''Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night'' is a

Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

nominated

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

television film starring Susan Dey as an abusive mother. The film, which aired in October 1977, was written and produced by Joanna Lee and featured a supporting cast including

Rhea Perlman Rhea Jo Perlman (born March 31, 1948) is an American actress. She played head-waitress Carla Tortelli in the sitcom ''Cheers'' (1982–1993). Over the course of 11 seasons, Perlman was nominated for ten Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Ac ...

Kevin McCarthy Kevin Owen McCarthy (born January 26, 1965) is an American politician, serving as House Minority Leader in the United States House of Representatives since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served as House Majority Leader under spea ...

and Natasha Ryan as Mary Jane Harper.

Plot

Mary Jane Harper is admitted to the hospital for a broken arm. While examining Mary Jane, Dr. Angela Buccieri notices a couple of healed-over cigarette burns on the girl's buttocks. She questions Mary Jane's mother Rowena, who claims that Mary Jane is accident prone and a crier. Dr. Buccieri takes her concerns to Dr. Orrin Helgerson, the director of

Pediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

and requests a set of full-skeletal x-rays to see if there are any healed-over broken bones. The director, a good friend of Rowena's father, who is also a trustee of the hospital, tells Dr. Buccieri not to pursue the matter any further. Dr. Buccieri still brings the matter to Child Protective Services. A social worker named Dave Williams visits Rowena and recommends that she join

Parents Anonymous Parents Anonymous (PA) is a self-help group for parents with the goal of preventing child abuse and providing support for parents. PA, first called Mother's Anonymous, was founded in 1967 by a 29-year-old mother, Jolly K., and a psychiatric social w ...

to help with her stress. After he leaves, Rowena grows agitated, realizing that someone at the hospital has reported her. She hears Mary Jane crying for her. In her fear, she goes into the nursery and yells at Mary Jane. When Mary Jane tries to look away from her mother, she grabs her, digging her nails into her skin. Rowena decides to attend a

meeting, leaving Mary Jane alone. While she is at the meeting, a fire starts at her home. The neighbors call 9-1-1, Mary Jane is taken to the hospital to check on smoke inhalation, and Rowena is arrested for child endangerment. Rowena's parents appoint her a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...

, who says that her mind has become unsettled by the abandonment of her husband and that she has agreed to seek therapeutic help. Judge Carlson accepts this. Dr. Buccieri and Dave Williams work together to find evidence against Rowena. They are undermined by the efforts of Dr. Helgerson, who fears litigation from Rowena's father. In court, Judge Carlson is presented with the evidence, but has been informed by Rowena's psychiatrist that her disturbed mental state is only temporary. Within two months, they will have another hearing where they will decide about legal custody of Mary Jane, who is returned to Rowena. During a therapeutic session, Rowena begins to have a breakthrough just as the session ends. Now paranoid, Rowena takes Mary Jane and goes off to a motel in the desert. In the motel room, Rowena begins hallucinating and becomes agitated, causing Mary Jane to cry. Rowena calls Judy, the woman who runs the

group, who tells her to go to the motel manager and have him call the police. Not wanting the police to know where she is, Rowena hangs up. She tries to calmly tell Mary Jane to stop crying, but winds up smothering her with a pillow. Dave Williams and the police arrive at the motel where they find Rowena cradling Mary Jane's body and singing to it.

Cast

* Susan Dey ... Rowena Harper *

John Vernon John Keith Vernon (born Adolphus Raymondus Vernon Agopsowicz; February 24, 1932 February 1, 2005) was a Canadian actor. He made a career in Hollywood after achieving initial television stardom in Canada. He was best known for playing Dean Wormer ...

... Dr. Orrin Helgerson *

... Tom Atherton *

... Judy *

Tricia O'Neil Tricia O'Neil (born Patty O'Neil) is an American actress. Early life Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, she is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. O'Neil. The family lived in El Paso, Texas, from 1952 to 1959 and in 1963. O'Neil attended elementary ...

... Dr. Angela Buccieri *

Bernie Casey Bernard Terry Casey (June 8, 1939 – September 19, 2017) was an American actor, poet and professional American football player. Early life Casey was born in Wyco, West Virginia, the son of Flossie (Coleman) and Frank Leslie Casey. He graduated ...

... Dave Williams *

Priscilla Pointer Priscilla Marie Pointer (born May 18, 1924) is an American retired actress. She began her career in the theater in the late 1940's, including productions on Broadway. Later, Pointer moved to Hollywood and making appearances on television in the ...

... Laura Atherton * Phillip R. Allen ... Mr. Bernards *Natasha Ryan ... Mary Jane Harper *

Alma Beltran Alma Leonor Beltran (August 22, 1919 – June 9, 2007) was a Mexican-American film, stage and television actress. She appeared in 82 films between 1945 and 2002. In addition to her film roles, Beltran played over 80 roles in film and television, ...

... Maria *

Ray Buktenica Ray Buktenica (born August 6, 1943) is an American film and television character actor. He has played numerous roles, primarily on television since 1972. He is best known for playing the character Benny Goodwin, the boyfriend and later fiancé ...

... Dr. Mark Handelman *

Ivan Bonar Ivan Eugene Bonar (October 31, 1924 – December 8, 1988) was an American character actor whose career in Hollywood, in films and television, spanned four decades, from the mid 1950s into the 1980s. Life and career A vaunted character actor, Bo ...

... Judge F.F. Carlson *

James Karen James Karen (born Jacob Karnofsky; November 28, 1923 – October 23, 2018) was an American character actor of Broadway, film and television. Karen is known for his roles in ''Poltergeist'', ''The China Syndrome'', ''Wall Street'', ''The Return ...

... Dr. Sutterman *

Chip Lucia Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a type of immunoprecipitation experimental technique used to investigate the interaction between proteins and DNA in the cell. It aims to determine whether specific proteins are associated with specific gen ...

... Bill Harper * Sandra Deel ... Mrs. Ramish *

Elizabeth Robinson Elizabeth Robinson (born 1961, Denver, Colorado) is an American poet and professor, author of twelve collections of poetry, most recently ''Counterpart'' (Ahsahta Press, 2012), "Three Novels" (Omnidawn, 2011) "Also Known A," (Apogee, 2009), an ...

... Jeanne Williams * Linda Gillen ... Joy * Fritzi Burr ... Nancy West *

Frances Fong Frances Fong (born Frances Chung; September 22, 1927 – October 24, 2012)Frances Fong in the U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, retrieved froAncestry.com/ref> was an American singer and actress whose performing career spanned ov ...

... Ivy Chin *

Warren Munson Warren Munson (born November 30, 1933) is an American film and television actor. Career Munson's likeness and voice were used to portray Admiral Owen Paris in two early episodes of '' Star Trek: Voyager''. He also played the role of Vice A ...

... Mr. West * Lucy Lee Flippin ... Mother in Park

Novelization

A novelization of the film, packaged and by-lined to give the impression of being the story source, was published by

Signet Books The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publish ...

shortly after the film aired, to capitalize on its ratings impact. (There is no record of the book having ever existed prior to this paperback edition.) The stated authorship is shared by Joanna Lee and T.S. Cook.

Awards and nominations

''Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night'' was nominated at 1978's

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

s for Outstanding Achievement in Video Tape Editing for a Special.

References

External links

{{IMDb title, 0076370, Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night 1977 television films 1977 films Films scored by Billy Goldenberg Films about domestic violence Films about child abuse American drama television films 1970s American films