Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Mark Robson

Writers:

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (play)
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (screenplay)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

In this film we see how the members of a family react when the husband returns home, after he abandoned it seven years ago. |

Plot Keywords:

Homecoming | Jungle | Family Relationships | Independent Film | Based On Play

Cast

Rod Steiger	...	Harold Ryan
Susannah York	...	Penelope Ryan
George Grizzard	...	Dr. Norbert Woodley
Don Murray	...	Herb Shuttle
William Hickey	...	Looseleaf Harper
Steven Paul	...	Paul Ryan
Pamelyn Ferdin	...	Wanda June
Pamela Saunders	...	Mildred Ryan
Louis Turenne	...	Major von Koningswald
C.C. Whitney	...	Mrs. Kestenbaum
Lester Goldsmith	...	Mr. Kestenbaum (as Lester M. Goldsmith)

Also Known As:

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Happy Birthday, Wanda June (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Spain:T | USA:R

Company:

Red Lion

The Man Who Dropped The Bomb on Nagasaki

I'll be the third person to comment on this movie; seems like like an exclusive club. Anyway, this is a very strange movie; Vonnegut does black comedy and touches on ideas he put in "Slaughterhouse Five". I saw this movie about 20 years ago, late at night on television, and it says a lot that although it's never going to be in my top 50 list, every so often I recall it and smile. Steiger is an egotistical, Iron John type adventurer and explorer who abandoned his wife to go off exploring with his friend, played by William Hickey (who was the man who dropped the atom bomb on Nagasaki, not Hiroshima, as the previous person said) and was missing, presumed dead for 7 years. Steiger thinks he can just waltz back into everyone's lives again and they'll all come running to him, but the reality is very different. Interspersed with this are cut aways to a little girl in Heaven called Wanda June who never got her big birthday party while she was living. Memory has dulled why her character and story is significant. One of the funniest scenes is where Steiger and Hickey enter their favourite bar after years away and the bartender yells out "Hey! This is the guy that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki!": A Japanese businessman looks on with contempt and backs away but a bearded hippy says "wow, I always wanted to meet you, man!"