Movies

Cliff Robertson earned an Academy Award for playing the title role based on the novel by Daniel Keyes entitled "Flowers for Algernon." His portrayal is heartbreaking and you can't help but feel for the character who is the butt of so many jokes by his so-called colleagues and friends at his workplace, a bakery. Seinfeld's Barney Martin and Dick Van Patten play his co-workers. The divine Claire Bloom (who should be made a Dame) is the sympathetic attractive teacher. Ruth White plays the landlady in one of the last film roles before her death in 1969 from cancer. The setting is filmed on location in Boston, Massachusetts.

I read Daniel Keyes' book, *Flowers for Algernon,* when aged nine and few books before or since have affected me as much. Surgical experimentation is frequently controversial and can be devastating in its consequences. Beyond the ethical issues are Algernon and Charly, one a mouse, the other, human, who are affected by a particular experiment -- Charly, especially, in a multitude of ways.Robertson does extremely well in a particularly complex role. Throughout we see his humanity. His "transformation" is believable, and by the actor's skill, Charly is portrayed as a sympathetic Everyman in an extraordinary situation.I give this film the highest recommendation.

Charly is a very touching sci-fi film about a retarded man Charly Gordon (Cliff Robertson) who can barely perform the menial job of sweeping up in a bakery and is the continual butt of jokes and ridicule by the bakers. He is chosen to participate in an experiment and is given treatments to boost his IQ. Alice Kinninan (Claire Bloom) plays one of the scientists who helps Charly to learn. Charly is based on the story Flowers For Algernon and the screenplay was by Stirling Silliphant (In The Heat of the Night.) Cliff Robertson won a best actor Oscar for Charly. The film is intelligent, poignant, and extremely moving. You'll need a box a Kleenex with your popcorn for this one.