Jennifer Laird

Tortured artist character study

SCARECROW IN A GARDEN OF CUCUMBERS is about an aspiring actress from Kansas who comes to New York and meets a host of zany characters. Warhol Superstar Holly Woodlawn plays both the female lead, “Eve Harrington,” and a male anti-hero, “Rhett Butler.” All of the characters’ names in the film are taken from popular motion pictures and books. Characters included “Mary Poppins,” “Ninotchka,” “Margo Channing,” “Walter Mitty,” “Blanche DuBois,” “Baby and Jane Hudson” (played by twin sisters), “Marjorie Morningstar,” “Joe Buck,” “Noel Airman,” “Ratzo Rizzo,” and “Stanley Kowalski.” The film also has musical numbers that were spoofs of 1930s and 1940s routines choreographed by famed dance director Busby Berkeley. One production number, “The Dusty Rose Hotel,” sung by Tally Brown, paid homage to Judy Garland’s “born-in-a-trunk” sequence in 1954’s A STAR IS BORN. (from: http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?pageID=13&threadID=88881&archive=0)

In this full-length documentary, Mary Murphy explores the enduring power, popularity & mystery that is Harper Lee. She interviews Oprah Winfrey, Wally Lamb Anna Quindlen, James McBride and others, and with rare cooperation from Harper Lee’s family and friends tells the story of a novel that became an American classic. In the newest edition of the film, Harper Lee from Mockingbird to Watchman, Murphy examines the rediscovered novel and its place alongside To Kill A Mockingbird.