The Amputee (1974)

A double leg amputated woman sits and writes a long meandering letter while her ineffective nurse attempts to attend to her stumps.

Director:

David Lynch

Writer:

David Lynch

Stars:

Catherine E. Coulson, David Lynch

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Catherine E. Coulson	...	Amputee (as Catherine Coulson)
David Lynch	...	Nurse

Storyline

In this plotless 5 minute short, Catherine Coulson plays a legless double-amputee who, throughout the film, is going over a letter she is writing. She makes marks on the letter, and we hear a voice-over of her reading through it. The letter is a sort of mini soap opera; she writes about things happening among a group of her acquaintances, about feelings, about who said certain offensive or endearing things. Very quickly, the droning monotony of Coulson's letter becomes a background noise which gets lost in the actions of her nurse, played by David Lynch. Lynch enters after a minute or so in a nurse costume, his hair in a long ponytail flipped over one shoulder. He begins readying his instruments, then unwraps one of Coulson's stumps. He snips away at something in the wound, probably stitches, though it sounds like he's cutting thick wire. He uses a sort of syringe to flush the wound with water and has a rubber ball that works like a turkey baster to suck fluid out of the wound. ...

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Plot Keywords:

letter | wound | nurse | double amputee | two word title | 

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Genres:

Short | Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Also Known As:

Kaleka

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

9 min (original)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Woman with amputation to the legs: This isn't what I am telling you. You weren't in the room when Jim said that. And I was. And he really did. He told me that everything was fine between Helen and him. And I knew that even if he didn't say it, that it was true. He knew it then. No one else did. You maybe thought you did but I knew you didn't. And it makes me furious when you tell me I didn't know about Helen. She was my best friend. She even told me about that time she drank gin with you. So maybe now you'll believe me. After ...

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Connections

Edited into The Short Films of David Lynch (2002)

User Reviews

2 versions

Amputee, The (1974) Version 1

*** (out of 4)

Amputee, The (1974) Version 2

** 1/2 (out of 4)

David Lynch's fourth film has a woman (Catherine E. Coulson) with no legs writing a letter to a lover while a nurse (Lynch) does weird things to her stumps. It should come as no shock but here's another very strange film from the director. It's weird because while your ears are listening to what the woman has to say, your eyes never leave her stumps where all sorts of weird things are going on. I'm sure this short will offend many people and it's this offensiveness that makes the film so effective. The goo coming from her stump has to be seen. The second version runs a minute shorter and doesn't appear to have as much being done to her stumps.