Saturday Matinee: The Sterile Cuckoo starring Liza [with a Z] Minelli

Today's movie for a Saturday matinee is more about the music than the movie. Not even the music really, just the theme song. I know it's odd but come Saturday morning at some point finds me spinning Come Saturday Morning inside my head, rewinding the chorus again and again. It's just one of those songs that got stuck in my head at some point and stayed there, I've probably heard it in a zillion elevators over the years. It's that kind of song, sickly sweet, romantic. Not that they do that anymore, elevator music, do they? The Sandpipers recorded Come Saturday Morning for the Alan J. Pakula movie The Sterile Cuckoo; based on the novel by John Nichols, the film earned Liza Minelli an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the lonely outsider, Pookie Adams. The film screams the sixties, and is part of the trend of books and movies about college and post college life and all the angst that went with it—The Graduate, Goodbye Columbus— the difficulties of being a misfit but trying to fit in the bigger more conventional world. Whenever I think of Liza with a Z, I think, brassy, brash, LOUD; it's hard to remember she wasn't always a caricature. The song Come Saturday Morning earned Dory Previn and Fred Karlin an Oscar nomination too and certainly lived in everyone's memory—not just mine—longer than the Alan J. Pakula movie ever did. Certainly longer than her co-star Wendell Burton did. I've got the trailer for you below but this movie for a Saturday matinee is available to watch whenever you want on Amazon and GooglePlay.

Need a refresher course in the subject?

Uptight college freshman Jerry Payne (Wendell Burton) finds a carefree friend in zany Pookie (Liza Minnelli). After an awkward meeting on the bus, where they are headed to different colleges, Pookie quickly works her way into Jerry's life. She makes an unannounced visit to Jerry's campus, and before long annoyance turns to affection, and friendship turns to romance. But with Pookie's increasingly neurotic behavior, how long can this love affair last?