FILMS… The Raging Moon / Long Ago, Tomorrow (1971)

#1970s #AllPosts

 

Daring to love…

 

A controversial love story from the early 1970s has two wheelchair users falling in love as they fight for the right to live a life together.

 

McDowell

Newman and McDowell

The Raging Moon (1971) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p], HD Retro Trailers AND PHOTOS © mgm-emi

 

The Raging Moon aka Long Ago, Tomorrow (1971) was a groundbreaking film back in its release in 1971. (The former title as it was known in the UK and the latter the American title.) In this film, Nanette Newman and Malcolm McDowell play leading roles in this film version of the Peter Marshall novel. This love story, in 1967, had been adapted into television production with Ray Brooks and Anna Calder-Marshall as the on-screen lovers was then seen as controversial.

This film was just one of nine collaborations between the director, Bryan Forbes and his actress wife, Nanette Newman. These films included Newman alongside some fabulous all-star casts. Casts included The Wrong Box (1966) with Michael Caine heading a list of lovelies including Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Other films were The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969) with Katherine Hepburn and Donald Pleasence and International Velvet (1978) where she starred with Christopher Plummer, Tatum O’Neal and Anthony Hopkins.

The Raging Moon / Long Ago, Tomorrow told a then unique love story between a man and a woman – one of whom was openly atheist – with physical illnesses who both had to use wheelchairs. The pair fall in love and in time want to marry and live independently and express their love for each other in a sexual way.

Although the man is not able to perform the sexual act due to the nature of his condition, they still are able to enjoy each other’s bodies as their physical difficulties allow them. And surprisingly a patient’s sexuality is still often seen as a taboo subject, despite health care workers training including it as part of an eclectic approach to support their clients.

The film starts at a football match, somewhere in Northern England. The boisterous 24-year-old working-class Bruce Pritchard (Malcolm McDowell) is full of energy and vigour as he plays in an amateur football match. After Bruce challenges the umpire, he’s sent off and given a red card.

Bruce is popular with his friends, has a girlfriend and he still lives at home with his parents. He shares a bedroom with his younger soft-spoken brother, Harold (Geoffrey Whitehead). The Pritchard brothers are stark opposites as his wee brother is quiet, studious and marrying his first and only girlfriend the next day. Bruce is much more outgoing and he has had a number of girlfriends, who he openly admits he has slept with.

As Best Man at his brother’s wedding, Bruce is the life and soul of this gathering. Then after getting drunk, the wannabe writer, Bruce staggers home with a friend and then leaves, Bruce collapses in a lift and is admitted to the hospital. Bruce is then diagnosed with an unknown illness and because of this condition, he is unable to use his legs.

He is told his condition is incurable – this condition is never given a name – and that he will have to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He’s dumped by his girlfriend “who got as far as the waiting room” and visited in hospital by his best friend and his brother and his wife, Gladys who thinks it’s “all over” for her brother in law. He loses contact with his parents.

Because Bruce doesn’t want to return home, on his discharge he decides to move to a home for people with physical disabilities. Bruce wants to stay independent and now puts his energies into becoming a writer. His brother goes with him on his admission to this home, which is run by the church. Bruce is an atheist and is told as part of the rules of the home, he will be expected to go church services as part of the rules of living there.

At first, Bruce is a bit of a loner, and he doesn’t talk to the other residents. Bruce still seems defensive and bitter about his disabilities. He challenges Reverend Corbett (Gerald Sim) who visits him and this man of God advises him to find comfort in God. Bruce openly breaks the rules and avoids doing occupational therapy and socialising with the other residents. He turns down invitations to join them in activities.

Then he sees Jill (Nanette Newman)… she’s always smiling and is popular, spends time reading alone and plays table tennis with others. He asks the nurses about her, it seems that the upper class, Jill has been there for five or six years and she gets to spend time at home with her family. But she’s engaged, and her fiance seems supportive and visits her often.

But despite this Bruce approaches her outside and strikes up a conversation in an attempt to chat her up. After this goes awry, he shouts he’s “pulled” better than her. But it’s clear that he likes her a lot, and after leaving a letter for her – after she’s gone to bed – he discovers that she never got this note as she’s been discharged.

However, on her return home, we see that Jill has a good relationship with her father, an understanding doctor. But her mother babies and mollycoddles her. Her mother often makes simple decisions for her daughter that Jill could easily decide on and plans her life for her. Jill wants to be independent but feels “trapped by her mother”.

Jill also challenges her fiance, who she believes doesn’t see her as a real woman with needs but instead, he sees her as a disability. In tears, she tells him that he has never made a romantic or sexual overture to her since she got ill. She tells him he acts as if he is frightened of her condition and urges him to kiss her then break their engagement off.

Then the newly single, Jill returns to the home and the tongue-tied Bruce is happy for her return. A heartwarming montage shows the pair’s growing affection for each other as we see the two laugh, just talk and spend time together. Then Bruce then asks Jill what she would do if he kissed her. After she tells him she loves him when he’s funny and he asks what about when he’s not funny…

Two of the more understanding nursing staff give the loved up pair a wee bit of time together. Once alone, Jill and Bruce kiss and snog for the first time and it seems both have been planning this moment to themselves, as they coordinate their wheelchairs in a perfect position… and this is just the beginning of their love story… which you can find out more of by watching this movie.

This poignant and tenderly played love story is effectively and emphatically told. This film has a bittersweet behind the scenes story as the novel’s author, Peter Marshall also had polio and used a wheelchair. He passed away the year after this film was made but it must have been a wonderful moment knowing that his story was told in both TV and film adaptations by such fine casts.

The film soundtrack won a Best Original Song – Motion Picture Award nomination for the song Long Ago Tomorrow. This song has music composed by  Burt Bacharach and lyrics from Hal David. However, I learned HERE that it could have had a Paul McCartney soundtrack. McDowell discovered this fact after he bumped into McCartney on a plane and this singer-songwriter told him. This anecdote was told as McDowell impersonates the famous singer from the Beatles with an accent to match.

Some of the acting cast was nominated for awards for their convincing and poignant performances in this film. Just concentrating on the two leads,  Ian White, a writer for Starburst beautifully outlines Bruce’s character arc HERE. McDowell easily portrays each part of this man’s journey throughout this film. This is seen in a credible and moving performance. White adds,

Playing Bruce must have been like walking a tightrope – he starts the journey laddish and cocky, decelerates into brooding and hostile, switches into charming, accelerates into funny and then eventually cruises into caring and vulnerable.

Shockingly, McDowell did not win awards or award nominations for Best Actor for this versatile role, as the film failed to make an impression at the box office. However, this little known film role made an impression on the young Gary Oldman.

Oldman decided to become an actor after watching this film on TV as a kid.  Gary Oldman later was the star of such films as Leon (1994) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) to mention just two of his amazing career as an actor. He paid tribute to McDowell in his performance in this film in this article in the Huff Post, HERE stating that;

“It was like the lights went on in my life, in much the same way that John Lennon saw Elvis on screen and said ‘that’s a good job, I’d like to do that for a living”

Then he added,

“I saw Malcolm in this film and I thought, ‘this is what I want to do.”

Finally, Nanette Newman gives a poignant, warm and genuine portrayal of Jill. This is easily the most liked of her characterisations that I have seen her in so far. She shows a new depth to her acting abilities and she convinced me with this multi-layered character in her tender and compelling performance.

For her performance, Nanette Newman won the Best Actress nomination at the BAFTAs but she sadly did not win this award. She was eclipsed by Glenda Jackson, who won for her role in Sunday Bloody Sunday for this award. However, Newman couldn’t have been in better company for this nomination. She shone like a bright star, in that night full of stars for this film where its plot will captivate and challenge you, time after time before it leaves you with more than one lasting impression.

 

Weeper Rating: 😦 😦 /10

Handsqueeze Rating:  🙂 🙂  🙂  🙂  🙂  🙂 🙂  🙂  /10

Hulk Rating: ‎   ‎   ‎   ‎   ‎ ‎/10

 

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Cinema Shame 2022, February

This post was written for the second of my Cinema Shame posts. Other films and TV reviews include Nanette Newman in The Wrong Box and International Velvet HERE, HERE and HERE. Malcolm McDowell starred in Voyage of the Damned and Time After Time. Georgia Brown in Murder She Wrote. Bernard Lee in The Man with the Golden Gun and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Gerald Sim in Jack the Ripper. Geoffrey Bayldon in To Sir with Love and Asylum.

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