Dimmi che mi ami, Junie Moon

Having portrayed Arthur in the play, the movie extraordinarily helped me out. The three freaks, one a female, struggle to live outside of the hospital life. Junie, Arthur, and Warren. Junie, a sweet-hearted kind person, struggles with the deformity of her face. Arthur, the big kid at heart, is brave, despite his failing health. And, Warren, an "all about beauty" kind of guy, tries to be the most elegant person he can, using "high type" words. This is the most unusual love story I have ever heard of, better yet, acted in.

I highly recommend this movie, it shows that there is, "Maybe something the rest of us don't take time to look for."

Three hurting people -- facially disfigured Liza Minnelli, paraplegic Robert Moore, and epileptic Ken Howard in his movie debut -- set up housekeeping.

Otto Preminger's well-meaning movie suffers from the same problems that afflicted his other late movies: a bit bloated, a bit clumsily edited (Kay Thompson shows up early, has an interesting couple of scenes, then disappears; Pete Seeger intermittently wanders around redwood trees singing "Old Devil Time"). Like D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. Demille before him, Preminger was not about to make small, intimate pictures -- not that he seemed to have any taste for those -- and that appears to be what Marjorie Kellogg's source novel called for. Instead, the audience is confronted with perfectly executed sequences that offer a cold, impatient and dispirited view of these three.

Three patients live together after leaving the hospital. Junie Moon (Liza Minnelli) is disfigured after her date burns her with acid. Arthur (Ken Howard) is epileptic. Warren (Robert Moore) is a gay paraplegic.

Arthur's dream/flashback sequence is too weird to be intercut with the real world. His epileptic fits look a bit fake. I don't know what he has. I get that director Otto Preminger is trying put the audience into Arthur's shoes but it could be done better. The movie meanders around and has some questionable scenes. The climax has real problems. Despite all that, I like the actors, the characters, and their friendships. To me, that's half the battle. It's a more enjoyable experience if the characters are enjoyable.

Moving film about three quirky characters (an epileptic, a paraplegic homosexual, and a facially-scarred party girl) living together in Massachusetts and the fish-market salesman who comes to love them. Otto Preminger directed, and he shows unexpected sensitivity towards just about everyone here, especially epileptic Ken Howard, a little boy in a man's body who gets great care by the filmmaker. Liza Minnelli is the film's star, and if she occasionally falls back on her trademark razzmatazz (with a little Broadway inflection), that's OK because Junie Moon is supposed to be wild and goosey, and Liza's theatrics are suitable. A sweet, slowly-paced story with humor and pathos picks up when the gang vacations at the beach and the gay man (celebrated stage director Robert Moore) falls for a stunning black beach boy (Fred Williamson, making a strong impression)--and yet ends up making love to an equally stunning black woman?? It doesn't all come together, but it does feature superb performances, melancholy folk music (which grows on you) and some extremely well-written and well-directed moments. Marjorie Kellogg penned the script from her own novel, and it is nearly verbatim (if you like one, try the other). An interesting attempt at something a little different--and it works. ***1/2 from ****

I'm a big Liza fan, and this is certainly an unusual departure for her, but I find "Junie Moon" hard to take seriously. My first exposure to it was on The Late Show; I thought then it was a camp classic right up there with "Valley of the Dolls". It has not aged well; Preminger's direction is ham-handed and obvious, and most of the performances are waaay over-the-top. Still, there are delights: Kay Thompson (way waaaaaaaay over-the-top in her last movie), Fred Williamson as a gigolo, Julie Bovasso "pantsing" Ken Howard and of course, Miss Minnelli, probably miscast but giving it her all. Here's another potential cult item languishing in Paramount's vaults that really should be released on video--my video store guy told me this is one of the most requested titles of movies not yet available. Who knew?