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Kathleen Turner has never been better than she was in those 1986 film. A much more touching time travel film than Back to the Future -- Turner's character (an unhappy middle-aged woman) has the chance to re-live her high school days and do things differently only to end up making the same mistakes she made before. Turner is a gifted comedienne who has the ability to convey the pathos underneath the comedic layer.

Nicholas Cage is grating at first but the character grows on you after awhile. A then unknown Jim Carrey has a small role as does Joan Allen.

Francis Coppola may have just been a director-for-hire on this film but he is never an uninteresting director. Look closely he adds many small touches to the film. I especially liked a scene where Barbara Harris (as Peggy Sue's mother) is having her jewelry appraised when Peggy Sue walks into the house. Mom lies to Peggy Sue and tells her the man is taking an election poll then tells Peggy Sue she will vote Democratic in 1960. The scene is never explained any further but it is interesting to note that 1960 was the very beginning of the women's movement. Perhaps Mrs. Kelcher is beginning to see that there is a life outside of being a housewife and mother. She wants to but is afraid to assert her independence. Hence the jewelry appraiser. Since Mrs. Kelcher has no skills outside of the house it is comforting for her to know that should it come to it she would be able to support herself temporarily by selling her jewelry. Her nest egg so to speak should she decide to leave the nest.

Shot in 1974 but not released until 1986 the film can be mainly of interest to anyone because 19-year old Kevin Costner plays a small role as a ranch hand. Interesting thing is, he is actually the best thing about the movie -- he at least tries to act. He's rough around the edges but one can see that a couple years of acting lessons added to that laid-back "aw shucks ma'am" demeanor will make him the star he is today. The rest of the cast gives your typical low budget talent-free performances. Plot (if you can it that) centers around three uniquely untalented women trying to make it in la-la land. lots of t & a, tacky sets and costumes, bad cinematography, a cheesy script, and tuneless music.

This is surely one of the oddest film adaptations of a Broadway musicals ever.

Lucille Ball, through a combination of miscasting and misdirection is rarely funny (the exception being the scenes on the Georgia plantation). Gene Saks seems to directed her to read her lines in a slow, faux-sophisticate voice. These are the type of lines that should be effortlessly funny given a rapid-fire line reading as Rosalind Russell did in "Auntie Mame". And Saks' direction is at its strangest in the cuts -- he cuts from a close-up of an in-focus Beatrice Arthur or Kirby Furlong (with the background out-of-focus) to an out-of-focus close-up of Lucy (with the background in-focus). It is visually very disturbing and hard on the eyes. Most of the songs have been re-arranged to accommodate her lower register and narrow vocal range. They don't have the pep and bite of the original cast album.

The movie does have some good features: Beatrice Arthur gives a valiant performance, Lucy looks fabulous in Theodora Van Runkle's costumes which are a wonderful parody of 20's and 30's fashions and at times witty (notice how Lucy's pink dress in the scene in which she first introduced to Beau's family and friends on the plantation is almost the exact same dress and hat -- albeit different color -- that Cecil Beaton designed for Audrey Hepburn for the Ascot races scene in My Fair Lady). Robert Preston is very good in a rather brief role and the sets (filmed on the Warner's backlot in Burbank) are evocative of NYC in the 20's and 30's.

But there's more bad. In "Auntie Mame" (1959) the Upson's were hilariously funny caricatures of bigoted snobs. (Remember those martinis made with strained honey?) In "Mame" they play it straight and the scenes are no longer funny -- the characters become too real and it bothers us to know that people like that did (and still do) exist. And that dancing. It is hard to believe that six years prior Onna White received a special Oscar for her choreography in "Oliver". Pedestrian does not even begin to describe the choreography in "Mame" and the dancers themselves are a disgrace--none of them seems to be in step with the other. It makes one think that Gene Saks shot a couple of takes of each dance chorus number and figured he could put it all together in the editing room. Wrong.

Okay who is too blame? Well, you can't really blame Lucille Ball for the mess. They offered her a lot of money and probably convinced her she would be perfect for the role. Gene Saks may be a great stage director but his film record is spotty at best and he was certainly the wrong guy to direct a lavish big budget musical comedy. Paul Zindel (author of the play - The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-the-Moon Marigolds) kept a lot Laurence & Lee's play and musical scripts but not enough. But ultimate blame must go to Jack L. Warner who bought the rights to the musical, cast Lucy in the first place and hired the others. And this only a couple of years after his disastrous film adaptation of "1776".

Of course the movie musical was dead by 1974 and this film probably never should have been made. The period 1967-1974 had seen big-budget musical film adaptations with star casts that flopped -- Finians Rainbow (Fred Astaire, Petula Clark); Man of La Mancha (Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren); Sweet Charity (Shirley MacLaine); Paint Your Wagon (Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood); How to Succeed in Business (Robert Morse, Rudy Vallee); A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Zero Mostel); On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (Barbra Striesand, Yves Montand); Camelot (Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave); Hello Dolly (Striesand & Walter Matthau), Song of Norway (Florence Henderson); and original film musical bombs like: Star! (Julie Andrews), The Happiest Millionaire (Fred MacMurray, Greer Garson); Darling Lili (Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson); Goodbye Mr. Chips (Peter O'Toole, Petula Clark). While artistic successes, neither "Oliver!" nor "Funny Girl" were profitable in their initial runs although both later became profitable through re-issues. In this period only "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Cabaret" were unqualified successes (Both critical and financial).