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TITLE Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970)

ALT__TITLE

DISABILITY Disfigurement  Epilepsy Limb

COUNTRY USA

LENGTH 112

GENRE Drama

DIRECTOR Otto Preminger

CAST Liza Minnelli

Ken Howard

Robert Moore

James Coco

Kay Thompson

Fred Williamson

Ben Piazza

NOTES Three people live together.

Minelli is facially scarred, Howard has epilepsy, Moore is in a

wheelchair (and is homosexual).

Funny, interesting film full of compassion for its characters.

One of Minnelli's good acting moments.

From novel by Marjorie Kellogg who adapted screenplay.

Additonal:

Liza Minnelli plays Junie Moon who is 23 years old and seriously burned down right side of face and arm. Just as she is about to leave hospital there is a flashback which reveals that her mother's boyfriend poured acid over her.
Another patient is Arthur who has somekind of weakness. He doesn't know what is wrong with him. Though he has fits he thinks it must be in his mind. A third ,Warren, is paraplegic and in a wheelchair. A flashback shows that he was accidentally shot.
The three of them decide to live together
When she goes out there are very obvious acts of rejection from the public.

She discovers a house which is boarded up. She doesn't appear to look inside and doesn't give a thought to accessibility. Nevertheless she decides this is the place for them. The house has been empty for 15 years. But in this nearly never-never land of the film they are able to rent the house from a rich eccentric woman.
In no time at all the place is made habitable.
Arthur wants his job back but his boss blames the company's attitude and gives him the brush-off.
Arthur doesn't want welfare after years of being supported by the state. He gets himself a job at a fishmongers. But later the fishmonger gets a phone call accusing Arthur of being a sodomist. He's fired and runs away. When they find him he has met a loveable sheep dog.

There is an air of fantasy to the film. They are invited to their landlady's house which is like something out of the Adam's family. She tries to get Arthur to walk saying it is only a matter of trying. This might come over better if it was satirising the idea that if we try hard enough we can do anything.
In the house we don't see how the one in the wheelchair copes with the toilet and dressing.

They invite a black woman (Minnie) to join them. Later she has to go back into hospital.
Mario, the fishmonger, pays for them to go on holiday. They stay in a seaside appartment. There Warren has a black boyfriend who carries him around in what I suggest is a humiliating fashion. We see Warren having a bath with help from Arthur --- he puts his own shorts on.

Arthur loves Junie but she can't take it. Her rejection causes him to have a seizure. And later by Arthur and Junie do sleep together.

Warren wants black guy but ends up with the black woman (I may have got this wrong).

They have to leave the appartment when Arthur becomes 'ill'. Arthur dies but there is an up-beat ending as the singer serenades us.
An interesting but not satisfactory film because while it does portray some of the difficulties the group encounter it avoids others. The dialogue is stilted and stagey but generally the performances are good especially Liza Minnelli.

Quotes from the film:
Warren in the wheelchair "The truth is that most people who work in hospitals can't stand the sick."
Arthur says "We're all freaks so don't try to steal the show."

Junie says " . . . a freak like me."
Arthur says "We're all freaks so don't try to steal the show."

 


Notes

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