Play It as It Lays (film)
| Play It as It Lays | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Frank Perry |
| Produced by |
Frank Perry Dominick Dunne |
| Screenplay by |
Joan Didion John Gregory Dunne |
| Based on | Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion |
| Starring |
Tuesday Weld Anthony Perkins Tammy Grimes Adam Roarke Diana Ewing Ruth Ford Chuck McCann Eddie Firestone Severn Darden Paul Lambert Tony Young Richard Anderson |
| Cinematography | Jordan Cronenweth |
| Edited by | Sidney Katz |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
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Release date
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October 19, 1972 |
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Running time
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99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1 million |
Play It as It Lays is a 1972 American drama film directed by Frank Perry. The screenplay by married couple Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne is based on Didion's 1970 novel of the same name. The film stars Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins, who previously starred together in the 1968 film Pretty Poison.
Maria Wyeth, who comes from a Nevada town with a population of 28, is now a successful actress. But she is unhappily married to, and separated from, temperamental producer Carter Lang and also chronically depressed and institutionalized.
Reflecting back on what brought her here, Maria recalls driving around Los Angeles in her yellow Corvette and spending time with her closest friend, B.Z. Mendenhall, an unhappy man who is gay. Maria has a brain-damaged daughter, Kate, who is being kept in a sanitarium at the insistence of Carter, who resents Maria visiting the girl so frequently. Maria's secret desire is to live somewhere with Kate and find some kind of joy in life together.
Maria has been having an affair with Les Goodwin, a screenwriter. When she tells Carter she is pregnant, he demands she get an abortion. Maria goes to Las Vegas and has a fling with a mob-connected lawyer, Larry Kulik, and later returns to L.A. and has a one-night stand with Johnny Waters, a television star who needs to watch his own show on TV to get in the mood.
Bored and depressed, Maria steals Johnny's car and speeds off. When she is stopped by police, drugs are found in the car and she is placed under arrest. Her spirits at an all-time low, Maria returns to Las Vegas and finds that B.Z. is equally unhappy. When he swallows a handful of pills and washes them down with vodka, rather than call for help, Maria cradles him and watches him die.
Back at her institution, a psychiatrist asks why she keeps on playing, when knowing what 'nothing' (nihilism) means. Maria replies, "Why not?"
Weld was nominated for a 1972 Golden Globe Award, for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama. She lost to Liv Ullmann, for The Emigrants.
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Wikipedia