Catherine Burns: The Vanishing of an Oscar-Nominated Actress

Well, that was depressing.

She was mentioned in an Oscar thread recently as the girl who rolled her eyes when her name was read at the ceremony. I thought she was cute but remember people here saying she was too ugly to be an actress. A very sad story.

Remarkable how much it was accepted/normal for critics to be fetid, nasty assholes.

Yeah, Vincent Canby's comment was as nasty, he sounded like John Simon.

I thought she was a very talented actress. Critics have always been rotten and bitter cunts but it's not the saddest story ever. She apparently married, retired to rural Washington State and did some traveling . She had a full life. Might have ended worse off if she forced herself to remain in a business that was making her terribly unhappy. The actors who wind up complete basket cases are usually the ones who stay far too long when things aren't working out.

She was too sensitive for highly competitive show business. Not everyone can take the intrusive scrutiny and dog eat dog vying for parts. She withdrew on her own terms. It's too bad she didn't write her memoirs, perhaps that is where people would accept her physical being while appreciating her intellect.

There are plenty of homely actors. I get the disconnect was that in the wake of her Oscar nomination, the plan was to make her a leading lady (She was re-paired with Richard Thomas etc.).

It's a nasty business - full of shallow values and meanness.

It was a time of homely actors and actresses....look at Kim Darby, Michael J Pollard... so I really don't understand the harsh criticism.

The 1st Cathy Craig on One Life to Live. Erika Slezak had her fired.

I was about to post this article but it looks like you beat me to it!

Really interesting story

Let's talk about Pamela Franklin. She had a prolific career, but then completely walked away from showbiz in her mid 20s.

"Last Summer" was originally rated X for the rape scene when it opened exclusively in NY & LA. It was edited and re-rated R by the time it expanded across the country.

Great article -- but how depressing. I hope her life with her husband brought her happiness.

At the Oscars

Dyan Cannon was nominated for an Oscar?!

[quote]Let's talk about Pamela Franklin. She had a prolific career, but then completely walked away from showbiz in her mid 20s.

Bitch, please.

Has the unedited X-rated original version been released anywhere? The version on TCM several years ago was apparently the R-rated version. Though it would probably be PG today.

[quote]Dyan Cannon was nominated for an Oscar?!

Dyan Cannon was nominated for 3 Oscars

Best Actress in a Supporting Role "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" (1969)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role "Heaven Can Wait" (1979)

Best Short Film, Live Action "Number One" (1976) Shared with Vince Cannon

For what was Morgan Fairchild's nomination?

Thank you for posting. I didn't know she was dead. Re Pamela Franklin: she played Sandy in the film of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1969), and Burns had played Monica in the play on Broadway for a year in 1968.

R15, wow...Goldie Hawn’s win over those other actresses that night rivals Marisa Tomei’s in its WTF-y-ness...

^ I agree (and I say this as someone who likes Goldie)

Oh no- Marisa actually deserved her Oscar, whereas Goldie....

Wow, that was a fascinating read. I've often wondered what happened to the bespectacled eye-rolling girl so thanks for sharing.

I hope someone with too much time on his hands also manages to track down Su Tissue, singer of the 70s punk band Suburban Lawns. Even her former bandmates have no idea where she's been for the last three decades. It's like she's vanished into thin air.

R18, I saw it when I was 18, when it was first released, and have never fogotten it. I do not recall it being rated X as "Midnight Cowboy" originally was. The rape scene was disturbing and graphic, but not enough to earn it an X rating.

Burns did 3 Off Broadway plays, 2 Broadway ones, and regional theater.

One of them was TWO SMALL BODIES in 1977...which was finally made into a film decades later with Fred Ward and Suzy Amis. It’s a 2 character play with a police officer interrogating a mom whose kids are missing.

I wonder if she got good reviews for that. It’s a demanding role.

R27, Suzy Amis, once married to Sam Robards, now Mrs. James Cameron.

AKA role-stealing bitch!

Will she be in the Academy's Death Reel™?

[quote] I saw it when I was 18, when it was first released, and have never fogotten it. I do not recall it being rated X as "Midnight Cowboy" originally was. The rape scene was disturbing and graphic, but not enough to earn it an X rating.

The opening day ad in NY is up at R13 and it was X. This was before porn took it over so it was "disturbing and graphic" enough to keep children out.

Wasn't Suzy Amis the other woman before she became the current wife?

Wow, thanks for posting. Now I want to see the movie. I can't find it streaming anywhere.

Wow, thanks for posting. Now I want to see the movie. I can't find it streaming anywhere.

[R10]: Anyone know why Erika Slezak had Cathy Burns fired??

R25 - I recognize this photo as a still from "Something Wild," starring Melanie Griffith, Jeff Daniels and Ray Liotta.

The OST is on YouTube.

R37 Well that's Miss Tisue, the missing singer, in the pic. Jonathan Demme directed a few of her band's music videos so she returned the favor by doing a cameo in that film. That was actually her only film appearance. I checked her IMDb page just now and found this data in the trivia of her bio. But anyone can edit that section, so who knows if this is true or not:

[quote] She tried teaching for a short time, then became a legal secretary. For the last twenty years, she has been an attorney in Newport Beach, CA. Her name is no longer Susan Mclane; with both a different first and last name. She now lives a private life on the east coast. The specifics of her name, are being reserved by courteous fans, at this time.

Weird shit

Dyan Cannon's nominations are less odd than Goldie's win.

Slezak saw Cathy's raw talent and typically, was jealous.

Enjoy.

Excellent read, thank you for sharing. Catherine Burns is a DL favorite and her performance in “Last Summer” is indeed unforgettable.

Interesting to read that Richard Thomas never responded to inquiries about the film, especially since Barbara Hershey and Bruce Davison both attended screenings in the last few years. I met Richard Thomas last March at an autograph show (don’t judge, DL!) It was a treat to discuss “Last Summer” and the other film he made with Burns, “Red Sky at Morning”. He told me then that he’d heard she recently passed away, but I never saw any verification of that until the “HR” article.

Some people just aren't cut out for fame and fortune. Although quite talented, it's obvious Catherine Burns was an example of that. She would have had a better chance at good acting roles in today's acting climate; unprepossessing young actresses have a much better chance at a good career today. But back then her looks were a hindrance.

It's too bad that it took such diligence to find out what happened to her. She really deserved to be in the TCM Remembers segment of 2019. And of course she deserves to be in whatever kind of Oscar memorial they show this year.

I remember her fondly from One Life to Live

I wonder if Larry was the stalker to whom Catherine’s husband was referring.

I remember her from "Night of Terror", an ABC movie of the week with Donna Mills (in a wheelchair), that scared me shitless at an impressionable age.

R15 I forgot all about Burns when Raquel came on. My God, she was spectacular!

Wow. She was a fav of mine when I was about 11. Truly great on screen. Florence Pugh and her short stocky body reminded me of Catherine Burns. I hope the business is more forgiving of actresses with less than idealized shapes.

[quote] For what was Morgan Fairchild's nomination?

Morgan's nomination was for playing the German philosopher Hannah Arendt in THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM in the early 1980s. Here is a still from that film.

Florence Pugh is hardly Mama Cass

She's rolling her eyes at St. Peter now.

[quote]She would have had a better chance at good acting roles in today's acting climate; unprepossessing young actresses have a much better chance at a good career today. But back then her looks were a hindrance.

Was it the career that bothered her? It seems the fame that came with her career was more of a problem.

I don't think she would enjoy having to make it in todays business. Celebrity wasn't as all consuming in the media as it is now. Plus the Oscars were a much more low key event back then. But she had no use for either. I think she would hate having to endure all the bullshit today, and it would have driven her out much sooner.

The trail on her went cold after 1989, right? So she was in the business for almost twenty years.

‘Cuz ERICA SLEZAK’S [italic]a CUNT!

There is a good amount of ladies who were no great beauties but fabulous actresses that won Oscars and had great careers. The fact she said "The worst thing about being a fat pig is the feeling of being grotesque," shows her terrible insecurities. She wasn't cut out for the limelight, no self confidence.

E.g. Maggie Smith. Maybe if, like Smith, Burns had a slower rise to national and international fame, she'd have been better off in the long run.

R29 Sam Robards is now Mrs. James Cameron?

I remember “Night of Terror”, R 48! I also remember seeing Burns on “Cannon” and on “Love American Style”, where she showed she had appealing comedic chops, too! (Yes, I’m old!)

I don't understand all these digs at her looks. She was cute in an offbeat way, but cute.

I saw her on stage, at Lincoln Center, in Operation Sidewinder, which I think was by Sam Shepard. She had a very small role as a drive-in waitress serving two black guys and getting off on how hip they were. I found the scene incomprehensible, but I do remember the audience going "Ohhhh" when she entered: they had all recognized her.

I presume she took this small part because she had a lead in something else they were doing then, and LC always tried to pretend it was a repertory company.

[quote]Florence Pugh is hardly Mama Cass

She wishes!

That is so weird that they would be so critical of her looks, she had a nice face.

Let's not lie, she didn't photograph very well. But she was fine for a character actress.

That looks like a college photo of Elizabeth Warren.

Catherine Burns thinks she might need to be a lesbian...

This is an interesting thread.

The eye roll is understandable in the context of the times. It was the 1960s. Young people were resisting authority and dismissing the trappings of commercial culture. Having studied acting from a young age she probably saw herself as outside the mainstream.

I was born in 1950 and in college in the late 60s. Many of us were hippies and scornful of our parent's wealth and stability. We longed for wild abandon and freedom from the shackles of traditional society. There are more than a few people from that era who shunned traditional avenues of success to discover their own paths. They didn't all plan for their futures and some live on the edge today.

Slezak didn't join OLTL until after Burns was gone.

I remember her from OLTL but she guest-starred in a lot of series according to IMDb, shows I was watching at the time but I don't remember ever recognizing her again. Never saw the movie but it was pretty famous at the time.

Elizabeth Hartman was another one too sensitive for the business.

^Look how that ended. Splatsville.

Clip

"I don't understand all these digs at her looks."

Let's be honest. She wasn't good looking. She had a gnome-like face and an ungainly body. What she did have was talent. But she evidently had self esteem issues which weren't helped by the comments of tv and film critics. She just didn't have the stomach for pressure and stress that comes from an acting career. Why did she go into acting in the first place I wonder? It seems like it was definitely not the right thing for for to do.

Very good of you OP for not starting the thread ..... is dead to me The last time I read something about her she was teaching acting. I hope she rests in peace.

I doubt very seriously if she will be included in the Oscar reel. After they excluded Dorothy Malone anything is possible. Surely TCM will do a little something. If Robert was still alive I know they would.

I read OP’s link and see nothing sad about it. She had a 20 year career and decided to leave The business. She was a published author and found someone to love her. I see nothing wrong with her looks but can you imagine if Last Summer came out now. Some of you meanies would be merciless. BTW Frank Perry directed Last Summer AND Mommie Dearest.

r63 Your photo reminds me of actress Dorothy McGuire. Liked her in the 1945 film "The Enchanted Cottage." I'll bet CB could've handled that role well.

I wonder if "Johnny Belinda" would've been a good part for Miss Burns?

It's sad to contemplate that she was so unhappy doing something she excelled at.

Or she was simply embarrassed, R67.

She'd still be with us if she'd only been wearing the William Holden Drinking Helmet.

For someone so unhappy about having an acting career, she worked an awful lot.

Sounds like she was quite the phony.

You reminded me of this, r76.....

She didn't disappear. She acted so many years after the nomination, became a writer, got old and died. This is a non-story.

She looks like a prettier Michelle Williams.

She had cirrhosis listed as a contributing factor of her death. Sounds like she might have been a drinker. Although that's not the only cause of it.

I think these stories of people who had a degree of fame for a time and then totally drop out of the public eye are very interesting.

"I think these stories of people who had a degree of fame for a time and then totally drop out of the public eye are very interesting."

Yeah, it is interesting. There was Dolores Hart, a young, gorgeous starlet on her way up, engaged to a nice, rich man...and she chucks it all to become a nun, which she is to this day. And Louise Brooks, the silent film star; for a time it looked like she would become a big star, but due to her drinking and irresponsibility her career tanked and she lived a hand to mouth existence for a long time, working as a shopgirl and a call girl along the way. She disappeared for years, took up writing and was rediscovered and eventually became revered as a cult figure.

You know, in R63 her basic bone structure somewhat resembles that of Jo Van Fleet... another character actress (and booze hound)

Thank you R75 I can't believe it took 75 replies before that was mentioned. :)

I wonder if Lohan will ever go away long enough for us to miss her...

R84 Add Lola Falana to the list.

Add Anita Page to the list, too. She was known as a fabulous beauty, "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood," and left the business at age 26.

From Wiki, "When her contract expired in 1933, she surprised Hollywood by announcing her retirement at the age of 23. She made one more movie, Hitch Hike to Heaven, in 1936, and then left the screen, virtually disappearing from Hollywood circles for sixty years. In a 2004 interview with author Scott Feinberg, she claimed that her refusal to meet demands for sexual favors by MGM head of production Irving Thalberg, supported by studio chief Louis B. Mayer, is what truly ended her career. She said that Mayer colluded with the other studio bosses to ban her and other uncooperative actresses from finding work."

She married for a second time, had two children. More from Wiki: , "Page returned to the screen in 1996 after sixty years retirement and appeared in several low budget horror films. Film veteran Margaret O'Brien appeared in two of them. During this period, she moved in with her co-star and occasional director, Randal Malone at his Van Nuys home.

Page relished her status as "last star of the silents" and frequently gave interviews and appeared in documentaries about the era. Ill health prevented her from making public appearances in her final years."

I saw an interview with her on TCM last week and wondered, "who is that delusional old bag?" She kept talking about how she was lauded as a great beauty but, probably in her 90s at the time, didn't look all that great, kind of like Bette Davis as Baby Jane. I looked her up and she was right, she was quite beautiful in her day.

Old age sucks. Anita Page lived to be 98. 70 plus years after her glory days.

A twitter posting from a woman (a writer, apparently) who knew Catherine and her husband (who seemed odd, to say the least in the HR article, and whose last name isn't actually "Shire" as reported online).

"I knew Catherine well in the 80s and early 90s in NYC. She was not miserable - she was sober and had wrestled many of her demons down. She was happy to be out of Hollywood, and genuinely in love with the process of writing. She laughed a lot. I remember when she met her husband (who I won't name as it seems he's gone to lengths to keep his name out of print). She felt she'd found a soulmate. They were inseparable and, again, happy together. Sounds like it was more dire in the last years. But she didn't find most of her life post-Hollywood "tragic." ...If that makes you feel better about anything. I lost track of her in the early 00s, thank you for this. It's good to have an answer."

she worked a lot // enough to know she wanted something else

The witch that came (the withered hag)

To wash the steps with pail and rag

Was once the beauty Abishag,

The picture pride of Hollywood.

Too many fall from great and good

For you to doubt the likelihood.

Die early and avoid the fate.

Or if predestined to die late,

Make up your mind to die in state.

Make the whole stock exchange your own!

If need be occupy a throne,

Where nobody can call you crone.

Some have relied on what they knew,

Others on being simply true.

What worked for them might work for you.

No memory of having starred

Atones for later disregard

Or keeps the end from being hard.

Better to go down dignified

With boughten friendship at your side

Than none at all. Provide, provide!

Seems like Cher was talking about doing the Enchanted Cottage remake for 20 years.

But then she made Burlesque enchanting instead.

I wouldn't mind seeing Last Summer. I'm sure the link above wants credit card info. I have seen the movie long ago and only remember a bit of a scene of Cathy talking and how she acted after the rape. I read that the book it is based on like the movie doesnt really care about the character after the assault. In the sequel to the book she is only mentioned as traveling abroad.

She looked like a baby Ann Romano.

Where's the dire part? She died while living in a retirement community.

R44, if he'd kept in touch with her, he would have known she wanted privacy and may have felt this article was too intrusive. I don't personally think it is, but others might disagree.

Private movie trackers have Last Summer, it was on TCM in 2012 or so and it was uploaded to many of them then.

[quote]I wonder if Larry was the stalker to whom Catherine’s husband was referring.

Of course not. He's the one who TOLD Larry about the stalker.

Actually, the husband was quite odd and I would bet there was no stalker at all.

They must have been living apart. Didn’t the article say he had to be informed about her death?

The neighbor hadn't seen her in over a year. The husband got in touch with THR using a highly encrypted email service. He demanded to know how he and his wife — "an old woman long out of the acting game" — had been found. He claimed that they had fended off a stalker years before and were highly wary of any inquiries. She dies after "falling and hitting her head." And the husband "acknowledged this" to THR after they told him they knew she was dead.

There's a Baby Jane movie script buried somewhere in this line of BS.

Unfortunately, we had faces then.

George C. Scott, Colleen Dewhurst, Tuesday Weld, Melvyn Douglas, Catherine Burns — that version of “The Crucible” has quite the cast!

"And Louise Brooks, the silent film star; for a time it looked like she would become a big star, but due to her drinking and irresponsibility her career tanked and she lived a hand to mouth existence for a long time, working as a shopgirl and a call girl along the way."

Didn't Veronica Lake become a shopgirl, too?

Catherine Burns kind of reminds me of Estelle Parsons.

Burns was paired with Todd Susman in the “Love and Lady Luck” segment.

John Simon's nasty (even for him) critic of Burns in Last Summer:

"The kids themselves, with the exception of Cathy Burns (Rhoda), are not particularly good actors, and Barbara Hershey (Sandy, and not a kid anymore) looks, regrettably, much better with her bikini top on than off. Miss Burns, on the other hand, is an extremely accomplished little actress, but also insuperably homely — she looks, in fact, like a pink beach ball with a few limbs and features painted on it. There is no excuse for Rhoda’s being a positive freak, and making us feel she is damned lucky to have been raped at all."

I loved Red Sky at Morning. Not the greatest movie ever but ....

[Quote] There is no excuse for Rhoda’s being a positive freak, and making us feel she is damned lucky to have been raped at all.

Vile.

John Simon should be a Datalounge Icon.

[quote]a pink beach ball with a few limbs and features painted on it

The pithiest description of most DLers ever committed to paper.

“Red Sky at Morning” is an underrated gem. Richard Thomas is superb, and it was nice to see him reunited with Catherine Burns after “Last Summer”.

Jesus, r109, how the fuck did an editor allow that to pass. That is truly evil.

I Know What Barbara Hershey Did Last Summer:

During the filming of Last Summer, a seagull was killed. "In one scene," Hershey explained, "I had to throw the bird in the air to make her fly. We had to reshoot the scene over and over again. I could tell the bird was tired. Finally, when the scene was finished, the director, Frank Perry, told me the bird had broken her neck on the last throw." Hershey felt responsible for the bird's death and changed her stage name to "Seagull" as a tribute to the creature. "I felt her spirit enter me," she later explained. "It was the only moral thing to do."The name change was not positively received. When she was offered a part opposite Timothy Bottoms in The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974) Hershey had to forfeit half her salary, $25,000, to be billed under the name "Seagull" because the producers were not in favor of the billing.

I read the article and see nothing off about the husband, he just seems like a very private individual who wants to honor his wife's wishes. As he pointed out he is in his "eighth decade ", he came up in a generation that didn't need to share every single private detail with the world. He didn't have to be "informed " of his wife's passing, he just didn't immediately bring it up to an anonymous stranger who had tracked him down . While I find the story interesting I can understand why an eighty something man doesn't want to be bothered talking about a business that his late wife clearly had negative associations with.

The husband was looking for a payout as well.

"Vanishing". She didn't vanish, she just stopped her promo.

R99 Page is very beautiful in that rather heavy style that was the vogue back then. Striking eyes and strong features.

Does Bruce Davidson show his blond pubes in this?

R118 Exactly. "Maybe we can do business." He was creepy.

[quote]I'm sure the link above wants credit card info.

Nope. You just have to go thru the ‘I’m not a robot’ picture quiz, then click the pop-up pages out of the way a few times.

Mildly annoying, but easy to navigate.

"Didn't Veronica Lake become a shopgirl, too?"

I never heard that. But she did work as a waitress. She said she liked it and that she was NOT destitute. But it was a long way from being a major Hollywood star.

In addition to rape, "Last Summer" also features animal torture. Hershey's character (and I think the two boys, too) delight in tying a string to a bird's leg and flying it like a kite. Later Hershey's character was supposed to have freed it, but ends up "bashing its head in." It's a truly nasty movie.

I like Red Sky at Morning, too. It used to be on cable quite a bit

I found this article from 1971 where she just totally picks herself apart. She's one of those people that should've stayed behind the scenes in the business. The harsh comments she got a few years earlier no doubt wrecked any self esteem she had at the time.

R117 Her husband is nowhere near that old. He was 15 years younger than she was. He's currently 59 years old.

That article shows her parading vulnerability. You gotta get a gimmick etc.

I’m lucky I saw it on VHS a few years ago when I was going through an Oscar nominee phase. A powerful, raw performance. I imagine she came in last in the voting, given the high profile films and star power of the other nominees. Great article. She lived on her own terms which is commendable.

I know Lynden. It was in the Guinness Book of World Records for most churches per capita at one time.

They were also blamed as to why Whatcom County didn't have MTV in its cable package back in the 1980s. I don't know if they were responsible, but they made for an easy scapegoat.

Those reviews of her looks were absolutely unnecessary.

It’s not like audiences needed to be told what she looked like, those cunts simply enjoyed trying to outwit each other.

(cont) Anyhow, she found love in her 40s and married. I seems her husband really loved her. While her life wasn't picture perfect, I was expecting much worse post-movie career developments.

Speaking of shop girls....

[quote]John Simon should be a Datalounge Icon.

Absolutely not. He didn't have a drop of wit or a sense of humor. He was just cruel. That was only just one of his unnecessary personal attacks. Apparently deeply unhappy and irony of irony dropped dead in a dinner theater.

Was it at a Ruth Buzzi performance?

"He didn't have a drop of wit or a sense of humor. He was just cruel."

Actually, he was a very well educated, interesting man. I've seen him in interviews and read some of his writings and he comes across as person who definitely knows what he's talking about. I think a lot of his more outrageous remarks were just an effort to shock and get attention. He was not unlike Madonna in that regard.

[quote] "He didn't have a drop of wit or a sense of humor. He was just cruel."

[quote] Actually, he was a very well educated, interesting man.

Actually, he was a very well educated, interesting man who didn't have a drop of wit or a sense of humor. He was just cruel.

Happy Dear?

"Actually, he was a very well educated, interesting man who didn't have a drop of wit or a sense of humor. He was just cruel.

Happy Dear?"

Darling, if he didn't have anything other than cruelty he would not have had a successful career as a critic for decades. Ta, ta, dearheart!

She reminds me of Samantha Morton. An interesting and expressive face. She would have aged well for an actress and grown into the types of roles actresses like Brenda Blethyn play imho.

Th falling and hitting her head and cirrhosis do point to alcohol problems - many sensitive self critical people have similar issues.

I've never seen Last Summer, but will watch tonight. I wonder what her writing was like?

I don't know what all the fuss is about. She seems like any plain, competent supporting actress in a movie or TV show. Thousands have come and gone. Why the attention on her?

Just to piss you off, R141.

[quote]Darling, if he didn't have anything other than cruelty he would not have had a successful career as a critic for decades. Ta, ta, dearheart!

If your replies are any indication, you wouldn't know wit if it bent you over a barrel and fucked you senseless.

Simon, like a LOT of critics and gossip mavens of the day, was hired BECAUSE he was cruel. That was the basic gimmick for anyone in his line of business. Rex Reed, Mr. Blackwell, the rock critics like Christgau were all descendant from the nasty Louella Parsons tabloid types (1940s) and the bitchery-as-intellectualism Cahier du Cinema types (1950s), and they took the cultural revolution as an excuse to just be enormous assholes any chance they got, often pretending it was counterculturalism.

But the main point here is that Simon was racist, homophobic and antisemitic, and it doesn't matter how educated he was, he was a bigot. That you can't recognize that says more about you than anyone else here.

It’s creepy to just show up at someone’s door. WTF. Especially for an entertainment story. it’s not 60 Minutes. The writer was stalkerish.

Why the fuck would a 50 something want to live in a retirement village?

I was wondering the same thing, R145.

[quote]Simon, like a LOT of critics and gossip mavens of the day, was hired BECAUSE he was cruel. That was the basic gimmick for anyone in his line of business. Rex Reed, Mr. Blackwell, the rock critics like Christgau were all descendant from the nasty Louella Parsons tabloid types (1940s) and the bitchery-as-intellectualism Cahier du Cinema types (1950s), and they took the cultural revolution as an excuse to just be enormous assholes any chance they got, often pretending it was counterculturalism.

Interesting perspective.

When I was a kid I remember seeing Rex Reed on TV talking about a new film with Sarah Miles and a scene where she exposes her breasts. He described them as looking like "two burnt cup cakes".

Or Truman Capote's famous line about Jacqueline Susann looking like a "truck driver in drag".

The stuff these guys could get away with.

Addison DeWitt and 'Sweet Smell of Success' set the stereotype. And then there was all the Norman Mailer and Mary McCarthy and Gore Vidal bitchiness. I admit to enjoying reading Sally Quinn in her heyday in the Washington Post, though now I despise her.

R145 I found that odd too, unless the public records were incorrect about his age.

According to the site I used, it would seem they left NYC in the early to mid 2000s, then lived in New Hampshire for around a decade, before moving to Washington State circa the mid 2010s. As recently as 2016, they were living in a regular apartment complex.

Another interesting thing was Catherine went by Burns and apparently never used Shire or her husbands real last name. They did file for a marriage license in 1989 in Manhattan, but you can't search for actual marriages that recent in NY online. An LA Times article from 1989, did say they got married that year though.

R144 I would assume the phone numbers for them on the public record sites no longer worked, and they probably called the apartment complex they lived at previously in Washington (in another town) and the owner told them where they moved to. That must've been the only way to reach them, if they didn't have a current number or other contact info.

According to someone who commented under Larry's Twitter thread, she knew Catherine and her husband, and his name isn't Shire. She wouldn't say what his real name was, just that he was obviously trying to hide his identity.

Journalists still have to do some work old school and actually visit people in person, especially when they don't have phone numbers or social media to contact them through. I know that seems weird in the age of the internet, but it's true, and it's not creepy.

Last Summer was one of the first dark movies I saw as a teen...it stuck wit me. She was incredible but you just knew that Hollywood wouldn't know how to use her. She couldn't play frumpy friends for her whole career.

To hear the critics - and Catherine herself - describe her looks, you'd think she should have been living under a bridge and feasting on children.

Looking at clips of her, I thought she was cute as hell. How sad that even she couldn't see her own beauty.

On Su Tissue, R39 besides being the lead singer of Suburban Lawns and everything else elusive and strange about her, she also recorded an odd, gorgeous instrumental piano solo album in 1984 called Salon de Musique.

The original copies go for hundreds on eBay and Discogs now because it's so rare. But you can hear the whole thing online:

They should have built a Dorothy Kilgallen biopic around her.

Thank you for the article OP

R150 That is correct. Shire was apparently his professional last name as a writer. His real last name is a very common jewish one. I'm not going to post it because he seems a bit weird and paranoid from the THR article.

R151 The public records site I used didn't list any emails for either of them (and most often, people have emails listed), and although I didn't look that much, it didn't seem they were on any social media either. I'm guessing going there was the only option they had if they really wanted to do the story.

"But the main point here is that Simon was racist, homophobic and antisemitic, and it doesn't matter how educated he was, he was a bigot. That you can't recognize that says more about you than anyone else here."

Oh shut up, you hysterical twat. He was shrewd enough to know that if he said outrageous things he would get a rise out of people and that would ensure there would always be interest in him. And by the way, he was just a theater/film critic. Your hysteria about him is unwarranted. Maybe you should talk to somebody about it.

"When I was a kid I remember seeing Rex Reed on TV talking about a new film with Sarah Miles and a scene where she exposes her breasts. He described them as looking like "two burnt cup cakes".

That's pretty funny. I think that's why critics of the sort that Rex Reed and John Simon were had successful careers. They were amusing with their bitchy comments. I don't think many people took what they said too seriously, although the hysteric at R143 obviously does.

R147. IIRC! Reed was describing Glenda Jackson in "Women in love" with that remark. he couldn't bear it that she had bigger balls than he did.

[quote]She couldn't play frumpy friends for her whole career.

And why the hell not?

I kind of agree R153, and she looked great on the Academy Awards- definitely pretty!

Oliver Reed, unlike Rex, looks like he could hold his own with co-star Glenda.

"He was shrewd enough to know that if he said outrageous things he would get a rise out of people and that would ensure there would always be interest in him. And by the way, he was just a theater/film critic. Your hysteria about him is unwarranted."

Accurately describing someone as mean, anti-Semitic, and sexist is hysteria now?

Is a bad fall a common death? On the top of my head I can think of William Holden, Alice from the Brady Bunch and now Cathy Burns.

Didn't Elaine Stritch have a fall?

[quote]Accurately describing someone as mean, anti-Semitic, and sexist is hysteria now?

He's just whining because he defended Simon earlier in the thread and got called out on it.

He's probably the guy who lost his shit when we mentioned in the John Simon obituary thread that he'd been massively homophobic on two occasions, loudly complaining about the "gays taking over theater" and hoping AIDS killed them all, and also writing that The Octet Bridge Club was "faggot nonsense" and Show Me Where The Good Times Are was a "faggoty Jewish musical."

I'm sure he'll be along any second to tell me I'm a hysteric for accurately quoting John Simon.

Dana Delany commented in the original thread on twitter.

"I snuck into that movie at 13, was so moved & unnerved by Burns. And relieved that girls with round faces could be in movies. I read the LA Times 1989 piece & was happy for her. I truly hope she found some peace. Fame is a cruel master(not mistress). Thx Larry & @ScottFeinberg"

"He's probably the guy who lost his shit when we mentioned in the John Simon obituary thread that he'd been massively homophobic on two occasions, loudly complaining about the "gays taking over theater" and hoping AIDS killed them all, and also writing that The Octet Bridge Club was "faggot nonsense" and Show Me Where The Good Times Are was a "faggoty Jewish musical."

You took such comments seriously? I'm sure that's exactly what Simon wanted, to make delicate creatures such as yourself terribly overwrought and upset. I'm sure he got a lot of laughs out of knowing what effect he had on poor, easily distressed types like you. He liked to prey on weak minds like yours.

Simon got his start in the early 1960s, writing for The New Leader (I think) and Theatre Arts, and he got absolutely nowhere, because he was just talking about the plays he reviewed rather than despising them, attacking actors on the personal level, and generally raising hell.

And it worked. He became so famous that he became a Thing, and even though New York's editors were constantly being asked to drop him because he was lowering the quality of theater criticism, they never would because he kept the magazine famous.

I think he could, on rare occasions, be witty. He called the musical Raggedy Ann "a cross between The Wizard Of Oz and Die Frau Ohne Schatten," and if you know all three works, it's clever and actually a fair observation.

But most of what he said, even when he wasn't behaving badly, was all the same motivated by misanthropy and cultural snobbery.

Well, she was included in the In Memoriam segment.

So glad to see that she was included in the Oscar “In Memoriam” segment!

Katharine Graham died after a fall.

[quote] Actually, he was a very well educated, interesting man.

Today’s politics—especially among the Democratic Party elites—consists of well-educated men and women who are sociopaths.

John Simon was ahead of his time.

And yet Dorothy Malone wasn't when she did.

*when she died.

They left out Valentina Cortese and Ron Leibman this year.

And Michael J . Pollard

Did you notice Burns' clip was almost like a last-minute add on. I was still very happy they included her. But Pollard and Cortese were big misses. Both had been nominated, and Pollard's role in Bonnie and Clyde is practically iconic. Liebman was mostly television, but he had some memorable film roles and definitely should have been included as well.

They must have seen the article on Burns and included her based on that.

Technically she should have been on last year's telecast but I guess it wasn't known she had died. She died Feb. 2nd way before the ceremony.

[quote] They left out Valentina Cortese

Much to the amusement of Miss Diane Ladd sitting in the audience, I imagine.

R`181 Was Ladd nominated against Cortese? and they both lost to Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express? Ladd has been a big campaigner against "Fraud" nominations, when a leading actress deliberately puts herself in the supporting category to increase chances of winning. The 5 in supporting this year were all truly supporting performances. (Brad Pitt was the only supp who could easily have been lead). But imagine if, say Fences had come out this year instead. And Viola Davis ran in supporting and beat Dern. Miss Diane Ladd would have been SO PISSED!

I don’t know about Ladd but I had no problem with Davis being in supporting since in The Tonys it had been in both categories. When I saw the film forgettable as it was I think there was long periods of time when Davis wasn’t in it.

No Jan-Michael Vincent either.

R182 Ladd was mad as hell back in 1975 because Bergman mentioned only Cortese in her speech and left the other three co-nominees out. She said it was wrong to single out just one of them.

It was rude but despite being a beloved movie star I think Ingrid has been described as selfish. I notice they mention everyone in the category a lot now but sometimes they forget one person. I believe the person DL loves to hate Julia Roberts did that once.

If memory serves, r185, her exact words were "What are we, chopped liver?". Ingrid and Valentina were friends. She wasn't slighting the other nominees as much as crediting Cortese giving a truthful performance of an aging film actress. One that Ingrid could identify with. She signed my program after a performance of The Constant Wife. I complimented her on her nomination and she was very humble about it.

"Today’s politics—especially among the Democratic Party elites—consists of well-educated men and women who are sociopaths."

As opposed to the Republican elites like Mr. Pussygrabber?

"I'm sure that's exactly what Simon wanted, to make delicate creatures such as yourself terribly overwrought and upset. I'm sure he got a lot of laughs out of knowing what effect he had on poor, easily distressed types like you. He liked to prey on weak minds like yours."

The weak minds are people who aren't offended by blatant prejudice. I wonder if you're one of those Republicans who shriek about easily offended liberals while getting offended by J. Lo wearing sexy outfits at the Super Bowl

R179, I suspect that Burns’s inclusion in the “In Memoriam” segment was a result of the “HR” article. Hasty or not, it was good to see her there.

Yes that HAD to include Douglas even with his recent death ( their usual excuse for excluding)it was very nice to include Burns but I wondered if she would have cared or not.

Pollard wasn't in the clip? I could have sworn he was.

Maybe many years after his death if true all the terrible things he did will be revealed. Kind like John Wayne outed as a racist. Or maybe his beloved son Michael has enough money pay people off.

I have Michael's remembrance right here, bitches.

Michael Douglas is very rich and very vengeful. He conducted a ruthless PR campaign against his ex-wife Diandra Douglas when their son Cameron was being tried for serious drug charges. He spread all the dirt about what a terrible and neglectful mother she was, soliciting dozens of people to write letters to the judge to that effect. He planted a flurry of stories in the New York Post and other papers. Most of it was scrubbed off the web within a few years.

R194 Like rapist father, like son I guess!

I have a friend who was her classmate at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. He said they did a scene from The Rainmaker in one of their classes, and she was so good in it that it moved their teacher to tears. He also said Cathy was very shy and unassuming and very uncomfortable with praise and compliments.

He said he was glad to see the Academy remember her during the In Memoriam segment. He always felt she should have won for "Last Summer."

Interesting article. Hollywood reporter is a pretty decent entertainment magazine for movie and celeb coverage . I used get my film coverage from NYT arts but gave up on them after their disgraceful Trump enabling during 2016. I also stopped reading new york magazine entertainment because I got sick of their dipshit millennial writers who are terrified to go against any opinion they see on twitter.

Diane was apparently so pissed over Ingrid's snub that she got into it with Pia Zadora years later on Live at Five.

Uh, R198, are you sure you don’t mean Pia Lindstrom, not Pia Zadora?!

Poor Diane really thought she had a chance to be nominated for that broom or mop movie ( I can’t remember which)...

R197, the dipshits are old timers who are afraid of young people, and so they make silly generalizations about "millennials"

Last night’s Oscar did seem to be geared towards young people. I don’t know what crazy person thought anyone wanted to hear Eminem. No mention of Barbra’s A Star Is Born that was one of the first movies that had a very successful soundtrack.

R201 Oh please . Read the average entertainment article on slate, huff Po, or New York mag. Many of the younger writers (and quite a few of the older ones ) are completely unable to express any opinion that goes even mildly against the grain. It's like each article is written by the exact same person. It's their conformity that makes them bores, not their youth.

R203, I'd say the people who use tired "woke Twitter" talking points or make generalizations about "kids today" probably isn't contributing anything to the world. The conformity of all the "millennials are evil" DL old timers is pretty sad.

R204 I didn't say that ALL or even most millennials were bad people or lacked the ability to think independently. I said that many millennial entertainment journalists at these SPECIFIC publications are conformist bores. Which is true.

Reading comprehension is vital.

Yes,I hate it when someone says Twitter is mad at so and so. Kinda like when someone says 70%of America wants to hear witnesses. Huh? No one asked me.

R205, you're the one who can't read. You specifically singled out "millennial" writers instead of just saying you don't like their writers. I'm guessing you're a butthurt Trump fan who gets pissed when someone says something liberal, so you accuse them of not being sincere and claiming that they're afraid of what "Twitter" will think....in reality they are just expressing what they really feel. Shocker, just because someone doesn't share your Trumpster views does not mean their views aren't sincere

[quote]No mention of Barbra’s A Star Is Born that was one of the first movies that had a very successful soundtrack.

Really? REALLY?

West Side Story, The Sound of Music, The Music Man, etc., etc., etc.

R207 You're delusional. I wrote in my initial comment that I stopped reading New York Times because I hated how easy they were on Trump during 2016. But I see you have some personal investment in these silly publications so there's no point in arguing any further and derailing the discussion. Though it is ironic that you proved my point about the general White /Black way of thinking prevalent now. Bye!

R207 You're delusional. I wrote in my initial comment that I stopped reading New York Times because I hated how easy they were on Trump during 2016. But I see you have some personal investment in these silly publications so there's no point in arguing any further and derailing the discussion. Though it is ironic that you proved my point about the general White /Black way of thinking prevalent now. Bye!

Black and white thinking is assuming someone's opinion is insincere just because they don't agree with you.

Eminem peaked 20 years ago. It's not "young people" who are listening to his music unless you're one of those dataloungers who think millennials born in 1981 are little kids.

Pia Lindstrom was so good in "The Lonely Lady".

I want to see a sister act featuring Pia Zadora and Isabella Rossellini.

Clip of her on One Life to Live.

She wasn’t fired by Erika Slezak because the roles of Viki/Niki were at that time played by Gillian Spencer. And even if Slezak WAS there at the time she had absolutely no say in who got hired or fired.

I don't know how soap opera fans endure that sort of acting - like they're all reading out loud a speech they've learned. Burns was different, thankfully.

Made me think of her parallel to Betsy Slade as mentioned in this article.

I enjoyed that clip from "One Life to Live" more than "Last Summer". For those who carelessly scrolled past it:

Cathy desperately wants to be the third wheel on her father's Bermuda honeymoon, but the father rejects the idea and his fiance promises to show Cathy photos of Bermuda when they return.

Betsy Slade, also UNSUNG!

Sissy Spacek was offbeat looking but also very much a successful leading lady.

Rex Reed said she looked like a fetus or something like that.

R216 That was very old school soap acting.

They kinda are reciting a speech but most of them read it from cue cards!

Hasn't been that way in a while.

In the OLTL clip, she was photographed as badly as possible, from above, which emphasized her round head and high forehead.

John Simon said mean things about Barbra (like she should be a waitress or something) reason enough for me to hate him.

Some say Pia Lindstrom had no acting talent in her blood and the only reason she got the role in the award winning Butterfly was her rich husband.

How I miss AMC and OLTL I quit watching for years but had it on for background noise. Was Cathy an important character through out the show? I forget. She looks like in the clip she may be getting a gun.

[quote]r220 Rex Reed said she looked like a fetus or something like that.

I wouldn't pay any attention to that. You know how bitchy fags can be!

Well, a few words about both Last Summer and John Simon:

Last Summer was a lost film for years. Somehow the original camera negative disappeared and it was such a low budget film there had been few if any "protection elements" made. After the original prints wore out, the film went unseen for years. After a long search, a 16mm copy of of the R rated version was found around 2000 or 2001 in Australia. That version was the source of the VHS version and all current theatrical prints but it has never appeared on DVD or Blu-ray. As mentioned above, the original release was rated X but it only appeared for a week or two in LA and New York before it was withdrawn and cuts made to the rape scene for the R rating. There was also a PG rated version that used to be shown on TV with even more severe cuts that gutted the film and I don't think it is still around.

Sondra Locke was originally offered Barbara Hershey's role but she turned it down. The film was based on a novel by esteemed writer Evan Hunter, who wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's The Birds but he had nothing to do with the film of Last Summer. The film was written by Eleanor Perry, wife of director Frank Perry. The novel takes place in one of the straight communities on Fire Island, where it was filmed on location.

I think if the film hadn't been unavailable for so many years, Burns' reputation would have been much higher.

Perhaps more later on my encounter with John Simon but it's 3:00 am and I've had one too many bourbons and I've learned not to post here when I'm sleepy and drunk. Good night.

^ Meh, a couple of more comments about Last Summer. In the film, Richard Thomas' father is played by Ralph Waite. The closeted Waite later played Thomas' father on The Waltons. Burns and Bruce Davidson both made guest appearances on the show. Again, good night.

[quote] After a long search, a 16mm copy of of the R rated version was found around 2000 or 2001 in Australia. That version was the source of the VHS version and all current theatrical prints but it has never appeared on DVD or Blu-ray.

Why would a print found in 2000-2001 be made into a VHS when DVD had been around for 5 years and VHS was on the way out?

There are no *prints* of Last Summer, there's ONE print, and it's the Australian print found by the American Cinematheque in 2012. It is the only surviving film print.

Maybe have a few less bourbons because you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

[quote] There are no *prints* of Last Summer, there's ONE print, and it's the Australian print found by the American Cinematheque in 2012. It is the only surviving film print.

R228, i wasn't sure of all the facts I remembered, so I checked both IMDB and Wikipedia before posting. According to WP:

[quote] All original 35mm prints of the film were lost for years. In 2001 a 16mm print was located at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia after a two-year search and was brought to Los Angeles. Apparently it was the only surviving film version of the movie. The film had a rare showing in 2012 in Los Angeles.[5]

Other posters have said they have seen it on VHS, I perhaps incorrectly assumed that if there is a VHS version it is from the surviving 16mm Australian print. Certainly not from the OCN or original prints. If I am wrong, I apologize.

The WP article contradicts you (found in 2001 but not shown in a theater until 20012) , but as Lady Bracknell once, said "I have known strange errors in that publication." Love you, dear. All my best. Again, good night.

So has the American Cinemateque preserved a copy now? Surely they're not just sending around the one Aussie copy still?

I'm kinda hoping TcM might show it.

If the x rated version has male nudity I want to see. More of the terrible rape not at all.

[quote] So has the American Cinemateque preserved a copy now? Surely they're not just sending around the one Aussie copy still?

That I don't know. I don't know who owns the print. And I'm not sure who is authorizing its exhibition. I do know that the New Beverly showed it a couple of years ago, and I agree that it's certainly risky to screen the one and only print without preserving it. I remember when I saw it at the Cinematheque, it was pretty washed out, but I have no idea why it hasn't been scanned (but I also don't know that it hasn't been scanned). I do know that a couple of specialty blu ray labels have looked into it and have said it was not possible (without giving further reason).

I remember close to 20 years ago the Cinematheque screened a very rare print of Toomorrow. I went to see it and thought it was a hoot and recommended it to a distributor I'd worked with. They asked me to get some info and I actually found out it was the only surviving print and was housed at the BBC Archive which loaned it out for screenings. The Cinematheque couldn't even pay a rental fee for it because no one knew who owned the rights. No one would claim them. Very bizarre situation. I researched it and did some leg work, even going by the BBC when I was in London on another matter. Due diligence said no one held the copyright and that it was likely public domain, but the distributor didn't want to take the chance because of the music, so they passed.

The Cinematheque screened it again 3 years later with the director present to do a Q&A, and I know some bullshit UK label put it out in a really lousy transfer about a decade later. I don't know if they used the BBC print, but I would assume so.

There is always hope, though, that another print of Last Summer does still exist, either in someone's private collection or sitting on a shelf somewhere unmarked. Look at the lost footage from Metropolis. If they can find that, then anything is possible.

And in the meantime, there are plenty of watchable bootlegs around.

[quote] If the x rated version has male nudity I want to see. More of the terrible rape not at all.

There is no more male nudity in the X version than there is in the R version. The two versions are very similar. The rape scene just goes on longer and is a bit more graphic in the X. I have bootlegs of both and watching the R is completely fine.

My older brother had the book and I snuck it out and read it when I was about 10. Never saw the movie but would like to.

I don't believe there are no more prints. Warner Bros is a major and they they didn't just destroy prints. After opening exclusive in NY city it opened around in Queens and Long Island with over thirty prints alone. The picture played al all over the country and world. There are prints out there in some film depot where prints were stored for future booking such as a double feature and no on has looked hard enough. This title would ever be a money maker on DVD/Blu-ray to off set the cost. And some projectionist probably swiped a print as that was common for their collection.

R233 is entirely correct. The original X version exists as low quality boots as does the R rated version 35mm. The Australian 16mm version is the wide release R rated version but as r233 points out, the cuts were minor. Nothing as severe as the version released for broadcast TV. The 16mm Aussie version is the R rated version and the only surviving version which was originally released that survives in decent condition. The original 35mm versions and the Original Camera Negative are long gone.

[quote] I don't believe there are no more prints. Warner Bros is a major and they they didn't just destroy prints.

But they did (and do). Not every single one, but a studio/distributor will maybe keep 2-5 prints of a film tops, and destroy the rest (and today, they'll erase and reuse the DCP). Otherwise you're talking a mint in storage costs. Don't forget, the negatives are usually preserved, so a print can always be struck at a later date if need be.

I'm sure back when there was a larger market for repertory and college screenings, the studios had more prints on hand, but those days are long gone.

[quote] I don't believe there are no more prints. Warner Bros is a major and they they didn't just destroy prints.

Of course they did, What happened to the original uncut prints of A Star Is Born with Judy? Ron Haver's "restoration" was wonderful but it depended highly on photos and alternative takes despite the few actual scenes he recovered.

One well known film collector allegedly has two complete prints of the original film despite swearing to Liza that he doesn't. But he supposedly remembers what happened to Roddy McDowall as well as having a very unpleasant experience with WB when he tried to turn his copies over to them through intermediaries.

[quote] I don't believe there are no more prints. Warner Bros is a major and they they didn't just destroy prints.

Of course they did, What happened to the original uncut prints of A Star Is Born with Judy? Ron Haver's "restoration" was wonderful but it depended highly on photos and alternative takes despite the few actual scenes he recovered.

One well known film collector allegedly has two complete prints of the original film despite swearing to Liza that he doesn't. But he supposedly remembers what happened to Roddy McDowall as well as having a very unpleasant experience with WB when he tried to turn his copies over to them through intermediaries.

One thing I don’t understand — I’ve seen Ralph Waite mentioned as being in the film, but the only adults I remember seeing are Sandy’s mother’s boyfriend, and the sweet, shy Anibal the teens go on the disastrous blind date with — neither of which was Ralph Waite! I’ve seen “Last Summer” in VHS in the 80s, then in the 90s when the syndicated TV station I worked at aired in (I don’t remember the format) and then a couple of years ago uploaded to a rare film website. None featured Ralph Waite.

Makes one wonder how many versions are out there.

She was very good in that “OLTL” clip.

Did she end up writing for GL? She could have written the Reva drives off a bridge storyline.

I don't think the parents are ever shown in the movie so I think the person talking about Ralph Waite has it mixed up.

R242 That's what the obit said, but it's rare that those shows "buy" a script - they aren't episodic in nature like nighttime shows, so I'm not sure what that bit meant. Maybe they gave her a trial run writing dialogue or something.

Maybe she created Tangie Hill and was blackballed from the industry?

Burns would have made a fucking great Carrie. With Shelley Winters as the mother?

And Debbie Reynolds as the gym teacher.

Burns me up that she went off the Radar.

IMDB and Wikipedia both say that Ralph Waite played "Peter's Father" but IMDB also says that that he was uncredited, so It was probably a bit part. I haven't seen the film since its original release and don't remember. As a horny teenager I went to see the dirty stuff but remember being quite affected by the end.

Was there nudity?

Flashes of Burns' boobs and the boys' butts during the rape scene is all I remember. I don't think there was ever any full frontal, even in the X rated version. It was the brutality of the rape scene that got the X.

I wonder if she ever knew Delilah-Judith.

I wonder if Delilah-Judith ever claimed to have played Blanche in STREETCAR.

As horrific as fat shaming and not beautiful shaming is today .... imagine being poor her . Hated for everything on the outside cannot compete with mild acknowledgement in ones acting abilities .

SHAME is overpowering and it kills

Mild acknowledgment?!?! She was nominated for an Oscar.

She wasn't fat.

R254 The way that Burns was treated was fucked up but I don't think her life was some monumental tragedy. She left the biz, married and became a writer. Apparently traveled quite a bit. I don't really see the massive fuss made over her looks, just looks like a typical character actress to me. I think critics back then were encouraged to engage in hyperbolic and exaggerated pile ons. The meaner the better.

[quote]R251 Flashes of Burns' boobs and the boys' butts during the rape scene is all I remember.

Why does she rape them?

Seems rather extreme.

I assume you are a humorist and not a troll, r258. The length and brutality of the rape scene were what got the original the then new X rating, including the psychological torment of Burns's character. The cuts that had to be made to get an R rating weren't that bad; Burns physical and psychological torment in the R rated version were still more than enough to make the point. I have also always thought that the film's excellent reviews influenced the decision to allow the change to an R rating with only minimal changes.

Lens Dunham should remake this.

I vaguely remember seeing "Last Summer" on tv long, long ago. Of course it was censored. But I can't remember...what happened to Rhoda after she'd been raped? Did they seriously injure her and leave her for dead? I always wondered what happened to the poor girl.

The Sterile Cuckoo didn't know how good she had it.

,,,,

R261. I saw the PG rated version of the film that was shown on TV back in the '80s and/or '90s and it was so heavily edited that you'd never know she had been violently raped at the end. It was more like she'd fallen asleep near the beach and the the other three had to slap her a few times to wake her up. It made the overall plot incoherent which is why it was eventually withdrawn and hasn't been seen in years. Unlikely it will ever be again. Only the R rated wide release is currently available. The X rated and PG rated versions seem to have disappeared.

As mentioned several times by various posters throughout the thread, the cuts made to get the film from the X rated original to the R rated wide release weren't enough to upset the quality of the film. But the PG rated TV version was an abomination.

They shot the movie on Fire island except for the scene where Hershey, Davidson and Thomas go t to the movies. They filmed that in Bay Shore Long Island by the ferry to Fire Island. Being a movie nut kid I followed the production thru the newspaper Newsday that had a big write up on it. The Regent Theater was a neighborhood theater and I was thrilled they were making a movie there. Of course not old enough to see an R let alone an X it was years before I could actually see it. To boot UA owned two theaters in Bay Shore and for some stupid reason they opened the movie up the street at their other theater instead of the one they filmed at. Later thru teh years I got to meet them all except Cathy Burns.

What prompted them to rape her?

R267 The phase of the moon, Rose.

A few additional “Last Summer” factoids.: As indicated above, Sondra Locke mentioned in her autobiography that she was offered the role of Sandy in “Last Summer”, but turned it down. If memory serves, her agent turned down the role without consulting Locke, because her handlers were trying to steer her away from teen roles after “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”

In David Carradine’s book, “Endless Highway”, he wrote that Barbara Hershey (his new girlfriend at the time) was originally offered the role of Rhoda, not Sandy. Carradine claimed that he urged Hershey to go for Sandy instead .

Another person who auditioned for the film was a pre-“Partridge Family” David Cassidy. Cannot remember if I read this info via Bruce Davison or via Cassidy himself.

The film is pretty faithful to Evan Hunter’s book, which was narrated by Peter (the Richard Thomas character). I seem to recall it was divided into two sections, the first titled “The Gull”, and the second “Rhoda”., which telegraphs a feeing of dread in the reader as the story proceeds, especially after what Sandy does to the gull! The Bruce Davison character was called Dan in the film, but David in the book. I think the book ends with Peter writing that they saw Rhoda a couple of more times that summer after the rape, hanging around a group of younger children. Peter, David and Sandy said hello or waved to Rhoda, and they couldn’t understand why she ignored them. (!!)

Has anyone read the sequel to the book, "Come Winter?"

During shooting, the seagull being used was killed when its neck was accidentally snapped. Barbara Hershey was so upset by the incident that she changed her name to Barbara Seagull for several years in its honor before finally going back to Hershey.

I'm not making this up. I assume Hershey, born Herzstein, was a flake.

Hershey had a messy private life and was indeed considered eccentric and a "flake." Nonetheless, she was considered an excellent actress and received many nominations for and a few wins of major awards.

She also felt extreme guilt over killing the bird. Not "flakey" for a lot of people.

I was a kid when Barbara changed her last name to "Seagull," but I didn't know why. I had always assumed it had something to do with the book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," which was very big at the time.

Hershey changed her stage name back to the original after she left David Carradine, with whom she had a child in a multi-year and allegedly highly abusive relationship.

Hershey changed her stage name back to the original after she left David Carradine, with whom she had a child in a multi-year and allegedly highly abusive relationship.

Barbara Hershey also raised a lot of eyebrows during her pregnancy when she announced that she and David Carradine planned to eat the baby’s placenta.

THAT tidbit made the news, but little info on Catherine Burns!

I don't know if this has been posted....

It has.

Rex Reed was such a smug pretentious asshole. He got none of his Oscar predictions right. Even Cary Grant, who showed up to collect his honorary award. Wonder if he even picked wrong for best actor, which everyone knew in town was going to John Wayne.

[quote]West Side Story, The Sound of Music, The Music Man, etc., etc., etc.

All three Broadway shows before films R208.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The Wizard of Oz. Meet Me in St. Louis, Garlands A Star is Born...

r281 What's your point? They were still successful sound tracks well before the Streisand ASIB. (And they didn't have soundtrack albums when Snow White, Oz, or St. Louis were made.)

[quote]He got none of his Oscar predictions right.

It happens

[quote] What's your point? They were still successful sound tracks well before the Streisand ASIB. (And they didn't have soundtrack albums when Snow White, Oz, or St. Louis were made.)

Actually Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs soundtrack was issued as a 78rpm recording by RCA Victor records featuring the songs and dialog in 1938. And has many re-issues throughout the decades.

to tell you the truth I wasn't really watching that part about the soundtracks when I said aSIB wasn't t seemed like there didn't go back far in. history because of many youths who dont care about any thing before their time.At the time ASIB it was a monster hit soundtrack then even more so Saturday Night Fever, Grease (of course based on Broadway) and Bodyguard.

I also said they picked Eminem to perform hoping to appeal to the young I meant theyTHOUGHT he would.

I think Barbara Hershey breast fed her son on the Dick Cavett show. She was VERY weird.

She was a hippie. Her son was named Free (later Tom).

She was also the one who gave Marty the Jesus book that was based on his movie.

As did MMiSL, r282......

r284 r289 Those are NOT soundtracks. They are "selected songs." Soundtracks did not exist until the LP came about in the '50s.

You really like to split hairs, don't you, r290?

No, I like to be precise and accurate.

But you're probably one of those people who thing there's a "soundtrack" for "Hamilton."

No, I'm not. And you're foolish to not consider those 78 sets as soundtrack recordings....because that's exactly what they are. Granted, not always. For example the originally released soundtrack of Show Boat had Ava's vocals.

The called the 78 sets albums because they were an album. Like a photo album. That’s how the LP got the bane album.

From Wikipedia:

[quote]The contraction soundtrack came into public consciousness with the advent of so-called "soundtrack albums" in the late 1940s. First conceived by movie companies as a promotional gimmick for new films, these commercially available recordings were labeled and advertised as "music from the original motion picture soundtrack", or "music from and inspired by the motion picture." These phrases were soon shortened to just "original motion picture soundtrack." More accurately, such recordings are made from a film's music track, because they usually consist of the isolated music from a film, not the composite (sound) track with dialogue and sound effects.

But I will agree with you that some of the multiple 78-rpm record sets like "Snow White" were soundtracks, even if that term was not in use at the time.

I think the gatefold LPs would be considered an actual album, r294. Especially the ones with extra pages.

Can we get back to me, please? I'm dead, after all.

Well, it's a sure bet that YOU never appeared in a gatefold Cathy.

She looked like mash-up of composer/actor/director Paul Williams, actress Michelle Williams with a touch Wendy from Wendy’s hamburgers.

[quote]Those are NOT soundtracks. They are "selected songs." Soundtracks did not exist until the LP came about in the '50s.

The Snow White album included dialog and songs which is on the actual soundtrack of the film. WE win.

R300: Ditto for "Lady and the Tramp?"

I wonder what would have happened if her writing career on Guiding Light flourished, maybe the show could have been saved?

Call me smug but I'm glad it was a young gay critic who recognized her talent and stood by her as deserving of the Oscar.

Just about everything lthing Reed says in that clip is wrong except his praise for Cathy.

Why did they vote for Hawn over her if it was such a great performance?

R305 Hawk had that star quality. And Laugh In was big at the time, so that was free advertising for her. In Burns case, I think she came in last in the voting. The nomination was her reward. All the other nominees and Hawn, were in higher profile films that more Academy members saw.

That's a good explanation. Thanks. ☺

The trailer at R266 makes it look vile.

I guess it was sold as an exploitation film. Only a perv would watch the trailer and think, “Oh, I must go see THAT!”

It's certainly not a happy film.

Did all 3 rape her? And did they say why?

It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but if memory serves, in the movie, the Bruce Davison character rapes Catherine Burns while Richard Thomas and Barbara Hershey hold her down. In the novel, both boys rape Rhoda.

Okay, in these trying times, it should be uplifting that I can offer a solid post-acting Catherine Burns update.

The talent agency she worked in for two years (where my actress friend was a client) was the Michael Thomas Agency, Inc. (305 Madison Ave., Suite 4419, New York, NY 10165.) My friend says Burns actually operates as an agent, though that’s a very specific position with legal technicalities and I imagine she was officially an assistant who did a lot. I think this was in the late 1980s.

The agent who eventually replaced Burns was named Roseanne Gates, so she’s someone who’d know more, if future generations want to dig.

OPERATED as an agent.... not “operates”.

(Signed) r312

She has so much talent.

She's DEAD, so she doesn't HAVE anything.

Well, she has immortality on THIS, at least.

She looks like Eve Plumb.

MeTV just showed her "Adam 12" the other day. She really was a great actress.

She is a DL ICON!

Really wish “Last Summer” and “Red Sky at Morning” were more readily available to watch.

r317=Maureen McCormick

Wonderful deep dive into X-rated version of Last Summer.

I just saw her on a Me-TV airing of "Adam-12"

[quote]She wasn't fat.

She was emaciated.