In Socorro, New Mexico, Alice Hyatt's husband, Donald, a Coca-Cola delivery driver, is killed on the job in a traffic accident. A former singer, Alice sells most of her belongings, intending to take her son, Tommy, to her childhood home of Monterey, California, where she hopes to pursue the singing career she abandoned when she married Donald.
Their financial situation forces them to take temporary lodgings in Phoenix, Arizona, where she finds work as a lounge singer. She meets Ben, a younger, seemingly unmarried man who charms her into a sexual relationship that comes to a sudden end when his wife, Rita, confronts Alice. Ben breaks into Alice's apartment while Rita is there and physically assaults Rita in front of Alice. He also threatens Alice and smashes up her apartment. Fearing for their safety, Alice and Tommy quickly leave town.
Having spent most of what little money they had on their escape, Alice takes a job as a waitress in Tucson, Arizona, at a local diner owned by Mel. There, she bonds with her fellow servers—independent, no-nonsense, outspoken Flo and quiet, timid, incompetent Vera—and meets divorced local rancher David. He quickly becomes enamored of Alice, who is wary of pursuing another relationship but begins to warm to him as he establishes a paternal relationship with Tommy.
Their relationship is threatened when David uses physical force to discipline Tommy. Although Alice still dreams of going to Monterey, they reconcile. David offers to sell his ranch and move to Monterey, but in the end, Alice decides to stay in Tucson with him.
Cast
Ellen Burstyn as Alice Hyatt (née Graham), a widowed single mother who dreams of being a professional singer in Monterey
Director Martin Scorsese cameos as a customer in Mel's diner, and Diane Ladd's daughter, Laura Dern, appears as a little girl eating an ice cream cone.
Production
Ellen Burstyn was still in the midst of filming The Exorcist when Warner Bros. executives expressed interest in working with her on another project. Burstyn recalled: "It was early in the woman's movement, and we were all just waking up and having a look at the pattern of our lives and wanting it to be different... I wanted to make a different kind of film. A film from a woman's point of view, but a woman that I recognized, that I knew. And not just myself, but my friends, what we were all going through at the time. So my agent found Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore... When I read it I liked it a lot. I sent it to Warner Bros. and they agreed to do it. Then they asked who I wanted to direct it. I said that I didn't know, but I wanted somebody new and young and exciting. I called Francis Coppola and asked who was young and exciting and he said 'Go look at a movie called Mean Streets and see what you think.' It hadn't been released yet, so I booked a screening to look at it and I felt that it was exactly what... Alice needed, because [it] was a wonderful script and well written, but for my taste it was a little slick. You know – in a good way, in a kind of Doris Day–Rock Hudson kind of way. I wanted something a bit more gritty."[4]
Burstyn described her collaboration with Scorsese, making his first Hollywood studio production,[5] as "one of the best experiences I've ever had". He agreed with her that the film should have a message. "It's a picture about emotions and feelings and relationships and people in chaos," he said. "We felt like charting all that and showing the differences and showing people making terrible mistakes ruining their lives and then realizing it and trying to push back when everything is crumbling – without getting into soap opera. We opened ourselves up to a lot of experimentation."[4]
The part of Alice was offered to Shirley MacLaine,[6] who turned it down.[7] In a 2005 interview, she said she regretted that decision.[8]
Scorsese's casting director auditioned 300 boys for the role of Tommy before they discovered Alfred Lutter. "I met the kid in my hotel room and he was kind of quiet and shy," Scorsese said. But when he paired him with Burstyn and suggested she deviate from the script, he held his own. "Usually, when we were improvising with the kids, they would either freeze and look down or go right back to the script. But this kid, you couldn't shut him up."[4]
The film was shot on location predominantly in and around Tucson, but some scenes were shot in Amado, Arizona, and Phoenix. A Mel's Diner still exists in Phoenix.[4]
The opening of the film was shot in one day using a set that cost $85,000 to build.[11]
The first cut of the film was three hours and sixteen minutes long.[11]
Reception
Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film a "fine, moving, frequently hilarious tale", and wrote that "the center of the movie and giving it a visible sensibility is Miss Burstyn, one of the few actresses at work today... who is able to seem appealing, tough, intelligent, funny, and bereft, all at approximately the same moment... Two other performances must be noted, those of Diane Ladd and Valerie Curtin... Their marvelous contributions in small roles are a measure of the film's quality and of Mr. Scorsese's fully realized talents as one of the best of the new American filmmakers."[12]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "one of the most perceptive, funny, occasionally painful portraits of an American woman I've seen." He wrote: "The movie has been both attacked and defended on feminist grounds, but I think it belongs somewhere outside ideology, maybe in the area of contemporary myth and romance."[13] Ebert placed the film third of his list of the best films of 1975 (even though it was released in December 1974).[14]
Judith Crist praised Burstyn for "making us care about her in all her incredibilities, stripping the character to its essential warmth as a woman, concerns as a mother, dependencies as a wife, and yearnings as an individual." But she criticized Scorsese's direction, writing that he was "putting on a camera show of his own, the handheld pursuit of the image lending an exhausting freneticism to what is melodrama enough on its own."[15]Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote, "Alice is thoroughly enjoyable: funny, absorbing, intelligent even when you don't believe in what's going on—when the issues it raises get all fouled up."[16]TV Guide rated the film three out of four stars, calling it "effective but uneven" with performances that "cannot conceal the storyline's shortcomings."[17] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called the film "a distended bore", adding that it "takes a group of well-cast film players and largely wastes them on a smaller-than-life film—one of those 'little people' dramas that makes one despise little people."[18]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four, writing, "[t]he characters aren't real, the situations in which they are placed aren't real, and, as a result, one cares little how the alleged relationships develop."[19] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called Burstyn's performance "highly charged and sympathetic", and Ladd "wonderful". But he felt the film was "seemingly uncertain whether to be a stylized and updating revision of the romantic comedy modes of the late '30s or a rough-and-tumble piece of social realism flavored with bitter comedy."[20] Similarly, Molly Haskell of The Village Voice felt the film was inconsistent in its attempt to "make a 'woman's picture' that will satisfy contemporary audiences' hunger for a heroine of some stature and significance, while at the same time allowing Scorsese to pay ironic tribute to the tear-jerkers and spunky showbiz sagas of the past and such demigoddesses as Alice Faye and Betty Grable." Overall, she felt, "the fault is largely that too many cooks have been allowed to contribute their ingredients (they're called 'life moments' and the result is inorganic soup), without a guiding intelligence."[21]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92%, based on 83 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's consensus states: "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore finds Martin Scorsese wielding a somewhat gentler palette than usual, with generally absorbing results."[22] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[23]
The film inspired the sitcom Alice, which was broadcast on CBS from 1976 to 1985. The only member of the film cast to reprise his role was Vic Tayback as Mel (though his diner was moved to Phoenix). Lutter portrayed Tommy in the pilot episode but was replaced by Philip McKeon for the series. Ladd joined the show later in its run, but in a different role than she played in the film (Ladd replaced the Flo character in the series as a character named Belle). Linda Lavin took the role of Alice in the series after Burstyn said she wouldn't do television. Beth Howland played Vera in the series. The character of Flo was later spun off into yet another series, Flo.
Home media
Warner Home Video released the film on Region 1 DVD on August 17, 2004. It is in anamorphic widescreen with audio tracks in English and French and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. Bonus features include commentary by Scorsese, Burstyn, and Kristofferson, and Second Chances, a background look at the making of the film.
Book
In 2019, BearManor published Media Alice: Life Behind the Counter in Mel's Greasy Spoon (A Guide to the Feature Film, the TV Series, and More), a book chronicling the development of the film and its spin-off television series.
Goodfellas is a 1990 American biographical gangster film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of Pileggi's 1985 nonfiction book Wiseguy. Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, and Paul Sorvino, the film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980.
Ellen Burstyn is an American actress. Known for her portrayals of complex women in dramas, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, making her one of the few performers to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting". She has also received a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Diane Ladd is an American actress. She has appeared in over 200 films and television shows. She received three Academy Award nominations for her roles in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990), and Rambling Rose (1991), the first of which won her a British Academy Film Award. She was also nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards, winning one for her role in the sitcom Alice (1980–1981).
After Hours is a 1985 American black comedy film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Joseph Minion, and produced by Amy Robinson, Griffin Dunne, and Robert F. Colesberry. Dunne stars as Paul Hackett, an office worker who experiences a series of misadventures while attempting to make his way home from Manhattan's SoHo district during the night.
Alice is an American sitcom television series that aired on CBS from August 31, 1976, to March 19, 1985. The series is based on the 1974 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. The show stars Linda Lavin in the title role, a widow who moves with her young son to start life over again, and finds a job working at a roadside diner in Phoenix, Arizona. Most of the episodes revolve around events at Mel's Diner, where Alice is employed.
Victor Tayback was an American actor. He was best known for his role as diner owner Mel Sharples on the television sitcom Alice (1976–1985), as well as his multiple guest appearances on The Love Boat (1977–1987). The former earned him two consecutive Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Flo is an American sitcom television series and a spin-off of Alice that aired on CBS from March 24, 1980, to June 30, 1981. The series starred Polly Holliday reprising her role as sassy and street-smart waitress Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry who returns to her hometown of Fort Worth, Texas—referred to as "Cowtown"—and becomes the proprietor of a rundown old roadhouse that she renames "Flo's Yellow Rose". Although the series started strong—in the Top 10 during its short first season run—repeated timeslot changes resulted in it falling out of the Top 40 shows by mid-March 1981. It was subsequently not renewed when CBS announced its 1981 fall lineup at the May upfronts.
Alice Hyatt is a fictional character in the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and in the subsequent television series Alice. In the movie, she was played by Ellen Burstyn, who won an Academy Award for the role. In the television series, Alice was played by actress and singer Linda Lavin.
Harold Spina was an American composer of popular songs. His best-known work happened in the early 1930s, when he collaborated with lyricists Johnny Burke and Joe Young on songs such as "Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore", "You're Not the Only Oyster in the Stew", "My Very Good Friend the Milkman", "Shadows on the Swanee", "The Beat of My Heart", "Now You've Got Me Doing It", and "I've Got a Warm Spot in My Heart for You". He also collaborated with lyricist John Elliot for several songs, including "It's So Nice To Have A Man Around The House".
Philip Anthony McKeon was an American child actor and radio personality, best known for his role as Tommy Hyatt, the son of the title character on the television sitcom Alice from 1976 to 1985.
Sandra Weintraub Roland is an American soap opera writer and producer. She is most notable for her writing on CBS's The Young and the Restless, which she has written in different positions since 1998. In the 1970s she was also notable for her close relationship with Martin Scorsese. They lived together for four years during which time she worked on Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore as associate producer, and also served in other production capacities on Taxi Driver and Mean Streets. In addition, she appeared briefly, and uncredited, in the latter film. Raised in New York City, she is one of four children of former Warner Bros. production executive Fred Weintraub.
Robert Getchell was an American screenwriter. Getchell wrote the 1974 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and created the sitcom based on that film, Alice. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplays for both Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and the subsequent Bound for Glory.
Alfred William Lutter III is an American entrepreneur, engineer, consultant, and former child actor.
Lelia Vita Goldoni was an American actress. She was best known for co-starring in John Cassavetes's groundbreaking independent film Shadows (1959). She received two BAFTA Award nominations throughout her career, the first for Shadows and the second for her performance in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974).
The 29th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, took place on 17 March 1976 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 1975. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades were handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 1975.
The Cemetery Club is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Bill Duke. The film stars Olympia Dukakis, Ellen Burstyn, Diane Ladd and Danny Aiello. Jerry Orbach and Lee Richardson appear in a brief prologue sequence.
Kent Lon Wakeford was an American cinematographer, the co-founder of Wakeford / Orloff Productions, and founder of Kent Wakeford and Associates, two commercial production companies.
Ellen Burstyn is an American actress of film, television and stage.
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