Main Cast: Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, Dorothy Stickney, Estelle Parsons, Elizabeth Hubbard
Release Year: 1970
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Based on the play by Robert Anderson, I Never Sang for My Father is devoted to the prickly relationship between aged Tom Garrison (Melvyn Douglas) and his grown son Gene (Gene Hackman). A college professor who feels that he has never been fully accepted by his self-made dad, Gene announces that he is going to move from New York to marry a California divorcee. His mother (Dorothy Stickney) approves of the union but worries that her son's move will have a negative effect on the increasingly truculent Tom. When his mother dies just before the wedding, Gene is forced to help his father through his dark days. His sister (Estelle Parsons) urges her brother to break the ties for good and all--or else he'll wind up as bitter and withdrawn as their father. Gene realizes the wisdom of these words when he tries to reach out to his father during a vulnerable moment, only to have the crabby Tom tell him to get lost and leave him alone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Somber family melodramas with children and parents trying to understand and communicate with each other are a dime a dozen, unless you have a very compelling script or some wonderful actors. I Never Sang For My Father doesn't really have the former, but it makes up for it in spades on the latter. Gene Hackman as the son and Melvyn Douglas as the father deliver powerful performances as two barbed men trying to find each other amidst their own frustration and depression. Hackman garnered his second Academy Award nomination for his role (the first was for Bonnie and Clyde in 1967, and the following year he would win his first statuette for The French Connection). Douglas never got the sort of roles in films that he probably deserved. He was mostly known as a theater and then a television actor, and in fact he is one of the few people to win an Oscar (for both 1964's Hud and 1980's Being There), an Emmy, and a Tony Award. His career was also impaired by the anti-Communist blacklist of the early '50s. The director, Gilbert Cates, had worked largely in TV before this movie, and it shows -- in both the staged set-ups and the relentlessly depressive tone. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Conrad Bain - Rev. Pell; Lovelady Powell - Norma; Daniel Keyes - Dr. Mayberry; James Karen - Mr. Tucker, Old Age Home Director; Sloane Shelton - 2nd Nurse; Beverly Penberthy - Special Nurse; Jon Richards - Marvin Scott
Credit
Hank Aldrich - Art Director, Theoni V. Aldredge - Costume Designer, Gilbert Cates - Director, Angelo Ross - Editor, Al Gorgoni - Composer (Music Score), Barry Mann - Composer (Music Score), Cynthia Weil - Composer (Music Score), Cynthia Weil - Songwriter, Morris Hartzband - Cinematographer, George Stoetzel - Cinematographer, Gilbert Cates - Producer, Charles Federmack - Sound/Sound Designer, Robert Anderson - Play Author
