With THE DAY OF THE LOCUST, director John Schlesinger and screenwriter Waldo Salt get credit for even attempting to bring Nathaniel West's scalding novel to the screen. It's a noble failure that nonetheless has a lot going for it. The cast --- or more concisely, the CASTING ---is stellar. Karen Black, in a rare lead, plays a Hollywood extra who lives in a world of delusion along side her grifter father Burgess Meredith. Both have seldom been better. Schlesinger gets the most out of their off-beat personas. As Tod, West's hapless observer, William Atherton is perfect --- he has just the right lack of personality! The rest of the odd cast includes Billy Barty as a very ornery dwarf, Jackie Earle Haley as a would-be child star, and, as the doomed Homer Simpson, Donald Sutherland. Geraldine Page has a highly unnecessary cameo as an Aimee Semple McPherson type evangelist. It's all very ugly but it's immensely watchable. With great cinematography by Conrad Hall.
Review of The Day of the Locust
