I just watched this recently, and, darlings, as bad as the Beaudrys were to Brandi and Neil, this was worse. This was also Susan Dey's bid to shed her Laurie Partridge image, but the whole thing backfired, because so good was she as the hateful Rowena Harper that it killed her career. That's what happens when you take artistic risks.
Also, Natasha Ryan, who plays a three-year-old, is really seven, though small for her age, at this works. At this time, when producers needed an actress to play an abused child, Natasha was the one called on. It makes me wonder how she turned out, Next to this, her best known role was as the young Sybil in the Sally Field version, back in 1976.
I wanted to smack Susan Dey, Priscilla Pointer, and Kevin McCarthy across their faces. Her family, the Athertons, care only about appearance, even if Daddy has sexually abused young Rowena, making her no good to men, and Mommy is jealous of this and locks the child in a closet with a rat. I think it was the rat that played in "Willard" and "Ben." Equity only provides the best rats.
Kevin McCarthy plays the patriarch like a scum bag, and Grandma Priscilla is a royal cunt!!!!!!!!!! This said, I had no sympathy for Rowena, who went beyond the limits when it came to abuse, culminating in the end that one can see coming about halfway through the film.
As ground breaking as this film was, I nevertheless found it distasteful. Seeing it a second time in almost forty years is enough for me.
But times don't change, and Mary Jane's are still out there. They need to be gotten to, and helped, before something happens to them, like this Mary Jane.
She's not a candy bar anymore, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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