You're a Big Boy Now (1966)

Director:

Francis Ford Coppola

Writers:

David Benedictus (novel)
Francis Ford Coppola (writer)

Release Date:

31 July 1967 (Denmark)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Wow - It's the Wildest!

Plot:

Post-teen virgin moves to New York City, falls for a cold-hearted beauty, then finds true love with a loyal lass.

Plot Keywords:

New York | Cult Favorite | Library | Love | New York City

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 7 nominations

Cast

Elizabeth Hartman	...	Barbara Darling
Geraldine Page	...	Margery Chanticleer
Peter Kastner	...	Bernard Chanticleer
Rip Torn	...	I. H. Chanticleer
Michael Dunn	...	Richard Mudd
Tony Bill	...	Raef del Grado
Julie Harris	...	Miss Nora Thing
Karen Black	...	Amy Partlett
Dolph Sweet	...	Patrolman Francis Graf
Michael O'Sullivan	...	Kurt Dougherty The Albino Hypnotherpist
Ronald Colby	...	Barbara's Stage Play Crew (as Ron Colby)
Rufus Harley	...	Barbara's Stage Play Crew
Frank Simpson	...	Barbara's Stage Play Crew
Nina Varela	...	Barbara's Stage Play Crew
Len De Carl	...	Barbara's Stage Play Crew

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:16 | Germany:12 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Seven Arts Pictures

Trivia:

The nightclub has scenes from Dementia 13 (1963) (also directed by Francis Coppola) projected onto the wall.

Quotes:

Margery Chanticleer: Remember my promise: If you don't smoke until you're 21, I'll give you a special no-smoking present. Say goodbye to Rover, he's heartbroken.
Bernard Chanticleer: Goodbye, Dog.
Margery Chanticleer: Don't eat too much, don't stay out too late, don't go to suspicious places to play cards, and stay away from girls. But most of all, Bernard, try to be happy.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

Goes Nowhere but Has a Good Time Going There

About 15 minutes into this quirky film I was ready to proclaim it a must see and to bill it as the best movie no one has seen or even heard about. After all it was Coppola's masters thesis for film school. It has Elizabeth Hartman successfully playing against type as a sexy (somewhat psycho) Greenwich Village ingénue. It has Peter Kastner, Rip Torn, Geraldine Page and Julie Harris playing characters more bizarre than anything in "Harold and Maude" (it reminds you a lot of that film and may have inspired it). It has Karen Black doing a toned down version of the Rayette Dipesto character she would play in "Five Easy Pieces". It has a lively sound track by the Lovin' Spoonful. It even has Coppola cutting in extensive gruesome footage from his first film "Dementia 13".

Unfortunately by the halfway point of "You're a Big Boy Now" it totally runs out of steam and you begin to understand that its obscurity is well-deserved. Coppola's script is the problem because the cast are generally excellent and you can tell they had a lot of fun making the film. Even minor cast members like Dolph Sweet do a good job and there are great little sequences like Kastner's after dark explorations of the New York City streets. But unlike "Herald and Maude", Coppola says nothing with this film; consequently it ends up as a classic case of the whole being considerably less than the sum of its parts.

I am not in love with Coppola as a director, but even those who are will acknowledge the incredible distance between his good stuff and the vast majority of his films. This is not his good stuff but is worth checking out if you like Hartman, Harris, and Page.