Deborah is, at the age of 16, a borderline schizophrenic who spends most of her waking hours in a bizarre fantasy realm. After a suicide attempt, she lands in a mental institution, where the hostile environment threatens to destabilize her condition even further. It is only through the focused attention of the sympathetic Dr. Fried that Deborah is gradually able to distinguish between dreams and reality again.
A screen adaptation of the book had been in development off and on since 1967, with Natalie Wood, Liza Minnelli, and Mia Farrow all set to star at various times. Lewis John Carlino wrote a script for Columbia. Mary Rydell and Jan Kadar were attachd as directors.[1]
Eventually Edgar Scherit and Dan Blatt acquired the rights to the novel and Carlino's script from Columbia for $250,000.[4]
In the wake of the success of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Roger Corman was able to get funding for a movie version of Rose Garden. He announced the movie would be made for $3 million directed by Peter Medak starring Charlotte Rampling. [5] In October 1976 it was announced Corman wanted the lead roles to be played by Jodie Foster, David Bowie and Katharine Hepburn.[6]
The movie was eventually directed by Anthony Page. He said Page convinced Corman the script needed a complete rewrite so Gavin Lambert was hired. Lambert later wrote, "For the usual complex financial reasons, the start of shooting... couldn't be delayed, and I had only three weeks to work out a new approach to the material with Anthony, then write the screenplay." Lambert would work on the script twenty pages at a time, discuss these with Page in the evenings while he was preparing for the film at night. According to Lambert, "Principally on account of Anthony, whose work in TV had accustomed him to an atmosphere of crisis, the pressures were creatively stimulating."[7]
Eventually Bibi Andersson played Dr. Fried, while Kathleen Quinlan played Deborah. Quinlan auditioned twice for the film but refused a third audition saying she had done as well as she could; Quinland was cast anyway.[8]
All references to Judaism were removed, including the storyline of the vicious cruelty Deborah suffered from anti-Semitic peers, so that her childhood bout with urethral cancer becomes the sole reason for Deborah's "retreat from reality". In an interview, Greenberg stated that the references to Judaism were removed because the producers were "terrified." The author added that the characterizations of mental illness in the film "stank on ice."[9]
Deborah's name is changed from Blau (which means "blue" in German, and parallels the author's pseudonym "Green") to Blake. Another major theme of the book, Deborah's artistic talent which flourished in spite of her illness, was reduced to a scene in which she scribbles childishly on a drawing pad. The Kingdom Of Yr is portrayed on-screen, as are some of its gods, but never seen in its original ethereal beauty, only the wasteland that it became much later.
The background music for the Yr sequences is a recording of a Balinese Kecak, the ceremonial chant of the sacred monkeys from the Ramayana.
In a 2006 interview, Greenberg recalled that she was not consulted on any aspect of the film, and was contacted only by Bibi Andersson. She recalled Andersson telling her that the producers had said Greenberg could not be consulted as she was "hopelessly insane".[10]
The studio is listed as "Imorh" Productions, imorh (variously meaning "sleep", "death" or "insanity") being an Yri word from the novel.
The film was one of the most expensive ever made from New World Pictures.[11]
Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and wrote, "This is difficult material to bring to life, but a young actress named Kathleen Quinlan does it with heart and sensitivity. There were opportunities here for climbing the walls and chewing the scenery, I suppose, but her performance always finds the correct and convincing human note. And it's the skill with which Miss Quinlan (and Bibi Andersson) follow that thread of characterization that makes the movie work. Otherwise, those desert fantasies and all those feathers and fur might have been fatally distracting."[13]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times stated, "How Deborah, with the help of one remarkable doctor, is eventually able to recognize her own pain and thus come to some kind of terms with her demons is the moving substance of this film that leaves one almost as exhausted as the heroine." He also praised Kathleen Quinlan for "a remarkably fine, contained performance as Deborah. There are no mannerisms, no tricks, only a sense of panic barely contained, of intelligence and feeling struggling to break free."[14]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote that Kathleen Quinlan was "smashing" in her first major role, but the plot "spends a lot of time—too much time—telling us about the troubled world of mental hospitals," and the fantasy sequences "run on too long and look phony."[15]
Variety said in a negative review, "Good intentions resolve into high-minded tedium and pic's sensationalistic aspects come off as confusing or repulsive, sometimes both."[16]Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "a thrilling account of the struggle to save an attractive young girl from her self-destructive delusions," with Quinlan giving "a spectacular performance."[17]
Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "Unfortunately, the movie places a premium on shock effects and mawkish reassurances at the price of the authenticity and hard-earned inspirational resolution that distinguished the novel ... When the movie Deborah recovers, it seems an inexplicable and even ludicrous miracle, a happy ending for slipshod filmmakers."[18]
Geoff Brown of The Monthly Film Bulletin called it "simplistic and sentimental ... It is largely left to the cast, particularly the excellent Kathleen Quinlan, to invest the proceedings with any emotional truth."[19]
Box Office
According to Lambert, "as well as making a small profit, the film had a critical success unusual for such a modest work, and was one of the first "alternative" off-Hollywood productions with no money to spare or flaunt, and human beings instead of special effects."[20]
Filmink wrote in 2024 that "he film got nice reviews, did alright at the box office and lead actor Kathleen Quinlan went on to have a healthy career… but I think down deep, Corman was hoping for Oscars, cash and/or for Quinlan to become a star."[21]
In 1979 Corman said Rose Garden, Cries and Whispers, and Big Bad Mama "were probably the three most significant films we’ve been involved in [for New World], because each put us into a different area."[22]
Joe Dante said "they just didn’t have enough money to do the movie properly. It’s a movie all about a fantasy world that they just couldn’t afford to create.” Corman's biographer wrote Corman "surely made some money" from Rose Garden but it "lacked the staying power that denotes a classic, and a discouraged Corman returned to doing what he did best."[23]
Roger William Corman was an American film director, producer and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he was known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1964) is a semi-autobiographical novel by Joanne Greenberg, written under the pen name of Hannah Green. It served as the basis for a film in 1977 and a play in 2004.
Kathleen Denise Quinlan is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1977 film of the novel I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, and her Golden Globe and Academy Award-nominated role in the 1995 film Apollo 13, along with many roles in other feature films, television movies and series, in a career spanning almost five decades.
Berit Elisabet Andersson, known professionally as Bibi Andersson, was a Swedish actress who was best known for her frequent collaborations with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.
Dementia 13, known in the United Kingdom as The Haunted and the Hunted, is a 1963 independently made black-and-white horror-thriller film produced by Roger Corman, and written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola in his feature film directorial debut. The film stars William Campbell and Luana Anders with Bart Patton, Mary Mitchell, and Patrick Magee. It was released in the United States by American International Pictures during the fall of 1963 as the bottom half of a double feature with Corman's X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes.
Joanne Greenberg is an American author who published some of her work under the pen name of Hannah Green. She was a professor of anthropology at the Colorado School of Mines and a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician.
The Promise is a 1979 American romantic drama film released by Universal Pictures which starred Kathleen Quinlan, Stephen Collins, and Beatrice Straight. It was directed by Gilbert Cates and produced by Fred Weintraub and Paul Heller. Weintraub and Heller also wrote the source story, which Garry Michael White dramatized; the resultant film was novelized by Danielle Steel. It was remade in India as the Hindi film Yeh Vaada Raha (1982).
Deathsport is a 1978 science fiction action sports B-film produced by Roger Corman and directed by Allan Arkush and Nicholas Niciphor. The film stars David Carradine and Playboy Playmate Claudia Jennings. It would be one of Jennings' last films before her death.
Gunslinger is a 1956 American Western film directed by Roger Corman and starring John Ireland, Beverly Garland and Allison Hayes. The screenplay was written by Mark Hanna and Charles B. Griffith.
The Lady in Red is a 1979 American crime drama film directed by Lewis Teague and starring Pamela Sue Martin and Robert Conrad. It is an early writing effort of John Sayles who became better known as a director in the 1980s and 1990s.
Night Call Nurses is a 1972 American sex comedy film directed by Jonathan Kaplan. It is the third in Roger Corman's "nurses" cycle of films, starting with The Student Nurses (1970).
Avalanche is a 1978 disaster film directed by Corey Allen, featuring Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow, Robert Forster, and Jeanette Nolan.
Crazy Mama is a 1975 American action comedy film, directed by Jonathan Demme, produced by Julie Corman and starring Cloris Leachman. It marked the film debuts of Bill Paxton and Dennis Quaid.
Fighting Mad is a 1976 American action film directed by Jonathan Demme, about an Arkansas farmer played by Peter Fonda who uses Guerrilla tactics against corrupt land developers attempting to evict his family and his neighbors in order to stripmine their land.
Sorceress is a 1982 sword and sorcery film directed by Jack Hill, and starring Leigh Harris and Lynette Harris. It was the last film directed by Jack Hill.
Lewis John Carlino was an American screenwriter and director. His career spanned five decades and included such works as The Fox, The Brotherhood, The Mechanic, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Resurrection, and The Great Santini. Carlino was nominated for many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The Student Nurses is a 1970 American film directed by Stephanie Rothman. It was the second film from New World Pictures and the first in the popular "nurses" cycle of exploitation movies. It has since become a cult film.
Eat My Dust! is a 1976 American action comedy film written and directed by Charles B. Griffith, and starring Ron Howard.
Love Letters is a 1984 American romantic drama film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and James Keach. The film is written and directed by Amy Holden Jones, whom Roger Corman agreed to finance following her success with The Slumber Party Massacre (1982).
Streetwalkin' is a 1985 American thriller film starring Melissa Leo. It was an early film from Concorde Pictures.
1 2 Koetting, Christopher T. (2009). Mind Warp!: The Fantastic True Story of Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Hemlock Books. pp.100–102. ISBN978-0955777417.
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