Second Serve (1986) (TV)

Director:

Anthony Page

Writers:

John Ames (novel)
Gavin Lambert (writer)

Release Date:

13 May 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Sport

Plot:

Fact-based story about tennis pro Renee Richards, whose player status was challenged in 1976 when it was revealed that she was a transsexual...

Plot Keywords:

Transsexual | Tennis | Sex Change | Based On Book | Based On Novel

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Vanessa Redgrave	...	Richard Radley / Renee Richards
Martin Balsam	...	Dr. Beck
William Russ	...	Josh
Alice Krige	...	Gwen
Kerrie Keane	...	Meriam
Richard Venture	...	Dr. David Radley
Reni Santoni	...	Dr. Roberto Granato
Louise Fletcher	...	Dr. Sadie M. Bishop
Jeff Corey	...	Dr. Harry Benjamin
Alan Feinstein	...	Bill
Nina Van Pallandt	...	Danielle
Michael Cavanaugh	...	Gene Scott
Kenneth Tigar	...	Ross
Alison La Placa	...	Nightclub singer
Ray Girardin	...	Grigsby

Also Known As:

I Change My Life

Runtime:

USA:120 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Lorimar Telepictures

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Ugly Betty: Brothers (#1.15)" (2007)

aka I Change my Life

Vanessa Redgrave's follow up project with producer Linda Yellen after Playing for Time. Here She is New York opthalmologist Richard Radley who has a sex change operation to become Renee Richards, and earns fame as a champion female tennis player. Redgrave's largeness - her height, broad shoulders, wide hips, flat chest, and large feet help in making Richard in drag look unlike a woman, and Redgrave lowers her natural speaking voice. This disparity, brave for an actress playing a male transexual, carries over after Richard becomes Rene, and although she is legally a woman and is heterosexual, her presence retains the memory of her change. The moment of Rene's first romantic kiss with a man is handled particularly delicately.

The teleplay by Stephanie Liss and Gavin Lambert, based on the autobiography by Richards with James Ames, has Richard define his predicament as "gender confusion", having "a woman inside of him raging to get out", and a "compulsive disorder", and clinically defined as a "compartmentalised psychosis". We are presented with a scenario of a strong mother and weak father, with Richard as a child dressed by his mother as a girl and being "pleased" by the attention he got, as his reasons for cross-dressing. However one doctor explans it simply - "When the spirit refuses to fit the body, why not make the body fit the spirit". Richard's path to the operation is so convulated that when it is finally done, the news is announced with little fuss. Director Anthony Page has echoed voices in flashbacks, a drag queen singing Put the Blame on Mame with a gag at the end when he uses his own deep voice, and montages of previous scenes in times of stress. He intercuts between Renee's tennis match and her trial where she sued the tennis organisers for discrimination, and makes use of the subtle music score of Brad Fiedel.