What the hell happened to Pookie?

this

She shoulda won that year! I love Maggie S too but Liza's extended phone call sequence is heartbreaking.

Pookie BUMP

Well, she didn't go home and sit all alone in her room.

"The Sterile Cuckoo" is a good book. Since the OP wants to know "what the hell happened" to Pookie I will tell him. This is a SPOILER so read no further if you don't want to spoil the ending of the book.

Realizing that she and Jerry's love affair is ending she tells Jerry she's leaving school and going home "for good." He accompanies her to the train station and she gives him her memorable speech about how "all good things in life take place in a minute...I mean, all added up", before leaving him forever. Almost a year later Jerry receives a short note from Pookie, telling him she has some sleeping pills and has decided to take them "lock, stock and barrel", and by the time he gets her note she'll be a "crumbled cookie." She ends the note by telling him "I don't expect you to do anything; I just wanted to say goodbye to someone. And after all, I never did in Grand Central that morning, you know. You will think of me sometimes, won't you?"

Jerry thinks of investigating to see if Pookie really did end up committing suicide, but decides against it: "Better to let the matter rest as I'm sure Pookie would have wanted it to; never knowing for sure, always curious, always wondering, always tempted to enquire."

The book ends with Jerry thinking "For I like to think that perhaps one day in the far, far future I will most assuredly hear that she did not take her life, and has now become a famous writer or movie actress, or the wife of a famous athlete, living the quotable life she mentioned to me on the day I fell in love with her...but still and always Pookie, forever telling her stories to strangers."

R2 I'm surprised that Liza didn't have the sympathy vote, since her mother had just died several months before.

"Come Saturday Morning" by the Sandpipers

The Sterile Cuckoo (released in the UK as Pookie) is a 1969 American comedy-drama film released by Paramount Pictures that tells the story of an eccentric, young couple whose relationship deepens despite their differences and inadequacies. It stars Liza Minnelli, Wendell Burton, and Tim McIntire.

The film received two Academy Awards nominations for the 42nd Academy Awards: Liza Minnelli for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and; Fred Karlin and Dory Previn's song "Come Saturday Morning" for Best Original Song.

The film was well-received by critics, and holds an 88% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. It grossed $13,982,357 at the North American box office making it the 13th highest-grossing film of 1969.

Liza's co-star, Wendell Burton, died on May 30, 2017 at the age of 69. Tim McIntire died on April 15, 1986 at the age of 41. Liza is still kicking at 73.

OMG, R6 - I wasn't expecting an answer...a REAL answer.

That's very dark. No wonder they left it out of the movie.

I need to take this in.

Pookie, I'm hawny.

"The Sterile Cuckoo" is one movie I'd like to see remade. Done right, it could really be something, especially if they keep the novel's very sad but very affecting ending.

R12, I think Anne Hathaway would be the perfect Pookie

Pookie would have to be black. It's woke Hollywood after all.

Younger Toni Collette looks heaps like Lizsha, same big bovine eyes, hippy body, and awkward mouthiness. Plus they can both sing... I always thought she'd be a good choice for a Liza biopic. But I also think a younger her would have been great for Pookie!

[quote]especially if they keep the novel's very sad but very affecting ending.

I don't know if they'd do that. It's too depressing and uncommercial.

& please God, don't use that fucking song again in the remake.

R16 that song was nominated for an Oscar.

Many shit songs have been nominated for an Oscar, this is clearly one of them.

A great performance in a great film. I like to think Pookie found a male version of herself and was just fine later in life. There were lots of her out there.

I got the DVD of this movie (don't know if you can stream it) - they should have fucking got Liza to do a commentary. There were NO extras.

[quote] I like to think Pookie found a male version of herself

She hated herself too much to end up with someone like herself. That's why she fell for Gerry, he was the opposite of her.

I don't think she killed herself. She thought she could get him back that way. She wasn't THAT unhappy.

She probably ended up in New York City in some crumby railroad apartment on the lower east side, with tons of cats.

I see Liza as Pookie was doing that too long sleeve covering the hands look decades before millennium girls made it popular.

I remember reading that Judy did not want Liza to play Pookie because the character was too dark and psychotic. I guess Judy feared they would think Liza was like the character and that she made Liza that way.

Shit, Amazon Prime actually charges $9.99 for that decades old movie. WTF! I saw it once a long time ago but I think it was cut because it was on regular TV. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. I saw this clip of Liza singing It Was a Good Time on the Judy thread and now I'm obsessed with her, at least the young her.

For you, R16

The Sterile Cuckoo: Landmark, wonderful movie, heartbreakingly and beautifully acted. Liza and Wendell were perfect. Come Saturday Morning, lovely, touching theme song.

Did appearing in Fortune and Men's Eyes kill Wendell Burton's career?

[quote] Come Saturday Morning, lovely, touching theme song.

Actually, it wasn't that bad, but they over-used it. Liza wanted them to use a Harry Nilsson song in the movie, who was breaking out then. Apparently she played his records all the time whilst on location.

The lyric "Just I and my friend" really grates on my nerves!

"I don't think she killed herself. She thought she could get him back that way. She wasn't THAT unhappy."

Anyone who read the book would realize that committing suicide is exactly the thing Pookie WOULD end up doing. Despite her frenetic behavior and never ceasing motormouth it's obvious that she's masquerading the fact that she's deeply unhappy and painfully lonely. And then there's her speech about how all the "good things" in life take place in "a minute" , which indicates her very dismal outlook on life. Pookie was very depressed, but hid it well (a lot of depressives hide their real emotions well) with her kooky and eccentric behavior. At the end of the novel, she's alone again, back in her parent's house (she does not have a good relationship with them), a college drop out. She has nothing and nobody. It's no wonder she ended up taking all her pills "lock, stock and barrel."

[quote]back in her parent's house (she does not have a good relationship with them)

I thought her mother died giving birth to her, "my first victim"

R23, Liza says the opposite, that Judy told her to go for it, it was the kind of role Judy herself wanted to play. Which one can imagine. Who knows which version is true but I prefer Liza's.

"I thought her mother died giving birth to her, "my first victim".

In the novel she told Jerry that her letter to him was"in effect, my suicide note; I couldn't bear writing it to my bigluvulating parents, God bless 'em both." I guess in the novel she has both parents. But as I recall, in the movie she has no compunction about lying, so maybe that tale of her "killing" her mother was just one of them. I also remember her lying to a nun (!) in order to sit next to Jerry on a bus, telling the poor sister that she and Jerry are brother and sister and they'd recently lost their mother: "he loved her very much." That Pookie!

What does 'bigluvulating' mean?

R12 why do you think The Sterile Cuckoo needs a remake? Was it not very good? I never saw the film.

Pookie went to become a top star of stage and screen, won an Oscar and many other prizes, and then fell into the Valley of the Dolls. Sad, sad, sad.

Pookie is a great rendition of a borderline personality. If they don't kill themselves on purpose or accidentally through reckless behavior, many of them gain self-insight and get better in their 40s and 50s.

"What does 'bigluvulating' mean?"

I have no idea. I figured it was a word Pookie had made up. That would have been just like her.

Did they ever do a B'way musical version of the film? If not I think it would make a great musical, if they got a very powerful young actress to play Pookie.

"Why do you think The Sterile Cuckoo needs a remake? Was it not very good? I never saw the film."

The best thing about the movie was Liza Minnelli's performance. I'd like to see a new version that more closely resembles the novel. In the novel Jerry was not nearly as bland.

If I was reading this thread and had never seen the movie I'd never get the fact that the movie was so funny. It's as funny as it's sad...and that's all down to Liza, though he was pretty good as her straight man. Also it was beautifully filmed, in beautiful locations.

Those cottages where they go for their liaisons are still there and you can still rent them. I used to have the link.

Found it!

There's even a plaque now >

Read this (@ link) - on location, 1968

The cottages on street view >

If they remade it with a black cast it would have to be Cousin Pookie.