A Delicate Balance (1973)

11/14/06

Part of the reason for Katharine Hepbruns appearing on the Dick Cavitt show in 1973, was to promote her work in the American Film Theaters production of Edward Albee's Pulitzer winning play A Delicate Balance. The American Film Theater had come up with the intriguing idea of producing about a dozen plays on film (these are not filmed plays in the traditional sense, they have real sets yet retain a certain 'stagy' feel) and selling them as a package deal to consumers, kind of like a season pass to a Shakespear company. In other words they would rent out movie theaters in major cities like New York, and they would rotate another of their productions through it each week. It coasted about $35 per person back in 73'. Anyway A Delicate Balance is about a dysfunctional New England family whose best friends move in with them after suddenly becoming deathly afraid of being alone. Hepburn excels in these kind of 'family on the brink films' like A Lion in Winter and Suddenly Last Summer, and Balance is no exception to the rule. Paul Scofield is quite good as Hepburns husband Tobias, with Joseph Cotten as his best friend, and Lee Remick as their daughter (Scofield and Hepburns not Scofield and Cottens).