My favorite film starring Patricia Neal (b. 1926) is
The Subject Was Roses (1968). In my opinion, she delivers one of the finest film performances of the decade.
Roses was her "comeback film" role.
In between
Hud (1963, for which she won the Best Actress Oscar) and
Roses, Ms. Neal suffered three life threatening aneurysms, all in 1965.
She was pregnant at the time, and was even filming a movie, John Ford's
7 Women. (Anne Bancroft stepped in to fill her role in the picture).
In this fine biographical TV-film (first televised in the United States in December 1981), the actress' rehabilitation process is portrayed. Pat had to learn how to walk and speak -- and to live -- again after her coma. If you watch the film, be prepared to be moved by Glenda Jackson's (b. 1936) remarkable, Emmy-nominated performance.
Dirk Bogarde (1921-1999) also gives an intense performance as her supportive and loving husband, British writer Roald Dahl, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his moving portrayal. And if the name Roald Dahl sounds familiar, it is because he wrote the original "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", which was just adapted into a
stop-motion animated film last year and is up for an Oscar this weekend.
Television actress and model ("All My Children")
Sydney Penny, only 10 years old at the time, plays one of their daughters.
Veteran character actress Mildred "Millie" Dunnock (1901-1991), a friend of Ms. Neal's in real life, portrays herself in the film, in a very candid performance which required her to play herself as she felt at the time: scared, and at times, hopeless.
It's an emotional film. In one scene, after Pat is released from the hospital, she's back at home recovering and is watching the Oscars, longing to be there in person to present.
The film, though inspiring, is also somewhat bittersweet in hindsight: Neal and Dahl divorced in 1983 (after thirty years) due to his infidelity.
Ms. Neal, now age 84, continues to act and make public appearances.
