pdmh48

I liked it. Those '50's melodramas/dramas-they were so great. Lee Marvin is always interesting. I liked his monologue about his "skinny ex-wife, her colds, and his inhaler." By the way-my small hometown Ohio bank was open until noon on Saturday up until the mid-seventies-until ATMs, of course. They were closed on Wednesdays. So a "Violent Saturday" (when most people did their grocery shopping, made deposits, etc.) made sense then. Some of the characters were strange; the librarian, and the Tommy Noonan character for sure. The nurse is very forgiving of him. I've always liked Richard Egan and thought his last scene was well-acted. Victor Mature is not one of my favorite actors, but this is one of his better roles. If you like '50's dramas/melodramas, check it out!

They have to pay their bills, too. Instead of fretting for Ida Lupino, a good actress, and one of the first woman directors ever in a time when most women couldn't direct at all, delight in the fact that this film helped her pay the rent. I have always appreciated the wealth of accomplished, mainstream actors who,later in their careers, added their talents to horror/Sci-Fi movies. Think, if you dare, what these movies would be like without them! During the 70's, even Joan Crawford made "Trog" and Janet Leigh made "Lepus," movies about killer frogs and rabbits. Yikes! LOL!

Remember that saying-"They did it from hunger."

I was a senior in high school when I saw this and I loved it. I wrote a term paper comparing/contrasting this to "Pilgrim's Progress" (which we had just studied in my English class) and got an "A" from my "hippie" teacher then. I longed to join the "hippie trail" then but didn't because I felt responsible for my younger siblings stuck in an abusive situation with my alcoholic dad. We only had each other. I used to read bus schedules with the dream of leaving.

Everyone is great in this movie. Sally Fields shows growth as an actress from her "Gidget" and "Flying Nun" days. Plus, it really portrays the frustration her parents feel and the difficulties the whole family had in relating to each other.