G | 1h 33min | Crime, Drama, Music | 10 November 1969 | Color, ws
Director: William A. Graham (as William Graham)
Stars: Elvis Presley, Mary Tyler Moore, Barbara McNair, Jane Elliot, Edward Asner, Regis Toomey.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065537/
Watched online, ok print.
4 songs in the Soundtracks.
Final film for EP. Too bad it didn't make him want to do more like it.
I didn't want to trivialize this by putting it where I usually list the choreographer:
Dr. Robert W. Zaslow ... supervisor: rage reduction scene.
The definition of autism used in this case seems different than we think of it now. There autism was caused by an external event. But the symptoms sounded about the same. Rage "reduction", actually bringing the rage to the surface, and making the girl continue to be angry until she's tired of it, would only work if her withdrawal from social interaction was indeed caused by an event, and not brain chemistry/structure.
The rating is really due to MTM and the script. It's actually 3 nuns who together go to EP's clinic to help, but don't reveal that they're nuns due to an experiment to see if they can help more without revealing their positions. Each of them gets involved in a particular situation/case, and the other 2 get involved a bit beyond their roles as medical personnel.
RT plays the parish priest who's locked the church doors to fend off thieves. He's also dead set against any new methods, and especially dislikes these plain-clothed un-nuns.
Fascinating to see EA show up. He doesn't interact with MTM onscreen; I wonder if this film influenced his casting in her TV show the next year.
NBC, Universal, dir. Graham; 7
