(1974)
2
Lucia Bozzola
Planned as the perfect star vehicle for his model-turned-actress girlfriend Cybill Shepherd, Peter Bogdanovich's version of Henry James' novella Daisy Miller was instead his first infamous failure. While writer Frederic Raphael rose to the difficult task of adapting James, the European locations and Oscar-nominated costumes were lovely as well as appropriate, and the major supporting performances by Mildred Natwick, Cloris Leachman, and Barry Brown strong, Shepherd's presence proved to be an insurmountable defect. Though she looked the part of James' naïve heroine (and, some sniped, had the requisite vacuousness), Shepherd's weakness as an actress rendered Daisy lifeless beyond the character's scripted coquetry. Greeted with critical disdain, Daisy Miller became Bogdanovich's first flop after his remarkable trio of early '70s hits, but he and Shepherd would soon suffer even more ignominy for their next collaboration, At Long Last Love.
cast-crew for Daisy Miller on AllMovie
Daisy Miller (1974)
