The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Paul Newman

Writers:

Alvin Sargent (screenplay)
Paul Zindel (play)

Release Date:

1 February 1974 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Mother of the Year.

Plot:

From the Pullizer Prize winning play by Paul Zindel, this is the story of Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters...

Plot Keywords:

Classified Ad | Science Fair | Cheerleading | Wheelchair | Epilepsy

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Joanne Woodward	...	Beatrice
Nell Potts	...	Matilda
Roberta Wallach	...	Ruth
Judith Lowry	...	Nanny
David Spielberg	...	Mr. Goodman
Richard Venture	...	Floyd
Carolyn Coates	...	Mrs. McKay
Will Hare	...	Junk Man
Estelle Omens	...	Caroline
Jess Osuna	...	Sonny
Ellen Dano	...	Janice Vickery
Lynne Rogers	...	Miss Hanley
Roger Serbagi	...	Charlie
John Lehne	...	Apartment Manager
Michael Kearney	...	Chris Burns

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Certain dialog from Paul Zindel's play remained in the script for the movie. Even though the movie was filmed in Bridgeport, Connecticut, certain references to the location of the play, which takes place in Staten Island, New York (Zindel's hometown) remain. Ruth mentions "Prince's Bay" when reading a classified ad about some property for sale, and Matilda tells her mother that a photographer is going to take pictures of the Science Fair finalists for "The Advance". Prince's Bay is a neighborhood located on the South Shore of Staten Island, and the Staten Island Advance is the local newspaper.

Quotes:

Beatrice: Matilda, go fetch your sister before she gets pregnant.

A Truly Wonderful Film

"This is an adaptation of Paul Zindel's wonderful but tormented play. This play itself is compelling and has a kind of Tennessee Williams flavor; especially "The Glass Menagerie" and "A Streetcar Named Desire". The adaptation is very successful as the production designer (Gene Callahan) manages to transfer the book's psychologically oppressive ambiance to film; "shame hangs in the air of this house" like a cloud of poison gas.

Director Paul Newman gets performances from his cast that pull together parallel stories of how a "strong, strange, and beautiful" flower can unexpectedly spring from an environmental wasteland. His most difficult task is restraining or masking Joanne Woodward's earthy likability so that we waste little sympathy on her character. But using Woodward as the mother allowed him to get a once-in-a-lifetime performance from their daughter (Nell Potts as Matilda-Tillie in the play). Potts abandoned acting after this movie but her ethereal take on Matilda is right on the money and a big reason why the film works so well.

This is really just a story about Matilda's science fair project in which marigold seeds are subjected to varying amounts of gamma ray radiation (the independent variable in her experiment). Those flowers receiving a moderate amount of radiation bloom in amazing and wonderful ways. However, those flowers subjected to additional radiation either have their growth stunted or whither and die.

Meanwhile Tillie and her older sister Ruth are living an analogous story with their mother Beatrice in an extremely emotionally abusive household. In the play it is stated that Beatrice is insane but not how or why she became this way. In the movie the viewer soon reaches this same conclusion. Older daughter Ruth (an amazing performance by Eli Wallach's daughter Roberta) maintains a fairly normal lifestyle at school, she is a majorette and popular but is very selfish and demanding of attention. Notably she is also an epileptic, which is subtly significant because it is analogous to receiving an excessive amount of radiation. Tillie is very different (analogous to receiving a moderate amount of radiation), seemingly shy and withdrawn, she is actually very independent and has found an outlet from the family in her science projects. This outlet serves as a protective niche in which she can bloom.

A truly great scene is Matilda's acceptance speech at the science fair. She explains the results of her project and really lays out the main theme of the story for the viewer. Watch as she mentions how excessive radiation causes dwarf plants, at that point they cut to a closeup of Ruth in the audience. Both the experiment and the family illustrate that while a reasonable degree of adversity can actually be beneficial, too much of the same adversity will poison life.

While this would be a good film if focused solely on Matilda, it is elevated to extraordinary because Newman chooses to also make Ruth a central part of the story. The conventional "movie-way" to tell this story would be to make it an inspirational tale of triumphing over adversity; of free-will overcoming destiny. But fortunately Newman elects to show both sides of the story, in Ruth he shows someone who never has a chance, who cannot recognize her destiny or ever hope to overcome it.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.