Butterflies Are Free (1972)

Butterflies Are Free
Directed by v
Written by Leonard Gershe from his play
1972/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Don: Mother, you have to laugh sometime, or people will think you’re a lesbian.

I watched this to see Eileen Heckart’s Oscar-winning performance and was not disappointed.  Otherwise it’s a pleasant enough stage-bound rom-com.

The setting is contemporary San Francisco.  Twenty-something Don (Edward Albert) has been blind since birth.  He has been under the thumb of his over-protective mother (Heckart) who wrote a series of children’s book about “Little Donnie Dark” blind boy super-hero.  Don mightily resents this.  Mom drives him crazy by calling him Donnie.

As the movie begins, Don has negotiated the right to rent an apartment of his own for two months as an experiment.  Mom was supposed to leave him alone until the end of the experiment but calls all the time.

The apartment is an extemely low-rent affair.  Don’s quiet existence is interrupted by the arrival of next-door neighbor Jill (Goldie Hawn) in his life.  She is messy whereas he must be neat; she’s a wacky hippie, his mother buys his clothes.  They are an odd couple but soon are virtually living together by unlocking the door that turns their two apartments into one.  Don falls in love.

Mom arrives unannounced and is thoroughly appalled.  But Jill is just the one to teach her some hard truths.

Well, Heckart was just as great in this as she usually is.  She always has a brash exterior covering a tender heart that makes her as moving when she is bossy as when she is showing her real feelings.  My favorite of her performances was in The Bad Seed (1958) as the boozy mother of one of the victims.

Otherwise, this is an entertaining enough way spend an hour and change on some lazy afternoon.  I can say I did have a tear in my eye at the appropriate time.

Eileen Heckart won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.  The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Sound.