When the Sky's Not the Limit
Web Exclusive . . .
By: Interviews by Susan Q. Stranahan; | October 5, 2005
Hollywood knows its audiences—18- to 25-year-olds—and what they want: big-budget blockbusters.
But some independent filmmakers are making movies mostly for older audiences. Take Manna From Heaven, which critics called "Capra-esque" and "charming." Just released on DVD, the film features an impressive ensemble cast that includes Shirley Jones, Cloris Leachman, Louise Fletcher, Seymour Cassel, Harry Groener and the late Frank Gorshin.
The story revolves around what happens when $20 bills suddenly rain down on a gritty neighborhood in Buffalo, N.Y. Is the money really a "gift from God," as everyone initially wants to believe?
We asked some of the people behind Manna to talk about their roles and experiences in making the film:
Shirley Jones
Academy Award winner Shirley Jones plays the role of Bunny, a con artist who is married to Ed (played by Gorshin). For Jones, who starred in the motion pictures Elmer Gantry and The Music Man, as well as the television series The Partridge Family, the appeal of Manna From Heaven was the role.
"I'm looking for roles that are different, that give me a challenge, that have a sense of humor," Jones says. "[In the movie] Frank and I were gamblers, we play the horses, we were petty thieves. He would steal the silverware out of the restaurant and I would help him. Then came the manna from heaven.
"Would a 30-year-old enjoy this film? I don't know. Maybe the studios are right; they know what their audience is: people 18 to 25. But that's hard for me to believe. We're all living longer, and people are sitting in front of their TVs, enjoying movies on television and DVDs, when they're in their 70s and 80s and enjoying life."
Gabrielle Burton (screenwriter)
Novelist Gabrielle Burton, the author of Heartbreak Hotel, took up screenwriting in the mid-1990s and wrote the script for Manna From Heaven as a student at the American Film Institute. Little did she know then that Five Sisters Productions, made up of her five daughters, would bring her work to the screen—after paying her $1 for the film rights.
"Movies today are geared for 18- to 24-year-olds and for the first weekend [showing]," Burton says. "That's the way the whole business is done. It doesn't matter what happens after that first weekend. Older people do not tend to go to a movie on the first weekend. We had many older people who told us, 'I stopped going to movies years and years ago because there's nothing for me.'
"It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because if you don't have people going out to a movie on that first weekend, it's not going to be renewed [by the theater chains]. They count up the seats on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and on Monday they tell you if you get another week. It's all in the numbers."
Seymour Cassel
Seymour Cassel has worked in more than 100 films. This is his second role in a Five Sisters production, having appeared in the Burtons' 1999 film TEMPS. In Manna he plays Stanley, a used car salesman.
"He's a fast-talking, charming older guy who's been doing it for years, probably a bit of a flirt," Cassel says. "He contributes the car so they can have a raffle and get the money to pay back. My favorite experience of the movie? I got to work with a lot of women—Cloris Leachman, Shirley Jones, Wendie Malick, Jill Eikenberry. I got to swing Jill around and dance with her and kiss her. What's tough about that?"
Ursula Burton
Actress Ursula Burton founded Five Sisters Productions with her siblings. They've produced three feature films, and she's had a role in all of them. In Manna she plays Sister Theresa, who believes the windfall of money is "a gift from God" that must be repaid by all who helped themselves.
"What's interesting to me about her is the shades in the character, the different colors that can come in," Burton says. "So much of this film is people's perceptions of either themselves or other people, and around Theresa people always feel their best selves. They always sort of do better around her. She brings that out in people, and yet she often feels that she's failing, that she's somehow let people down, that she's gotten in trouble again."
Jill Eikenberry
Jill Eikenberry's role in the long-running television series L.A. Law earned her four Emmy nominations. She's also appeared on and off Broadway and in films. In Manna she plays Dottie, a beautician and confidante to all. "Dottie is just the nicest person who ever lived," Eikenberry says. "She's still looking for the perfect relationship, because it's hard for her to imagine that she wouldn't have found it, given that her heart is so open.
"Maybe my favorite memory [from making the film] was the day we shot the scene where we were all arriving in the convertible and throwing the money in the air at the end of the movie. It was freezing—as it always is in Buffalo—and we had to pretend it was warm. We were all huddled in together and just kept laughing. It was a very buoyant moment for all of us."
Harry Groener
Harry Groener has appeared in television, film and Broadway plays, and received his third Tony Award nomination for his portrayal of song-and-dance man Bobby Child in the Gershwin musical Crazy for You. In Manna he plays Tony, who with his wife runs a dance studio.
"It's a sweet story," Groener says. "They don't make too many movies like that any more.
"We love to be told stories, and it's our job as performers and actors to tell them as well and as interestingly and as compellingly as we can. When they're done that way, we sit and listen. It doesn't have to be a huge megamillion-dollar project. If it's a simple story done well, we will sit and listen just as attentively. The story always wins out."
Wendie Malick
One of the stars of the long-running television series Just Shoot Me, Wendie Malick has also appeared in feature films, on stage and in a variety of TV shows. Her character, Inez, is a tough-talking casino dealer. For Malick, Manna took her back to Buffalo, where she grew up.
"These days, so much of what is made in terms of film is catering to that greatest common denominator," Malick says. "You know the old recipe: It needs action, it needs people under 40. I don't think they trust people to look into an old-fashioned story that has a happy ending. But in fact there's an enormous audience out there who are waiting for movies like this but are not going to the theater very often because they don't find them."
Austin Pendleton
Actor and director Austin Pendleton had his eye on another part in Manna but was cast as Two-Digit Doyle, so nicknamed because he'd lost three fingers years earlier. "He's a guy who's totally in grief from what happened before," Pendleton says. "He's living his whole life in that grief. Yet how can you make your entire life be about that?"
"There are real relationships in the script, relationships among the family. These people are very concerned for each other; they look after each other, they worry about each other. It creates the juice in the movie. These people intertwine with each other."
The camaraderie spilled over to the cast during the filming of Manna. "That was a huge help in the movie," Pendleton says. "We often went out together and had dinner and we'd go to those old jazz clubs in Buffalo. Shirley Jones would get up and sing jazz late on a Friday night after everybody had cleared out. It was very magical."
Additional Related Links
Movies for Grownups Channel (AARP The Magazine Online)
Hollywood's Hottest--A Salute to Shirley Jones, Cloris Leachman and Other Oscar-Winning Cover Girls (AARP The Magazine Online)
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