Main Cast: Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg, Peter Fonda, Kim Hunter, Anne Meacham, Jessica Walter, Gene Hackman
Release Year: 1964
Country: US
Run Time: 114 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Vincent Bruce (Warren Beatty) is a Korean War veteran who becomes an occupational therapist in a private mental hospital that cares for wealthy, schizophrenic clientele. He slowly begins to fall for Lilith Arthur (Jean Seberg), a patient who is mentally locked in her own little world. Vincent eventually begins his own psychological disintegration over his feelings for the woman and asks for help. Watch for early career performances from Olympia Dukakis and Gene Hackman in this depressing psychodrama. This was the final film from the gifted director Robert Rossen, who died in 1966. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
Review
Considered by some to be an underappreciated masterpiece, Lilith is more accurately described as an admirably ambitious film whose considerable reach unfortunately exceeds its grasp. Those who are willing to cut the film slack due to its ambitions may be amply rewarded, but it's hard for even them to deny that Lilith is deeply flawed. Primary blame (or credit) must rest with writer/director Robert Rossen, whose adaptation of the J.R. Salamanca novel is muddled, fuzzy, and frequently ponderous. Even so, there are bits that break through like lightning, providing brief moments of dazzling illumination, but these are too few and far between. Equally problematic is Warren Beatty's performance, which is consciously removed and distant (as befits the character) but still lethargic and uninvolving. Much better is Jean Seberg, who is alluring, intriguing, dazzling, frustrating, and maddening -- sometimes all at once. There's also an excellent cameo from Gene Hackman and very good work from Peter Fonda and Jessica Walter. These performances -- plus Eugene Schuftan's enigmatic, white-drenched cinematography -- help, but ultimately Lilith never becomes the film it intends to. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
James Patterson - Dr. Lavrier; Robert Reilly - Bob Clayfield; René Auberjonois - Howie; Lucy Smith - Vincent's Grandmother; Maurice Brenner - Mr. Gordon; Jeanne Barr - Miss Glassman; Richard Higgs - Mr. Palakis; Ruth Baker; Ben Carruthers - Benito; Olympia Dukakis; Edith Fellows; Harvey Jason; Elizabeth Lawrence; Robert Miller; Harry Northrup; Tina Rome; Alice Spivak - Lonely Girl; Charles Tyner; Gwen van Dam; Kathleen Phelan - Lonely Girl's Mother; Bruce Powers; Gordon Phillips; Robert Dahdah; Cynthia McAdams; Sonia Zomina
Credit
Ruth Morley - Costume Designer, Robert Rossen - Director, Aram Avakian - Editor, Kenyon Hopkins - Composer (Music Score), Kenyon Hopkins - Musical Direction/Supervision, Irving Buchman - Makeup, Robert Jiras - Makeup, Bill Herman - Makeup, Joe Coffey - Camera Operator, Richard Sylbert - Production Designer, Eugen Schüftan - Cinematographer, Robert Rossen - Producer, Gene Callahan - Set Designer, James Shields - Sound/Sound Designer, Richard Vorisek - Sound/Sound Designer, Robert Rossen - Screenwriter, J.R. Salamanca - Book Author
Set in a private mental institution, it tells of a trainee occupational therapist Vincent Bruce (Beatty) who becomes dangerously obsessed with a seductive, very able, schizophrenic patient Lilith Arthur (Seberg).
After engineering the suicide of another patient (Fonda) out of jealousy for his crush on Lilith, Bruce presents himself for psychiatric help to his superiors.
Reputation
In The New Biographical Dictionary of FilmDavid Thomson describes Lilith as "an oddity, the only one of [Rossen's] films that seems passionate, mysterious and truly personal. The other films will look increasingly dated and self-contained, but Lilith may grow."[1]
It has since been considered "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" before "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (and with women patients).
References
^ David Thomson The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002, London: Little, Brown, p760.
