Our curtain rises on the only (as far as we can tell) 35mm print of Happy Birthday, Wanda June starring Rod Steiger, Susannah York and William Hickey. Newly re-discovered in the vault at Sony Pictures; this is an historic occasion for fans of Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and particularly for aficionados of unseen cinematic treasures. Directed by Mark (Earthquake) Robson and adapted by Vonnegut from his stage play, Happy Birthday Wanda June is the work of a master storyteller spinning the mythical yarn of adventurer Harold Ryan (Rod Steiger), who bears a striking similarity to the hard-living, animal killing, hyper-macho Ernest Hemingway of literary legend, and the fate that befell him after he led a disasterous expedition into the jungles of the Amazon. After eight years, Harold Ryan still hasn't returned, but his hmespun wife Penelope (Susannah York) has learned to accept her husband's death. She moved on, got an education, changed her consciousness, raised their son as a single mother and is now engaged to a new man. Everything is right in the world, until the day that Harold returns with his A-Bomb dropping sidekick Looseleaf Harper (brilliantly portrayed by William Hickey), and the anachronistic pair discovers that everything they knew has changed in their absence. In Heaven above, Wanda June plays shuffleboard with Jesus and a Nazi officer. |
Film ListThe 4th Dimension Belleville Book of the Dead Big Bang Love, Juvenile A Crimes of the Future The Devil Dared Me To Disquiet The District! Don't Be Afraid of the Dark End of the Line Fingerprints Freesia - Icy Tears Gamera the Brave Happy Birthday, Wanda June Hot Baby! Jupiter Love Living and the Dead Nuit Noire Pit Stop Postal The Secret Life of Sarah Sheldon Short and Scary Short and Really Scary Spider Baby Trail of the Screaming Forehead Trapped Ashes War of the Worlds Welcome Home Brother Charles The World Sinks (Except Japan) Z.P.G. ShortsAkai Anonymity Ambassadors Day Criticized The Grandfather Paradox The Handyman Happy Birthday 2 You In the Wall The Listening Dead Lump Meter Maid Me Massacre The Pit and the Pendulum Red Harvest Rhyme Animal Opening Gala Party at 12 Galaxies Live Acts and Dead Channels in the Hypnodrome |
