In 1936, Angel Beach, California, Daisy Clover (Natalie Wood) is a tough, chain‑smoking 15‑year‑old tomboy living with her eccentric mother, played by Ruth Gordon, in a rundown trailer. She dreams of stardom and sends a recording of her singing to Swan Studios. Studio head Raymond Swan (Christopher Plummer) signs Daisy, rebrands her as “America’s Valentine,” and commits her mother to an institution to sanitize Daisy’s public image. Daisy marries fellow actor Wade Lewis (Robert Redford), but he abandons her during their honeymoon. She later learns Wade is bisexual and had affairs, including with Swan’s wife. Daisy retrieves her mother from the institution, but her mother dies suddenly. Daisy suffers a nervous breakdown, worsened by Swan’s manipulative control over her career. After a failed suicide attempt, Daisy decides to leave Hollywood behind. In the film’s iconic ending, she blows up her beach house and walks away, declaring, “Someone declared war.”
Robert Redford insisted that his character in the novel be changed from homosexual to bisexual. It was a brave role to take at the time, but it got him noticed. Natalie Wood throws herself into the part of Daisy, her singing being dubbed by Jackie Ward. However, because Gavin Lambert had to eviscerate his book in translation to the screen and Robert Mulligan’s direction is uneven, her work here does not compare to the high-water mark of “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Splendour in the Grass,” and “Love with the Proper Stranger,” – the latter of which was also directed by Mulligan. The best performance in the film comes from Gordon in what would become a typical Ruth Gordon role – the eccentric yet sympathetic older woman. She was awarded her first Oscar nomination and would win three years later for “Rosemary’s Baby.”
A BO and a critical failure at the time, the film has developed a cult following over the years.
The beach house that Daisy demolishes at the end of the movie once belonged to silent movie queen Barbara La Marr.
Cinematography: Charles Lang
Produced by Alan J. Pakula
Warner Bros.
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