Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night

Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night
Promotional poster
Genre	Drama
Written by	Joanna Lee
Directed by	Allen Reisner
Starring	Susan Dey John Vernon Rhea Perlman Bernie Casey James Karen Priscilla Pointer
Music by	Billy Goldenberg
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Ralph Riskin Joanna Lee
Cinematography	Gayne Rescher
Editor(s)	Kenneth R. Koch
Running time	101 minutes
Production company(s)	Paramount Television Christiana Productions
Distributor	CBS
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	October 5, 1977

Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night is a Golden Globe nominated CBS television film starring Susan Dey as an abusive mother. The film, which aired in October 1977, was written and produced by Joanna Lee and featured a supporting cast including Rhea Perlman, Kevin McCarthy and Natasha Ryan as Mary Jane Harper.

A novelization of the film, packaged and by-lined to give the impression of being the story source, was published by Signet Books shortly after the film aired, to capitalize on its ratings impact. (There is no record of the book having ever existed prior to this paperback edition.) The stated authorship is shared by Joanna Lee and [in smaller print] T.S. Cook. Given that the book is a tie-in created after-the-fact, what the by-line implies, but avoids particularizing, is that Cook actually wrote the novel based on Lee's teleplay. As Cook would himself soon emerge as an award-winning screenwriter (The China Syndrome), it's likely that Lee and he were colleagues, and that he took the assignment at her behest. In media tie-in terms, an adaptation presented in this manner is called an "implied novelization."

Rowena Harper (Susan Dey) is a young woman who is separated from her husband Bill (Chip Lucia). She suffers from psychological problems due to an unhappy childhood. To relieve this, she takes to smoking and drinking. Unfortunately, the problems also cause her to physically abuse her 3-year-old daughter, Mary Jane (Natasha Ryan).

One day, Bill comes by to pick up Mary Jane. Rowena tries to make Mary Jane and her house look good to impress Bill, hoping he'll come back home. However, while chasing a cat outside, Mary Jane accidentally falls down, getting dirty. Angered with Rowena for not looking after Mary Jane properly, Bill storms out of the house. Angry with her daughter for ruining it, Rowena takes Mary Jane into another room and closes the door. Shortly afterwards, Mary Jane is admitted to the hospital for a broken arm.

At the hospital, Dr. Angela Buccieri (Tricia O'Neil) is assigned to work on Mary Jane. In addition to the broken arm, she notices a couple of healed-over cigarette burns on the girl's buttocks. She questions Rowena, who claims that Mary Jane broke her arm by falling out of her crib, which she still sleeps in since she's a bed-wetter, and that she accidentally bumped into a lit cigarette, claiming that Mary Jane is accident prone and a crier. Dr. Buccieri asks if Mary Jane can stay over at the hospital so they can do some neurological tests. Rowena, however, insists on taking her home that night. When the doctor asks Mary Jane about her arm, she refuses to speak.