Sandpiper, The (1965)
Perhaps best known for its Johnny Mandel-Paul Francis Webster Academy Award winning song "The Shadow of Your Smile" and beautiful picture postcard vistas of Big Sur, California, this average Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton romance drama was directed by Vincente Minnelli. It was written by its producer Martin Ransohoff, adapted by Irene & Louis Kamp, and features a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo (The Brave One (1957)) and Michael Wilson (5 Fingers (1952)).
Taylor plays Laura Reynolds, a free spirited atheist (liberated, single mother by choice) artist who hangs out with other hippies while trying to raise her undisciplined nine year old son Danny (Morgan Mason). But through his actions (such as his most recent shooting of a wild deer), Danny has gotten himself in trouble with the authorities such that Judge Thompson (Torin Thatcher) has given his mother no option but to have him enrolled in a San Simeon religious school, run by the Reverend Dr. Edward Hewitt (Burton) and his wife Claire (Eva Marie Saint). Can you tell where this one is headed?
Charles Bronson (!) plays one of Reynolds's fellow Bohemian artist boyfriends who carves her naked torso in wood, Cos Erickson, and James Edwards plays another beatnik, Larry Brant, who works as her agent (e.g. trying to sell Laura's paintings). Robert Webber plays Ward Hendricks, a parishioner in Hewitt's church who has a past with Laura (she was his mistress while he put her through art school) that he wishes could continue. Tom Drake plays Walter Robinson, who works at the San Simeon school and ultimately succeeds Hewitt when he resigns per his affair with Laura and the self loathing he feels for other hypocritical deeds (e.g. he'd effectively become a salesman that was willing to overlook certain unethical financial actions by members of his congregation in order to pay for a new place of worship at the school). Among the implausibilities are Laura's ability to afford the beach home she lives in and her irrational reason for ending the affair.
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