That Cold Day in the Park **** (1969, Sandy Dennis, Michael Burns, Susanne Benton) – Classic Movie Review 8568

Director Robert Altman handles the strange psycho-pathological material in his fascinating 1969 psycho sexual drama That Cold Day in the Park meticulously and rigorously (and it foreshadows his other striking but less popular films like Images and Brewster McCloud).

On that cold, rainy day in the park in Vancouver, Canada, the wealthy, plain, lonely spinster Miss Frances Austen (Sandy Dennis) meets a sweet, friendless homeless teenager (Michael Burns), invites him back to her apartment and offers to let him live there, then tries to possess him and won’t let him leave.

Meticulous and rigorous though Altman’s work is, and fascinating though the material is, it is Dennis’s startling playing that makes this tragic study in alienation really classy.

That Cold Day in the Park was made after Countdown and immediately before Altman hit his stride with M.A.S.H.

It runs 113 minutes but there is also a cut TV version at 92 minutes.

Also in the cast are Susanne Benton, Luana Anders, John Garfield Jr [David Garfield], Michael Murphy, Edward Greenhalgh, Doris Buckinham, Frank Wade, Alicia Ammon, Rae Brown, Lloyd Berry, and Linda Sorensen.

That Cold Day in the Park is directed by Robert Altman, runs 113 minutes, Commonwealth United Entertainment and Factor-Altman-Mirell Films, is released by Commonwealth United, is written by Gillian Freeman, from the novel by Peter Miles (as Richard Miles), is shot in Eastmancolor by Laszlo Kovacs, is produced by Donald Factor, Robert Altman and Leon Mirrell, and scored by Johnny Mandel.

The source novel by Peter Miles (as Richard Miles) takes place in Paris.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8568

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