So recently I caught the 1972 drama PLAY IT AS IT LAYS on cable. This was a movie that divided critics, although most agreed that star Tuesday Weld delivered a strong performance as an actress recovering from a nervous breakdown.

The film was based on a Joan Didion novel of the same name and the screenplay was written by Didion and her husband John Gregory Dunne and it was directed by Frank Perry who was still riding the success of DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE (1970). The story centers on Maria (Mah-RYE-ah) Wyeth (Tuesday Weld), a mid-level actress coping with a faltering marriage, a mentally-challenged daughter, and the recent deaths of her parents. In my opinion, this drama about a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown doesn't quite carry the emotional weight that is should, and ironically, part of the reason is Didion and Dunne's screenplay. Whereas one can be terse yet still speak volumes on the page, movies are a visual medium and a lot of the details that a novelist might choose to omit are necessitated by the camera. Artist Roy Lichtenstein served as a visual consultant on the movie and it has a certain elegance and beauty that upends the plot.

Weld does what she can with the part and there are individual scenes where she is nothing short of brilliant, and then there are other scenes where she comes off almost amateurish. It's a strange performance with a haunting quality. Far better is Anthony Perkins as her best friend, B.Z., a gay movie producer in a loveless marriage (to Tammy Grimes) underwritten by his controlling mother (Ruth Ford). Given what has been revealed about the actor since his death -- things like his own struggles with bisexuality -- the performance is particularly poignant.  There's also a  devastating scene near the end of the film where B.Z. indicates that he is even more depressed than Maria and in which he makes an important decision with far reaching implications.

The rest of the cast is mostly made up of small cameo roles. Richard Anderson appears as a screenwriter whose one-night stand with Maria results in pregnancy. Chuck McCann is cast against type as the facilitator for Maria's illegal abortion. Adam Roarke portrays Maria's self-absorbed director husband, Eddie Firestone plays an old family friend to whom Maria appeals, and Darlene Conley makes an impression as the nurse caring for Maria's hospitalized daughter. There's also a blink and you'll miss her appearance by Tyne Daly in one of her early screen roles as a reporter.

PLAY IT AS IT LAYS is one of those films that carries a strong pedigree and which might have been championed by the then-important critics (like Roger Ebert), but viewed more than 35 years later, it doesn't quite cut it. I'm not sorry I finally caught up with it, but it certainly wasn't the lost or underappreciated masterpiece I had thought it might be.   Rating:      C