Play it as it Lays / Puzzle of a Downfall Child

PLAY IT AS IT LAYS, 1972, Universal, 99 min. Dir. Frank Perry. Tuesday Weld is at her best as fiercely intelligent Maria, an ex-model on the verge of a nervous breakdown. In-the-closet producer Anthony Perkins is her only friend and Adam Roarke her estranged director husband trying to jumpstart his career out of the biker-film ghetto. A scathing stream-of-consciousness portrait of Hollywood in the early 1970s.

PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD, 1970, Universal, 105 min. Jerry Schatzberg (SCARECROW, THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK), who at one time had worked as a high-fashion photographer, directed this intimate portrait of a supermodel near the end of her tether. Holed up at a cottage by the sea, Lou Sand (Faye Dunaway) recalls her past in the fast lane in a fractured-time kaleidoscope of bittersweet memories. Excellent Dunaway is supported by a formidable cast, including Roy Scheider, Viveca Lindfors, Barry Primus, Barry Morse.