Cactus in the Snow (1971)

          It’s unsurprising this low-budget dramedy failed to make noise during its original release because even though the core of the piece is a tender exploration of friendship, the premise is so lurid that it promises viewers something quite different. Moreover, there’s a reason why A. Martin Zweiback only directed one movie despite enjoying a moderately successful screenwriting career—beyond his inability to conjure evocative visuals, he frequently loses control of tone. It’s also worth mentioning that the narrative of Cactus in the Snow is deliberately anticlimactic, so it would have been a tough sell even in the anything-goes ’70s. Viewed with the perspective of time, Cactus in the Snow is no lost classic, but it’s a gentle little picture with a brain and a heart.

          Richard Thomas, appearing a year before his breakout role in TV’s The Waltons, plays Harley, a young Army soldier on the verge of his first deployment. Hoping to lose his virginity before that happens, Harley gets drunk and propositions teenager Cissy (Mary Layne), who takes pity on Harley and brings him home while her parents are away. What ensues is best discovered by watching the picture, but the gist is that Cissy and Harley fall into what might be described as deep liking for each other—she’s as mature beyond her years as he is naïve, but they synchronize in unexpected ways. Interactions with supporting characters are fairly minimal since the focus is on dramatizing Cissy’s desire for new experiences and on revealing Harley’s lonely backstory.

          Despite Thomas being the more familiar actor, Layne’s performance drives Cactus in the Snow—her complex role allows Layne to convey empathy, toughness, vulnerability, and wit. (That said, Zweiback hit plenty of false notes while crafting the Cissy character, but false notes come with the territory here.) Thomas effectively blends wounded angst and youthful eagerness, in other words working very much in his comfort zone, though the stilted quality that impacts a lot of his early performances is quite evident here. As for the picture overall, Cactus in the Snow achieves a certain degree of poignance despite a handful of scenes that simply don’t work and a garish musical score that often strives, intrusively, to lighten the mood. Cactus in the Snow is also the sort of picture that hums along in one direction before pivoting hard at the end—depending on your sensibilities, the final scene will either edge the experience into a more substantial realm or tip the experience into melodrama.

Cactus in the Snow: FUNKY