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Post by cynthiagreen on Apr 23, 2020 14:10:55 GMT
I liked it too. Which character was your favorite? I preferred Libby (Jessica Walter). . .
Wish I remembered it well enough to say. Knowing me, I probably liked Knight the most, because she's just a favorite. And I think I remember that Candice Bergen was very interesting in it. I always found Walter interesting. But, honestly, I really need to see it again. Don't know why I haven't, with a cast and director like that. Due to the vagaries of alphabetical billing Bergen is technically top billed but she doesn't get much screen time - she turns up at the end with sapphic friend (Lidia Prochneka as "the baroness") she acquired in Europe in tow just long enough to make an impression as the screen's most glamorous lesbian (a title usurped by Stephane Audran in LES BICHES two years later... although it must be said the prevailing standard - hitherto represented mostly by the likes of Lotte Lenya and Hope Emerson - was not very high...) Candice and her "Baroness"
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spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Apr 23, 2020 14:11:26 GMT
Yes - an amazing octet of young actresses, all bar one (Mary Robin Redd) going on to have some level of screen stardom. Shirley was the most established at the time so got one of the fatter parts (some characters suffer from the need to contract a long book into a two hour film), Candice Bergen probably went on to become the biggest film star - a 20 year run as a leading lady, if not often the top billed name in the film.....but Shirley always had the critics on her side - Back in the day and from that interview (thanks) one is clear that she is no run of the mill actress - her intelligence and talent saw her through a splendid run. I did read that her outspoken views cost her some mainstream support, which may explain why she never quite made it as a film "name" (I'm talking stardom here, no question of her talent), It was Bergen, Robin-Redd, Joanna Pettet, Kathleen Widdoes and Joan Hackett's first movies, and Jessica Walter and Elizabeth Hartman's second films. Shirley was a veteran of 7 - count em - movies including (f you believe imdb - a bit in PICNIC) I read the novel of THE GROUP a while back and enjoyed it - didn't know Mary was Kevin's sister though.
Great, insightful comments, CG. Much appreciated. I just wanted to verify that Shirley did indeed have a bit part in PICNIC, given that the film was shot a few miles down the road from where she lived in Kansas. She was small-town Kansas born and bred, which makes her later role in THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS all the more interesting, given that it was directed by Delbert Mann, who was also Kansas born and bred, and was adapted from the play by the Kansas born and bred playwright, William Inge.
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