The Blue Bird (1976 film)

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The Blue Bird
Directed by George Cukor
Written by Maurice Maeterlinck (play)
Starring Elizabeth Taylor
Jane Fonda
Ava Gardner
Cicely Tyson
Robert Morley
Release date(s) April 5, 1976
Running time 95 min.
Country Flag of the Soviet Union Soviet Union, Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom, Flag of the United States United States
Language English
IMDb profile

The Blue Bird is a 1976 children's film (Cinema) directed by George Cukor, with a screenplay by Hugh Whitemore based on the play by Maurice Maeterlinck. The film was a Soviet-American co-production, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, Cicely Tyson, James Coco, Patsy Kensit, and Ava Gardner. There were certain on-set problems, partly because this was the first joint production between an American studio (20th Century Fox) and a Soviet one (Lenfilm). Language and cultural problems, along with on-set politics, delayed the filming process.[citation needed] The film was awarded the Honorary Diploma at the 1976 Tehran International Festival of Films for Children and Young Adults.[1]

According to such film books as The Medved Brothers' "The Hollywood Hall of Shame", which features an entire several-page section about the making of the movie, the film was widely panned by critics and was a major financial flop upon release. It has never been released in any home-video format in the US, though a Russian-language DVD is available from some on-line retailers, such as Amazon.com and DeepDiscount.com.[citation needed] According to some sources, possession of the film rights reverted back to the Russians, hence its disappearance from US TV and its absence on video, Laserdisc, and DVD.[citation needed]

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