Liza Minelli in The Sterile Cuckoo

Love it!

Sorry, should be Minnelli.

[quote]Any fans of this film?

Are you fucking kidding? Tons of us.

I adore it - but that song! Eeeek!

I'm sure it's still in your head OP.

I love the Come Saturday Morning song. I thought it was perfect for the film.

It was OK they just played it too much, a second song would have been a good idea.

I've heard people say (usually Diana Ross fans) that she only won the Oscar for CABARET because she was the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli (i.e., Hollywood royalty).

However, that doesn't explain why Liza didn't win the Oscar three years earlier for THE STERILE CUCKOO, since that movie was released four months after Garland's death. One would think she would have the sympathy vote. Not to mention that she also gave a great performance in a hit film that spawned a hit single. CUCKOO was also a much bigger hit than was THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, which won Best Actress (Maggie Smith).

I remember watching this on TV when I was a kid, and it just devastated me. I thought it was one of the saddest movies I'd ever seen.

I have it on DVD, watched it many times. Crazy Pookie and all the WEIRDOS!

[quote] Not to mention that she also gave a great performance in a hit film that spawned a hit single.

I didn't know the single was a hit. Liza did a version on her "hit" album.

There's a "spoken" break you gurls will love.

That was a top year for Best Song nominations. Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head, which was a mega-hit, won, but the others were Jean, True Grit by Glen Campbell and the absolutely gorgeous What are You Doing the Rest of Your Life.

I saw it when it came out when I was in high school. Indelible performance by Liza.

[quote]and the absolutely gorgeous What are You Doing the Rest of Your Life.

But the film it came from didn't work.

I think it's in my top ten of all time.

It's been discussed here quite a lot, (& in great detail, LOL) OP, hence the tepid reaction to your thread.

This movie is so sad. It's one of the most honest depictions of the beginning and end of a relationship. The end of Jerry walking Pookie to the bus is heartbreaking. It's really over and there is a sense of relief for him that she is going back to her father (or wherever she is going, but frankly, it won't end well for Pookie).

Liza really did a great job here. Pookie is such a tragic character. She's not able to connect with others and never will. She isolates herself from the world. I can see myself in Pookie in her distrust of the world and isolating herself and never fitting in. Sobering film.

Too bad she was up against Dame Maggie giving one of the greatest cinematic performances of all time.

Never saw the movie after hearing about how sad it is. I don't need that. I've read about it over the years and the 'telephone scene' always stands out as Oscar-worthy.

^ don't then, who cares?

I too resisted seeing it until one of those NJ retro movie channels played it about 7 yrs ago I loved it and I am not big Liza fan

It's Liza's best performance but she's playing herself. Pakula does bring out the best in performers. Klute, Sophie's choice, Sterile Cuckoo.

R20---You left out To Kill a Mockingbird...

I read this book (SC) and saw the movie as a teen and remember NOTHING. Maybe I need to rewatch.

[quote]She's not able to connect with others and never will.

These days people would say she was on the autism spectrum and Liza would definitely win the Oscar.

A beautiful movie, a stunning directorial debut for the seriously underrated Alan Pakula, and Liza proves conclusively that she can really act. Wendell Burton is also excellent and (at the time—when I may have been even a tad younger than the character he played) totally my type: a bland nerd who, in the grand tradition of bland nerds, becomes a total whore once you get his clothes off. (Applications accepted.)

The ending is so sad because you realize Jerry will be okay. He'll do well, probably get married and have some kids. But Pookie, it's depressing to think about what will happen to her. She's so lost.

[quote] But Pookie, it's depressing to think about what will happen to her. She's so lost.

In the book we learn more about what happened after she left Jerry. There's a whole thread about it in the archives.

R25 what archives?

The Library of Congress, Rose!

She was in another movie, "Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon"....where her character becomes disfigured when a date throws acid in her face. I get that one confused with this movie. I'll have to watch The Sterile Cuckoo on Youtube today. It's available...

I only felt sympathy for Jerry because Pookie is one of those people who will always fuck up everything for everyone around her. Getting away from her was the best thing that could have happened to him.

Yeah Junie Moon is the one where a gay man is cured after having sex with a woman. Peter Allen had no such results.

I gather the character wasn't Liza because if anything, sex with Liza would turn a man gay. John Simon said Liza's performance in Tell Me was the most inauspicious since Turhan Bey

[quote]She was in another movie, "Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon".

They are remaking that movie and updating it to modern times. It will be called "Tell Me You Love Me, Junie Moon, Without Telling Me You Love Me, Junie Moon".

Junie Moon—what a disaster! i’m an avid Preminger fan but this one (and this one alone—he recovered to make a few more that are not great but are passably entertaining at least) is virtually unwatchable despite the engaging Minnelli and Ken Howard. Sorry for such a convoluted sentence, but it may be fitting in relation to this unfathomably disastrous film.

I like Junie Moon but it's a bit uneven. Liza is great in it.

Is this the one where she plays an earnest neurotic?

I love the way she calls him Jer'. Those cottages they go to for sex still exist and there's a dedicated plaque.

As much as I despise her, had they remade it, Lea Michele would have been perfect casting.

Lea would definitely have captured the clingy part.

bump

When I was a kid I was turned on my the short scene where they are in bed in the morning. He is still asleep, but she is awake and lifts the covers, looks down at his presumably naked body, and smiles.

It was filmed at Hamilton College. I wish I'd gone there. No ge requirements. You take whatever you want.

Liza is fucking brilliant. So many of us can identify with Pookie the outsider. And Wendell Burton was so wonderful. It’s rarely shown on tv which is a shame.

I just came to mention too that it was filmed at Hamilton College, my cousin was going there at the time so I knew about it years before I had ever seen it on TV because there was that association with it.

Did not know Dory Previn wrote "Come Saturday Morning."

Shterile Cuckoo

Still thinking about this movie weeks later. A beautiful film. Liza is fantastic. How the need for love and the ability to alienate go hand in hand.

SHUCH A MOVING AND BITTERSHWEET FILM ABOUT FIRSHT LOVE

I wish more movies would deal with human emotions as this film does. In the first hour, you really feel the love between them, and Jerry genuinely cares for her. The second hour is about how she drives him away and her clinginess and neediness take over. By the end, he pities her. It's really sad but truthful.

I picked this up from the library the other day because of you bitches. Will report back.

I like the way she does a short laugh after EVERY LINE SHE SAYS

I'm reminded of the crazy woman I met on the train to college. She claimed she'd been in a car accident that left her with the mind of a six year old and was growing up again and was now a teenager mentally although she was in her thirties. I couldn't get rid of her for the entire train ride.

R51 why are you reminded of that crazy woman?

R13 The Happy Ending (1969) with DL fave Nanette Fabray does work as an elaborately misconceived camp classic like The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)

The Happy Ending featuring Oscar winner Shirley Jones is on Amazon Prime and well worth a look.

Wow John Forsythe was a wooden soulless actor

R55 Tina Louise says "shit" on film!

Loved the movie. Loved it.

Had the hots for Wendell Burton for years. I was in high school. He cemented in my mind that I was gay and that would never change.

He turned into a hot Daddy. Sorry that the best picture of him is from "Find A Grave."

"During the 1980s, he retired from the entertainment industry and became a minister. He died following a lengthy battle with brain cancer."

I was hot for Tim McIntire, the guy who played Wendell's frat boy friend.

Sadly, he died when he was only 41.

Wendall’s daughter Haven has appeared on broadway several times including u/s Elle Woods.

Liza chewed up every bit of scenery before spitting it out and chewing it again. Unwatchable. The annoying tics and traits were allowed to run rampant without any attempt to halt them. The telephone scene is almost as excruciating as Luise Rainer's in "The Great Ziegfeld".

I felt nothing but contempt for Liza's character and was stunned when she received an Oscar nomination for the film. Fortunately, she did not prevail.

Liza was one of the true entertainment giants of our generation and she should have received an Oscar nomination for her wonderfully realized performance in "Stepping Out". However, despite the sexual appeal of Wendall Burton, Liza ruins this for me.

I watched this today op. Thank you.

I forget, since she gets knocked up and needs an abortion, what the heck is the “sterile” of the cuckoo metaphor here?

I'm going to link this again. This is what GAY is all about.

[quote]I forget, since she gets knocked up and needs an abortion

yes, you DO forget. This never happened.

I thought that cuckoo was a reference to the cuckoo bird., They don't build their own nests. Instead, the female lays her egg in the nest of another bird who unwittingly hatches the cuckoo egg. Afterward, the cuckoo chick evicts the other eggs/chicks so that only the impostor remains. That's pretty much was Pookie does with Jerry, try to alienate him from his family/friends so that she could have him all to herself.

I love Liza because she's a very special star. However, I think she never had a great voice and has done lots of vocal tricks to get around this fact, to magnificent effect. The acting...well, you have to love Liza. What she is, is highly distinctive, and for me that's the most important thing in an entertainer.

God, what a great film. And a gorgeous score. "Come Saturday Morning" never gets old to me. It perfectly captures the mood of a looking back on an unforgettable relationship that lasted only a fleeting moment in life.

Is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest a sequel to The Sterile Cuckoo?

Thanks for posting that r63. I can't remember if I ever heard Liza's version before. It's nice, although I prefer the film version. I like that they added Pookie's monologue from the film.

small, likable underpopulated film that is not the bittersweet love story the trailer and the 3 lyrical montages scored to Come Saturday Morning would have you believe it is. A disordered personality gloms onto an uncomplicated young man and the film details their relationship which is not romantic. Wendell Burton is excellent in his film debut and Minnelli is very good as well.

The novel is even darker (and wilder) than the movie.

[quote]Thanks for posting that [R63]. I can't remember if I ever heard Liza's version before. It's nice, although I prefer the film version. I like that they added Pookie's monologue from the film.

No, I think she re-said it for the song - which is sweet and maybe a little too short. I can't think a single homosexual out there who wouldn't love it.

Why couldn't Pookie work her charm on some other guy who would be more into her? Jerry didn't come willingly at all. She was so happy at first and she happened upon him at the bus stop. She couldn't do that again only with someone more compatible?

That's the unbelievable part.

I want to believe she had a shitty period but got herself together, moved to NYC, found a job as a waitress and singer in a nightclub. Had many relationships but finally found her bliss and was alright. College isn't for everyone. This is the bad time in someone's life but she got over puppy love, matured and made her way.

Dammit, r27 , I haven’t found a “Rose” comment funny in ages but this one got an audible laugh out of me.

I read the book before I saw the movie, but that was 50 years ago. I can't remember. What happens to Pookie in the book at the end?

Those weren't her home movies?

Elizabeth Hartman, Patty Duke and Tuesday Weld were all considered for the role of Pookie before Minnelli was cast.

^ they were too cute and pretty. No one else could have done it.

This movie had one of the all-time worst titles. Probably kept 50% of its potential audience from seeing it.

In England it was called Pookie. I don't think it was a big hit here.

Pakula said the only title worse than "The Sterile Cuckoo" was "Pookie"...

In the novel "the sterile cuckoo is dying" is a line from one of Pookie's poems. At the end of the book, a year after they part at Grand Central Station, Jerry receives a suicide note from her.

Duke was offered the role and turned it down. Pakula tested Carrie Snodgress but hired Liza.

R81 - Christ, why the hell did the Brit marketing choose such a horrid photo of Liza?? She looks like Pagliacci!

R83 and did she do Me, Natalie (1969) instead?

R78 R83 Patty Duke would have been wonderful 👍

Cathy would have been better.

I went down the youtube rabbit hole for this and watched the single take scene of her being increasingly needy and manipulative over the phone. I think the character would drive me crazy, but no denying great acting by Liza.

Looking at her filmography, after Cabaret, she seemed to either be playing herself or someone who was close to her "Liza" persona. It would have been nice to see her play regular people more, because she seemed to have genuine acting chops.

Tim McIntire.......my favorite part of the movie......especially when he jumps on top of Wendall Burton on the sled.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the telephone scene reported as being improvised? Or maybe partially improvised?

[quote]I think the character would drive me crazy

R88 how come?

I think Liza's best and most charming performance was ironically, on The Muppet Show. She sang her standard A Quiet Thing and it was all very well done.

R91 - just how needy and desperate she was forcing an invitation to come up during spring break. Although it is not fair to judge her by the one scene that was probably during the downside of their relationship and not at her best.

[quote][R88] how come?

You know who R91 is? It's [bold]THE QUESTION TROLL [/bold]from back in the old days - as maddening as ever.

I remember that telephone scene was the clip that was shown on the Oscar telecast when Liza's nomination was mentioned.

I don't know if it was improvised but I think the telephone scene's fame comes from it being done in one take.

This song just happened to pop up on my shuffle. Given that we know Liza’s singing is really about acting, I think this is some of her best work, such a range of emotion. All her quirks and mannerisms really work here. The whole “Liza with a Z” special was her great triumph, more than Cabaret for me. Good times.

Wendell Burton's other big film role was in the gay-themed prison drama FORTUNE AND MEN'S EYES in 1971.

Before STERILE CUCKOO, Minnelli was in a film starring and directed by Albert Finney called CHARLIE BUBBLES. Anyone here seen it? The John Simon comment mentioned above referred to this film not the dreadful JUNIE MOON.

I dont get the Junie Moon hate. I loved it then and love it now. I would think gay men could really relate to how "freaks" rejected by society found love. I also love Cuckoo. Truthfully,and I know on a gay board this is sacrilege,I always preferred Liza over Judy .Of course I love Oz,but the rest of her filmography,meh.

[quote]I always preferred Liza over Judy .Of course I love Oz,but the rest of her filmography,meh.

As opposed to Liza's stellar filmography outside of "Cabaret."

One Cabaret is worth 10 Meet Me in St Louis !

So I guess the "gay man gets 'cured' by a sexy Black woman" part of the plot didn't bother you?

Minnelli is pretty good in the film and Kay Thompson is fun to watch, but it's still a bad movie.

[quote]One Cabaret is worth 10 Meet Me in St Louis !

"You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point."

What about CABARET vs. THE WIZARD OF OZ?

What about Rent-A-Cop vs. Judgment at Nuremberg?

R102 No,why should it have ? Ive always believed sexuality is fluid,and even in the 70s I thought labels were stupid .Fuck who you want and dont call yourself anything.

I think this was Liza's best role, not Cabaret. It's a pity she was up the same year as Maggie Smith for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

Junie Moon was a terrible movie though and there was no eye candy in it except for the creepy Greek boyfriend who throws acid on Liza.

Ken Howard was handsome. I like June Moon.