- A middle-aged misfit struggles to raise her daughters, one popular and the other a promising science student.
- From the Pullizer Prize winning play by Paul Zindel, this is the story of Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters, Ruth and Matilda. A middle-aged widowed eccentric, Beatrice is looking for her life in the classified ads while all about her is the rubble of an unkempt house. All she needs is the right opportunity, she says puffing on a cigarette. Poorly equipped to survive the vagaries of modern life, she has nonetheless always managed to muddle through. Ruth, epileptic and making her way through the rebellious phase of adolescence, seems doomed to make the same mistakes as her mother. Quiet Matilda, on the other hand, seeks refuge in her animals and her schoolwork. "Jesus, don't you hate the world, Matilda?" Beatrice asks her youngest daughter. The title of the film is also the subject of Matilda's science project at school and serves as a metaphor for the way life affects each of us differently -- how some are able to find opportunity in adversity and thrive and how some succumb when the burden becomes too heavy. This is the story of slowly drowning and grasping desperately for a lifeline only to find that there's none there and you must save yourself. "No, Mama," Matilda says, "I don't hate the world." (Nell Potts, who stars as Matilda, is the stage name of Eleanor Newman -- Joanne Woodward's real-life daughter. She also appeared as the young Rachel in *Rachel, Rachel*.)—Mark Fleetwood <mfleetwo@mail.coin.missouri.edu>
- Widowed Beatrice Hunsdorfer is miserable in her life, and in turn she has contempt for everyone around her. She blames everyone except herself for her problems, but most specifically her now deceased husband George who left her before he died. People who know her believe she's crazy. She dreams of a better life - mostly by wanting to open a tea room where she would sell what she believes would be her world famous cheesecake - while realistically not being able to achieve that dream as she lounges around her run down and unkempt house smoking, drinking, reading the personal ads in the newspaper, and somewhat taking care of her elderly boarder, which is how she makes ends meet. Her eldest daughter, Ruth Hunsdorfer, knows the reputation her mother has around town. Although she displays some teen-aged bravada, Ruth seems destined to be just like her mother. Beatrice's younger daughter, Matilda 'Tillie' Hunsdorfer, is the quiet, shy but intelligent offspring. Tillie is supported by her teacher, Mr. Goodman, in achieving academic excellence. The dysfunctional family dynamic is placed to the test in the lead up to the school's science fair awards ceremony, where Tillie's project on the effect of gamma rays on man-in-the-moon marigold seeds is one of five shortlisted for the grand prize, the resulting seedlings which seem to mirror the Hunsdorfer family itself.—Huggo
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By what name was The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972) officially released in India in English?
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