That Cold Day in the Park

If you remember how Sandy Dennis charmed your socks off in "Up The Down Staircase," be forewarned, she WILL creep you out in "That Cold Day in The Park." Remember to tell yourself, that this is only a movie, and she was only an actress...and a damned good one.

A rich but lonely woman, Frances Austen (Sandy Dennis), one day invites a boy (Michael Burns) from a nearby park to her apartment and offers to let him live there.

The film was shot in Vancouver for the purpose of getting the rain, which seems odd. Many, many films today are shot in Vancouver, though the weather is not typically a factor. Was this common practice in 1969 or were they pioneering? Although based on a novel, director Robert Altman offered some ideas for the film, and he confessed that some were "awful". Luckily, those ideas were scrapped by star Sandy Dennis and never made it into the film. (Could she be said to be a co-writer? Not quite, but clearly a valuable resource.) Interestingly, the producer was Donald Factor, a member of the well-known Max Factor cosmetics family. His only other part of film history was producing "Universal Soldier" (1971), which starred nobody and was seen by nobody.

I would have given this more stars but for the contrived ending that sort of ruined the whole thing for me. Up until that point, I was seriously considering this work to be the equal of any work by Ingmar Bergman. Despite the corny ending, I still think that Sandy Dennis was easily the equivalent of Liv Ullman or Isabelle Hupert. It's shame that she died when she did, and I don't think she ever really received the accolades that she was due. Of course there was her work in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff", in which she played a supporting role, and lighter fare such as "The Out of Towners", but one viewing of "That Cold Day in the Park" should be enough to convince any discerning viewer that Sandy Dennis was a great talent that was taken away far too soon.

Robert Altman is one of my favorite directors, and I had succeeded in seeing all but two of the many films he made during his career: "Health" and "That Cold Day in the Park." Neither were available anywhere to see for the longest time, and then a month ago or so the Gene Siskel Film Centre in Chicago had "That Cold Day" on its calendar, so I finally got a chance to review it.

It's a much better movie than I had expected given its obscurity and the dismissive response from critics and audiences upon its release. It's the first of four dream films centering on the psychological distress of primarily female protagonists that Altman would make over the course of his career. Sandy Dennis plays a Canadian spinster who takes in a younger man who's only too happy to let her buy him clothes, food, etc. There is no sexual component to their transaction, but the sexual tension nonetheless builds to a breaking point, at which point Dennis's character goes off the rails in a macabre finale.

Dennis is quite good and tones down her mannered acting habits. The film stylistically bears many of the hallmark Altman traits, like images broken up and refracted in reflective surfaces or the roving camera that will zoom in on a particular detail. I quite enjoyed this film and think that it deserves more mention in discussions about Altman's canon than it customarily receives.

Grade: A-

Sandy Dennis plays a lonely woman who sees a young man sitting on a park bench in the rain and invites him in to dry off. He does not speak and she feeds him and buys him new clothes to wear. Dennis is perfect as the troubled lady with severe mental issues. She lives in a world of intense sexual repression, which is never fully explained. The boy turns out to be involved with the 1960's drug and free love culture. The finale is heart breaking and Robert Altman went on to a successful directorial career. Dennis won a Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and she should have one another for this film.