• Rating:
• Genre: Drama
• Movie Type: Showbiz Drama, Biography
• Themes: Mental Illness, Wrongly Committed, Mothers and Daughters
• Director: Graeme Clifford
• Main Cast: Robert Harris, Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, Sam Shepard, Bart Burns, Jeffrey DeMunn
• Release Year: 1982
• Country: US
• Run Time: 140 minutes
• MPAA Rating: R

Plot

As played by Jessica Lange, Frances Farmer is a rebel from the word go, winning a high school essay award by writing a piece in defense of Communism. Determining to become an actress, Frances is equally determined not to play the Hollywood game: she refuses to acquiesce to idiotic publicity stunts, and insists upon appearing on screen sans makeup. Her defiance attracts the attention of Broadway playwright Clifford Odets, who convinces Frances that her future rests with the Group Theatre. But once she leaves Hollywood for New York, Frances learns to her chagrin that the Group intends to exploit her movie fame in order to draw in customers. Her desperate attempts to restart her movie career, combined with her increasing dependence on alcohol and the pressures brought to bear by her monster mother (Kim Stanley), result in a complete mental breakdown. Even while institutionalized, Frances is abused by the powers-that-be; she is forced to undergo an injurious brain operation, is treated like a mad animal, and periodically raped by the inmates. Frances is released in the custody of her mother, who persists in browbeating her tortured daughter until Frances discovers the legal means to break away. The real-life Frances spent her last years as host of a local Indianapolis TV program, dying in 1970 at age 57; the film comes to a climax when Frances is feted on the smarmy network program This is Your Life. Other actual personages depicted herein include Clifford Odets (played by Jeffrey DeMunn), Harold Clurman (Jordan Charney) and Ralph Edwards (Donald Craig). Frances' first husband Leif Erickson is fictionalized as "Jeffrey York", and played by Lange's real-life inamorata Sam Shepard. And if you listen closely, you'll hear the voice of Kevin Costner, whose minor role was whittled down to one line when he, like Frances Farmer, had the temerity to argue with the director. The unhappy life of actress Frances Farmer was also covered in Farmer's autobiography, Will There Ever Be a Morning? While the film rights for that book were sold to a TV-movie concern, the producers of the theatrical feature Frances were able to ship their production out to the public first. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Review

Graeme Clifford's exceedingly mediocre film on the tragic life of actress Frances Farmer provided the breakthrough role for Jessica Lange, who gives one of the finest performances of the decade. Whether one accepts the filmmakers' notion that Farmer was a great actress and the tragic victim of a retrograde Hollywood, incapable of handling a very smart, troubled, and willful woman, there's seems little doubt that her nightmarishly repressive mother and a brutal, benighted mental health system share the blame for destroying her once-vibrant personality. Unfortunately, Clifford adds insult to injury in turning the actress' life into a tedious, superficial soap opera, devoid of logic or perspective. Aside from Farmer, all of the characters, including her mother, are painfully underdeveloped, none more so than Harry York (Sam Shepard), a character invented by the writers to inject some romance into a tale of nearly unrelieved misery. Yet the film's existence can be justified on the basis of Lange's virtuoso performance, a miracle of intelligence, toughness, and sensitivity in a part whose emotional and physical demands left the actress drained for months afterwards. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

Cast

• Jessica Lange - Frances Farmer
• Kim Stanley - Lillian Farmer
• Sam Shepard - Harry York
• Bart Burns - Ernest Farmer
• Jeffrey DeMunn - Clifford Odets
• Robert Harris

Jordan Charney - Harold Clurman; Allan Rich - Bebe; Christopher Pennock - Dick Steele; Sarah Cunningham - Alma Styles; Jonathan Banks - Hitchhiker; James Brodhead - Sergeant; J.J. Chaback - Lady in Hotel; Daniel Chodes - Director; Rod Colbin - Judge; Kevin Costner; Donald Craig - Ralph Edwards; Lee de Broux - Director; Anne Haney - Hairdresser; Anjelica Huston; James Karen - Judge; Darrell Larson - Spy; Gerald O'Loughlin - Doctor; Woodrow Parfrey - Dr. Parfrey; John Randolph - Judge; Jack Riley - Barnes; Lane Smith - Dr. Symington; Andrew Winner - Firechief; Biff Yeager - Cop; Keone Young - Doctor; Alexander Zale - Man in Screening Room; Jack Manning - Photographer; Sandra Seacat - Drama Teacher; David Schroeder - Lawyer; Rod Pilloud - Martoni; Nancy Foy - Autograph Girl; Larry Pines - Man on Phone; Vern Taylor - Executive; Bonnie Bartlett - Stylist; Richard L. Hawkins - Bum

Credit

John Barry - Composer (Music Score); Mel Brooks - Producer; Graeme Clifford - Director; Christopher de Vore - Screenwriter; Nicholas Kazan - Screenwriter; Laszlo Kovacs - Cinematographer; Jana Sue Memel - Producer; Charles B. Mulvehill - Art Director; Charles B. Mulvehill - Producer; Pat Norris - Costume Designer; Ida Random - Art Director; Jonathan Sanger - Producer; Ivan Strasburg - Cinematographer; Richard Sylbert - Production Designer; John Wright - Editor; William P. Scott - First Assistant Director; David Ronne - Sound/Sound Designer; Eric Bergren - Screenwriter; Emad Helmey - Set Designer; Ed Milkovich - First Assistant Director

Similar Movies

The Comic; Committed; Inside Daisy Clover; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; The Perils of Pauline; The Snake Pit; Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story; From the Journals of Jean Seberg; Introducing Dorothy Dandridge; Centre Stage; Quitting; Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows; The Mystery of Natalie Wood; Ma vie en Cinemascope

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

frances flag