Raggedy Man

Name: Raggedy Man
Genre: Drama
Released: September 18, 1981
Duration: 94 min
Rating: 61
Cast: Bill Thurman, Carey Hollis Jr., Ed Geldart, Eric Roberts, Henry Thomas

1981

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Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews

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Raggedy Man

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Movie Details & Credits

Filmways Australasian Distributors | Release Date: September 18, 1981 | PG

Starring: Bill Thurman, Carey Hollis Jr., Ed Geldart, Eric Roberts, Henry Thomas, R.G. Armstrong, Sam Shepard, Sissy Spacek, Tracey Walter, William Sanderson

Summary: It's 1944 in the small town of Gregory, Texas. Divorcée Nita Longley has been brought into the town by the telephone company to work as its switchboard operator, a job which requires her to be at the switchboard day and night. She was originally told by her boss Mr. Rigby that this job would only be a stepping-stone to a more lucrative jobIt's 1944 in the small town of Gregory, Texas. Divorcée Nita Longley has been brought into the town by the telephone company to work as its switchboard operator, a job which requires her to be at the switchboard day and night. She was originally told by her boss Mr. Rigby that this job would only be a stepping-stone to a more lucrative job with regular working hours, which Mr. Rigby seems to be reneging on since he has now told her that her position is frozen due to the war. As such, Nita feels trapped by this situation. Nita lives in the telephone switchboard office building with her two sons, adolescent Harry and infant Henry. Because of her marital status, many of the townsfolk, especially the men, view Nita either with contempt or as a loose woman. One evening, Teddy Roebuck, a sailor on a four day furlough who is hitchhiking back to his home in Ardmore, Oklahoma, stops by to make a telephone call. When he learns that the reason for his trip home no longer exists, Teddy decides to stay in Gregory instead. Teddy strikes up a friendship with Nita and her two boys, which blossoms into love. The appearance of this stranger does not sit well with locals Calvin and Arnold, who had plans of having their way with loose Nita, who earlier rebuked their advances. The town's unidentified disfigured man, who Nita fears, may ultimately provide her with the ability to move on with her life.… Expand

Director: Jack Fisk

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: PG

Runtime: 94 min

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Critic Reviews

Roger Ebert

The movie was made with a lot of love and startingly fresh memories of the early 1940s, and reminds us once again that Spacek is a treasure. Read full review

Pauline Kael

(Fisk) gives us flowing, expressive images that linger in the memory. What also lingers in the memory are some of the performances Fisk gets: Spacek in particular, who seems grown up, and Roberts, who is unexpectedly simple and open.

Staff (Not Credited)

Spacek herself is given free rein, and turns in all that you'd expect and more, including a number of marvelous little insights from her own Texas childhood. Something as slight as this could never have got off the ground without her, but she makes you glad it did. Read full review

David Ansen

A small, lovingly detailed story of wartime hardship and smalltown malice, Raggedy Man proceeds with a quiet, lyric, slightly sentimental charm, but it doesn't trust its own modest virtues. [05 Oct 1981, p.78]

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

A compelling but oddly empty film. Read full review

Vincent Canby

Raggedy Man is something like a country-and-western ballad that relates a supposedly sad, melodramatic story but whose simple, repetitive, upbeat rhythms effectively deny the awfulness of the events being sung about. Read full review

Gary Arnold

Raggedy Man is starved for scenes that might fill out our scanty store of information--for example, a little more about the marriage, the love affair, her identity as a mother. Even the location needs to be filled out, since one forms the misimpression that Gregory is not so much a small town as a ghost town. Next time, the Fisks owe it to themselves to bite off enough material to chew. [03 Jul 1982, p.B3]

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