University of Virginia Library

CINEMA

'Junie Moon': The Pain Of Being Deformed

By Susan Hardwicke

"Tell Me That You Love Me.
Junie Moon" could have been a
heartwarming Walt Disney movie.
On the surface the story line is
typical of the good vs. bad plot.
Three patients in a hospital decide
to rent a house together in order to
"pool their disabilities." Junie
Moon discovers a charming
bungalow which, by chance,
belongs to wealthy eccentrics who
become intrigued with them and
invite them over for dinner.

However, "Junie Moon" is quite
startlingly real in its portrayal of
the world and of the people who
reject the three characters as
normal human beings.

Liza Minnelli excellently plays
Junie Moon, a carefree girl who
becomes involved with a sexual
sadist. He burns her face and arms
after she harmlessly laughs at him,
leaving her horribly disfigured for
life and bitter toward the world.
Her two companions, played by
Ken Howard and Robert Moore,
help her to overcome her shame of
her physical deformity.

The film could have ended also
in the Walt Disney fairy tale style,
for Arthur (Robert Moore) falls in
love with Junie. She admits that she
loves him, but at the moment of
lier happiness, he dies in her arms.
Realistically, the plot indicates that
the "good" does not always end
happily, nor does it attempt to
define what "good" is.

"The world" is generally
pictured as cruel to the threesome,
and director Otto Preminger depicts
its crudity in various ways. Perhaps
the most evident example of this is
the "peeping Tom" next door who
scorns his new neighbors. The
audience sees plainly that he is
more cripple than his neighbors.
Another striking scene is the one in
which Junie Moon encounters a line
of marching campers chanting
"That's what Brotherhood is all
About;" one of the girls screams
after seeing Junie's face and says
that it looks like a Halloween mask.
Another type of crudity which is
shown is that of Miss Gregory who
leases the bungalow. She tempts
Warren (Ken Howard) with a
$100,000 prize if he shows her that
he can walk. Of course, he falls on
his face in front of her and becomes
painfully aware of his mistake.

Nevertheless, the world is not
pictured as entirely cruel, for the
film would lose much of its
effectiveness if it were. Two
characters who display kindness are
Mario (James Coco), who hires
Arthur to work in his fish store,
and Beach Boy (Fred Williamson),
who shows friendship to Warren.
Both of them are remote from the
mainstream of the world's crudity,
both are closely linked with
"nature," but both are influenced
by the evils of the world.

The three main characters have
been forced to fight circumstances
which they had no part in making:
they feel cheated, rejected, and cast
aside by hypocrites who scorn them
as if they were "freaks." Yet, they
are not themselves blameless. If
Junie had not been so carefree
before, and if she had been more
skeptical of the dangers involved
with her freeness, perhaps she
would not have been disfigured.
Warren and Arthur lack sexual
adjustment and emotional stability,
and succumb to the harsh judgment
of others.

As said before, the film is
startling, because it directs much of
its criticism at the audience. We
realize that we are part of this
world who treats physically
abnormal people as "freaks," and
we are forced to examine ourselves
and our attitude toward those who
are like Junie Moon. We also
wonder if we are not in some way
"cripple" ourselves.

"Tell Me That You Love Me,
Junie Moon" is almost impossible
to like, but impossible to ignore.

(Now at the Cinema)

Ken Howard and Liza Minnelli in "Junie Moon"