cinema obscura: Mark Robson's "Happy Birthday, Wanda June" (1971) / stage→film

The 1971 Kurt Vonnegut play, "Happy Birthday, Wanda June," made it to the screen in record time. It opened as a theater piece in New York on December 22nd, 1970 and ran for 96 performances. Less than a year later, on December 9th, 1971, it was back in New York as a Columbia film.

At the Columbia II theater, no less.

But the material hasn't been so lucky in terms of home entertainment. Sony now owns the Columbia Pictures library but this is yet another studio film that has never been released on Beta, VHS, Laser, DVD or BluRay.

Mark Robson's film version - an all-star, Oscar-bait production - is top-lined by Rod Steiger in a role created on-stage by Kevin McCarthy as an adventurer and big-game hunter with a bad macho complex and the unlikely name of Harold. His co-stars include Susannah York, Don Murray, George Grizzard and, reprising his stage role, inimitable William Hickey.

Steiger does an uncanny Hemingway impersonation as Harold, who didn't return from one of his adventures and, after eight years, is presumed dead, leaving behind his wife Penelope (York) and son (Steven Paul, also a holdover from the play).

Much to his chagrin, Harold discovers that things have changed during his absence when he suddenly materializes with an oddball sidekick, a character named Looseleaf Harper (played by - who else? - Hickey). For one thing, his wife has moved on in many ways. Penelope has become engaged to an erudite doctor (Grizzard), and during the time that has passed, she has advanced from a passive, artless woman to an educated and very independent sophisticate.

The titular Wanda June, for what it's worth, is a deceased child who plays shuffleboard with Jesus while commenting on the action and is played by Pamelyn Ferdin. Yes, this is an odd film, not great but definitely worth seeing. And for the occasion, Vonnegut himself wrote the adaptation.

Back in August of 2007, the only known existing 35mm print of the film (a brand-new print at the time) was screened at San Francisco's invaluable Castro Theater - a rare showing that gave me hope back then that perhaps, just perhaps, Sony was preping the title for a DVD release.

But it never happened.

The stage production of "Happy Birthday, Wanda June" opened at the Edison Theatre in New York and, in addition to McCarthy, Hickey and Paul, also starred Marsha Mason, Nicolas Coster, Keith Charles, Pamela Saunders, Ariane Munker and Louis Turenne. Michael J. Kane directed the play.

Sony has been doing great work of late. It's really come through in many areas. Let's hope that this eccentric, eclectic work makes its to-do list in the near future.

Notes in Passing: Finally, a word about the unsung Mark Robson whom I'll forever honor for such contributions as "The Seventh Victim" (1943), "Home of the Brave" (1949), "Phffft!" (1954), "The Bridges of Toko-Ri" (1954), "Trial" (155), "The Harder They Fall" (1956), "Peyton Place" (1957), "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" (1958), "The Prize" (1963), "Valley of the Dolls" (1968) - yes, "Valley of the Dolls" - and "Limbo" (1972).

More Vonnegut on film: George Roy Hill's "Slaughterhouse-Five" (1972);  Steven Paul's "Slapstick of Another Kind" (1982), a Jerry Lewis vehicle; Keith Gordon's "Mother Night" (1996), and Alan Rudolph's "Breakfast of Champions" (1999), along with an incredible number of shorts.

Steven Paul obviously struck a relationship with Vonnegut, working with him both as child actor and, much later, as filmmaker.

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~images~

(from top) 

~Poster art for "Happy Birthday, Wanda June"

~Rod Steiger and Susannah York in a scene from the film 
~photography: Columbia Pictures 1971©

~Playbill for the stage version of "Happy Birthday, Wanda June"