Larry (1974 TV Movie) User Reviews (9)

A sad film with a happy ending...at least for Larry!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 31 March 2017]

The fact that "Larry" is supposed to be based on the life of a real person makes this story tragic. Larry has lived his whole life in a wretched and substandard facility for the developmentally disabled. When the awfulness of the place is discovered, it's closed and Larry is transferred to a state hospital...where his social worker (Tyne Daly) comes to realize he might not, in fact, be mentally challenged. He sure acts like he is...but she comes to realize that growing up among these sorts of folks, he naturally learned to fit in with them. But first she has to convince the doctor in charge that Larry is different and in need of special therapy. Much of the film shows her and Larry working together to bring him up to normal functioning level.

The film is extraordinary and very well made. Frederic Forrest in the title role is excellent and the film is quite bittersweet...sad because of all the lost time yet filled with hope for the future. It's also handled very sensitively, though times have changed and many of the terms used today are no longer acceptable to many, such as 'mental retardation'. Bear with it...that IS how they talked back in the day. Well worth seeing.

Great Story

[Zorro-3 · 7/10 · 9 September 2000]

Uplifting story of a man, who was abandoned by his mother to a mental institution, as a retard. He had assumed the speech patterns and mannerisms of the institutional retarded people that surrounded him. Only by heroic effort and luck did he communicate his intelligence to a professional who was paying attention and who cared. Thus begins his rehabilitation. Superb early performances by Tyne Daly and Fredric Forrest.

Frederic Forrest gives an Excellent Performance

[kgprophet · 7/10 · 25 June 2023]

I was only about 10 years old when I saw this on TV. The character of Larry is very touching. It was probably the first time I was given some insight into a person behind a disability. Tyne Daly (of Cagney & Lacy fame) is great as a social worker who has her own challenges as she tries to teach Larry how to act like an adult. Frederic Forrest personifies Larry with an excellent performance. There are moments as an adult, he has difficulties accepting a world when he is developmentally still a child. As the audience, I felt great sympathy for his challenge to learn that as an adult, you have to make compromises. A key scene is where Larry must learn to live on a budget. He wants to buy some toys and needs to decide which toy he needs to give up. The cashier asks how old Larry's child is (that she thinks is getting the toys). Larry responds that the toys are for himself. Another scene is where Daly is trying to teach Larry how to eat like an adult. Larry refuses, and throws some food into Daly's face. You could see her use all her might (mentally) to control her reaction.

The insight Forrest shows us is that there is still a real thinking person inside a damaged body. They are still capable of functioning as an adult, and deserve the respect as any other individual. I am writing this review on the day Frederic Forrest died. He took advantage of having average looks to bring the everyman character to the screen, a rare quality. For me, being able to remember how touching this TV movie was, having only seen it once over 40 years ago, is a testament of how powerful of an actor Forrest was.

great movie

[acroyear69-1 · 23 December 2007]

I remember seeing this movie over 20 years ago and found it to be very well made. Both Forrest and Daly made fine performances and I was surprised to find out now that it was actually a made for television movie and am quite puzzled why it hasn't made it out to VHS or DVD as of yet? I know it being a television movie it might not get the backing to release it onto a format such as VHS or DVD but having a decent cast would have prompted distributors or producers to release it onto tape years ago. In scouring Ebay and Amazon and Barnes & Noble, I come up with nothing! Does anyone know of an outlet that sells it or does anyone have an old copy that I could trade for or buy?

Larry was just a normal man

[Prismark10 · 9/10 · 4 November 2013]

I watched Larry as a kid when I was off ill from school, it ran several times in the afternoon on British television.

I found this to be a profound and moving experience even more so as it was based on true facts. It was my first glimpse of Frederic Forrest who gave a brilliant turn as Larry.

It is hard to think that in the 1970s you can get gritty, emotional and ambitious TV movies from US television when these days they tend to adapt the latest hit chick lit romance books.

Forrest stars as Larry Herman misdiagnosed as severely retarded from childhood and spent his life in mental institutions. However when he moves to a new facility. His new therapist played by Tyne Daly has suspicions that Larry might not be retarded but in fact be completely normal and tries to get the Doctors to reappraise him.

Over time with the help of his carers Larry tries to adjust to normal society after so long being institutionalised. By the end of the film Larry disappears wanting to have a new life of his own, his whereabouts since then have been unknown.

Given the TV film was made almost 40 years ago, he spent 26 years institutionalised and the true events would have taken place a several years earlier. I presume the real Larry Herman has died by now.

In the intervening years he has decided not to write a best selling story of his life or appear in shows such as Donohue or Oprah. I hope he lived to have a good and contented life.

Frederick's Performance

[b_wassell · 10/10 · 16 November 2007]

I remember seeing this show on TV, under a Hallmark TV production. (I think). What a wonderful performance. I had the pleasure of running into Mr. Forrest in a Santa Monica, Calif. restaurant in the late 1990's. He was very gracious and thrilled that a fan approached him. He plays interesting characters, and I always look at the list of actors, and try to view all his performances. I particularly like his performance in Apocalypse Now, as Chef. They scene with Chef in the jungle is both scary and funny. His character in the movie is that of a straight forward soldier, who is as scarred as anyone, but his captive moments provide a great depth of acting. The crew of the patrol boat seems to coalesce in a series of battles that meld them together. The also enjoy some of boat ride, with various partying and activities. Keep up the great work, Frederick!

A man raised as badly 'retarded' emerges from his shell.

[dcdlyounger · 9/10 · 14 July 2010]

This made for TV movie has two wonderful performances. The under- appreciated Frederick Forrest stars as Larry Herman, raised among autistics due to a childhood misdiagnosis. When he is moved from a youth home to an adult facility, a new therapist comes into play. Nancy Hockworth (Tyne Daly) shines as a caring, insightful professional, who is convinced that Larry is not merely high-functioning, he is completely normal.

Watch carefully for an amazing scene in which Daly succeeds in convincing an overworked M.D. that Larry is cognitively advanced. Your head will swim as Larry demonstrates a mastery of abstractions.

Try to remain dry-eyed as Daly's character gently guides Larry into an adult world he has missed for over 20 years.

Don't miss this gem if it is offered late night as a rerun.

A tale of two heroes.

[mark.waltz · 9/10 · 14 December 2020]

Major child abuse has had the above average intelligent Larry Herman (Frederic Forrest) growing up to seem like he suffers from an intellectual disability. On first glance, it would be natural to assume that he is. However, thanks to the therapist, Nancy Hockworth (Tyne Daly), they learn that in order to survive in the foster home (for mentally disabled children) he grew up in, he pretended to be like everybody else and as a result, he had become developmentally disabled in spite of not having been born that way. Nancy and doctor Michael McGuire take it upon themselves to aide Larry into some sort of normalcy.

Sensitively played, this TV drama is based on a tragic true story that shows the frustration Larry goes through as all of a sudden he finds himself being treated differently after having thought that he was something else. This shows Larry slowly getting better, but initially showing violent anger as he comes to grips with the stages of the changes in his life.

Daly, as Nancy, is that extra special human who goes way out of her way to do miracles, and you just want to reach through the screen and hug her. Daly's magnetic smile is always on, stern when necessary and yet always with the right intentions. She's got that star quality that goes beyond typical Hollywood beauty and when Nancy stands up to defend him, you want to stand up and give her an ovation.

Young Forrest is brilliant, and it's hard to imagine that his performance is actually acting. His moves and facial expressions are natural and never a slur towards people suffering from similar issues. The advancements are not perfect as he slips in and out very naturally which makes you root for him all the more. It's obvious that as Larry, he's fighting inside yet the comfort of what he knows makes it easy to slip back. Katharine Helmond is excellent as the mother forced to give him up, unaware of the abuse he'd receive as a result. This TV drama is so brilliantly written and narrated (by Daly) that as a TV movie, it seems way ahead of its time.

A tale of one man's fight to regain his life!

[bfjrnski · 10 October 2001]

The central character in the film "Larry" is a 26-year-old man named Larry Herman.Diagnosed severely mentally retarded he has the trademark shuffling gait,grunting gutteral speech,a blank flat stare! And yet by some miracle a man of normal intellect has survived within this shell and is waiting to live his life! And we learn that this "miracle" is not a miracle at all! Larry is a tragic case of misdiagnosis,abandonement,institutionalization,and lack of genuine concern on the part of his caretakers! The simple fact that Larry has survived to adulthood could be called a miracle but it is so much more than that! It is the sheer force of the human will!! The films opens with Larry's transfer from the small,private "home" from which he lived since infancy to the state facility thjat has taken him in for evaluation and treatment! His new therapist Nancy Hockworth is immediately taken by Larry's awareness and "sophistication" So much different from the other men on the ward!She wants him retested.However,her superior Dr.McCabe tends to view his patients with caring but professional distance!He seriously doubts Nancy's suspicions-that there IS someone else behind the facade of retardation! And he finds that she's correct!Larry Herman is not retarded-he's NORMAL!! But what to do now?? Larry has lived his entire life in an institution! Will he ever really be able to live by himself in that REAL WORLD!! This is a turning point in the story: the doctor who doubted at first wants Larry to achieve full independence.But Nancy who all along believed in Larry's NORMALACY wants to keep him at the institution! To protect him from the world out there! Despite it all, Larry does achieve his independence-earning an outside job and apartment. But he predictably wants no further association with his former caretakers and simply leaves-no good-byes,no explanations! We are left to hope that he HAS achieved enough to finally begin the life that was robbed from him so long ago!!