Play It As It Lays (1972) – Nostalgia Central

The story of a minor league actress married to a cult film director, Play It As It Lays, is recollected by the actress, Maria Wyeth (Tuesday Weld), from her current home in a comfortable mental institution.

Maria has passed from despair into nihilism, assisted by her husband’s gay producer, BZ (Anthony Perkins), who believes that nothing means anything.

Her daughter is in a sanitarium. Her husband is a bully. An affair results in her undergoing an abortion. Other flings (with shallow jerks) result in further alienation. The circle of ‘friends’ she has is composed of vipers.

BZ has proved his faith in the great future of nothing by taking a fatal overdose of sleeping pills while Maria cradles him in her arms.

Naturally, when her husband, Carter Lang (Adam Roarke) discovers Maria and the corpse in a motel room, he is upset.

Maria is institutionalised but remains safely insulated from her tormentors and her circumstances by what BZ has taught her.

The film – based on the highly regarded novel by Joann Didion, who also wrote the screenplay – is chic and elegant-looking (Roy Lichtenstein was a visual consultant), but the whole thing has turned soft compared to the novel.

Made for $1,000,000, the film grossed $3,300,000 at the box office.

Maria Wyeth Lang
Tuesday Weld
BZ Mendenhall
Anthony Perkins
Helene
Tammy Grimes
Carter Lang
Adam Roarke
Carlotta
Ruth Ford
Benny Austin
Eddie Firestone
Susannah
Diana Ewing
Larry Kulik
Paul Lambert
Abortionist
Norman Foster
Abortionist’s Assistant
Chuck McCann
Hypnotist
Severn Darden
Johnny Waters
Tony Young
Les Goodwin
Richard Anderson
The Chickie
Elizabeth Claman
Patsy
Mitzi Hoag
Journalist
Tyne Daly
Nelson
Roger Ewing
Apartment Manager
Dick Ryal
Frank
John Finnegan
Jeanelle
Tracy Morgan
Kate’s Nurse
Darlene Conley
Arthur Knight
Himself
Albert Johnson
Himself

Director
Frank Perry