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, RoviReview
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, RoviCast
- Jessica Lange - Frances Farmer
- Kim Stanley - Lillian Farmer
- Sam Shepard - Harry York
- Bart Burns - Ernest Farmer
- Jeffrey DeMunn - Clifford Odets
Credit
Charles B. Mulvehill - Art Director, Ida Random - Art Director, Charles B. Mulvehill - Associate Producer, Elisabeth Leustig - Casting, Marie Yates - Co-producer, Pat Norris - Costume Designer, William P. Scott - First Assistant Director, Ed Milkovich - First Assistant Director, Graeme Clifford - Director, John Wright - Editor, John Barry - Composer (Music Score), Richard Sylbert - Production Designer, Laszlo Kovacs - Cinematographer, Ivan Strasburg - Cinematographer, Mel Brooks - Producer, Jana Sue Memel - Producer, Charles B. Mulvehill - Producer, Jonathan Sanger - Producer, Emad Helmey - Set Designer, David Ronne - Sound/Sound Designer, Christopher de Vore - Screenwriter, Nicholas Kazan - Screenwriter, Eric Bergren - Screenwriter| France in Arms (1917 Film), France Société Anonyme (1974 Film) | |
| Frances Steloff: Memoirs of a Bookseller (1987 Film), Frances, A Mother Divine (2007 Film) |
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