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

Junie Moon's face has been disfigured by ill-gotten burns, and depends on her friends and her wit to cope. She, Warren, and Arthur leave the hospital - they yearn for independence - and ... See full summary »

Director:

Otto Preminger

Writers:

Marjorie Kellogg (novel), Marjorie Kellogg (screenplay)

Stars:

Liza Minnelli, Ken Howard, Robert Moore

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Liza Minnelli	...	Junie Moon
Ken Howard	...	Arthur
Robert Moore	...	Warren
James Coco	...	Mario
Kay Thompson	...	Miss Gregory
Fred Williamson	...	Beach Boy
Ben Piazza	...	Jesse
Emily Yancy	...	Solana
Leonard Frey	...	Guiles
Clarice Taylor	...	Minnie
James Beard	...	Sidney Wyner
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Paul Barstow	...	Schoolmaster
Ulla Bomser
Julie Bovasso	...	Ramona
Gina Collens	...	Lila (as Gina Collins)

Storyline

Junie Moon's face has been disfigured by ill-gotten burns, and depends on her friends and her wit to cope. She, Warren, and Arthur leave the hospital - they yearn for independence - and find a house to live in. Together they stumble into adventures involving the local fish vendor, nosy neighbors, surreptitious vacations, love, and frustration in finding jobs as they face subtle prejudices in their community, and their own particular medical problems.

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Plot Keywords:

neighbor | house | fish | hospital | nosy neighbor | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

GP

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 May 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dime que me amas, Junie Moon

Filming Locations:

Beverly, Massachusetts, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Otto Preminger Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Film debut of Robert Moore.

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Quotes

Junie Moon: Ah, mittens from Mario! Gracie, signore.

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Crazy Credits

The opening and closing credits roll over folk-singer Pete Seeger actually walking through the woods with his guitar and singing the film's theme song, "Old Devil Time".

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Connections

Featured in Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991)

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Soundtracks

"The Rake & Work Your Show"
Music by Philip Springer
Performed by Pacific Gas & Electric

User Reviews

A forgotten treasure.

This movie may not be on a list somewhere of Liza Minnelli's best films or Otto Preminger's or one of Kay Thompson(Liza's Godmom)or James Coco's best efforts. I do think it ranks high on a list of one of the best movies about introverts ever made. That it wasn't a box office or critical success doesn't matter. Nor that it did nothing to advance the careers of anyone connected to it.

But I think TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME, JUNIE MOON deserves a special place with audiences who love quirky movies that go where other movies dare not go. Think of Altman's BREWSTER McCLOUD or Hal Ashby's HAROLD AND MAUD, for instance. Movies that deal with characters most others would call misfits because they are different or eccentric.

One, for example, is a gay man. For a 1970 film, this is rare to say the least. But to make him a disabled gay man trapped in a wheel chair due to an accident is a revelation. I can't imagine another such character either before or since this film came along. Another revelation is a disfigured woman, played by Minnelli, and not seen on the screen in a leading role since Joan Crawford in Cukor's A WOMAN'S FACE. Both of these characters completely dominate JUNIE MOON. They are truly amusing in using their wit to cope with an unkind world. The third eccentric is an epileptic, played by Ken Howard. His performance is the weakest of the three and this, unfortunately, weakens the overall impact. Had this part been cast better, honors would have come its way to be sure. The scene where the handicapped guy can't negotiate the smallness of his bathroom is a gem. Another is the vacation scene where these three descend on a hapless hotel staff. Another where a naive woman is seduced by three hunky members of an art colony is captivating.

This movie sparked controversy because of a scene where two people are having sex in a cemetery. A real graveyard is used and relatives of the dead buried there balked and so a lawsuit ensued. But knowing this to be an Otto Preminger film...that is not so strange(recall THE MOON IS BLUE and MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM). Preminger ate up such controversy. No doubt such headlines added to his film's box office. JUNIE MOON is his weirdest movie, but far from his worst. None of the films after this one are even half as good. Even Saul Bass, whose title drawings are a trade mark for Preminger films, excels in it.

Judy Garland died while Liza was filming her part in this. A year later she began work on her greatest role, that of Sally Bowles in Fosse's CABARET. While both her roles in these films are about introverted and unstable vulnerable women...CABARET is the first where she gets to show her strongest suit: that of a musical performer whose star power is as good as her mother's. Her work in CABARET solidified her image as a singer and dancer the way FUNNY GIRL did it for Streisand. While TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME, JUNIE MOON may not be legendary, it still boasts having a legend in it.