WHORNER

As a comment on religious repression, familial ostracism, and subliminal incestuous urges, this film might have some value. I'll never forget seeing it in 1968 just when the theater had a new automated system that would raise and lower the curtain in time with the beginning and the end of the movie. On a mid-week night, there were probably only 3 others than myself watching the film. At some point after about one confusing hour, the curtain went down, and the house lights came up. We sat looking at one another in bewilderment. I went out to the lobby and asked the old grouch of a manager if the movie was over. Irritably he asked, "Did it say, 'The End'?" No. He huffed off to the projection booth, came back and said there was one more reel. I returned to my seat. The first ending made more sense than the real one.

This heart-tugging April-August romance cannot be equaled for the lush Spanish scenery, excellent photography, haunting music, and courageous humor. A young Timothy Bottoms was fresh from his excellent performance in THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, and Maggie Smith was in fine form portraying a spinster whose rose had lost its bloom. Her role is an excellent example of how a skilled, attractive actress enters a more mature, "seasoned" stage of her career. Both characters are slight misfits, fishes out of water on a cut-rate bus tour in the Spanish back-country who begin as antagonists but gradually draw closer. This is a tried formula, but in expert hands. It is a mystery why LOVE AND PAIN has never been marketed in any video format, or posted more prominently on the resume of either of its stars.