Editing I Never Sang for My Father

{{Short description|1970 film by Gilbert Cates}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = I Never Sang for My Father
| image          = I Never Sang for My Father poster.jpg
| caption        = film poster
| director       = [[Gilbert Cates]]
| producer       = Gilbert Cates
| screenplay     = [[Robert Anderson (playwright)|Robert Anderson]]
| based_on       = {{Based on|''I Never Sang for My Father''<br>1968 play|Robert Anderson}}
| starring       = [[Melvyn Douglas]] <br> [[Gene Hackman]] <br> [[Dorothy Stickney]] <br> [[Estelle Parsons]] <br> [[Elizabeth Hubbard]]
| cinematography = Morris Hartzband <br> George Stoetzel
| editing        = [[Angelo Ross]]
| distributor    = [[Columbia Pictures]]
| released       = {{Film date|1970|10|18}}
| runtime        = 92 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| music          = [[Al Gorgoni]] <br> [[Barry Mann]]
| budget         =
}}

'''''I Never Sang for My Father''''' is a 1970 American drama film. It tells the story of a widowed college professor who feels dominated by his aging father, yet still has regrets about his plan to leave him behind when he remarries and moves to California. It stars [[Melvyn Douglas]], [[Gene Hackman]], [[Dorothy Stickney]], [[Estelle Parsons]], and [[Elizabeth Hubbard]].

The film was produced and directed by [[Gilbert Cates]], and [[Robert Anderson (playwright)|Robert Anderson]] adapted the screenplay from his 1968 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] play.

It was nominated for [[Academy Awards]] for [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor in a Leading Role]] (Melvyn Douglas), [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Actor in a Supporting Role]] (Gene Hackman), and [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium]] (Robert Anderson).

==Plot==
At the airport, college professor Gene Garrison meets his parents who have returned from Florida. After driving them home, he takes them out to dinner. Back home, he spends the evening with them. The barbs of his father, Tom, run through his mind as he drives home. Gene seeks solace in the arms of Norma, a woman he's been seeing, who pines for a more serious relationship with him. Soon after, his mother, Margaret, suffers a heart attack and is hospitalized. Upon visiting her at the hospital, Gene finds Tom pacing in the waiting room. Tom asks Gene to go to the [[Rotary Club]] with him, though Gene was expecting not to leave his mother's side.

When Margaret dies, Gene helps his father shop for a casket. His sister, Alice, arrives without her husband and children. She explains to Gene that Tom's failing memory and health will require constant care either in a nursing home or with live-in assistance. She broaches the idea with their father, who rejects it outright. The conversation brings up old tensions about Tom's disinheritance of Alice over her taking a Jewish spouse. Alice leaves Gene to deal with their father by himself.

Gene's girlfriend Peggy arrives for a visit. She is charmed by Tom and offers to relocate to New York to live with Gene and his father. That night, Gene and Tom reminisce together over old photographs. Tom's love for his son comes shining through in their conversation and he asks about a tune that Gene used to sing for him as a boy. Gene confesses that he never sang the tune for his father, but Tom recalls otherwise. Gene tells Tom that he is thinking about moving to California to be with Peggy, where she has a successful gynecological practice. Tom becomes irate at the notion, feeling abandoned. After a bitter argument between the two men, Gene leaves the house with Peggy and never comes back.

==Cast==
* [[Melvyn Douglas]] as Tom Garrison - Father
* [[Gene Hackman]] as Gene Garrison - Son
* [[Estelle Parsons]] as Alice - Sister
* [[Dorothy Stickney]] as Margaret Garrison - Mother
* [[Elizabeth Hubbard]] as Doctor Margaret 'Peggy' Thayer
* [[Lovelady Powell]] as Norma
* <!-- Link here is incorrect. Daniel Keyes (the author 1914-2014) is not the actor in this movie. The actor is Daniel Keyes (1914-1995). see https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0450796/?ref_=tt_cl_t7 -->Daniel Keyes as Dr. Mayberry
* [[Conrad Bain]] as Rev. Sam Pell
* Jon Richards as Marvin Scott
* Nikki Counselman as Waitress
* Carol Peterson as Nurse #1
* Sloane Shelton as Nurse #2
* [[James Karen]] as Mr. Tucker (old age home director)
* Gene Williams as Dr. Jensen (state hospital director)

==Production==
===Original play===
[[Gilbert Cates]] had been one of the producers of the original stage play together with Doris Warner Vidor. Directed by [[Alan Schneider]] and starring [[Alan Webb (actor)|Alan Webb]], [[Lillian Gish]] and [[Hal Holbrook]], it initially ran for 124 performances in New York in 1968 and lost most of its $195,000 investment. The story was widely considered to be quasi-autobiographical.<ref name=varrev>{{cite magazine|magazine=Daily Variety|date=19 October 1970|page=3|title=Film reviews: I Never Sang for My Father|last=Murphy|first=Arthur D.}}</ref>

The play was profiled in the [[William Goldman]] book ''[[The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway]]''.

===Filming===
The film was shot at several locations, including Southern California and the Great Neck-Douglaston area of New York. Applauded by critics and viewers, the film (and play)
predicted the coming of the [[sandwich generation]], in this case, grown children and other family members helping their elderly parents who are up in age.

==Critical reception==
[[Roger Ebert]] summarized the film in his review: "These bare bones of plot hardly give any hint of the power of this film. I've suggested something of what it's about, but almost nothing about the way the writing, the direction, and the performances come together to create one of the most unforgettably human films I can remember."<ref>Ebert, Roger. "[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/i-never-sang-for-my-father-1970 I Never Sang for My Father]". January 1, 1970.</ref>

[[Vincent Canby]], in his review for ''The New York Times'', was far less complimentary, writing "(The film) does the human spirit a disservice in the way it pleads for sympathy for people who are small and flat, like comic strip characters, without sweetness, without imagination, without any suspected reserves of emotion. Indeed, it almost becomes ridiculous when you realize that it is without any honest problem, either psychological or economic."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/10/19/archives/catess-film-i-never-sang-for-my-father-begins-run.html|title=Cates's Film, 'I Never Sang for My Father,' Begins Run|last=Canby|first=Vincent|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 19, 1970|access-date=November 15, 2018}}</ref> Murf. of ''Variety'' called it " dull, distended, and lacking clear point of view"; however, he called the performances of the lead actors "superb".<ref name=varrev/>

===Awards and nominations===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
! Award
! Category
! Nominee(s)
! Result
! Ref.
|-
| rowspan="3"| [[43rd Academy Awards|Academy Awards]]
| [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]]
| [[Melvyn Douglas]]
| {{nom}}
| align="center" rowspan="3"| <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1971 |title=The 43rd Academy Awards (1971) Nominees and Winners |access-date=July 4, 2015 |work=oscars.org |date=4 October 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702005544/http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1971 |archive-date=July 2, 2015}}</ref>
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor]]
| [[Gene Hackman]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium]]
| [[Robert Anderson (playwright)|Robert Anderson]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| rowspan="2"| [[28th Golden Globe Awards|Golden Globe Awards]]
| colspan="2"| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama|Best Motion Picture – Drama]]
| {{nom}}
| align="center" rowspan="2"| <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.goldenglobes.com/film/i-never-sang-my-father |title=I Never Sang for My Father – Golden Globes |website=[[HFPA]] |access-date=July 5, 2021 |ref={{harvid|HFPA|1971}}}}</ref>
|-
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama|Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama]]
| rowspan="2"| Melvyn Douglas
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Laurel Awards]]
| Top Male Dramatic Performance
| {{draw|5th Place}}
| align="center"| 
|-
| [[National Board of Review Awards 1970|National Board of Review Awards]]
| colspan="2"| [[National Board of Review: Top Ten Films|Top Ten Films]]
| {{draw|6th Place}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{cite web |url=https://nationalboardofreview.org/award-years/1970/ |title=1970 Award Winners |website=[[National Board of Review]] |access-date=July 5, 2021}}</ref>
|-
| [[1970 New York Film Critics Circle Awards|New York Film Critics Circle Awards]]
| [[New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]]
| Melvyn Douglas
| {{Runner-up}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nyfcc.com/awards/?awardyear=1970 |title=1970 New York Film Critics Circle Awards |website=[[New York Film Critics Circle]] |access-date=July 5, 2021}}</ref>
|-
| [[23rd Writers Guild of America Awards|Writers Guild of America Awards]]
| [[Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Drama – Adapted from Another Medium]]
| Robert Anderson
| {{won}}
| align="center"| <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wga.org/awards/awardssub.aspx?id=1551 |title=Awards Winners |work=wga.org |publisher=Writers Guild of America |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121205095022/http://www.wga.org/awards/awardssub.aspx?id=1551 |archive-date=2012-12-05 |access-date=2010-06-06}}</ref>
|}

==See also==
* [[List of American films of 1970]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0065872|I Never Sang for My Father|(1970 film)}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|i_never_sang_for_my_father|I Never Sang for My Father {{noitalics|(1970 film)}}}}
* {{TCMDb title|25979|I Never Sang for My Father|(1970 film)}}
* {{Playbill production|i-never-sang-for-my-father-longacre-theatre-vault-0000006914|I Never Sang for My Father|(1968 New York stage production)}} ([https://web.archive.org/web/20141107034133/http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/6914/I-Never-Sang-for-My-Father archive])

{{Gilbert Cates}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:I Never Sang For My Father}}
[[Category:1970 films]]
[[Category:1970 drama films]]
[[Category:American drama films]]
[[Category:1970s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films about dysfunctional families]]
[[Category:Films about old age]]
[[Category:American films based on plays]]
[[Category:Films directed by Gilbert Cates]]
[[Category:Films set in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Films shot in New York (state)]]
[[Category:1970 directorial debut films]]
[[Category:Films about father–son relationships]]
[[Category:1970s American films]]
[[Category:Columbia Pictures films]]