Charly
Charly (marketed and stylized as CHAЯLY) is a 1968 American drama film directed and produced by Ralph Nelson and written by Stirling Silliphant. It is based on "Flowers for Algernon", a science-fiction short story (1958) and subsequent novel (1966) by Daniel Keyes. The film stars Cliff Robertson as Charly Gordon, an intellectually disabled adult who is selected by two doctors to undergo a surgical procedure that triples his IQ as it had done for a laboratory mouse who underwent the same procedure. The film also stars Claire Bloom, Lilia Skala, Leon Janney, Dick Van Patten and Barney Martin . Robertson had played the same role in a 1961 television adaptation titled "The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon," an episode of the anthology series "The United States Steel Hour". The film received positive reviews and was a success at the box office and later, in home media sales. Robertson won Best Actor at the Academy Awards. Plot. Charly Gordon is a intellectually disabled man with a strong desire to make himself smarter. For the past two years, he has attended night school in Boston, learning to read and write from teacher Alice Kinnian. However, his spelling and penmanship remain poor , and he is unable to spell his own name. He works as a janitor in a bakery, where his coworkers frequently amuse themselves at his expense, and enjoys playing with children at a playground when not at work. Alice takes Charly to see Dr. Richard Nemur and Dr. Anna Straus, researchers who have increased the intelligence of laboratory mice with a new surgical procedure and are now looking for a human test subject. To assess Charly's suitability as a candidate, they put him through a battery of aptitude tests and have him race against Algernon, a mouse who has  had the procedure. Algernon runs through a maze while Charly uses a pencil to trace his way through a diagram of the same maze. Charly consistently loses the races but is nevertheless given the experimental surgery. After the surgery, Charly still loses to Algernon and is initially angry at not immediately becoming smarter. Eventually, he beats Algernon and his intelligence begins to increase rapidly. Charly's coworkers tell him to use a machine that they think is too complex for him to operate, hoping that he will break it so that they can have the day off. When he successfully  works the machine, they become displeased that he is now too intelligent to fall for their jokes and get him fired from the bakery. Alice continues teaching him, but he soon surpasses her. Nemur and Straus argue over the importance of Charly's emotional development, with Straus pointing to the drawings and paintings that he has created (including several abstract nude figures of Alice) as evidence of his need to mature. Charly becomes infatuated with Alice and questions whether she loves her fiancé. He follows her to her apartment one night, declaring his love for her, but flees after she  rejects his sexual advances. He rebels by immersing himself in the counterculture – riding a motorcycle, kissing a series of different women, smoking and dancing – but eventually returns to Boston. The two reconcile, and both realize that they want to be together and consider marriage. Four weeks later, Nemur and Straus present their research at a convention of scientists, playing back film footage of Charly's aptitude tests before bringing him out for a question-and-answer session. Angry and aggressive because both Nemur and Straus hid Algernon's condition from him, he shares his cynical view of humanity, then reveals  that Algernon has died after regressing to his original mental state – a fact that had been withheld from him – and that he expects to lose his own enhanced intelligence as well. Charly flees the convention but hallucinates seeing his former self everywhere he goes. Stopping at a bar for a drink, he sees a intellectually disabled busboy drop a tray of glasses; the other customers laugh at the incident but stop when Charly begins to help the busboy clean up the mess. Charly overhears an argument among Alice, Nemur and Straus over the decision to keep Algernon's regression a  secret from him and offers to help research the issue. He works with Nemur and Straus in the hope that his intelligence can be saved, but the results indicate that nothing can be done. Alice visits Charly and asks him to marry her, but he refuses and tells her to leave. Some time later, Alice watches Charly playing with children at the playground (as seen at the start of the film), having reverted to his former self. Production history. Development. The short story "Flowers for Algernon" had previously been the basis of "The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon." a 1961  television adaptation in which Robertson had also starred for CBS's "U. S. Steel Hour". Robertson had starred in a number of television shows that were turned into films with other actors playing his roles, such as "Days of Wine and Roses". He bought the rights to the story, hoping to star in the film version as well. Robertson originally hired William Goldman to write the screenplay on the strength of Goldman's novel "No Way to Treat a Lady", paying him $30,000 out of his own pocket. However, Robertson was unhappy with Goldman's work and then hired  Stirling Silliphant to write a draft. Robertson received only $25,000 for his role in the film. Release. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on June 28, 1968. It then opened at the Baronet Theatre in New York City on September 23, 1968. Box office. The film was a hit, earning $7.25 million in theatrical rentals during its release in North America, and it earned an additional $1.25 million in theatrical rentals overseas, making it the 16th-highest-grossing film of 1968. After all costs were deducted (including $1,325,000 paid to profit share), the film  reported a profit of $1,390,000, making it one of the few successful films made by Selmur/ABC Pictures. Critical reception. Vincent Canby called the film a "self-conscious contemporary drama, the first ever to exploit mental retardation for... the bittersweet romance of it"; he called Robertson's performance "earnest" but points out that "we [the audience] are forced into the vaguely unpleasant position of being voyeurs, congratulating ourselves for not being Charly as often as we feel a distant pity for him." Canby calls Nelson's direction "neo-Expo 67", referring to the use of split screen to "show  simultaneously the reactions of two people facing each other and conversing" and the use of "little postage stamp-sized inserts of images within the larger screen frame." "Time" magazine called "Charly" an "odd little movie about mental retardation and the dangers of all-conquering science, done with a dash of whimsy." While "the historic sights in and around Charly's Boston setting have never been more lovingly filmed", "The impact of [Robertson's] performance...is lessened by Producer-Director Ralph Nelson's determination to prove that he learned how to be new and now at Expo '67: almost every other  sequence is done in split screens, multiple images, still shots or slow motion." Screenwriter (and Hollywood blacklist target) Maurice Rapf called Robertson's performance "extraordinary" and called "astonishing" his on-screen "transformation from one end of the intellectual spectrum to the other"; Rapf took issue with what he called the "pyrotechnics of the camera" and the "flashy opticals", calling the effects "jarringly out of place" and better suited for a "no-story mod film like "The Knack"." Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, saying "The relationship between Charly (Cliff Robertson) and the girl (Claire Bloom) is  handled delicately and well. She cares for him, but inadequately understands the problems he's facing. These become more serious when he passes normal IQ and moves into the genius category; his emotional development falls behind. It is this story, involving a personal crisis, which makes "Charly" a warm and rewarding film." By contrast, Ebert pointed out "the whole scientific hocus-pocus, which causes his crisis, is irrelevant and weakens the movie by distracting us." In 2009, "Entertainment Weekly" listed "Charly" among its "25 Best Movie Tearjerkers Ever." Awards and nominations. Cliff Robertson won the Academy Award for Best Actor , but under some controversy; less than two weeks after the ceremony, "Time" magazine mentioned the academy's generalized concerns over "excessive and vulgar solicitation of votes" and said that "many members agreed that Robertson's award was based more on promotion than on performance." As time went on, many saw Robertson's performance to be weaker compared to other nominees, such as Peter O’Toole in "The Lion in Winter". Proposed sequel. In the late 1970s, following a period of extended unemployment after having alerted authorities to illegal activities committed by Columbia Pictures president David Begelman, Robertson wrote and attempted to  produce "Charly II", to no avail. Home media. "Charly" was released on Region 1 DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on March 31, 2005.