David and Lisa

This stark and spare look at the world of the mentally disturbed was one of the beacons of the new American independent film movement. Keir Dullea and Janet Margolin star as two adolescents who make contact with each other in a home for disturbed youngsters. Dullea is David Clemens, who is placed in ...more

Based on a case history by Dr. Theodore Isaac Rubin, David and Lisa was a low-budget winner, scoring big with audiences in a genre (psychodrama) that rarely produces successful results. It quickly took in over five times its $200,000 budget, breaking financial ground that would later be traveled by many other independent films. The frank, documentary-like approach of director Frank Perry, a student of acting and directing teacher Lee Strasberg, won him an Oscar nomination as Best Director, and ...more