Carrie Nye
Terrific as Norine.
RIP.
Definitely ! She is one of the BEST things in the movie - her big scene with Kathleen Widdoes is one of my favorites in the entire movie. I think she perfectly embodies the character the way Mary McCarthy originally conceived her.
It's too bad Ms. Nye simply ended up with a tiny obit in the "trades," even though she had a pretty big career in the theater. And cultists should at least remember her as the rich bitch who "lost her head" in "Creepshow" ("I want my cake !!!!")
"You see, Harald and I have been lovers for quite some time..."
I didn't know, until I read all of Dick Cavett's books years later, that she was his wife.
shareShe stole the show in The Scarlet O'Hara War.
A made for TV movie made in 1979 that was full of name dropping and impersonations of famous 1930's actresses.
Nye played Tallulah Bankhead to perfection.
A truly WASTED talent.
She made the character, all right. In the book, Norine was not boho, just a slob. When Helena visits, the apartment is cluttered, not artful clutter, more the result of Norine listening to the radio or otherwise goofing off instead of tidying up. Norine is doing her hair with a curling iron, oblivious to the fact that the kitchen floor is sticky, there's no toilet paper in the bathroom, and her neck is dirty, but by gosh, her hair will curl just right. Then she sighs that she can't get her act together, doesn't know what's wrong... "Well, mop the kitchen floor, get some toilet paper, and wash your neck!" Helena snaps. As played here, it was a much more powerful scene.
Also, was she eating yogurt in that scene? Nice touch -- how many white folks had even heard of yogurt in the 1930s?