The Neon Ceiling

I'm 47 and I saw this movie on TV when I was 10. I remember the gist of the story- the mother and daughter running away, and the grumpy old man at the diner with the neon ceiling, but the scene I remember the most is when the old guy lets the girl practice driving; it seems to me like she was going around and around the diner, blowing up dust and cussing his old truck. I guess I identified with her. I also remember the old guy's face when he would light up the neon ceiling- he had a look of rapture, and even at 10 years old I recognized that he was opening up to them a part of himself he had kept hidden away, protected. I just liked the movie when I saw it, and would very much like to see it again. For whatever reason it made a lasting impression on me.

I've been trying to find a video or even a review of this film for years. I recall what a deep impression it made on me when I first saw it. Definitely Gig Young's best part. Lee Grant was excellent,as usual & the story had an almost European bittersweet flavor to it. But best of all was that ceiling. Not long after I had accumulated a couple of dozen antique neon signs & constructed my own neon ceiling. Those were the days...

I agree that this movie and other 70s TV movies (ABC Movies of the Week like Tribes, Duel, That Certain Summer, etc.) have been unjustly neglected both in reruns and movie guidebooks. However, I think perhaps the person who wrote the other comment is thinking of another movie. The movie I remember was certainly NOT a thriller. It was a very human story about the developing relationship among the three main characters. I admit that I was only thirteen years old at the time and could be wrong about this, but I was particularly fond of this movie since I had read the script before the movie was aired and remember looking forward to seeing how the final film would come out. I hope some of these great films will make a comeback. Thank you IMDb for remembering them!

This movie has been haunting me for years and I'd LOVE to find a copy to see it again. Perhaps contributed to my love for the desert and a life that has definitely been on a lesser traveled road. Both performances by Gig Young and Lee Grant were memorable. This movie also contributed to a fascination with neon lights. Somewhere in Portland Oregon there is a house on a corner with a changing display of neon lights that during my 10-year tenure there reminded me of what am impact Neon Ceiling had on me. Current attempts to capture the unfulfilled lives of desperate housewives pale by comparison to this excellent drama. You can almost taste the barren beauty of the desert!

Several posters have been wondering where a copy of this movie can be found. There is a website called modcinema.com that specializes in hard-to-find films (including made-for-TV movies) from the '60s and '70s. "The Neon Ceiling" is available from that website. The movie is well worth seeking out.

The work of all three main characters is first-rate. Gig young just came off of his Oscar-winning role in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They" and here delivers a completely different performance as a grizzled, lonely greasy-spoon diner owner who is effected by the mother & daughter visitors. Lee Grant was at the top of her game at this time. She had just gotten nominated for an Oscar for "The Landlord", then won an Emmy for this movie. 4 years later, she won an Oscar for "Shampoo". She, too, plays a lonely soul looking for an escape. Denise Nickerson was the true revelation here with a performance that exhibits the transition between childhood and maturity. Her next acting job would be as the gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".

"The Neon Ceiling" makes the most of its locations, from the clean, white, antiseptic and confining suburbia to the expansive, darker and freeing spirit of the desert.