 
Based on a novel by Carson McCullers and play by Edward Albee, Ballad
Of The Sad Cafe is an enigmatic slice of Southern Gothic in the style
of Tennessee Williams or William Faulkner. Vanessa Redgrave plays Miss
Amelia - the local eccentric in a small, impoverished community, where
men toil away at grueling factory jobs by day and relief comes via jars
of bootleg moonshine she sells them. One evening a “brokeback”
dwarf named Lymon shows up claiming to be a distant cousin of Miss Amelia’s
and soon becomes the subject of local gossip. After taking him in, it
isn’t long before he convinces her to turn her general store into
a cafe where the locals can congregate in the evening. All seems to
be going well - business is thriving and everyone’s happy until
word arrives that Marvin Macy (Keith Carradine) - Miss Amelia’s
husband, is being released from prison where he’s served two years
for bank robbery. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that Amelia
rejected Macy’s advances on their wedding night and he was made
to sleep in the barn from then on. Needless to say, he returns home
bitter, angry and determined to seek revenge for his unrequited love.
He finds an unexpected ally in Cousin Lymon, who romanticizes the parolee
as a hero and role model and it’s not long before a brutal confrontation
takes place. Redgrave is terrific as the androgynous plantation owner/doctor/bootlegger
and Carradine does a respectable job of playing an erstwhile suitor,
who is overcome with resentment for the woman he loved. I’m no
expert when it comes to the films of James Ivory and the late Ismail
Merchant, but I daresay that ...Sad Cafe has to be one of the stranger
films produced by this renowned duo. - David Bassin
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The
Ballad Of The Sad Cafe