Desperate Characters

Desperate Characters (1971)

Sophie and Otto Bentwood are a middle-aged, middle class, childless Brooklyn Heights couple trapped in a loveless marriage. He is an attorney, she a translator of books. Their existence is affected not only by their disintegrating relationship but by the threats of urban crime and vandalism that surround them everywhere they turn, leaving them feeling paranoid, scared, and desperately helpless.

Date of release
1971-09-22
TMDB
5.1 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 37m
Genres
Drama
Director
Frank D. Gilroy

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: New York City

Desperate Characters is a 1971 American drama film produced, written, and directed by Frank D. Gilroy, who based his screenplay on the 1970 novel of the same name by Paula Fox.

Production

Fox said she was paid $35,000 for the film rights and that the movie cost $350,000. Frank Gilroy wrote the script and showed it to a friend, the writer John Gay, who showed it to Shirley MacLaine. She wanted to make the film but Gilroy was reluctant at first until he met her. "Right away I could see that I had the wrong impression of her," said Gilroy.

Sir Lew Grade had signed Shirley MacLaine to make a TV series Shirley's World. She asked Grade to fund the film which she did for minimal payment and a share of the profits; Grade agreed. It was Grade's first feature film.

The movie was filmed over six weeks starting in October 1970. It was entirely shot on location in New York. The movie was followed by another MacLaine film financed by Grade, The Possession of Joel Delaney.

"No body got any money on it," said MacLaine. "I worked for $200 a week... I saw something of myself in that woman. The propensity for catatonia is in all of us. What she did was complain and then try and adjust. I'm sort of like that."

In 1970, Shirley MacLaine said she was 'embarrassed' by her nude scene in this film.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended