La straniera

I worked on the movie and I have to agree that it was a big disappointment. I was just a scenic artist and had no control over the script but I was thrilled to work with the actors.

In my english class my teacher made us write a whole essay on how it was not one person said it was even close to the book

So we read the book, "Cold Sassy Tree", in our English class. Good book.... contains three very interesting main characters (Will, Grandpa, and Miss Love), great dialogue, wonderful coming-of-age story, and a marvelous Southern town backdrop.

Then, we saw the movie.

This thing is TERRIBLE! If you haven't read the book, you *will not* understand it, and if you have, you will be bored to death! The movie jumps right into about Chapter 16 of the book. We barely know these characters, so we don't pay attention. There is a key scene in which Grandpa prays for the town to bless his new wife; in the book this scene was touching, but in the movie his character is not well-developed enough to make us realize that praying this fervently is against his character.

The movie also loses focus of the point of the story. The book was about Will and Grandpa "growing up"-- in the movie, it is more like a romance between Grandpa and Miss Love (played by a homely Faye Dunaway in a role that should have gone to someone half her age).

I beg you not to see this yawn-inducing smaltzfest! Spare yourself! Read the book, or go see some other film about Southern life ("To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)" comes to mind).

Oh, yeah, and to comment on the title: in the book it is quite relevant, but in the movie it is explained in the opening narration and not mentioned again.

Reading the reviews of Cold Sassy Tree it seems that everyone was disappointed and said the film was markedly inferior to the book. Having ever read the book I can only go by what I see.

Faye Dunaway produced as well as star in Cold Sassy Tree and got a representative of old Hollywood in Richard Widmark as a co-star. The story takes place in pre-World War I American south where the town's leading citizen mercantile owner Richard Widmark scandalizes the town by marrying Faye Dunaway who was just about getting to the age that an unmarried female would be considered spinsters. Widmark's two daughters with husband and kids of their own are outraged.

In that small southern town where everyone knows everyone's business gossip is a cottage industry so the tongues wag incessantly.

All this is seen through the eyes of one of Widmark's grandsons Neil Patrick Harris who narrates the film as well.

Cold Sassy Tree is a nice portrayal of southern white life at the turn of the last century. Note no black people are anywhere. I'm thinking the town was a segregated one as many were in the south back in the day.

Widmark, Dunaway and the rest of the cast are perfectly suited for the roles that they are cast in. And Widmark leaves the family and the town something to remember him by in the end.

This movie was so badly put together that I don't even want to spend time explaining it. Suffice it to say that Olive Ann Burns would roll over in her grave if she knew the way her fabulous book had been butchered. So many pivotal things from the book were altered or missing that I'm convinced that no one who worked on this movie consulted the book. Too bad, because the actors are talented people. If you haven't read the book, then definitely miss this movie. If you have read the book--miss it too. Of course, you can always watch it just to see what Love Simpson's hats really looked like. The choice is yours.