SILVER

Director Frank Perry (DAVID AND LISA, DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE) delivered many edgy psychological classics, and none is more deserving of rediscovery than this rarely screened adaptation of Joan Didion's bestseller, with a screenplay by Didion and her late husband, John Gregory Dunne. A scathing portrait of Hollywood in the early 1970s, PLAY IT AS IT LAYS stars Tuesday Weld as the 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 is her estranged director-husband trying to jumpstart his career out of the biker-film ghetto. (Note adapted from the American Cinematheque.) DIR/PROD Frank Perry; SCR John Gregory Dunne, Joan Didion, from her novel; PROD Dominick Dunne. U.S., 1972, color, 99 min. RATED R

AFI Member passes accepted.