Mr. Sycamore

Talk about a wasted cast: Jean Simmons, Sandy Dennis and Jason Robards--a mailman who decides to become.....a tree! Director Pancho Kohner, who later made a number of Charles Bronson vigilante films like St. Ives, really went out on a limb to make this dreck. Don't waste your time--this one is SO bad it's not even funny to watch. Really embarrassing.

OMG!!! I could have reviewed the previous comment MYSELF. My husband even asked was I sure that I didn't write it b'cause it is one of my favorite all time childhood movies..... watched it with my mom.... she swears she's never heard of anything like it but I remember every scene. Since I grew up with a vivid imagination. I too though was either going crazy or had made it up. I am so glad to have found out that it does exist. If anyone knows where to get it, please let me know. I also remember a scene where the very concerned wife goes to a country church alone and they were singing HOLY HOLY HOLY. By the way, my husband asked me that because I have spoken about it for the 6years we have been married.

I first saw this movie about 1975 on TV and it made a huge impact on me...so much so that I changed my name to Mr. Sycamore. In 1986 I decided to change my name legally (mainly because I didn't like my dad). My birth name was Thomas Gee, but when I finally decided to make a new name for myself I thought of how I loved this movie and so I changed my name to Tom Sycamore which I have been for the past 22 years).

I have always been a huge fan of Sandy Dennis, and the idea from this movie that one can create your own life (even if it involves becoming a tree) makes this a very special movie.

The only reason I cannot give this movie a higher or lower rating is that I saw it 20 years ago or so when I was a teenager in an altered state of consciousness. This movie gave me such a wonderful feeling because after all, many of us can relate to wanting to escape this ordinary life of bills and drudgery. I would really like to see it again, of course this time would be a more clearheaded viewing. I think I would still like it though mainly because I haven't given up on movies and music to help escape. This movie did that for me then. I wish I could find a copy on DVD but several attempts to find it have availed nothing. I feel as though this movie viewed with an open heart and open mind, without the typical expectations of a Hollywood film, would be a great movie.

Flop Broadway play from 1942 becomes unsuccessful movie, though one not without some eccentric charm. Small town postman, who writes poetry and talks to the trees along his mail route, chucks his job one afternoon to become a tree himself. Fascinated with metamorphosis, as well as by an ancient legend that had lovers being turned into trees by the gods, our hero digs a hole in his backyard and promptly plants himself, much to the concern of his wife, his clergy and neighbors (one of whom tells him to beware of boll weevils!). Playwright Ketti Frings, who co-adapted her play with director Pancho Kohner from a story by Robert Ayre, is obviously in love with absurdist comedy, and some of her early scenes do get laughs; however, this is short subject material, not a feature film. Kohner attempts to stretch the plot out with a needless milk truck chase and asides with sanitarium workers, to no avail. Good cast including Jason Robards, Sandy Dennis, Jean Simmons, and a snarky Robert Easton nearly makes it tolerable. *1/2 from ****