Happy Birthday, Wanda June

Bill Hickey is fabulous as Col. Harper, Rod Stieger chews the scenery as Harold Ryan. This movie is very confusing, I have only met one person who saw it in a theater, ABC used to show it late at night, the last time I saw it they showed the reels out of order, nice guys, no way you could possibly have a clue.

It is the Homecoming of Odesius from the Trojan Wars, Penelope (Susanah York) has two lovers, a doctor and a vacuum cleaner salesman. Ryan and Harper have been lost for seven years, and they return without warning having found diamonds the size of grapefruits.

I have not been able to locate this film other than on 1 inch video tape, I would love to get a good copy of it.

Based on Kurt Vonnegut's off-Broadway play, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA JUNE,

is essentially about Susannah York's character Penelope Ryan and the

men that dominate her life, including a phenomenal Rod Steiger as ultra-

macho big game hunter Harold. The story also occasionally jumps to

heaven (yes, really), where Wanda June, the victim of a drunk driving

incident, plays shuffleboard for all eternity. This excellent film has

sadly never been available on video or DVD. I've only seen it on a

bootleg DVD made from a TBS broadcast in the late 80's (with some of

the language censored).

I saw this film in, maybe 1975-6. I was working the graveyard shift in a hotel and they had an "in room movie" feature that consisted of a Video Tape Deck that used 2" on big reels. While I was settling all of the accounts, I had to change the reels for the next movie. Anyway, H.B.W.J. was one of the vast array of maybe 25 films they had. If I could get done early I could watch a movie. There were never more than two or three people in a day that watched any of the crappy films. Well I watched it and loved it! I brought friends and we watched it, maybe twentyfive times. I had a tape from the local ABC affiliate which was shown out of order. This was a very strange and complicated film made totally incomprehensible.

al:^)

What happened to this movie? I've recommended it for 3 decades as one of the finest of the surreal comedies and it seems to have vanished. Who owns the rights? Please reissue this farcical drama. Like "Where's Poppa?" Central Park represents the evils of the world. The heaven-related references are hilarious. Ms. York was never prettier. Rod Steiger delivers a (not unexpectedly) bravura performance. It's based on a Kurt Vonnegut story. What more need I say? If you enjoyed "A Boy and His Dog", you certainly will savor the sophisticated and sly humor to be found in "Happy Birthday, Wanda June."

"Happy Birthday Wanda June" is out there...somewhere, because a print has just surfaced in San Francisco for a small festival showing in August of 2007. I first read about this film way back in Cinefantastique and of course it hasn't surfaced since, not on VHS or DVD.

Written probably as Vonnegut was really hitting his stride, around the time of "Slaughterhouse 5" it explores the meaning of humanity on this planet, the madness of men (the gender) and the blindness of following what we thing is valuable but isn't.

Smaller in scale than "S5" or "Sirens of Titans" this originally was a play and the film shows this provenance. It's practically one-set, and the acting is rather broad. Mark Robson seems to be making sure everyone pitches it out to the back rows. The child and the 2 male friends of Susannah York's character are particularly grating. But Rod Steiger, whose role is a bombastic man's man (somehow reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway or John Huston), manages to play his loud and obnoxious role with a graceful (if unhumble) bravado. He is perhaps more in on the joke - that he is a fool and a dinosaur embracing out-of-date ideas - than he initially proclaims.

The flashes to Heaven, mentioned in previous posts, makes this vintage absurdist Vonnegut, with the underlying message that everyone goes to Heaven, so murdering someone is actually not a bad thing - you're doing them a favor. It makes the complains down in the Manhattan apartment about whether they should kill animals, be "savage" or civilized, rather moot in retrospect.

An important work that deserves reviving. It's dated and a bit obvious in its symbolism (the violin hanging like a corpse above the fireplace) but beats "Visit to a Small Planet" anytime. And William Hickey is great as Steiger's sidekick who also returns after 8 years.

Interesting side note when Steiger reveals he was drugged on "blue soup" for 7 1/2 of the 8 years. Did he actually see what life without the "action, the killing" might be like...and recoil in horror? And the last shot - not what you would expect, also raises an ironic eyebrow that will keep this film in your mind for days.