''Happy Birthday, Wanda June'' is a 1971 American

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film directed by Mark Robson, based on a 1970 play by

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut ( ; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American author known for his Satire, satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfict ...

Plot

The opening of this play is "This is a simple-minded play about men who enjoy killing, and those who don't." Big-game hunter and war hero Harold Ryan returns home to America, after having been presumed dead for several years. During the war, he killed over 200 men and women, and countless more animals — for sport. He was in the

Amazon Rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

hunting for diamonds with Colonel Looseleaf Harper, a slow-witted aviation hero, who had the unhappy task of dropping the atomic bomb on

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

. Harold finds that his wife Penelope has developed relationships with men very much unlike himself, including a vacuum cleaner salesman called Shuttle and a

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

doctor called Dr. Woodly, who later becomes Ryan's foe. He also finds that his son, Paul, has been pampered and grown unmanly. Set in 1960s America, Ryan feels the country has become weak, all the heroes have been replaced by intolerable

pacifists Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

, and that in postwar America, no proper enemy is available for him to vanquish. Wanda June is a young girl who died before she could celebrate her birthday when a drunk ice cream truck driver ran her over. She is very pleased with her situation in Heaven, and feels that dying is a good thing: in Heaven, everyone loves the person who sent them there. Her birthday cake was subsequently purchased by one of Penelope's lovers, for a celebration of Ryan's birthday in his absence. Wanda June and several other deceased connections to Ryan (including his ex-wife Mildred who drank herself to death because she could not stand Harold's

premature ejaculation Premature ejaculation (PE) is a male sexual dysfunction that occurs when a male Ejaculation, expels semen (and most likely experiences orgasm) soon after beginning sexual activity, and with minimal penile stimulation. It has also been called ''e ...

, and Major Siegfried von Konigswald, the Beast of Yugoslavia, Ryan's most infamous victim) speak to the audience from Heaven, where

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of sil ...

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

, and

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

are happily playing

shuffleboard Shuffleboard (Deck shuffleboard) is a game in which players use cues to push weighted discs, sending them gliding down a narrow court, with the purpose of having them come to rest within a marked scoring area. As a more generic term, it refers t ...

Cast

Rod Steiger Rodney Stephen Steiger ( ; April 14, 1925 – July 9, 2002) was an American actor, noted for his portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. Ranked as "one of Hollywood's most charismatic and dynamic stars", he is closely associ ...

as Harold Ryan *

Susannah York Susannah Yolande Fletcher (9 January 1939 – 15 January 2011), known professionally as Susannah York, was an English actress. Her appearances in various films of the 1960s, including '' Tom Jones'' (1963) and '' They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'' ...

as Penelope Ryan *

George Grizzard George Cooper Grizzard Jr. (April 1, 1928 – October 2, 2007) was an American stage, television, and film actor. He was the recipient of a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award, among other accolades. Biography Early life and ...

as Dr. Norbert Woodley * Don Murray as Herb Shuttle * William Hickey as Looseleaf Harper * Steven Paul as Paul Ryan *

Pamelyn Ferdin Pamelyn Ferdin (born February 4, 1959) is an American animal rights activist and former actress. Ferdin's acting career was primarily during the 1960s and 1970s, though she appeared in projects sporadically in the 1980s and later years. She beg ...

as Wanda June * Pamela Saunders as Mildred Ryan * Louis Turenne as Major von Koningswald

Productions and adaptations

''Happy Birthday, Wanda June'' originated as a play titled ''Penelope'', first performed at the Orleans Arena Theater in Orleans, Massachusetts. An interview with Vonnegut about the premiere of his play at the Arena Theatre is part of the film about the Arena entitled "Stagestruck: Confessions from Summer Stock Theatre", available on PBS. Vonnegut and composer Richard Auldon Clark collaborated on an opera adaptation which was debuted at Butler University in 2016, nine years after Vonnegut's death. The Gene Frankel Theater staged an

Off-Off-Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway theatre, Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commerc ...

revival in April 2018, directed by Jeff Wise and featuring Jason O'Connell, Kate MacCluggage, and Matt Harrington. and a later off-Broadway revival, in November 2018, with the same performers, by the Wheelhouse Theater Company, at The Duke on 42nd Street.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Happy Birthday, Wanda June 1971 films American satirical films American comedy-drama films Films based on works by Kurt Vonnegut American films based on plays Films directed by Mark Robson 1960 plays Works by Kurt Vonnegut Columbia Pictures films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films

Plot

Cast

Productions and adaptations

See also

References

External links