She Lives!

The plot of "She Lives!" is very, very similar to "Love Story" in that it's about college students who fall in love...and the lady comes down with a terminal illness. But, unlike "Love Story" there is hope in this film that she MIGHT not die.

I can barely remember seeing "Love Story" but can say that with "She Lives!" I had a hard time sticking with it because I didn't like the couple and really didn't care if she lived or died! The editing was terrible--with choppy bits of Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle" clumsily dropped into the film. Some of the camera-work was blurry and looked cheap. And, the acting, at times, was silly--with some terrible overacting. A few scenes which show this was the screaming scene which was unintentionally funny as well as when she later said she felt fine and only seconds later she was on the ground...practically dying. So, aside from the writing, acting and filmmaking the film wasn't bad...though I guess that really doesn't leave much, does it? Oh, and I forgot to mention that the ending was VERY abrupt and incomplete.

In retrospect, with a title like "She Lives!", I wish it had been a horror movie.

The Seventies T.V. movie (A.B.C.'s "Movie Of The Week" here) left an

impression on many, from "Maybe I'll Come Home In The Spring" to the more

lightweight "But I Don't Want To Get Married", to the best known "Tribes."

This was an early "Cancer" movie before the subject would be done to

death. Probably remembered by most as the first time they heard the touching folk/pop of Jim Croce (If only HE had lived), these A.B.C. movies, in the tradition of shows like "Room 222", was T.V. jumping on the "Hip" train a little late(what the hell, some say the "sixties" were really 65 to 75. Lucy's troubled Son is not much of an actor, but otherwise this time capsule of a more hopeful time has it's heart in the right place, maybe it's head too.

Set at UCLA, with much less appealing leads, hysterical script, and relentless abuse of the Jim Croce song. I didn't detect any chemistry between Arnaz and Hubley. Hollywood's campaign to make Arnaz happen was in embarrassing evidence throughout the film. Also missing were any appreciable supporting characters. The sense of doom and tragedy in "Love Story" was lost, with the emphasis on the search for a cure, and made this one seem trivial.

I love this film. First saw it at age 14, when ABC broadcast it in Sept. '73. Unlike others, I've always been impressed by the acting and writing. Even Desi Arnaz Jr. is okay and likeable...but Season Hubley - WOW! It's an edgier performance than a lot of other young actresses would've given, and she's so cute with that super-short haircut! Hubley was poorly used by Hollywood - most of her roles after this one seemed to be as hookers and nuns. This film, however, is a real showcase for her talents. The dialogue is excellent, very much of its time (for instance, when they recall the disillusionment they felt after Bobby Kennedy's recent - just 5 years earlier - assassination.) The cast includes Anthony Zerbe (I was never a fan, but he's okay) and Jack Soo of "Barney Miller" fame. Watch it as a time capsule, as a tear-jerker, or just to see one of the sexiest actresses of the '70s at her peak.

The dialogue is hysterically bad. The direction inundated with early-70's-style montages. And the acting by both leads seem to alternate scene-by-scene between overwrought and stoic. In many ways, this is a time capsule of bad 1970's movies. But, on that level, it is always fascinating -- especially with superb supporting performances all around, and a magnificent original score including Croce's Time In a Bottle and Chapin's Circles. Some other goodies in the score also.