Details

Release year: 1971

Storyline

Two middle-aged women move to Hollywood, California after their two sons are convicted of a notorious murder, change their names, and open a dance academy for young girls who are all too eager to tap dance their way into stardom in films.

Top credits

Directors

Curtis Harrington

Writers

Henry Farrell

Cast

Debbie Reynolds — Adelle Stewart, Adelle Bruckner
Shelley Winters — Helen Martin, Helen Hill
Dennis Weaver — Lincoln Palmer
Micheál MacLiammóir — Hamilton Starr

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Awards

0 wins & 1 nomination

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Did you know

• According to Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters' psychiatrist had strictly advised her not to play "a woman having a nervous breakdown because she *was* having an actual nervous breakdown! But nobody knew that, and so all through the film she drove all of us insane! She *became* the person in the film.". Reynolds also said, "She's the kind of actress who becomes the part she's playing."

• On the night before Adelle's death scene at the end of the film was to be shot, Debbie Reynolds awakened from a nightmare in which she was stabbed to death. When she arrived on the set the next day, she immediately checked its rubber prop knife and was horrified to discover that someone had replaced it with a real knife. The identity and the motive of whoever was responsible for this is unknown.

• Debbie Reynolds drove Shelley Winters to work on the film each day, acting as a chauffeur for her. One morning on her way to pick up Winters, Reynolds noticed a woman standing on the side of Santa Monica Boulevard who was wearing a nightgown and trying to flag down a ride. When Reynolds stopped and asked why Winters was not waiting at home for her, Winters said, "I thought I was late."