Join Joe Bob at Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn at 9:30 pm on Wednesday, April 26 as he introduces THE MAGIC GARDEN OF STANLEY SWEETHEART! Tickets now available.
https://drafthouse.com/nyc/show/the-magic-garden-of-stanley-sweetheart (https://drafthouse.com/nyc/show/the-magic-garden-of-stanley-sweetheart)
Joe Bob Briggs Presents:
THE MAGIC GARDEN OF STANLEY SWEETHEART
Wednesday, April 26
9:30pm
Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn
445 Albee Square West, Brooklyn, NY 11201
This is truly a weird one. The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart was a 1970 box office disaster and has been rarely seen since then. Mostly it's known as the failed film debut of Don Johnson.
The year after legendary producer Martin Poll swept the Oscars with The Lion in Winter, he made this movie, based on the celebrated coming-of-age novel The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart by Robert Westbrook. Westbrook was a brilliant young writer in his early twenties who used his experiences at hideboud Columbia University and the counterculture world of Greenwich Village to fashion a story about trying to fit into a fast-changing world where everything seemed upside down and sinister.
Even though Westbrook did the screenplay adaptation himself, the meddling by MGM executives, the lackluster direction by TV crime-series auteur Leonard Horn, and a psychedelic ad campaign that totally missed the mark all combined to consign the film to the ash heap of forgotten box-office flops. It was universally panned by critics as just another underground hippie flick, several years too late, and the performance of Don Johnson, making his film debut in the lead role, lacked the nuance and complexity of the protagonist in the book.
Still, the movie has a certain weird attraction for film buffs, mainly because of its quirky soundtrack and the strong supporting performances of Michael Greer as the bored worldly-wise beatnik who becomes both Stanley's nemesis and his mentor, Linda Gillen as the bisexual liberated East Village poseur who changes identities with each season, and Dianne Hull as the strait-laced coed from the suburbs who comes out of her shell in a big way, much to Stanley's chagrin.
The movie was virtually lost for years, but a 35-millimeter print was procured by Jarrod LaBine, manager of a Long Island theater, and he kindly made it available for its first screening in 47 years. Linda Gillen, who went on to a distinguished acting career, will be joining me on stage for this one-of-a-kind event at Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn.