Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

GUENOT PHILIPPE I have already seen the movie starring Jessica Lange and curiously made the same year, in 1983. Both features are powerful, so are the performances. But I wonder why the Leif Erikson's character - former Frances Farmer's husband - is not spoken about in this TV movie. I don't remember if it was in the film with Jessica Lange. And I also wonder why the hell they made two films about the same topic in the very same year. I really don't get why. But after all, who cares, both are very good. I guess there were so many other actresses who deserved to have their lives told about. Hollywood was a real meat chopper for actors and actresses. A pit for broken dreams. Anyway, this kind of story is perfect for TV audiences and not for theater ones, who rather look for fun and entertainment instead of true and realistic face of life. Its darkest side.

climbingivy Susan Blakely shines in this 1983 made for television production about Frances Farmer based on her auto biography.I watched this movie a couple of nights ago and I was not all that impressed.I have seen "Frances" with Jessica Lange and that movie I rate about the same as this one.The best part of this movie is the cast.Susan Blakely was amazing.Lee Grant and Royal Dano as the parents were excellent too.I have decided that the reason that I am not too crazy about the two versions of the Frances Farmer story is because the subject matter is downright depressing.Excellent acting but way too depressing as a story.I have this movie.

James Helberg I saw this excellent made for TV film when it debuted on CBS in 1983. However, I have not seen it since! It was never (to my knowledge) re-aired on CBS and I have never seen it played on any cable stations (Lifetime, TBS, TNT, etc.) I wish it would be released on DVD or even played on TV instead of sitting on a shelf somewhere. I found this version of Frances Farmers' story to be more detailed, yet less compelling, than the feature film "Frances" but, still good. I read the book "Will There Really Be a Morning?" as well as the book "Shadowlands" I've read all I can find about the life of Frances Framer and I feel this film presented the facts of the story quite well. I remember Susan Blakley's performance was remarkable. I hope to see it again one day or better yet own it!

Sjaff Susan Blakely plays '30s actress, Frances Farmer brilliantly in this tragic autobiography which writer Dalene Young has adapted well. Blakely starts when Frances is in her teens and the film tracks her life (of 60+ years) from the budding actress who wins a trip to Moscow and New York and the Group Theatre by writing an essay entitled, "God Is Dead." Her goal was never movies but her mother, played by Lee Grant with great power, pushed her into a career in Hollywood. Frances put up with it but her heart was with the Group (she married Clifford Odets briefly), and her willfulness got her arrested. Then her mother had her committed in an attempt to control her. And Frances wound up in the dark ages of psychiatry in a mental institution in Washington. Her father, played by the great actor,Royal Dano, too meek to stand up to Mrs. Farmer, allowed that Frances remain in the harshest institution even after the docs were ready to let her go home. Blakely's acting won the highest praise. The scenes in the mental institution are fascinating in terms of what the world was like then. This was a three hour special for CBS (the entire prime-time).