Play It as It Lays (film)
| Play It as It Lays | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Frank Perry |
| Produced by |
Dominick Dunne Paul Newman |
| Written by |
Screenplay: Joan Didion John Gregory Dunne Novel: Joan Didion |
| Starring |
Tuesday Weld Anthony Perkins Adam Roarke Tammy Grimes |
| Music by | Don Fendley |
| Cinematography | Jordan Cronenweth |
| Edited by | Sidney Katz |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
Release dates | October 19, 1972 |
Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1 million[1] |
Play It as It Lays is a 1972 American drama film directed by Frank Perry. The screenplay by married couple Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne is based on Didion's novel of the same name. The film stars Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins, who had previously paired together for the 1968 film, Pretty Poison.
Plot
Maria Wyeth-Lang (Weld), an unhappily married ex-model and B-movie actress, and her only friend, B.Z. (Perkins), a gay movie producer, contemplate suicide.
Cast
- Tuesday Weld ..... Maria Wyeth-Lang
- Anthony Perkins ..... B.Z.
- Adam Roarke ..... Carter Lang
- Tammy Grimes ..... Helene
- Richard Anderson ..... Les Goodwin
- Diana Ewing ..... Susannah
- Severn Darden ..... Hypnotist
- Tyne Daly ..... Journalist
- Jennifer C. Lesko ..... Kate Wyeth-Lang
Awards and nominations
Weld was nominated for a 1972 Golden Globe Award, for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama. She lost to Liv Ullmann, for The Emigrants.
Critical reception
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars. Positive remarks were also expressed for the two leads' performances. Ebert cited, "What makes the movie work so well on this difficult ground is, happily, easy to say: It has been well-written and directed, and Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins are perfectly cast as Maria and her friend B.Z. The material is so thin (and has to be) that the actors have to bring the human texture along with them. They do, and they make us care about characters who have given up caring for themselves."[2]
Molly Haskell of The Village Voice was less enthusiastic, stating that she had "a hard time remembering [the film]".[3]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times found the screenplay and direction "banal", but effused praise for the performances of Weld and Perkins. "The film is beautifully performed by Tuesday Weld as Maria and Anthony Perkins as B.Z., but the whole thing has turned soft," Canby writes. [4]
References
- ↑ Perry Making Hollywood Film -- His Way By PAUL GARDNERSpecial to The New York Times. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 10 Feb 1972: 59.
- ↑ Chicago Sun-Times review
- ↑ The Village Voice review
- ↑ The New York Times review
External links
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