Me, Natalie is more of a curio than a worthwhile film. Most noteworthy for being Al Pacino's film debut, Me, Natalie was rightly overshadowed by two other 1969 releases featuring an ugly duckling/misfit: The Sterile Cuckoo and Last Summer in which Liza Minnelli and Catherine Burns gave genuine performances that garnered sympathy, and Oscar nods. As Natalie, Patty Duke is abrasive and grating, and her false nose and buck teeth are distracting. Amateurish and lackluster, the film is a compilation of wisecracks and sentimental clichés directed without atmosphere or pacing by Fred Coe who alternates drab interiors with lyrical interludes set against New York with syrupy music by Henry Mancini and awful lyrics by Rod Mckeown. Another hard to find theatrical release starring Duke, 1972's You'll Like My Mother, is a more satisfying film.
Review of Me, Natalie
