When Cinderella Liberty was released I'd only been out of the Navy about a year, so I was automatically biased in favor of it. I happened across the film on AMC this morning, and was pleased to see that it holds up well. James Caan is perfect as the lifer-by-default, a guy apparently motivated by inertia and the need for a job rather than any driving patriotic force. Marsha Mason is likewise great as the whore-with-a-heart (not necessarily a heart of gold), and the boy who plays her son is superb. Eli Wallach is flawless as the lifer left over from the old "Rocks and Shoals" Navy, a genuinely tough era much more closely-related to life in the 19th century than the 21st. If you want a look at enlisted life in the Navy, especially in the early 70's (yes, they did allow mustaches and a bit of hair in those days), I would recommend this film wholeheartedly.
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pswanson0014 July 2004
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rupie9 September 2002Granted there are some literary devices which are a tad far-fetched that simply have to be accepted to allow this story to work - for one, the cavalier way in which Baggs is treated while his papers are 'lost', and for so long. None the less, this is, in the end an affecting and inspiring tale. Perhaps one of the reasons for its dubious reception here is that in this extremely cynical and selfish age people have difficulty accepting a tale about someone who assumes so much grief in order to help people ("It makes me feel good," says Baggs, simply and disarmingly.) Perhaps the world would be a better place if we could all be more like the guileless Boatswain, played by James Caan in a good-guy departure from his usual tough guy parts.
Of particular note is the fine job Eli Wallach does with the minor part of Baggs' nemesis Forshay. It's a memorable moment when Baggs, asking Forshay, as he is drummed out of the service without benefits or pension, "Where are you going? Home?", hears Forshay reply "THIS was home." The combination of sadness, bitterness, and fear of the future that Wallach puts into these three words is testimony to his power as an actor.
A bit of judicious editing might have been called for, as the movie was a tad long (cutting Paul Williams' execrable songs would have been a good place to start), but none the less it's a feel-good movie that rises above its gritty setting. -
frank5621 September 2001Cinderella Liberty presents a world of lonely people looking for a little love in their lives. James Caan does a complete turnaround from his Godfather persona playing John Baggs, Jr. -- a sensitive, lovesick and positive sailor who backs into (or does it back into him?) the life of Maggie Paul (Marsha Mason), a pool playing barroom hustler with a biracial son, Doug (Kirk Calloway) whose tough exterior reveals a very sad and lonely boy. This comedy-drama creeps up on you like the love the characters feel for each is slowly realized. Excellent work by everyone here -- but this one bears a repeat watch for the work of Kirk Calloway, who is amazing as the boy and Eli Wallach, Baggs' alter-ego of a what lonely Navy life could hold for him. Look for this gem and go back to a time in film acting when real emotions were all the special effects needed to entertain and touch you.
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Depressing film dealing with the subject of human losers. We have Johnny (James Caan) as a sailor who is left behind due to a medical condition and in the process his records are lost placing him in navy limbo. He encounters a tramp, convincingly played by Marsha Mason. Mason reminds me of Susan Hayward in looks and that she often played troubled women. In this picture, it's no different. In another Oscar nominated losing performance, she plays a woman who has been knocked around a lot. In a way, the part was a forerunner for "The Goodbye Girl," a far better picture and performance by her.
She has a black child who is street wise and sensitive at the same time. The film depicts the relationship between Mason and Caan. Mason is not an Anna Magnani of "The Rose Tattoo" memory though she tries to be a loving companion one moment only to descend into hysterics at another time.
Their one opportunity to find happiness leads to sadness when she gives birth to a child only to lose it a week later. John, desperately trying to show kindness and responsibility is also devastated.
Though Mason abandons both Caan and the black child at the end, the film ends when Johnny is able to change places with Eli Wallach, who portrays a naval person who was thrown out of the navy. With the change in identity, John and the boy can pursue Mason to New Orleans where she has gone.
The fairy tale of "Cinderella" ended happily. This non-fairy tale ends with some encouragement but we realize the plight of those down on their luck in this society. -
mossgrymk7 July 2022A well acted, at times sensitively directed movie about relationships rather than blowing stuff up, I really wanted to like this film but found I could not. Why? Well, unlike Snoopy Style with whom I usually agree, I'm not gonna pin the blame on the kid actor, Kirk Calloway, who I actually thought was kinda good. No, I'm gonna finger scenarist Darryl Ponicsan instead for a rather sexist adaptation of his novel that neglects the most interesting character, Marsha Mason's sad/funny, boozing, irresponsible sex worker, (or as her character would have been called before the PC police started bastardizing our language, hooker), in favor of James Caan's rather bland Everyman Sailor and his equally lackluster relationship with Calloway's foul mouthed eleven year old. Think "Alice In The Cities" with a lobotomy or "The Champ" wannabe and you get some idea of this film's misplaced comfort zone. And Mark Rydell, not the strongest of directors and being an ex actor himself, is not the person who is going to stand up to Caan and tell him his story is less compelling than Mason's. C plus.
PS...Ironically wrote this on the day James Caan died and now I feel bad if I gave the impression I thought he was not a great actor. Far from it. Guy shone in both comedy and drama and at least three of his performances, Axel Freed in "The Gambler", the title role in "Thief", and of course Sonny, the ultimate tragic hothead in "Godfather 1", are among the best of the second half of the twentieth century in American films. -
kluismans5 June 2004nothing surprised me more than flicking over the channel and catching this film late last night. it promised to be just the kind of dull fare I needed to watch and cure my insomnia: a sailor up to no good in a sleezy bar with a giggling hooker. but this film did the opposite it woke me up and i will admit made me cry - a lot. It is a small story, a sailor falls for a 'barroom whore' and assumes responsibility for her, her son and her unborn child and that's it really. He is stuck in Seattle waiting for his papers, broke and lost and these two unlikely characters, the whore and her son, hook up with him and somehow they muddle together to make what looks like almost a family. each of them is tentative, protective of the tiny space that makes up their world, yet all three show that despite harsh realities they can express tenderness to each other. what was remarkable was that there was nothing patronising or dismissive in the portrayal of any of the characters, all three of which are the stereotypical stock of cinema, a philandering sailor, a whore, and a illegitimate kid. i was totally convinced by the story and moved by the way that despite the needs expressed for each other, they were pushed apart. i cannot recommend this film highly enough, and hope that anyone reading this will try and watch it.
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SnoopyStyle15 September 2017Navy sailor John Baggs Jr. (James Caan) is on a Cinderella Liberty pass when he picks up sexy Maggie Paul (Marsha Mason) hustling pool in the city. She's a prostitute with a son named Doug. His friend former sailor Forshay (Eli Wallach) is a doorman at a bar. Baggs' records are lost and he gets no pay & no orders. He is taken aback when the social worker lets slip Maggie's pregnancy from another guy earlier.
Mason got an Oscar nomination. When she got exposed by the social worker, she has a terrific moment of desperation and anger. It's an excellent acting overall. Same goes for Caan. It's a rambling plot but that's not a problem. The actual problem is the kid. Kid actors are often a hit or miss proposition. This one is mostly a miss. He doesn't really have any charisma. It makes it more difficult to develop chemistry with Baggs. This is quite fine and would be great with a better kid. -
This movie was made in 1973, and I thought it was a great movie for several reasons. It depicts the gritty, boring life of a career enlisted serviceman. Military heroics are replaced with human heroics at a time when civilians had a dim view of anyone who spent time in the service. The movie turns all the trite plots about saintly prostitutes and sailors on its head. Caan plays a real sailor, and Marsha Mason, a funny but can't help herself hooker. Her young son by an unknown black father is slowly drawn into a friendship with her mother's "honky" john. This unlikely threesome is what makes this movie worth watching. In my opinion, it is a better movie than "From Here to Eternity", which has too much of the recruiting version of the military. Cinderlla Liberty is stripped raw of the poster Navy. This movie shows life in the real Navy about a real human being, who happens to be a sailor.
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silverauk5 August 2002The Neptune bar where John Baggs Jr (James Caan) finds his great love Maggie Paul (Marsha Mason) must be a bad place for the us-Navy while the superior officer of John Baggs prohibits his marriage with Maggie when she is pregnant. There is also a background of social security for the illegitimate child: that when married the couple has some advantages in the Navy. A special scene is the one where the surgeon Dr. Osgood (Fred Sadoff) treats the son of Maggie, Doug (Kirk Calloway) for his teeth without being a dentist! It is rather impossible that there can be a switch of identity as happens between John Baggs and Lynn Forshay ( Eli Wallach). On the other hand it shows that a sailor remains always a sailor and that it is after all a better job than attracting other seamen to the Chinese brothels. John Baggs has a special relation with the Cook (Ted D'Arms) and with the Master of Arms (Burt Young) who help him out of some difficult situations. This movie shows us the problems of sailors being a long time away from home with all the consequences: bad marriage, illegitimate children, loneliness and alcoholism.
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moonspinner5511 February 2007"Cinderella Liberty" was obviously written and directed by men (in this case, the screenplay by Darryl Ponicsan, from his novel, and the direction by Mark Rydell). It features the kind of movie-hooker culled straight from the 1950s, one with a big heart, a fun-loving laugh and a dedication to her sailors--she just can't wait to get back to business. James Caan, probably the most sensitive movie tough-guy of this era, latches onto a Seattle whore (Marsha Mason) and her illegitimate, half-black pre-teen son; the three make a happy pair until Mason prematurely gives birth to the baby she's carrying. Rydell is a filmmaker who sees romance in welfare-marked squalor, and his sentiment is braced with a tough shell, yet nothing in the film makes sense. After a one-nighter with Mason, Caan meets up with her smart-aleck son by chance and instantly identifies him as her kid (there isn't a moment of recognition, just a decent man-to-man chat and the story moves on). Once Mason and Caan decide to get married, there's lots of talk regarding their union yet we never see it. The script is a connect-the-dots job, with unconvincing characters to match. Mason, despite an Oscar nod, isn't quite believable playing low-class, and every time she's uses the word "ain't" it rings false (her somewhat-chaste nudity is uncomfortable for her too, you can sense she cannot wait to cover up). Caan, frequently talking with a hick twang in his voice, plays decent and moral as if it were a dark cloud over him; he's an optimist but a hopeless one, and when he gets his ire up and fights back he is still shown getting nowhere. The picture is heavy on the bluesy Seattle night-life, but the sordid atmospherics never quite come through (this is pretty coy for an R-rated feature). Rydell and Ponicsan believe in the cliché so badly they have to conjure up a happy ending out of thin air. As for Mason, she has a quiet, reflective moment where she tells how sick she is of the mess her life has become--though in the very next scene, she's making herself up for a night on the town. You just can't keep a gold-plated lady-of-the-evening down, not even in Seattle. ** from ****
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st46-121 January 2007I find this the best movie I have ever seen...the emotion, the acting, the content, the story......all excellent and moving beyond words. James Caan is just the best ever in this, his acting is perfect, as is all the actors in this movie...truly, it is a joy to watch over and over and you have to watch it a few times to get the real benefit of all that if offered beneath the words.
Truly an act of unconditional love as never seen before. The person who wrote this has a soul of gold.
If you ever want to know what true love is all about and what it entails...see this film, because you will be in no doubt afterwards. -
How passable movies used to be - no flair or special effects, just solid & convincing enough acting. I don't regret seeing.
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helpless_dancer7 December 2001Veteran sailor meets and walks the plank for a 2 bit, drunken slut with a welfare child who lives in a hovel that was so nasty a rat wouldn't slip inside and take a dump. Plus, the hooker was pregnant from an unknown source. If swabbie marries the worthless drunk it'll make him feel good. Feel good. Can anybody spell moron? All it will do is make certain the tramp stays on the dole so taxpayers will have something to donate their money to. This jerk couldn't wait to ruin his life. I suppose this film was striving to convey the message "this poor old soul just needs a helping hand". What they both needed was a boot up their butts: this picture was dull and lifeless; the characters were all losers and fools.
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Lechuguilla5 May 2009The film's title refers to a real-life temporary "pass" or "leave" issued to navy personnel. In this fictional story, John Baggs, Jr. (James Caan) is one such sailor, stuck in Seattle on leave, a man who doesn't know what to do with his time, or his life. He ends up at a beer joint where he meets Maggie (Marsha Mason), a part-time hooker and pool hustler. "Cinderella Liberty" is the story about how these two lonely people meet, and their on-again, off-again romantic relationship.
Baggs is a low-key sort of fellow. But he doesn't take any guff from anyone. Maggie is on welfare. She lives with her eleven-year old son, Doug, in a dingy apartment in a dingy tenement building. Baggs tries to help the kid, but Doug has lots of emotional baggage, as does his mother.
The main characters are somewhat tragic. Baggs is certainly no war hero. Indeed, he's rather ordinary, but very caring. Yet, despite his best efforts to unite the three of them into a family, things don't always work out. But the film has a surprise ending that helps offset earlier distressing plot points.
Mostly downbeat and depressing, "Cinderella Liberty" is very 1970ish. Cinematography conveys an evocative mood, dark and dreary, and some of the images have a reddish tint. Post Viet Nam, the military is portrayed as somewhat bumbling. There's an obvious absence of military bravado and swagger, which engenders the story with a sense of realism.
Casting and acting are fine. The chemistry between Caan and Mason seems genuine. The film was shot entirely on-location in Seattle. No film studios were used.
This is a story of dashed hopes, of opportunities lost. Although not for everyone, mostly because of the very slow plot pace, "Cinderella Liberty" is a realistic, character driven story, the kind that's rarely made by contemporary Hollywood. -
"Cinderella Liberty" is a film about a sailor, John (James Caan), who is on an undetermined leave. He cannot return to his ship after seeing a navy doctor, as he has a cyst or boil on him bum...and the doctor orders him to stay at the base. However, the navy then seems to lose track of him. In the meantime, he does odd jobs for the navy as well as spends a lot of time in town. During this time in town, he hooks up with Maggie (Marsha Mason) who seems to be 'morally challenged' and rather screwed up. She spends her nights drinking in bars and sleeps with LOTS of sailors as well as totally neglecting her 11 year-old son...leaving the kid to fend for himself and he's becoming a young jerk. Oddly, it turns out that John is a nice and needy guy. While he's no relation to the son and owes him nothing, he decides to help out with him. He also really cares about Maggie and wants to make her his girl...and make her a better person. While these are not the makings for a typical love story, it is realistic for some folks.
So is it any good? Well, it all depends on the viewer. If you are looking for a happy romance, then think about some other film. If you want to see a very unconventional romance that ends much as you'd REALLY expect in real life and don't mind the sad ending, it's well worth seeing.
By the way, Marsha Mason shows a LOT of skin in the film and at one point, while John is working for Shore Patrol, he's in a strip club and you see some boobs. Well, the nudity did not seem gratuitous...more 'normal' for the situation and the folks involved. -
cgvsluis13 April 2022Marsha Mason is gorgeous if not seriously disturbed in this 1973 film set in the city of my birth...Seattle. The story is about a sailor played by James Caan who gets Cinderella Liberty Leave while he is in port in Seattle for medical reasons. There he stumbles upon a bar where he meets Maggie Paul who is a bit of a hustler making money off of sex and sailors. He goes home with her only to discover she has a son Doug (Douglas MacArthur) who is of mixed race and a bit of a handful. The house had clear signs of poverty...no food and poor Dougie's teeth are in such bad shape that he won't smile or eat sugar.
John Baggs, Jr. (James Caan) starts hanging out with Maggie and Dougie...slowly making their lives better in all sorts of ways. The relationship that builds between John and Dougie is the best part of the story and make this more heartwarming than you would expect from just the thumbnail details.
This is a tough film to watch, with some great shots from my home town in the 1970's and not one that I would recommend to just anyone, but if you are a fan of films from the 70's.... I highly recommend this film. It is a time capsule in and of itself.
(There are also some interesting bits about the navy that were very educational.) -
rayisfab1 January 2006This film is a mini-classic. It addresses the lives of the ordinary people who have to struggle to make a living. It shows how enlisted people are really no better off than the rest of us when is comes to coping with bureaucracy and officialdom. Ignore the extreme prejudice in the comment from the Oklahoma poster. The acting is excellent and the characters never descend in to the sentimental clichés that right wing critics accuse social commentary of. It's a shame that the gap between the rich and poor has grown since this film was made. A remake of this film would be timely but probably could not catch the moment like the original does.
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evanston_dad12 September 2022I love movies from the 1970s set in New York because I like seeing old NYC in all its sleazy pre-Times-Square-as-tourist-trap glory.
Except that "Cinderella Liberty" isn't set in New York. Except that I didn't know that until I looked up user reviews afterwards and saw other people saying so. There's a scene of James Caan wandering down a street of adult bookstores and peep shows, which I just assumed was Times Square. So now I feel like I've been duped.
It DOES show Seattle in all its grungy 1970s glory, so there's that. This is a domestic drama that grows pretty tedious by the time it's over. The scene where Caan and Marsha Mason meet over a pool table has all sorts of pizazz that had me thinking I was really going to like this one. But that energy quickly dissipates and it instead turns into a pretty depressing and pedestrian on again off again love story of no real consequence. Caan's performance is low on energy, while Mason brings a lot more chutzpah to the movie but has tired, cliche material to work with.
Mason received the first of four career Best Actress Oscar nominations for this movie. John Williams was nominated for Best Original Score, which mostly sounds like terrible lounge music when it doesn't sound like the theme from "Sanford and Son." Williams teamed up with Williams (Paul, that is) and received a second nomination for the also terrible song "Nice to Be Around."
Grade: B- -
AlsExGal15 October 2020... about a Navy guy (James Caan) who gets his shore leave in Seattle extended due to a combination of medical and bureaucratic red tape issues. He becomes smitten with a prostitute (Marsha Mason) in part, because she's raising an 11-year old kid (Calloway) in a dive apartment in a dive part of town. Caan's character feels sorry for the kid and tries to lend him as much guidance as he can, while trying to raise Mom's self-esteem too.
Things take a turn when Mason's social worker spills the beans about the fallen woman's pregnancy. Caan isn't the father, but he makes an effort to treat the new arrival as his own and commit himself to Mason and her soon-to-be growing family. He's not sure how things are going to work out and improve everyone's lives, but he's ever the optimist in believing that despite life's twists and turns and ups and downs, things will work out in the long run somehow, some way. Eli Wallach plays Caan's former commanding officer who gets drummed out of the Navy, but plays a crucial role in the final scene that leaves a lot of unanswered questions but provides hope that things are going to work out.
If ever a movie deserved a sequel, it would have been this one. The characters are honest and believable, given the circumstances they confront daily. For as old as this movie is, I had never seen it before and found it quite enjoyable. -
ksf-215 November 2022When navy man john baggs (caan) has a medical issue that makes him miss his sailing, he has to hang around town for a couple days. So he spends a couple hours with maggie, from the bar (mason). And a couple hours turns into a couple days. Baggs meets up with some old friends along the way. Maggie's kid is pllayed by kirk calloway... only did ten things, then seems to have moved on. Keep an eye out for some fun faces in smaller roles. Burt young (paulie !), bruno kirby is shore patrol. Eli wallach, dabney coleman. It's pretty good. A gritty "thinker" 1970s film, in an unspecified year. Although there is a picture of nixon on the wall. Some real ups and some real downs in this one. I guess the theme is finding your family, wherever you can. Mason was probably best known for goodbye girl. "liberty" was directed by mark rydell, who was nominated for "on golden pond". Story by darryl ponicsan, who had several novels made into film. And really was in the navy! This was nominated for three oscars... marsha mason and two for music.
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I remember seeing this movie as a kid at the movies. I really liked this movie because it didn't candycoat anything to make the storyline more digestible. It was sailor meets hooker, sailor falls for hooker, hooker does sailor wrong. It wasn't doctored up like Pretty Woman was years later. It was very sad in parts, had some funny and happy moments. Most of all, I found myself drawn in by all four main characters. You could actually find yourself caring about what happened next to them. That is rare in a movie nowdays. I liked the ending, however, it would not be likely to happen nowdays with all the high-tech identity trackers that are used now. It was probably feasible back then in 1972 or 1973, though. This is probably James Caan's best movie.
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joeleejoel15 July 2001This is a fine sweet-natured character study about big-hearted losers groping their way. The flavor of pre-grunge and pre-latte downtown Seattle drenches the film, evoked by the many authentic locations unearthed by director Rydell. Caan and Mason, as many have pointed out, are just terrific, and it is fun to see the younger Burt Young, Bruno Kirby (credited as Bruce Kirby Jr.), and especially Dabney Coleman, before their careers blossomed.
A word of warning though: the abysmal Paul Williams score and singing are rivaled only by Richard Baskin's infamous turn in "Welcome to L.A." for sheer auditory torture. -
mts438 January 2022Darryl Ponicsan had two of his novels on screen in 1973: "The Last Detail" and "Cinderella Liberty". Both are about "Lifers" in the Navy, single sailors with no families and essentially no life other than the Navy. I knew Lifers like this in the Air Force in the 1960's. It's a sad existence, but they don't seem to realize how empty it really is. In "Cinderella Liberty", John Baggs is a Lifer whose outlook is changed. It's basically a sad story, but extremely well done. Caan gives a more restrained performance than he is know for, and it's one of his best. The beautiful score, including the Oscar nominated "Nice To Be Around" with harmonica solo by Toots Theielemans, was one of John Williams earliest. The lyrics were by Paul Williams, who also does the vocal "Wednesday Special", the film's Main Title.
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mls418224 July 2022A stand up man gets involved with a woman who has lost all faith in life and herself. Do they get a happy ending? Watch and find out.
I hated the first part of this film. I thought it was just an excuse to show the underbelly of society to shock 1973 audiences. I really didn't appreciate having to see both Mason and Caan's nipples and Vaseline next to the bed.
The three principals give excellent performances.
You will wish there were more stand up guys out there like the James Caan character.