The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) - A Movie That Could Never Be Made Today

Trailer:

This was a dreadful movie - the acting was terrible. I'll never understand the love for Jodie Foster. She displays no emotion whatsoever.

R2 I thought she did a damn good job for a 14-year old. And I think her character was supposed to be quite cold and without much of a conscience in this one, so to me, she nailed it.

I'm not her biggest fan. The films she's done as an adult seem somewhat one note-ish - nervousness, twitchiness, prone to sudden outbursts. But I give her a lot of credit for tackling such an adult role in this movie.

Young Martin Sheen was YUMMY. None of his sons inherited his sexiness IMO.

Damn! I love this movie. If I'd known it was on i'd have dvr'd it.

Martin Sheen was hot and Jodie's character was supposed to be calculating. If this were made today you'd have the helicopter frauen screaming.

I always wondered whatever happened to Scott Jacoby. Seems he was in every ABC TV Movie of the Week in the 1970s, then he just disappeared.

That film was so good.

The book was better.

R8 During the TCM interview, Jodie Foster said the film's director made her wear the fake teeth with the chipped front tooth because the girl's character in the book was described as having a chipped tooth, and the director wanted to be as faithful to the book as possible.

"If you want to enjoy a movie, don't read the book first." The movie was rated PG, FWIW.

R5, this movie is on tcm.com if you have cable. Click on "watch movies."

Phyllis is DEAD to me!

[quote] This was a dreadful movie - the acting was terrible.

You have no idea what you’re talking about.

It's on Prime now, btw

Pity the pedophiles who had to sit this dreary film to get their thrills.

TCM also aired another Foster film that couldn't be made today: "Foxes", in which a 16-year-old "has an affair" with her high school teacher, played by pre-batshit Randy Quaid (they couldn't have gotten the cuter Quaid?), and it's supposed to be so romantic.

Barf.

What were Hinkley’s thoughts on this film?

How "pedophilic" can a PG film get, R14?

Weird, creepy movie, but very memorable. I liked it, but you're right - I don't see it getting made today. It's not explicit, but the subject matter is so icky it'd have the Twitter psychos freaking out before it was even released.

I watch it once a year. I admired Rynn's intelligence and independence.

I wonder if she could be considered a sociopath since to her, mean people are just something to get rid of?

[quote]r19 I admired Rynn's intelligence and independence. I wonder if she could be considered a sociopath since to her, mean people are just something to get rid of?

Rynn is a [italic]strong womyn.

R17 Replying to the OPs post re a masturbatory fantasy for pedophiles. Dull, made 4 TV feel with Martin Sheen groping Foster and Foster and Scott Jacoby in bed that could still be made today. Sheen was a villain who tortured a hamster! So much for thrills!

Roger Vadim's first American film Pretty Maids All in a Row (1970) probably couldn't be made today. A supposed black comedy about a literal and figurative lady killer (Rock Hudson) a high school guidance counselor who sleeps with his students who then wind up murdered and Angie Dickinson as a substitute teacher!!!who helps a young man with supposed erection problems. Awful!

Was Brooke Shields the younger sister in this Jodie movie? If she is, I think I saw it way back when.

I thought it was a great movie. The Alexis Smith character was such a nosy cunt. She deserved what happened to her.

[quote]R22 Was Brooke Shields the younger sister in this Jodie movie? If she is, I think I saw it way back when.

That is an even worse movie called Alice, Sweet Alice (aka Communion) (aka Holy Terror)

At any rate, there’s a child molester in that one, too.

You know, I'd really like to know the story of how Jodie's sister became a nude body double. Did Jodie's stage mother pressure the girl into it, by any chance, and maybe demand a large "agent's" fee from the movie's producers?

R21 Sorry, but there's no way they could make a movie today that involved a 14-year old girl in bed with an older man or a 14-year old girl getting groped by an older man.

Most of Brooke Shields early movies would never be made today.

The funniest part of the movie is when a convertible passes by her house full of cheerleaders and football players cheering like they're at a pep rally. Why would they be driving down a deserted road cheering like it's a parade? It's just so random.

I guess it's meant to signify how Jodie's character will never get to experience a normal childhood like her peers. If only nosy Alexis Smith hadn't demanded those damn rubber seals.

So did Alexis Smith sing Uptown, Downtown or The Story Of Lucy And Jessie in this?

R26 Jodie is never in bed with an older man in real life or in the movie. It's such a tame and lame thriller.

[quote] How "pedophilic" can a PG film get, [R14]?

I don't know, you tell me:

R30 Guess ya missed the scene where the actual 14-year old Jodie was in an actual bed with the actual 20-year old Scott Jacoby.

God, some of you queens are so insufferable.

I can just picture R30, wheezing between puffs of his Marlboro Lights, reading a comment, squealing , "Oh, hell, no, missy," then pounding out some inane, snobbish, worthless sentence and thinking she's really nailed it.

That you can watch but not the [italic]Golden Girls[/italic] episode where he marries a Black woman?

Another Martin Sheen movie that could never be made today “Sweet Hostage” with Linda Blair as the girl he kidnaps (whofalls in love with him.)

I really enjoyed Alice, Sweet Alice, R24! Its so seedy.

Martin Sheen played a lot of creepy characters in his early days.

R36 Was that learned behavior for Charlie Sheen then?

R32 He was playing a teen and looks it. Jodie's more manly than Scott!

KEEP REPEATING:

It's only a movie!

It's only a movie!

It's only a movie!

R38 You're missing the point, dear. It's the THEME. And Jacoby's character was still older than Jodie, and having sex with a minor is illegal. So you see, they could never make that movie today. Do you get it yet? Think really hard.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

R38, whatever happened to the boy in the wheelchair from [italic]Mac & Me[/italic]?

R39 There was no actual sex like beheadings, rapes and eye gouging it is all simulated.

Rynn also has a love affair with the slightly older Mario (nicely played by Scott Jacoby) John Simon August 29, 1977

This would send only the most frustrated unfucked fraus into cardiac arrest. But then what doesn't?

Scott Jacoby appeared as Dorothy’s son in 3 episodes of the golden girls. His brother appeared as Blanche’s grandson in season 1 of the golden girls

Jodie said she wasn’t freaked out by Martin Sheen. They’d joke around.

R41 Doesn't understand the point of this thread.

Another Sheen film that would never be greenlit today.

Because of this very movie ,I started serving tea in a proper china set. I still have a few sets from a once vast collection . I realize now how very pretentious I was,but I did it for may years. Served almond cookies too !

It was a different time. Look at the old Baby Soft ads.

R46 Almond flavoring hides arsenic really well.

I am a big fan of this movie. Love the atmosphere, the simple, taut storytelling, and the atmosphere. I thought Foster did a great job in it, and Sheen was an absolute creep. What ever happened to Scott Jacoby? He was also in the TV horror flick "Bad Ronald". He was very cute.

I never understood Jodie's character, I would have been thrilled to have Martin Sheen molest me.

R49 here again—I just did a quick search and, oddly enough, the same year "Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" was released, Scott Jacoby was also in a TV movie called "That Certain Summer," which is about a teenage boy (Jacoby) learning that his father is gay and in a relationship with another man; Hal Holbrook played his dad, and Martin Sheen was his male lover.

Scott Jacoby as Michael Zbornak

R51 Shouldn’t that be “meet dad’s new ‘friend?’”

#51, Jodie would have been 10 in 1972. Search again.

"The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) - A Movie That Could Never Be Made Today"

BECAUSE CENSORSHIP!! CENSORSHIP!!!

WHY DO I HAVE TO WEAR A DIAPER ON MY FACE? CENSORSHIP?

WHY DO I HAVE TO GET VACCINATED? CENSORSHP!

WHY CAN'T I SHOOT UP AN ASIAN MASSAGE PARLOR WITHOUT BEING CALLED A RACIST? CENSORSHIP!

WHY IS HILLARY CLINTON EATING BABIES? CENSORSHIP!

I just watched this on Prime thanks to the OP. It freaked me out as a little kid watching it back in the day. Great film and Jodi Foster is fantastic in it (as are her caftans).

excuse the accidental double-mention of "atmosphere" (though it is very atmospheric—it was intended to be a stage play, which explains the central location and low number of characters)

So Taxi Driver couldn't be made today?

I think it would definitely be made today. Why wouldn't it be? There have been much more controversial movies about young teens, like "KIds" for example, which featured 12 or 13 year old girls having sex with a repellent little bastard who calls himself a "virgin surgeon" and tongue kissing with their mouths wide open.

I though Jodie Foster was miscast. In the book she's a proper English girl with "pretty hair", while Foster is her usual tomboy self and is wearing an awful wig. Martin Sheen was also miscast; he looks damn good, whereas the child molester in the book looks gross.

I thought the book interesting and quite disturbing. The 13 year old Rynn is determined to "survive" the adult world at any cost...so she kills whoever gets in the way of that. She kills her abusive mother and stores her dead body down cellar; she lives with her mother's corpse in the basement. Nosy Mrs. Hallet doesn't die when a trap door falls on her head; she goes down cellar to get the seals for some jelly glasses and sees the corpse of Rynn's mother, so Rynn throws down the trap door, trapping Mrs. Hallet inside. Realizing that Mrs. Hallet will surely have her taken away if she lets her out, she hooks up some kind of nozzle and gasses her to death. She keeps Mrs. Hallet's corpse in the cellar, too. By an amazing coincidence she meets the acquaintance of a 16 year old boy, a lame Italian kid named Mario who does magic shows. He immediately becomes her accomplice and they seemingly "fall in love." He buries the bodies of her mother and Mrs. Hallet in the garden during a rainstorm; although he's running a fever and is obviously ill they get into bed naked and have sex. Like I said, this is a very disturbing book. But I think it could be made today. In fact, I'd like to see a remake with a very pretty English actress playing Rynn. The contrast of the pretty, well mannered, proper little girl with her ghastly deeds would be very effective.

She sang pretty loud when the trapdoor landed on her head.

^^ in response to

[quote]r29 So did Alexis Smith sing Uptown, Downtown or The Story Of Lucy And Jessie in this?

What about An Education (2009) with Carey Mulligan?

[quote] That is an even worse movie called Alice, Sweet Alice (aka Communion) (aka Holy Terror)

What do you mean, “an even worse movie”? Alice, Sweet Alice is a classic, with great cinematography, editing, and score.

If you think both Alice and The Little Girl... are bad movies, I’d love to know what you think is better.

Anyway, back to this movie. Scott Jacoby is brilliant in it. One of the most natural and charismatic performances I’ve ever seen.

r45, it was based on a true story that is still being written about today. Of course it could get made.

"Sorry, but there's no way they could make a movie today that involved a 14-year old girl in bed with an older man or a 14-year old girl getting groped by an older man."

How about a 17-year-old boy and a grown man?

i can't believe nobody has mentioned "Pretty Baby" with Brooke Shields. She played a 12 year old prostitute in New Orleans' Storyville (red light) district at the turn of the last century. 1978, directed by Louis Malle. Shields was nude in both the film and publicity photos and it was praised by critics.

Times have changed. The '70s were so licentious and I loved it so much.

"In twenty years or so, it's going to change, you know,

But oh, it's Heaven nowadays."

^ Sorry, clickable link below.

R41 Ever hear of the Oscar nominated films Call Me By Your Name and An Education? The Little Dyke Who Lived Down the Lane is comparatively an After School Special.

^ Sorry, i left out that Shields herself was 12 at the time she played the nude child prostitute.

In the hills, a girl is ready to be a wife and mother by age 13.

R44 Call Me By Your Name and An Education are both Oscar nominated films and The Little Dyke Who Lives Down the Lane wouldn't raise an eyebrow at a kiddie matinee.

THREAD OVER

Yeah, Pretty Baby was notorious at the time for receiving an R rather than an X rating in the US and receiving a general nationwide release instead of just playing art houses. There were many accusations of child pornography. Outside the US it was shown to adults only audiences and the film was banned completely in several countries..

What some people on this thread don't seem to get is that while the plot of this movie could be made today, there's no way in hell they would be able to make it with an actual 14-year old girl in the role.

R73 Would she be CGI?

R74 They'd get an actress older than 18, but who looks younger, to play the character.

Think Glee. All the "high schoolers" in that show were in their mid to late 20s.

While they were filming 'Sweet Hostage', Martin Sheen and Linda Blair had an affair. I remember reading about it in a Rona Barrett magazine.

While Brooke's commandeering stage mom Teri was the butt of jokes and gossip from the get go, Jodie's mom Brandy managed to fly under the radar. Despite being rich and successful I can't help but feel sorry for Jodie; it must have been difficult to work on such seedy movies with a fame-hungry single mother as a kid all while remaining closeted and being denied a relationship with her father. She's clearly very smart but with a lack of vulnerability or emotional IQ that betrays the coping mechanisms of repression/compartmentalization developed to withstand a dysfunctional upbringing and the trauma of being closeted. Ronan Farrow, Amanda Bearse, and Ellen are somewhat similar in this regard.

R76 Rona Barrett’s Hollywood!! I loved that magazine; wish I’d saved mine.

R77 Hasn't Jodie said in the past she had a troubled relationship with her mom?

Alexis Smith- I remember her- SHE played Clayton Farlow's DERANGED sister on Dallas ca. 1985.

Not to get off track, but the whole Alexis Smith-Craig Stevens marriage is fascinating to me. She was a lesbian and had a long-term relationship with Rita Mae Brown, he was gay and was one of Henry Willson's stable boys.

They managed to avoid scandal and press and stayed married for nearly 50 years until she died in 1993.

Whatever arrangement they had, it seemed to work out perfectly for them.

r77, I've told this story before on DL: my non-blood uncle was one of the producers on this movie, and my mom and I briefly stayed with him after her divorce. Jodie, who is 3 years older than I, came over for a meeting (presumably with her mom), and actually played ball with me in the backyard until the time of their meeting, which was at sunset. I vividly remember them calling her in to the dark living room, lit by one lamp, and a group of 10 or so adults starting to crowd around her. it was a chiaroscuro painting- Jodie by the lamp, and adults arrayed all around her. My 10 year-old self felt very sorry for her that she had to all of a sudden be an adult and discuss serious things.

R82 If only Caravaggio was still alive to paint that, or maybe Eric Fischl who could capture the suppressed erotic undertones

[quote]R79 Hasn't Jodie said in the past she had a troubled relationship with her mom?

I thought it was the opposite. She liked that her mom took her to European films when very young and put her in a strong academic school. She was a lesbian like her mom, and thanked her at the Academy Awards.

Martin was great in The Incident - two psychopaths terrorize a nyc subway car one by one even though the other passengers could’ve easily overpowered them - very interesting movie.

From article:

[quote] Jodi honored her mother in 2013 at the Golden Globe awards when she accepted the Cecille B. DeMille award.

[quote]“This brings me to the greatest influence of my life, my amazing mother Eveylyn. Mom, I know you’re inside those blue eyes somewhere and that there are so many things that you won’t understand tonight but this is the only important one to take in. I love you, I love you, I love you. And I hope that if I say this three times it will magically and perfectly enter into your soul, fill you with grace and the joy of knowing that you did good in this life. You’re a good mom. Please take that with you when you’re finally okay to go.”

R84 I know they're close now, but I thought there was a time where they had a rift.

R85 That was Sheen's first movie. Just watched it last month on TCM. Incredibly disturbing and still relevant 54 years later.

They should have remade this movie with Millie Bobbie Brown.

They should have remade this move with Punky Brewster when she had the triple D cups.

Wait, Brandy died? And she was NINETY? How did I miss that? I figured she was younger.

R82, that’s a great story! To have played basketball with Jodie in the backyard in the mid-70s... So cool. What city was this? Where was the movie filmed anyway?

I’m so glad to have it on Blu ray.

"While they were filming 'Sweet Hostage', Martin Sheen and Linda Blair had an affair. I remember reading about it in a Rona Barrett magazine."

You can't believe everything you read in "Rona Barrett's Hollywood", which was the name of her rag. I always heard that Linda Blair was quite smitten with Sheen but that he deflected her advances. I tend to believe that. Anyway, Linda Blair was quite the little slut. She was fucking Rick Springfield when she was 15 and he was 24. She also became a hard core groupie and coke snorter. I guess she WAS "possessed" by something.

That "Sweet Hostage" movie she did with Sheen is rather grotesque. He plays an oddly appealing intelligent psycho; she plays a white trash teen girl. He kidnaps her. Does he rape her or harm her in any way? No. He becomes the mentor, her teacher; she learns about life from him. Eventually they make love and it turns out he's a virgin! They get found out and the police come and after saying goodbye to her he goes out to the police who promptly shoot him, leaving her heartbroken. Was this movie a fantasy for teenage girls, to be kidnapped by a good looking guy and falling in love with him? Yech.

R73 Why not, Jodie had a double for the nude scene?

R93 She was in bed with a guy. She got groped and caressed by Martin Sheen.

They wouldn't let an actual 14-year old do that today.

r91, thanks! This was in Holmby Hills (Los Angeles), and we lived right next to Vincent Price (whom I always hoped to see) who had some big ass Dobermans in his yard. I tell ya, she was super dykey then (and as a kid, I had a great gaydar- I knew that she, Richard Chamberlain, Peter O'Toole, and Elton John were different, but I didn't know how or why). I have no idea where the film was shot, but re-watched it recently, and it still holds up.

So many films of yore could not be filmed today.

R95 Great stories!

The movie was filmed in both Canada and Maine. I think the house was in Canada.

[quote]Alexis Smith- I remember her- SHE played Clayton Farlow's DERANGED sister on Dallas ca. 1985.

She starred in the original production of FOLLIES!!!

I first saw this movie as a pre-pubescent 11 or 12 yr old so I didn't understand what was going on but I knew it was a horny movie. Somehow this film is conflated in my head with that stupid Magic starring Antony Hopkins and Ann Margaret as well as Hotel New Hampshire and Meatballs. Years later when I saw it again I thought Matthew Modine was the actor in the boyfriend part.

I'm available for the reboot!

It was a body double. Not actually Jodie who got naked.

R89 if they were to reboot this film, it would have to be a person of color. It’s about an old Karen who hates emigrants and her creeper son. They are clearly bigots. The Jewish and Italian thing won’t work today. The girl should be Asian and the boy should be boy white hispanic.

Non-white Hispanic.

JESUS CHRIST, R100! Your little tidbit of behind the scenes information IS IN THE ORIGINAL FUCKING POST! It's people like you, who are so fucking self absorbed that they believe THAT THEY SIMPLY MUST BE HEARD, that are ruining DL.

Jodie Foster’s sister stood in as her body double, so it’s not as bad as it could be.

I heard that Jodi Foster had a body double for that nude scene.

Thanks r105! I never heard that before.

Jodie said the director pressured her to get naked saying that's what all actors have to do. She had a panic attack and even hated using a body double because people would think it was her.

Also that was a real hamster they killed and Jodie was horrified.

On the Blu ray, Martin Sheen said the hamster was already deceased. I assume that means they got it from a lab. Or found it in the forest.

You ain't gonna believe this shit but...

Jodie Foster had a body double for that nude scene!

And that ain't even the topper...

It was her older sister's naked body they filmed!!!

It would be so bizarre and creepy to have my older brother do my nude scenes for me if I were an actor. That would be really fucked up.

Jodie's mother must have been a weirdo who let her daughters do anything they wanted.

Still not as bad as Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby, R111.

Also, Jenny Agutter was very young when she appeared fully nude in Walkabout, though I’m not sure of her exact age (16? 17?), and Melanie Griffith’s underage pubes & vulva are briefly visible in Night Moves.

Both of them swimming scenes.

Melanie Griffith is also topless in SMILE, I think.

You people are enablers. All of you. You think you're being so funny, but you are the types who would wave a triple scotch in front of an alcoholic.

Did somebody touch your No-No place R114 ?

WTF R114

"Melanie Griffith is also topless in SMILE, I think."

I think Melanie Griffith was still in her teens when she did a soft porn photo shoot (for Playboy, I think) with her then lover Don Johnson. He started fucking her when she was 14 and he was 24. By way of explanation in a Playboy interview he said "she was a very mature 14 year old and I was a very immature 24 year old." Oh well, that explains it.

Tippi Hedren with daughter Melanie and predator Don.

Mmm, Don Johnson could predatorize me any day. Yum.

Don Johnson was pretty, but stupid. So was Melanie Griffith. No wonder they clicked. I remember one of their soft porn photos; he's biting her naked ass, which is unremarkable except for the tattoo of a pear that's on it. The pear is a play on the French word "pere", which means father. The "pere" on her ass is supposed to be some kind of reference to Johnson. Yech.

Somehow I don't think 14 year old Melanie was sophisticated enough to project a French metaphor on her ass tattoo.

R121 14 in the 70s was worlds different than 14 now . Back then having sex with a teen wasnt a big deal. Now Don would be crucified as a pedo.

No, it was a big deal. I believe it was criminal... however, the pair did eventually marry after living together. So that kind of swept it under the rug. I guess.

———-

[italic]In 1972, then-14-year-old Griffith met Johnson, who was 22 at the time, on the set of their movie, The Harrad Experiment — which her mother, Tippi Hedren, also starred in. “We were in the stairwell of this Anheuser-Busch Estate waiting for a setup," Johnson recalled. "We started chitchatting." Griffith added, "I thought he was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen."

Hedren, who by then was an acting legend, recalled feeling "sheer panic" that her teen daughter had fallen for an older man. "How do you handle that? There was a very strong attachment between the two of them," she said.

Johnson and Griffith moved in together when she was 15 and got engaged on her 18th birthday, tying the knot in 1976. On the evening before the wedding, “I had been with [ex-Miss World] Marjorie Wallace most of the night,” Johnson later admitted. "Melanie called at about 4 or 5 in the morning. We professed undying love and flew to Las Vegas and got married."

"Somehow I don't think 14 year old Melanie was sophisticated enough to project a French metaphor on her ass tattoo."

Well, she (or Johnson) must have heard the meaning of the French word "pere" somewhere because that's supposedly the origin of the pear tattoo on her ass. Well, it does kind of make sense, doesn't it? He's her older lover, her "daddy", her '"pere"...how cute it would be to reference their love by putting a pear on her rump. I guess that's what they thought. They were, and still are, really dumb.

did Jodie say much else about the film?

Is it online anywhere? On the TCM site?

It’s free on Amazon prime right now. I watched Alexis Smith’s scenes then turned it off. It’s not a very good movie.

1975 article abt Melanie and Don Johnson...oh and Tippi. What year again was Melanie fking Ryan O'Neal?

You could tell Jodie really got off on saying that Italian cop's name over and over again.

R125, yes, it's on TCM through March 31.

Jodie was interviewed about it for TCM’s showing. It would be nice if that were available to watch online.

R126, Scott Jacoby gives the best performance in it. You’ve done yourself a disservice by ignoring him and dismissing it was “not a very good movie” after watching only Alexis Smith’s scenes (WTF).

Officer Miglioriti.

Interesting trivia on the guy who played Officer Miglioriti. Mort Shuman was actually a prolific songwriter. He wrote "Viva Las Vegas" for Elvis, as well other hits for artists like Del Shannon, Bobby Darin, and Fabian.

The book was interesting to read but ridiculous. Two different charactera, Mario and the child molester Frank Hallett, both tell Rynn she is "staggeringly brilliant." Now what are the chances that two very different people would use that same odd phrase: "staggeringly brilliant." And at the end of the novel the repulsive child molester gets into Rynn's house and lets her know he knows everything and that he has the upper hand and she's at his mercy. Does he then get down to the business of molesting the pretty little girl? No, he asks her to fix him a cup of tea! Yeah, that's what child molesters do, ask their victims to make them a nice cup of tea, accompanied by biscuits. Of course they have to have tea so Rynn can slyly poison him the way she did her mother. But I think in any real situation the child molester would skip tea time and start satisfying his urges.

Why did Rynn poison her mother?

Going from the book, I think the mom had abandoned the dad and Rynn way in the past, then suddenly reappeared for money or to take over her daughter’s life.... and Rynn was like, “Before we discuss that, have some of my special tea.”

R133 Hallett knew Rynn had poisoned her mother and suspected she would try to poison him, so he attempted to outwit her and make her drink from the cup he thought she had poisoned.

"Hallett knew Rynn had poisoned her mother and suspected she would try to poison him, so he attempted to outwit her and make her drink from the cup he thought she had poisoned."

Why would he do that? Did he think "I'll have her drink from my cup; if she falls over dead then whoopee for me!" I should think he would want Rynn to remain alive so she could be his girlfriend. The whole bit about them drinking tea together seemed really dumb, just a device to have her kill Hallett. It seems to me that having tea with her would be the last thing on Hallett's mind.

r134 she didn't know it was poison. The father told her to give her the stuff as a way to calm her down but he really wanted her dead.

It was interesting to see Foster discuss the movie on TCM. I’ve always read she didn’t like it and never wanted to discuss it so it was odd to see her speak of it in a positive light. Maybe she’s mellowed.

In the movie, wasn’t her mother dying? She had set her up with the house and everything to be self-sufficient.

No, in the movie her mother was dead in the basement where she'd stored her body. In the novel she talks to Mario about it. He asks her about it, wondering how she can keep the body in the basement because well, bodies decompose don't they? And she tells him "you can put stuff on them." He asks how she knew that and she said she learned it from the library: "the library has everything." I think she puts lye on the body to keep it from stinking up the house.

Her father had terminal cancer; rather than let the disease kill him he commits suicide by drowning himself in the ocean. But before he does he makes sure she is set up in a place of her own choosing (the house down the lane) with a three year lease and and an ample supply of traveler's checks. All the while she is supposed to pretend he's still alive; whenever someone knocks at the door she blows around the smoke from French cigarettes and if anyone wants to speak to her father she tells them he's away on business or is "translating" and can't be disturbed. It seems kind of ridiculous that they think they can get away with this ruse for very long. I mean, a thirteen year old girl with a never seen father? That would surely be found out before very long.

Didn't Rynn eventually kill the magician boyfriend too?

I wonder what she was supposed to do after the 3 year lease was up. Become a pole dancer?

r142, not in the movie! But that would have been an interesting and tragic turn of events, kind of like the ending of The Incredible Mr. Ripley.

God no, she doesn’t kill Scott Jacoby.

Let’s not spoil the movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it, though, please.

Oops, I meant The Talented Mr. Ripley (I always get that mixed up with The Incredible Mr. Limpet).

Rynn was a serial killer.

"Didn't Rynn eventually kill the magician boyfriend too?"

Well, she DOES make him nearly die (it's unclear what his final fate is in the novel) by having him bury the bodies of her mother and Mrs. Hallett. Mario, who is crippled and seemingly doesn't have a strong constitution, buries the bodies in the garden during a rainstorm. He gets back to the house shivering and in the grip of a high fever. Rynn suggests he take a hot bath and get under some blankets. He undresses and does so; she gets naked gets under the covers with him and they have sex even though he's quite unwell. Later he ends up in the hospital with pneumonia; she visits him in the hospital and he looks almost dead; grey and almost comatose. It's unclear if he recovers or not; the book ends with Mario still sick in the hospital.

Is it too late to make a sequel?

If you watch the movie on the TCM.com does it show the Jodie interview too?

I don't want to register and everything if it doesn't.

Sunday, March 28, 2021

Blind Item #2

This former A+ list actor who has been in the news the past couple of weeks says he started having fantasies about being with underage girls after he saw a movie his dad did which showed older men having sex with a 14 year old girl. In the movie, the 14 year old had a nude scene (although body double used), but the 14 year old did have her breasts groped and fondled by the older men.

Charlie Sheen/"The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane"/Martin Sheen/Jodie Foster

“older men having sex with”?

It was Scott Jacoby, a teenager.

Matt Gaetz' fave movie!

Scott Jacoby's character does die at the end of the movie, so Ryan din in fact kill him, although indirectly.

No, he doesn’t, R154. You need to watch the film again.

Or don’t. But his character does NOT die.

In the film, she tells Martin Sheen's character that the magician is expected to make a full recovery.

[quote]But his character does NOT die.

Truth is, we don't know if his character lives or dies. The last we see of him is in the hospital where he is gravely ill. So you can't say that he does not die.

It's implied that he does die. Everyone she loves eventually dies, leaving her all alone. That's the whole theme of the movie.

R157, you make a lousy Pauline Kael.

It's not certain in the book OR the film whether he dies.

As a matter of fact, in the book his siblings are in the hospital room and say he'll recover.

[quote] It's implied that he does die.

No, it isn’t. Why are you such a lying cunt?

R157 Doesn't the cop tell Jodie that it's likely Scott Jacoby won't live, which is why she goes to visit him?

They do leave that whole part up in the air, which was kind of frustrating for me. My takeaway was that he wouldn't survive and she'd be alone again.

As for Mario's fate...well, this is an exchange between Rynn and Hallett in the novel::

Rynn: "Mario."

Hallett: "Yes?"

Rynn: "He knows."

Hallett: "Knows what?"

Rynn: "What happened."

Hallett: "As I said, we'll leave getting rid of him up to you."

Rynn: "Maybe it won't be easy."

Hallett: "Maybe he'll die."

Rynn: "The doctors say not."

Hallett: ":Then you'll simply have to use that brilliant little mind of yours and think of some way to let him know he's not wanted. Just let him drift away on his uneven little wop legs."

No, R161.

Martin was really good in this. I honestly thought he was bullshitting in the beginning about his two kids trick or treating. I would have beat him to death with his mother's umbrella the second he touched Gordon.

Had to watch this again on Prime. This film was way ahead of its time. I think it was remastered because the colors are clear and vibrant. Only the opening sequence appeared washed out. As for lady Hallet, her character is like a blast to the past being such an unadulterated WASP. I wish we could see more of these snobs in their true form - looking down their noses at other races.

I thought I read that Angela Lansbury was originally cast in the Lady Hallet role, but had to pull out for some reason and they recast it with Alexis Smith.

Absolutely love the scenes with Mrs. Hallet and Rynn.

Blind Item:

[quote]This former A+ list actor who has been in the news the past couple of weeks says he started having fantasies about being with underage girls after he saw a movie his dad did which showed older men having sex with a 14-year-old girl. In the movie, the 14-year-old had a nude scene (although body double used), but the 14-year-old did have her breasts groped and fondled by the older men.

Charlie Sheen/The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane/Martin Sheen/Jodie Foster

^^ This was already posted.

I’m sure Jodie would appreciate you approaching this thread academically... or at least reading it.

Look through Foster’s early bio - she was Hollywood pedo bait. There’s a reason Hinkley was obsessed with her - her entire career catered to unhinged psychos. It is not a tragedy to claim these movies wouldn’t get made today.

She did a few “provocative” roles, but much more stuff like playing Becky Thatcher in TOM SAWYER.

I loved the part in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore where Jodie casually mentions that her mom turns tricks at the Ramada.

Hotel New Hampshire (1984). I vaguely remember seeing it, but Jodie herself was "a great big fat person" in it.

[quote]It was interesting to see Foster discuss the movie on TCM. I’ve always read she didn’t like it and never wanted to discuss it so it was odd to see her speak of it in a positive light. Maybe she’s mellowed.

I've noticed she has a very positive sin/outlet on most movies and people involved in films. The only negative thing I've heard her say was something about Scott Rudin.

Teen sexuality in the 70's was much more open. There are tons of examples - it was before the helicopter parenting and before everyone got so upset about sex.

Not saying it was right - but it is a remarkable contrast to today.

O fuck off, OP. Change your tampon. It weighs about 50 lbs now. It was a different time and pedophilia was perfectly fine since a big percentage of girls were being diddled by daddy, or brothers, or uncles.

Unless I missed it nobody has pointed out that Jodie had body double for the nude scene. I just think it is weird that her brother Buddy was the double.

^^ that is curious. It’s a salient point!

Also - due to her being underage, Jodie Foster was not required to appear nude in their film.

Instead, a body double (in this case, her Aunt Thelma) was employed for those physically revealing scenes.

You dizzy queens. Jodie was never nude. They had a body double. It was actually her Uncle Foster Brooks.

No no no, it was Margaret Foster the old lush

R182 Atta girl.

[quote]During the TCM interview, Jodie Foster said the film's director made her wear the fake teeth with the chipped front tooth because the girl's character in the book was described as having a chipped tooth, and the director wanted to be as faithful to the book as possible.

Yet her friend, the protagonist in the book, is nowhere to be seen in the movie.

Hmmm, apparently I read something called The Girl Down the Lane and misremembered it as this story. It's also about a sociopathic teen who lives alone. Must have been a wannabe knockoff paperback. My apologies.

Alexis Smith was robbed of an Oscar nomination. She was every bit as good as Beatrice Straight, who won the Oscar that year.

Is Rinn's house from the movie located in Ogunquit, Maine? I wonder if it's still there?

[quote] this movie must have been a pedophile's masturbatory fantasy!

Reasons why a thread is popular on DL.

Please tell me that blind isn't about Armie Hammer.

Of course it affected poor little Jodie.

🚫 She never allows the man to go up into the woman.

The fake teeth Foster wore in the movie made her look more like the character of Rynn (Rynn did have a chipped tooth and was very self conscious about it), but the wig she wore did not. In the novel Rynn had some kind of brownish/blondish hair. The child molester comments on how the firelight shows off her hair color "all brown and gold." Jodie Foster wore a blonde wig that looked like straw. In the novel Ryann is said to have "pretty" hair but in the movie it looks like what it is: a bad wig.

[quote] this movie must have been a pedophile's masturbatory fantasy!

All for naught, however.

The underage star's nude scenes were all done by Jaclyn Smith's cat, our own Bootsy Gumdrops.

Watching this now. Was Mr. Hallett turned on by Rynn’s trucker-like walk?