Ana St. Clair???


How did Ana St. Clair (who apparently had quite a career in Argentine films, none known to the average US movie-goer) rate Guest Star billing in this movie? How can you be a Guest Star when no one in target audience has ever heard of you?

Not only was/is she totally unknown to American audiences but her role here borders on the non-existent. Even though she is supposedly one of the key patients in the Borderline project, she was no verbal interaction with any of her fellow actresses, and in group shots it is difficult to even spot her. It's almost as if her "role" (actually not much than more a series of speechless close-ups shot in heavy, flattering shadows) were filmed separately and edited in later.

There is a brief scene where, in close-up, she haltingly explains how she wound up in a psych ward, but again, she is only person on screen as she speaks and other actresses' response to her story is a series of reaction shots that might have been salvaged from random outtakes. Second she finishes her speech, film immediately cuts to Polly Bergen raving and ranting. . .that has nothing to do with anything St. Clair's character has just said.

Did Argentina invest money in this film? Weird. But I suppose anything is possible in a mental hospital where patients are allowed to have cigarette lighters and none of staffers bother to lock any doors, even to ward full of insane sex offenders.

reply