes to marry her patient, Korean War veteran George Haverstick (Jim Hutton). She's not happy that he had recently purchased a black hearse and they're driving away from their wedding in it. He quitted his job without telling her. His hands still shake from unknown afflictions. It's Christmas time. They're on their way to their Miami honeymoon but he's stopping in Tennessee to visit his war buddy Ralph Bates (Anthony Franciosa). Meanwhile, Ralph also his own problem within his marriage.

I don't know how this is a comedy. The music cues and the directions keep trying to drive it into the comedic arena. I don't see how this can be a comedy. Non of these people are appealing. There is too much anger for that. Their problems are serious. Their dysfunctions are terribly unfunny unless getting your young son burnt is hilarious to you. Getting yourself burnt can be lots of hilarity but this is not that. This seems to be a lot closer to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. I would be interested in treating this Tennessee Williams play as a much darker drama.

I fell in love with this movie the first time I saw it on TCM. I've always liked Jane Fonda, she is great in this picture. Its well acted and filmed. Its a beautiful movie. I liked the realistic look of the film. In digital it looked brand new, it looked as if it was modern film shot in B&W. Basically its about a couple having marriage problems. Its mostly a one scene shoot with a lot of dialogue. I really enjoyed it, like all Tennessee Williams play adaptations. This is a great movie for repeat viewing.

Jim Hutton was under contract to MGM where he made The Subterreans with George Peppard, and 4 movies back to back with Paula Prentiss, i.e. Where The Boys Are, Honeymoon Machine, Bachelor in Paradise and Horizontal Lieutenant. This film version of the Tennessee Williams play Period of Adjustment is shown on occasion on TCM and I found the film enjoyable with a very fine performance by Jim Hutton. Jim Hutton spars well with Jane Fonda in one of her earliest film roles. The film has typically fine MGM production values. I recommend this film as I am a fan of Jim Hutton's.

Hutton's career needs re appraisal. MGM groomed Hutton in the James Stewart fashion and after doing Looking For Love with Connie Francis and cameos by Paula Prentiss, Yvette Mimieux, and George Hamilton, and a cameo in Fonda's MGM film Sunday In New York,Jim Hutton free lanced. Hutton made Major Dundee with Charlton Heston, Hallejuah Trail with Burt Lancaster, Never Too Late with Connie Stevens, Walk Don't Run with Cary Grant, and two John Wayne films Green Berets and Hellfighters. Hutton's career tapered off at the end of the 1960's and soon found himself in TV work before his too early demise at 45.

David Barra Los Angeles

What a little gem of a comedy! The Southern accents of the principals requires a bit of warming to, but the clever, hip dialogue wouldn't flow as it does without it. It wouldn't be Tennessee Williams without dissecting the characters' underlying sexual issues, but that exploration is what elevates this above sitcom level contrivances.

Tony. Franciosa is the real surprise here, but John McGiver & Mabel Anderson shine as his in-laws, and Lois Nettleton morphs into the heart of the movie by the ending.

An unconventional Christmas tale, but one worth watching any time of year.

Headache-inducing comic nonsense, and a disaster for all concerned. George Roy Hill directed this frantic, witless free-for-all starring Jane Fonda (speaking with a flamboyant southern accent and sporting a ditzy bubble hairdo) in a weak performance as a dissatisfied young newlywed who shuts her hubby out of their honeymoon, receiving advice from a handsome stranger who has marriage troubles of his own. Isobel Lennart had the heady task of adapting the original play by Tennessee Williams--and it's hard to figure out who's to blame for what has ended up on the screen. Fonda's leading men (Tony Franciosa and Jim Hutton) try hard but can't break through the plastic handling, while the ensuing slapstick is enough to turn off anyone seeking lighter Tennessee Williams fare. *1/2 from ****

A young Jane Fonda, plays an incredibly naive, but good hearted nurse in a military hospital, who meets a Korean war combat pilot and marries (Jim Hutton)with the belief that he is "recovering" from "nervous" condition caused by his combat service. Hutton's actual problem is that he is in denial that he is still a virgin.

The movie based on a Tennesse Williams play is set in a suburban home around Christmas time. Hutton and Fonda arrive unannounced on their still unconsummated honeymoon. Hutton is seeking answers to his marital situation from his old buddy (Anthony Frcanciosa) who is in the middle of a marital problems of his own making. It seems Franciosa's wife suspects that he was influenced to marry her because of her Father's business. A not too difficult assumption to make, since her Father had married her maternal grandmother for the same reason.

The incorrect assumption that Fonda is Franciosa's girl friend makes some funny scenes for an actress not known for comedy.

Jim Hutton is perfect in this role. On the surface he is the all American poster boy of the Air Force pilot. He brings out the serious side of this movie when he finally comes face to face with his own real problem. That being the combat between the sexes which requires a "period of adjustment" whether the relationship is casual,or a life long marriage.

This movie has great acting, its funny yet serious, and it has a plausible yet happy ending. Its B & W without any special effects, about sex, without sex scenes, and does not have a message, other than people do imperfect things because they are imperfect. Their actions are not caused by some failure of the government or their education.

This movie will stand the test of time, because it is about people living in their time, with their customs.

That's my message.

Days before Christmas, in a St. Louis, Missouri hospital, Korean War veteran Jim Hutton (as George Haverstick) is tended by sexy night nurse Jane Fonda (as Isabel Crane). He has "the shakes" and she gives him relaxing rub-downs. When Mr. Hutton is released, Ms. Fonda weeps. She has been fired for fainting at the sight of blood. Hutton quits his job and marries Ms. Fonda. The bickering couple heads to Miami for a honeymoon, but Fonda is worried about Hutton having no job. Wondering if he's made a mistake, Hutton decides to contact war buddy Anthony "Tony" Franciosa (as Ralph Bates). This may not help Hutton and Fonda save their new marriage – we learn Mr. Franciosa is headed for a divorce. The future of marriage hangs in the balance...

This is an adaptation of a uniquely more comic Tennessee Williams play. From stage and TV, director George Roy Hill made it his first feature film. While considered comic, the more serious aspects are interesting. Hutton's character is unable to perform sexually for Fonda, although she squeezes an arousing figure into the tightest clothing possible. Maybe it's the shrill southern accent we hear when she's upset. Fonda's telephone scene is especially unnerving. Given mostly to Hutton and Fonda, the comedy isn't that funny. The dramatics work better. The first time Mr. Hill grabs you is when Mr. Franciosa tosses his son's stiffed animal into a fire, fearing it could turn the boy into a "sissy." As Franciosa's formerly "homely" wife, Lois Nettleton impresses.

****** Period of Adjustment (10/31/62) George Roy Hill ~ Anthony Franciosa, Jane Fonda, Jim Hutton, Lois Nettleton

A dated stereotypical marriage farce with enough misogynistIc offensive dialog that I cringed trying to watch. Add the rotten performances to that saccharine violin soundtrack and I found myself wishing I was in my dentist office getting teeth drilled instead of enduring this waste of film

Not to over-analyze why it is, but this film is extremely dated. Like a lot of "adult" movies from this era, it tackles the dynamics of a male/female relationship with non-stop innuendos about sex. By today's standards of good drama, the lack of candor seems immature, phony, and just plain boring. It's not even fun to mock.

You can tell "Period of Adjustment" was adapted from the stage because the direction is static and the script is nothing more than a 112 min. blabathon. At times it tries to be cutesy. At other times it tries to be serious. A lot of the time it's impossible to tell if it's trying to be one or the other. I found the overall effect to be unnerving at times.

The lead actors are terrible. Each scene drags along with dialogue awash in phony Southern accents. Jane Fonda fluctuates between giddy and obnoxious (the scene in which she's shrieking hysterically while her father's on the phone is unbearable). And Anthony Franciosa chews scenery like it is a bad piece of meat. Holy crap, save the gristle to give to the dog!

By the time it finally stopped, I wondered why "Period of Adjustment" was filmed in the first place. Someone must have thought it would be profitable. After all, it was based on a Tennessee Williams play, whose work was popular in the 50's. Audiences considered him a controversial American writer, important because he dramatized sordid subjects that were usually swept under the rug during the 50's. Today his work just seems like more flabby trash.

Tennessee Williams always has an important message in his stage works. This certainly true in this Christmas story of two couples whose interfacing when they have totally unrelated crises causes both couples to reconsider the real basis of their own relationship. The second half of the film is really George Roy Hill at his best, though the first half tends to wander. I have never been completely sold on the screen acting ability of Jane Fonda because she is, to me, largely a solo performer who does a fantastic "cabaret" scene when the camera focuses on her. She has never been a true ensemble player, and this is a movie version of a stage play which requires an ensemble cast! Tony Franciosa, Jim Hutton, Lois Nettleton, John McGiver and Mabel Albertson bond as a team and perform the play, but despite some fantastic solo camera work by Fonda, she seems in no way a member of this team effort.

This Tennessee Williams comedy might be off-putting in today's context, since it's about two white men whining about their white man's burden, which to them basically means having to be faithful to a wife and not getting to fool around anymore. The movie makes an attempt to pair hunky Anthony Franciosa with someone who might actually qualify as a bit dowdy, but what on earth Jim Hutton's problem is is never made clear, since he gets Jane Fonda. But whatever. The story is pretty insubstantial, but it's winningly acted by the entire cast. Fonda especially shows a flair for comedy. I never think of comedy when I think of her, but she's quite a good comedienne. Jim Hutton is funny too, and Franciosa, though more of the straight man, is certainly easy enough on the eyes.

And though I'm a bit flippant about the struggles the two male leads are going through in this movie, it does tap into that feeling that comes to most people at some point, that "is this all there is?" feeling, and that moment in life when you have to figure out how to live with that feeling or figure out how to get out from under it.

The film was somewhat randomly nominated for Best B&W Art Direction in 1962. Who knows, maybe an art director would look at this movie and see quite an accomplishment, but it's hard for a layman to understand what warranted the nomination.

Grade: B+

Jim Hutton has married young, beautiful, voluptuous Jane Fonda, but they don't get along, so at Christmas, they visit "war buddy" Tony Franciosa, who is also not getting along with his wife, Lois Nettleton. Jim confesses that he likes "little girls" because you don't have to "prove anything" and that what he really wants is to run off with Tony, so they can start a cattle ranch and "live like men." The homosexual subtext is bursting at the seams and the rank misogyny suggests that any man who marries without a chair and a whip is a fool. Williams always exhibited a strong talent for the tragic (see "The Fugitive KInd") but this is a comedy that is more uncomfortable than funny, in part because in the 1950s, it was a challenge to be truthful, a challenge unmet here. At least, Tom Williams knew what game he was playing. Of the play, he wrote: "The theatre has made its greatest artistic advance through the unlocking and lighting up and ventilation of the closets, basements and attics of human behavior and experience." If this movie is made again, I hope it is frank about the men and refrains from mocking and patronizing the women. Kudos to the actors, who try valiantly to foist this trash on an unsuspecting audience.

Watching this undeservedly forgotten Tennessee Williams play turned into a movie, it occurs to the viewer how so many other writers, some of them quite good and talented, are still merely scratching the surface. Williams digs and digs until he hits the paydirt of his characters' true selves, the ones they keep hidden behind all their rusty but dependable defense mechanisms. Williams writes in such a way that something extraordinary seems to be revealed in each scene; characters are constantly surprising each other, and themselves, with the clarity of their insights.

Set at Christmas, the film delves into the crumbling relationships of two sets of couples, whose fortunes and outlooks quickly become intertwined. Jim Hutton and Jane Fonda are the mismatched newlyweds who begin to have trouble the moment he kisses her (somewhat harshly) on their wedding day. He's suddenly insensitive, even brutal, and she becomes hyper-sensitive and highly emotional and it appears that by the time they reach their honeymoon destination they will be at each other's throats. Anthony Franciosa plays an old war buddy of Hutton's whose unstable marriage to plain Lois Nettleton ruptures when he rashly decides to quit working for a man he has long held in contempt: her petty, penny-pinching father. Unimaginably ignoring his beautiful though high-maintenance young wife (and Fonda is at her most luscious and desirable) Hutton interrupts his already nightmarish honeymoon to see his supposedly more established friend with whom he is anxious to enter into a business partnership.

And this is where things get very interesting as Franciosa balances his own feelings of attraction towards Fonda with his sympathy for the young couple's necessary but often painful "period of adjustment". Franciosa does a nice job anchoring the film; proud and defiant with his quarreling family members, but wise and protective with the feuding newlyweds. Hutton does good work too in a tricky not always sympathetic part. And Fonda is wonderful as the fragile southern belle with the hilarious attachment to her "little blue zipper bag". Lois Nettleton could've gone the Shelly Winters route and played her housewife as dumpy and pitiful, but she bravely goes for vulnerably dignified instead. Though she knows she was married for her father's money, you believe Franciosa when he tells her that she has "improved in appearance" and that he has indeed grown to love her.

Described as "heartwarming" by Leonard Maltin, it's still not terribly surprising that this has not become a perennial Christmas favorite. It does represent Williams at his "lightest" but it's too emotionally punishing to be viewed by the whole family like say "A Christmas Story" or "White Christmas" as the kids are putting up the tree. There is a brilliant but agonizing scene towards the end, where both couples are driving along in a hearse, and the older couple up front believes that the other two in back can't hear the raw, uncomfortably honest conversation they're having due to a supposedly soundproof dividing window between them. But they do hear all too well, and it gives them a brand new perspective on their own marital difficulties.

It is, however, an off the beaten path Christmas gem refreshingly free of false sentiment and schmaltzy resolutions. And there is a terrific running gag involving a bunch of tipsy carolers who just can't refuse all those neighborly offers to come in and have a drink. I think, and I could be wrong, that Williams employs the holiday setting as a harness for some of his darker impulses.

Only Tennessee Williams would write a Christmas comedy in which a newlywed couple get in a blow-up fight and can't stop yelling at each other. The notorious dramatist wrote his first comedic play Period of Adjustment, and Jim Hutton and Jane Fonda star as the Southern bickering couple in the film adaptation. They're both cute as a button, but there's just a little too much shouting to make this an annual Christmas movie in my house.

When Jim was in the hospital after his stint in Korea, he fell in love with his nurse, Jane. They were married just before Christmas, and on Christmas Eve, they decide to visit Jim's wartime buddy Anthony Franciosa, whose wife just left him. Their entire two-day-old marriage is in shambles, and they don't see eye to eye on anything. Together, the three of them try to work both marriages out.

While it's marketed as a comedy, it's hardly a laugh-out-loud riot. It appeals to the cynics in the audience who have a bad marriage and will chuckle when they someone else in the same boat. In other words, it appeals to Tennessee Williams fans. If it weren't for Jim's handsome face and Jane's adorable Southern hairdo and accent, I probably wouldn't have gotten through the movie—let alone at Christmastime.

Based on a play by Tennesee Williams, the story revolves around two couples-one that's fun to watch, and one that drags. Jim Hutton (Timothy's dad) and Jane Fonda play George and Isabelle Haverstick-a simple, bull-headed young buck and his high-maitenance southern belle bride who drop in on his 'ol war buddy (a handsome Tony Franciosa) married to an unhappy rich girl (Lois Nettleton fleshing out a very difficult role) around Christmas. Jim and Jane inject their characters with enough exuberance to shoot them to the moon; thus, they expose the rather bland quality in Ralph and Dorothea even though Tony and Lois are fine actors who do what they can. Director George Roy Hill tries to keep the action from being too stagy and is generally successful, though less so in the second half.

The main attraction here is Fonda: playing a sweet, jittery mouse with surprising outbursts of anger, she turns in a memorable comic performance. The desperate phone call to 'Daddy', her initial introductory scenes with Hutton, a tragic attempt to get her 'little blue zipper bag', and the first meeting with the Baitz's dog are beautifully done with gusto. If you look at her work here along with Barbarella, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Klute, and Julia-you'll see she had that rare quality few leading movie stars have: the ability to be a damn good character actor.

The movie's harmless fun and I recommend watching it under a blanket with a hot cup of cocoa, a roaring fire, and a lighted Christmas tree. Please read the review submitted by Eric Chapman. Enjoy!

Jane Fonda had done three movies prior to this one ("Tall Story," "The Chapman Report," and "A Walk on the Wild Side"), but this was the first time she showed any talent. In a part that is said to have been tailored for Marilyn Monroe, Fonda is a nervous newlywed little southern belle who marries another nervous southerner (Jim Hutton) who just may be a virgin, himself. Tony Franciosa stands around doing his usual nothing, and the director doesn't know what to do with Lois Nettleton.