Play It As It Lays (1972)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Frank Perry

Writers:

Joan Didion (novel)
Joan Didion (screenplay)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Maria's life was a search for the ultimate answer even after she found there was none.

Plot:

A Hollywood actress undergoes a psychic breakdown and recalls the traumatic events which led to her stay at a sanitarium.

Plot Keywords:

Actress | Divorce | Director | Suicide | Abortion

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe.

Cast

Tuesday Weld	...	Maria Wyeth Lang
Anthony Perkins	...	B.Z.
Tammy Grimes	...	Helene
Adam Roarke	...	Carter
Ruth Ford	...	Carlotta
Eddie Firestone	...	Benny Austin
Diana Ewing	...	Susannah
Paul Lambert	...	Larry Kulik
Norman Foster	...	Abortionist
Chuck McCann	...	Abortionist's Assistant
Severn Darden	...	Hypnotist
Tony Young	...	Johnny Waters
Richard Anderson	...	Les Goodwin
Elizabeth Claman	...	The Chickie
Mitzi Hoag	...	Patsy

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:X | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Company:

F.P. Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ellie Parker (2005)

An American tragedy

I was 18 when I saw Frank Perry's Play It As It Lays during its brief opening run. It affected me powerfully. Blew me out like very few films ever have, actually. Completely intoxicating. I stumbled out into the afternoon sunlight afterwards rapt and bewildered, stunned and delighted, thoroughly alive. But in the years since I've never once met a single person who's even seen it, and the whole experience has become dreamlike and lost, a memory I'm no longer sure of.

However I did pounce on Joan Didion's blistering short novel when I found it. What a fine book! No wonder the effect of the film was so profound, telling that cruel, utterly remorseless story. (And of course I fell in love, fanboy-style, with Tuesday Weld, or perhaps more truly with Maria Wyeth, the doomed and heart-breakingly aware character she inhabited.)

But rather than attempt to analyse a film that plunged me in way out of my depth when I saw it 34 years ago, I simply want to add my voice to those of earlier and more capable reviewers calling for its release on DVD. It's exactly the sort of madly brilliant one-off that cries out for Criterion treatment. Well, mutters grumpily for it anyway.

And I'd most certainly like to recommend that if you ever do get the chance to see it, make sure you do. It might have vanished, but it always was an exceptionally interesting film, one of the very great "small" ones. Perhaps the best film Robert Altman never made.