Tuck Everlasting movie storyline. During an autumn harvest carnival in the fictional town of Treegap at the turn of the century, somewhere in upstate New York, a young man named Jesse Tuck (Paul Flessa), who is immortal, is riding on the Ferris wheel where he works. He decides to show off to the crowd by doing dangerous stunts.
People begin to notice, including a man in a yellow suit. The man who runs the Ferris wheel stops its motor, causing it to stop spinning, which leaves Jesse on top. A constable threatens to charge the man if the boy gets hurt. Jesse begins doing dangerous stunts which frightens the crowd. The Ferris wheel’s brake fails and when somebody bumps into it, it causes the wheel to turn, causing Jesse to fall to the ground, causing people to think he is dead. After sitting, Jesse opens his eyes and jumps up, scaring the crowd. Angered the constable runs after Jesse.
Meanwhile, a very, bored 12-year-old girl Winifred Foster (Margaret Chamberlain) is sitting on her front lawn. She is so bored that she begins talking to a turtle which goes waddling by. She tells the turtle how much she hates it at home, and that she is not allowed to go to the fair. Two boys talking about Jesse are walking by. After talking to the turtle her mother and Grandmother call her in for lunch and then to practice piano. She says goodbye to the turtle as it goes to hide in a bush.
The next scene shows the Tucks at their pond on the other side of the wood, at their brown one-story house. Mae Tuck (Sonia Raimi) is talking to Angus Tuck (Fred A. Keller) but is called “Angus” only a couple of times throughout the whole movie. He is simply known as “Tuck,” or “Mister Tuck.” She asks him why he isn’t waking up as it is already mid-morning. He says he likes sleeping as he dreams about he and his family are in heaven and never knew about Treegap. But she tells him he has to wake up to get the area ready as they will be having their ten-year reunion with their boys, Jesse and Miles, and that nothing is going to change.
Still asleep, he tells her to put her shawl away as the weather hasn’t changed. Tuck warns her about going into town or the woods. But she says otherwise. She then asks Tuck to fix her music box even though she is leaving in a few hours. He makes up excuses not to fix it but he agrees to fix it when she’s back. She says she promised to keep it going as long as she lived. After Tuck asks what the boys have been doing, she then turns to talking about how fast time flies. And states 10 years is “as long as it takes to make a pot of coffee.” She is on her horse in the late afternoon admiring the mountains and grasslands and cornfields of the upper New York countryside.
The next scene shows a large beech tree with twisty branches. At the bottom of the trunk, underneath an opening, is a small bubbling spring less than a foot wide. Meanwhile, Winnie is allowed outside again, as her mom practices piano. She swings on her swing, which resembles a noose. She then looks at the bush the turtle hides in, and notices it covered with fireflies. She manages to catch one. The man in the yellow suit (James McGuire), the same man from the fair. He greets her and starts asking questions about fireflies but it then turns to questions about her personal life after she loses the firefly. After asking her if they have lived there long, she responds, they lived there forever.
Her grandmother notices the man and comes out and asks the man what he is doing on their property. She hears the sound of Mae’s music box but she’s certain it’s elves that live in the woods and come out every 10 years. It’s bedtime and Winnie is listening to her Grandmother telling Winnie’s parents that it’s the elves but her parents object. Father, Mr. Foster (Marvin Macnow) tells the Grandmother to cut it out because he doesn’t want Winnie in the woods due to a murder which occurred there.
Tuck Everlasting is a 1981 American film based on Natalie Babbitt’s 1975 book of the same title. The story involves the Tucks, a family who drank from a magic spring from the Fosters’ little forest and became immortal (hence the name “Tuck Everlasting”).
After Keller made the TV movie Skeleton Key, he met Natalie Babbitt at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He liked her novel Tuck Everlasting and decided to produce and direct a film based on it. Filming was done in 1980 and the film was released on June 6, 1981. The film is not well known, as most people associate Tuck Everlasting with the book or the 2002 film. Much of the film was shot in Western upstate New York State, the ending was filmed in Medina, New York. The Adirondack Mountains can be seen in the background quite often. It was filmed from late summer 1980 to early spring 1981.
Tuck Everlasting (1981)
Directed by: Frederick King Keller
Starring: Margaret Chamberlain, Paul Fleesa, Fred A. Keller, James McGuire, Sonia Raimi, Bruce D’Auria, Frank O’Hara, Barbara Harmon, Marvin Macnow, Halle Sims, Mark Callen, Mary Gulino
Screenplay by: Natalie Babbitt (novel), Fred A. Keller, Frederick King Keller
Cinematography by: Michael Mathews
Costume Design by: Elizabeth Haas Keller
Music by: Malcolm Dalglish, Grey Larsen
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: One Pass Media
Release Date: June 5, 1981
Views: 344