Me, Natalie (1969)

A young woman struggles for independence.

Director:

Fred Coe

Writers:

A. Martin Zweiback (screenplay), Stanley Shapiro (story),

Stars:

Patty Duke, James Farentino, Martin Balsam

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Patty Duke	...	Natalie Miller
James Farentino	...	David Harris
Martin Balsam	...	Uncle Harold
Elsa Lanchester	...	Miss Dennison
Salome Jens	...	Shirley Norton
Nancy Marchand	...	Mrs. Miller
Philip Sterling	...	Mr. Miller
Deborah Winters	...	Betty
Ron Hale	...	Stanley Dexter (as Ronald Hale)
Bob Balaban	...	Morris
Matthew Cowles	...	Harvey Belman
Ann Thomas	...	Mrs. Schroder
Al Pacino	...	Tony
Catherine Burns	...	Hester
Robbi Morgan	...	Natalie, Age 7 (as Robyn Morgan)

Storyline

Since she was a child, Natalie Miller has always thought she was an ugly ducking. Despite her mother's encouragement that she will grow up to be pretty, Natalie has never believed it will happen. She rents a Greenwich Village apartment from an eccentric landlady and gets a job at the Topless Bottom Club. She rides a motorcycle to work, decorates her loft with a moose head, and rides up and down a dumbwaiter to get to her apartment. There Natalie meets David an artist, and the two have a love affair before she discovers he is married.

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Plot Keywords:

landlady | artist | motorcycle | waitress | manhattan new york city | 

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Taglines:

I guess I really didn't need help finding a husband... what I needed was help finding myself. That's really why I left home, mama. I figured the best way to find out who I really am is to stop being what you want me to be and start being what I want me to be...

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

M

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 February 1970 (Norway)

Also Known As:

Genç kizlar uyanin

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinema Center Films, Nob Hill Productions Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Frequently missed shot: Mom tells Patty Duke's character it'd be nice if she came over for dinner, cooked a chicken (i.e., wants her to be more 'normal'). Her response is that it'll be a cold day in hell before she's so conventional. In the final shot of the film, Patty is riding a motor scooter in downtown New York, going to visit her mom, hoping to reconcile. There's a plucked chicken in the basket on the back of the scooter.

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Soundtracks

"We"
Lyrics by Rod McKuen
Music by Henry Mancini
Performed by Rod McKuen, and Chorus

User Reviews

We, Natalie

I remember going into Center City Philadelphia with a friend and walking along Chestnut Street right past a line of hippies waiting to get into Easy Rider. Of course, we went to see Patty Duke as we were fans of her TV show. I enjoyed the That Girl mixed with pathos. Yes, it was a tad preachy but the golden girl attracting trouble, a little schadenfreude on Patty's part? But, all too soon, Patty became involved with the wrong man, too. There was a lot of good in the movie for us young girls to see. Natalie graduating from school, getting a job and her own place complete with the bed cut of a bathtub seemed preferable to doing the deed in a New Orleans graveyard as in Easy Rider.