Ginger in the Morning

GINGER IN THE MORNING is a 1974 film starring a young Sissy Spacek in just her third theatrical film. Although released in '74 it was filmed in '72 so I think She filmed this before Badlands (1973).

Sissy plays the title character, Ginger. She is a hitchhiker who gets picked up by a middle-aged man named Joe. It's New Years Eve and Joe feels lonely. The two end up at Joe's apartment.

The movie starts off as a cute romantic comedy with a plot you've no doubt seen done hundreds of times before. Ginger is the "manic pixie dream girl" and Joe is the uptight square who falls in love with her.

The movie hits a snag however with the arrival of Joe's friend Charlie. Joe wants Charlie to leave so Ginger and him can, well, enjoy each other's company. Charlie becomes smitten with Ginger and doesn't want to leave. Joe then gets the idea of inviting Charlie's ex-wife Sugar over. This is when the movie takes an ugly turn. It goes from being a cute romantic comedy to a movie about bitter middle-aged people talking about marriage and divorce. Charlie then decides to get back with Sugar and they leave. Ginger now wants to leave too and Joe does that cliche' mad cap rush to find her and declare his love for her before it is too late.

With her shoulder length red/brown hair and young, freckled face Sissy Spacek physically reminds me so much of her own future daughter. Sissy even has the same mischevious grin. That being said, when Sissy sings her own song in this movie, one thing is obvious: She is no Schuyler.

I also thought that Sissy's voice sounded too childish and immature in this movie. She was 22 in this movie and She sounds like She is like she's a teenager.

I would only recommend this movie to people who are fans of Sissy Spacek or, if you're like me, a Schuyler Fisk fan who gets the kick out of seeing how much She takes after her own Mom.

It looks like a television movie but it was released for the cinema. A very 1970s and dated view of a May to December romance.

Right at the beginning. Newly divorced Joe (Monte Markham) is getting badgered by Fred (David Doyle) a man he just met to sow his oats and make the most of his freedom.

While driving he picks up a young pretty hitchhiker Ginger (Sissy Spacek) and a car puncture. She is free spirited hippie and secretly pregnant.

They first stop at a hotel and later Joe takes Ginger to his place. Hoping for a good time with Ginger.

Only boorish friend Charlie (Mark Miller) turns up, followed by his estranged wife.

It leads to misunderstandings with Ginger. She was rather naively hoping that Joe could be a father figure.

The movie is a mixed bag. An early starring role for Spacek who gets to sing as well.

Mark Miller who also wrote the movie is unsure what kind of movie this is.

It could had been a tender romance between two mismatched people. When Charlie crashes into the movie. It detours into something else and the movie suffers.

This was filmed in 1972 when Sissy Spacek was 22, most probably before she filmed BADLANDS (released 10/73). It Includes a happy Mary-Tyler-Moore-like theme song by Sissy S. as well as a clever live song w/ guitar about marichino cherries sung while riding in a car after hitching a ride (and one other original song by Sissy S). Sissy shows some musical talent that would be on display later in COAL MINER'S D.

Sissy is uber-charming and charismatic and beautiful and lovely; but at this early stage she seems influenced (whether she knows it or not) by Jan Brady of The Brady Bunch, She seems like a teenager having a blast being among adults in a grown up movie (not to be cruel). That being said; this grown up movie is of the TV variety (feel, pacing, writing, writers, director, etc.); utilizing the freedom away from TV for some pretty ugly, dated male/ battle-of-sexes dialogue.

The color by CFI is not bad, and it is nice that the film is set/was shot in New Mexico providing an interesting landscape backdrop. It really is only worth taking a look at if you like Sissy Spacek, want to hear some original songs by her at 22, and/or feel like going back to the early 70's for a little visit.

While many scenes in this movie seem sexist today, the dialogue is actually how most people talked (and thought) in the early 1970s, and this includes the women characters. It was a time of dramatic social change and people, young and old, said some pretty dumb things, every day. When I saw this movie available on streaming video, I thought it would be one of those trashy low budget films that was so bad it would be funny, but I actually found it intelligent and entertaining. The relationship of the two male friends is instantly recognizable to people who have served in the military (as I did), and the romantic relationship between one of the men, and the Sissy Spacek character who is half his age, exactly captures the tension between the two clashing cultures - the "counter culture" of the 60s and 70s vs the more conservative culture of people who grew up in the 40s and 50s. Of course he says sexist things, and of course she speaks in slogans and says "far out!" all the time. Yeah, people actually talked like that back then. Worth watching if you want to know what that era was like on an interpersonal level. Also, you have GOT to see Slim Pickens play a county sheriff. A minor role but he steals every scene he is in. I love that guy.

Cutesy drama, almost unendurably dated--and with clichéd characters and dialogue to boot--features a young Sissy Spacek as a health-conscious, free-spirited woman, a hippie folk singer hitchhiking with her guitar across the country; she gets a ride from Monte Markham, a just-divorced businessman who's been advised to find himself a new girl to forget the old one. There are some surprisingly fine shots by cinematographer William K. Jurgensen of Spacek thumbing it on the road, but her relationship with Markham is pure cookie-cutter. Second-feature caught Spacek just before her career was about to take off, though this is one title she'd probably like to erase from her resume. Her acting is likable enough, but her character Ginger is nothing more than a lighter version of the hitchhiker Laurie Heineman played in "Save the Tiger"--in other words, a refugee from a TV sitcom or movie-of-the-week. *1/2 from ****