Main Cast: William Converse-Roberts, Hallie Foote, Michael Higgins, Steven Hill, Richard Jenkins, Carol Goodheart
Release Year: 1986
Country: US
Run Time: 106 minutes
Plot
A prequel to Horton Foote's 1918, On Valentine's Day was filmed in 1984, then held back from release till 1986. On the titular day, Elizabeth Vaughn (Hallie Foote, Horton's daughter) and Horace Robedeaux (William Converse-Roberts) elope. Horace stubbornly refuses to ask for financial assistant from his parents or in-laws, so the penniless couple is compelled to live in an inexpensive boarding house. Their fellow tenants are the usual assortment of eccentrics, including alcoholic Bobby Pate (Richard Jenkins), spinster Miss Ruth (Carol Goodheart), heartbroken George Tyler (Steven Hill) and garrulous young Bessie (Jeanne McCarthy). After several months of enduring the woes of the other boarders, Horace swallows his pride and agrees to allow father-in-law Michael Higgins to support him and Elizabeth. There's a reconciliation, but one tinged with the premonition that Horace and Elizabeth aren't out of the woods yet. Together with Portrait of a Marriage (never released theatrically), On Valentine's Day and 1918 were later reedited and incorporated into a Horton Foote TV trilogy on the PBS network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Jeanne McCarthy - Bessie; Matthew Broderick - Brother Vaughn; Rochelle Oliver - Mrs. Vaughn; Horton Foote - Steve Tyler; Tim Green - Sheriff; Irma P. Hall - Aunt Charity; Ed Holmes - Ned; Oskar Kelly - Old Black Man; Bill McGhee - Sam; Peyton Park - Dr. Goodhue; Jack Gould - Baptist Preacher; Artist Thorton - Young Black Man
Credit
Howard Cummings - Art Director, Van Broughton Ramsey - Costume Designer, Ken Harrison - Director, Nancy Baker - Editor, Jonathan Sheffer - Composer (Music Score), Carla Palmer Rulien - Makeup, George Tirl - Cinematographer, Lillian Foote - Producer, Lidsay Law - Producer, Peter Newman - Producer, Calvin Skaggs - Producer, Ross E. Milloy - Producer, Lewis M. Allen - Producer, Donna Su Schiller - Set Designer, Horton Foote - Screen Story, Horton Foote - Screenwriter, Horton Foote - Play Author
