The Neon Ceiling

This movie has many darkly lit scenes despite the title. Herb Edelman truly proves he can act in this tour-de-force drama of a bored housewife seeking adventure. Lee Grant is excellent also, but the stand-out is Denise Nickerson, who showed quite an acting range.

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!

I saw the movie in 1971, I suppose, on TV and never forgot it. I would very much like to have a copy of it. Can one be purchased from any source anyone knows?

Never play cards with a man named pops and never eat in a café called mom's or words to that effect, so you see, even though I am now 71, I remember part of the movie quite well after 30+ years. I remember the driving scene when the girl was learning and the incredible private show that Gig Young's character had arranged for himself and which he did not really care to share with others. It was an unlikely love story that had to end as it did.

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'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.