OMG, Why didn't you people tell me how AMAZING the movie version of DESPERATE CHARACTERS with SHIRLEY MACLAINE is???

this is the best movie i've seen in AGES.

i think i'm gonna watch it again tonight.

i mean i loved the book but i don't think i even knew this existed. how could i have missed it for so long?

i think it's a masterpiece. and shirley herself is just a masterpiece. people will never make movies like this again. people wouldn't know how to make movies like this again.

every part is the good part.

sada thompson's apartment!! ahhhhhhhhh! that apartment and the way they film it! ahhhhhh! genius.

i was so gay for shirley watching this movie last night i couldn't even stand it. i wanted to jump up and down. i wanted to take a picture of every frame with my camera.

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Glad you liked it. I've mentioned it many times on ILX.

you have great taste!

One thing I always mention is Stanley Kauffmann's New Republic review--he put it in his Top 10 for the decade. I'll try to scan and post it tonight.

kinda wish i had The Only Game In Town on DVD. never seen it. frank gilroy did the screenplay. the last movie george stevens directed. with liz taylor and warren "i WISH i was even HALF as amazing as shirley maclaine" beatty.

frank gilroy should have directed more movies!

also wish i had The Subject Was Roses on dvd which i think i saw in the 80's on VHS but haven't seen since.

It's such a great downer film...Shirley MacLaine seems a million miles away through the whole film. I think I may have seen Roses on TV once ages ago, always meant to look at it again.

gilroy kinda the shadow larry gelbart. early t.v./plays/screenplays/etc

I've never seen this. Kenneth Mars!

i am so watching this tonight with maria. she's never seen it. maybe i'll do a double feature with the possession of joel delaney. early 70's shadow maclaine in nyc. i have that on dvd too.

it's one of the best book adaptations i've ever seen too. totally gets the dread/miscommunication vibe of the book. paula fox's masterpiece. (i've never read a paula fox book that can in any way compare to desperate characters...i haven't read them all though.) (just as her granddaughter courtney was born to make live through this, paula was born to write desperate characters.)

Yes, I read a few others and none of the quite lived up.

I've never seen this. Kenneth Mars!

― Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Saturday, June 11, 2016 5:32 PM (3 minutes ago)

Fun Fact: John Simon panned the film, reserving particular venom for Kenneth Mars performance, in a "How dare this comic actor play serious" way. This inspired Mars (with encouragement from director and fellow Simon target Peter Bogdanovich) to 'play' Simon as the asshole professor in What's Up Doc?.

Excellent, I could never work out what nationality Kenneth Mars was supposed to be in that film, isn't his character called Hugh?

... but then I had no idea John Simon was Hungarian/Serbian/Croatian/whatever.

Need to watch that one too, I guess.

Is there an acknowledged close second Paula Fox book? I liked Poor George a lot.

I liked the memoir too, Borrowed Finery. Feel liked a tried a few others but never finished them.

i feel bad that i could never find one that i liked as much as Desperate Characters. kinda like how i feel about all the other Penelope Fitzgerald books that are not The Bookshop and all the Christina Stead books that are not The Man Who Loved Children. but i love those three books a WHOLE lot.

A little hesitant to post Kauffmann's review--you couldn't write the same review today without risking, at best, 10,000 angry reader comments, or, at worst, your job (least of all in what was, in 1971, a decidedly liberal publication). I think it's a great review because it captures a great film. I didn't write it--direct your invective at Stanley Kauffmann's still relatively fresh corpse.

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Man that is some classic 60s white guy paranoia

also wish i had The Subject Was Roses on dvd which i think i saw in the 80's on VHS but haven't seen since.

― scott seward, Saturday, June 11, 2016 1:08 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is worth seeking out imo, I think I like it more than long day's journey into night, which its often compared to

I think it sporadically plays on tcm & id bet it may just be on youtube? idk

This on TV right now, so weird to see Kenneth Mars in a straight role, could have done without seeing his arse mind you. This makes four Shirley Maclaine films that have been on TV in the last few weeks - the others being The Apartment, Sweet Charity and Two Mules For Sister Sara - suits me fine.