Taglines: If there’s a love story in you, this movie will touch it.
Lovin’ Molly movie storyline. In 1925, in Bastrop, Texas, Gid Frye (Anthony Perkins) narrates in voice-over as he watches his best friend Johnny (Beau Bridges) kiss Molly Taylor (Blythe Danner) outside a schoolhouse on election day. When Molly leads Ikey, a farmhand, inside to vote, Gid teases Johnny and suggests that he date Sarah Peters. After Johnny leaves, Gid takes a walk with Molly, kisses her, and asks whose girl she is.
Molly thinks she is too silly for Gid, commenting that Johnny is silly but only Eddie White (Conard Fowkes), another boyfriend, is as silly as she. After Gid compliments her beauty, she suggests that maybe she is Gid’s girl and they embrace. Ikey rides past on his mule and Gid suspects Johnny paid the farmhand to spy. Gid complains that he and Molly must keep their relationship secret.
One day, Johnny and Gid work on a farm together, and Gid presents Johnny with a new saddle. Gid’s father, Mr. Frye (Ed Binns), forces Gid to plow a field despite his protests. He tells his father he wants to go to the Texas Panhandle with Johnny to find work.
Sometime later, Gid visits Molly at her house and asks her to go fishing. Molly says she received a postcard from Johnny, but Gid doesn’t care to see it. Kissing Molly in a field, Gid suggests they get married. Resisting the idea, Molly tells Gid she will do anything but marry him. Molly undresses and runs into a pond, but Gid stays behind and she accuses him of being too careful.
One evening, Gid visits Sarah Peters (Susan Sarandon), who tends to several illegitimate children inside her home before joining him for a walk. They kiss, and Sarah mentions marriage, but Gid does not respond. At her home, Molly shows Gid her black eye, explaining that her father, Mr. Taylor (Claude Traverse), hit her, but only because she provoked him. Gid apologizes for not swimming with Molly and says he loves her. As she undresses him, he walks away to latch the front door. Upset that he left the room, Molly yells at Gid not to leave her again. Waking up in her bed the next morning, Gid asks Molly why there is no blood on the sheets, and she casually confesses she was not a virgin.
Heading to a livestock market, Gid and Johnny ride a train. Gid wants to know if Johnny plans to propose to Molly, conceding that, because Johnny made love to her first, he should have the first chance to marry her. Johnny says he thought Molly lost her virginity to Gid, and the men realize that Eddie must have slept with her first. Gid claims he will marry Molly despite being her third lover.
Back in town, Gid asks Molly to accompany him to a dance but she has promised to go with Eddie. At the dance, Johnny fights Eddie, and the sheriff intervenes. Johnny and Gid work on a ranch outside town, but Gid becomes homesick and returns, finding his father ill but unwilling to go to the doctor.
One night at Molly’s house, Eddie crosses paths with Gid upon his arrival and informs him that Mr. Taylor accidentally drank lye and died. After Eddie leaves, Molly rushes outside to vomit. That night, Gid lies in bed with Molly and comforts her. Johnny sends word to Gid from the ranch, promising to visit Molly soon. One day, Eddie surprises Gid with the news that he and Molly were married one week ago, warning Gid to stay away from her. Mr. Frye consoles his son, asserting that a woman’s affections are random and he shouldn’t sulk. Gid later finds a suicide note from his father and realizes he has gone to shoot himself.
Lovin’ Molly is a 1974 American drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Anthony Perkins, Beau Bridges, Blythe Danner in the title role, Ed Binns, and Susan Sarandon. The film is based on one of Larry McMurtry’s first novels, Leaving Cheyenne. Prior to release, the film was also known as Molly, Gid, and Johnny and The Wild and The Sweet.
The movie was filmed in Bastrop, Texas; the filming was witnessed by a Texan journalist who later wrote a 1974 Texas Monthly article about it. Lumet directed this film during a span when his Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon and Network were nominated for a combined 24 Academy Awards. McMurtry has claimed to have hated the movie as it wasn’t very true to his book and says that it “just about killed his father.”
Lovin’ Molly (1974)
Directed by: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Beau Bridges, Blythe Danner, Edward Binns, Susan Sarandon, Conard Fowkes, Claude Traverse, John Henry Faulk, Marilyn Burns, Richard Ray Lee, Paul A. Partain
Screenplay by: Stephen J. Friedman
Production Design by: John Robert Lloyd
Cinematography by: Edward R. Brown
Film Editing by: Joanne Burke
Costume Design by: Gene Coffin
Set Decoration by: Robert Drumheller, Paul Hefferan
Music by: Fred Hellerman
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: April 14, 1974
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