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By Tim McGlynn

The Warner Archive has released Robert Mulligan’s Inside Daisy Clover on Blu-ray and this new edition is a winner.

15 year-old Daisy Clover is a Depression era resident of Angel Beach, CA where she lives with her mother (Ruth Gordon) in a trailer on the boardwalk. She scratches out a living selling autographed photos of Hollywood stars that she signs herself. Daisy dreams of becoming a singer and enters a contest sponsored by mercurial studio owner Raymond Swan (Christopher Plummer).

Daisy auditions for Swan, wins a contract with the studio and is immediately put to work in a Busby Berkley style musical. With the help of Swan’s wife, Melora (Katharine Bard), Daisy is primed to become America’s newest movie sweetheart. This includes removing her from her mother’s care and allowing her obnoxious sister (Betty Harford) to become her guardian.

It’s a Hollywood rags-to-riches tale seen as a cruel coming-of-age story — when Natalie Wood’s feisty street kid becomes a child star, she learns that tinsel town is not only fake, but oppressively evil as well. Cut off from her dotty mom (Ruth Gordon) and surrounded by the sinister minions of studio head Swan (Christopher Plummer), Daisy Clover finds that major stardom is hollow and dispiriting. Gavin Lambert & Robert Mulligan’s beautifully made movie does everything but make an audience feel good, especially when the dazzled Daisy falls in love with a sexually dishonest dreamboat matinee idol (Robert Redford). It’s a great picture and also a big downer.

Inside Daisy Clover

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 128 min. / Street Date May 12, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Natalie Wood, Christopher Plummer, Robert Redford, Ruth Gordon, Roddy McDowall, Katharine Bard, Peter Helm, Betty Harford, Harold Gould.

Cinematography: Charles Lang...

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