Butterfly (1982 film)

1982 American film directed by Matt Cimber

Butterfly

Theatrical release poster by Tom Chantrell

Directed by| Matt Cimber
Written by| Matt Cimber
John F. Goff
Based on| The Butterfly
by James M. Cain
Produced by| Matt Cimber
Starring| Stacy Keach
Orson Welles
Lois Nettleton
Edward Albert
Stuart Whitman
James Franciscus
Pia Zadora
Cinematography| Eduard van der Enden
Edited by| Thierry J. Couturier
Brent Schoenfeld
Stan Siegel
Music by| Ennio Morricone

Production
company

Par-Par Productions

Distributed by| Analysis Releasing

Release date

* February 5, 1982 (1982-02-05)

Running time

| 108 minutes
Country| United States
Language| English
Budget| $3.5 million[1]

Butterfly is a 1982 American independent crime drama film co-written and directed by Matt Cimber, based on the 1947 novel The Butterfly by James M. Cain. The starring cast includes Stacy Keach, Pia Zadora, Lois Nettleton, Ed McMahon, James Franciscus, Edward Albert, and Orson Welles. The original music score was composed by Ennio Morricone. Financed by Zadora's husband, Israeli multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis, at an estimated cost of US$3.5 million,[2] the plot follows a silver mine caretaker who is reunited with his estranged teenage daughter who wants to take silver from the mine.

## Plot

[edit]

In 1937, in a small mining town on the Nevada–Arizona border, Jess Tyler is the caretaker of an unused silver mine. His wife, Belle Morgan, deserted him 10 years earlier and took their daughters, Janey and Kady, when she ran off with another man, Moke Blue. Seventeen year old Kady shows up at Jess's place, telling him her mother Belle is running a brothel, and one of the clients got Kady pregnant with a son, Danny. Danny's father is Wash Gillespie, son of a wealthy mine owner, who refused to marry her. Kady is money-hungry and has returned home to steal silver from the mine. Jess begins having a sexual attraction towards his daughter; initially opposed to stealing silver from the mine, he relents and says they can take small scraps after she seduces him. They work in the mine together; afterwards, while Kady takes a bath, Jess ends up giving her a massage but stops short of having sex.

Soon after, Wash comes to town and proposes to Kady, and she accepts. Belle, suffering from severe tuberculosis, arrives with Blue and a mutual friend, Ed Lamey, ostensibly to celebrate the engagement. Blue insinuates that he knows about the theft, and while the others are out of the house, Belle stabs him with a hat pin, and he kills her in self-defence.

Jess realizes that Ed must have witnessed the theft and told Blue. Jess rushes to the mine, where Blue is frantically pillaging for silver and taunts him. Jess sees a "butterfly" birthmark near his navel, similar to one on baby Danny, and believes that Blue is Danny's father. Enraged, Jess shoots him. Before Jess leaves him to die, Blue reveals that Kady is his daughter.

Returning to the Gillespies, Jess lies and tells them that Danny is Blue's son. Wash decides to break off the engagement, but Jess stops him from talking to Kady about it himself. When Wash fails to arrive on the day of the wedding, she despondently resorts to her original plan to steal the silver. She goes to the mine with Jess, where the two have sex while Ed looks on. The police arrive with warrants for the arrests of Jess and Kady, and they are charged with incest.

At the hearing, Judge Rauch calls it "a crime against nature, shocking and repulsive to every basic sense of propriety, decency, and good citizenship." Jess pleads guilty, saying he forced her, so that Kady will not be punished. Jess is sentenced to ten years in prison, and Kady objects, saying that their relationship was consensual. The judge threatens her with reform school, ten years in prison, and Danny becoming a ward of the state. Jess reveals that Moke Blue is Kady's real father and the proof is the birthmark. Ed then reveals he is Moke Blue's half-brother and has the same birthmark and did not tell her because of the silver. The case is dismissed.

Wash is waiting outside the courthouse for Kady, who realizes what Jess did and is angry, but quickly forgives him. She says she loves him, but differently from how she loves Wash. She chooses Wash because of the life he can provide for Danny.

## Cast

[edit]

* Stacy Keach as Jess Tyler
* Pia Zadora as Kady Tyler
* Lois Nettleton as Belle Morgan
* Edward Albert as "Wash" Gillespie
* James Franciscus as Moke Blue
* Orson Welles as Judge Rauch
* Stuart Whitman as Reverend Rivers
* Ed McMahon as Mr. Gillespie
* June Lockhart as Helen Gillespie
* Ann Dane as Janey Tyler
* George Buck Flower as Ed Lamey
* John O'Conner White as Billy Roy
* Paul Hampton as Norton
* Peter Jason as Allen

## Critical reception

[edit]

As of 2022, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes holds a "Rotten" approval rating of 40% based on 5 reviews.[3] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D" on an A+ to F scale.[4]

Writing in The New York Times, Vincent Canby described the film as "a most entertainingly sleazy melodrama," noted that "the movie is such a giddy mixture of overstuffed plot, lean dialogue and unspeakable passions that you realize that if it had been made with taste it would have been unbearable," and reported that Zadora's performance was "spectacularly inept."[5]

### Awards and nominations

[edit]

The film received ten nominations for the 3rd Golden Raspberry Awards (including Worst Picture), with Zadora winning Worst Actress and Worst New Star, and McMahon winning Worst Supporting Actor. Nevertheless, Zadora won Best Female Newcomer at the 39th Golden Globe Awards for her role (over Elizabeth McGovern and Kathleen Turner). This occurred after her husband flew members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to Las Vegas to hear Zadora sing, producing accusations that the award had been "bought".[6] Welles' portrayal of Judge Rauch was nominated for both supporting actor categories at the Golden Globes and at the Razzies.

Award  | Category  | Recipients  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|

Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture | Orson Welles | Nominated  | [7]
Best Original Song – Motion Picture | "It's Wrong for Me to Love You"
Music by Ennio Morricone;
Lyrics by Carol Connors | Nominated
New Star of the Year – Actress | Pia Zadora | Won
Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Picture | Matt Cimber | Nominated  | [8]
Worst Director | Nominated
Worst Actress | Pia Zadora  | Won
Worst Supporting Actor | Ed McMahon | Won
Orson Welles  | Nominated
Worst Supporting Actress | Lois Nettleton | Nominated
Worst Screenplay | Screenplay by John F. Goff and Matt Cimber;
Adapted for the Screen by Matt Cimber;
Based on the novel by James M. Cain | Nominated
Worst Musical Score | Ennio Morricone  | Nominated
Worst Original Song | "It's Wrong for Me to Love You"
Music by Ennio Morricone;
Lyrics by Carol Connors  | Nominated
Worst New Star | Pia Zadora  | Won

## References

[edit]

1. ^ For a fistful of dollars The Guardian 6 June 1981: 11.
2. ^ Vagg, Stephen (March 10, 2020). "Ten Billionaires Who Were Stung by Hollywood". Filmink. Archived from the original on March 10, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
3. ^ "Butterfly (1982)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on April 5, 2022. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
4. ^ The Spokesman-Review. The Spokesman-Review.
5. ^ Canby, Vincent (1982-02-05). "PIA ZADORA IN CAIN'S 'BUTTERFLY'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
6. ^ Waxman, Sharon (January 11, 2008). "Hollywood Con Job: Either Fix the Golden Globes or Get Them Off the Air". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 21 January 2010. Retrieved 12 December 2008.
7. ^ "Butterfly – Golden Globes". HFPA. Archived from the original on July 27, 2021. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
8. ^ "1982 RAZZIE Nominees & "Winners"". Golden Raspberry Awards. April 11, 1983. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2008-03-26.

## External links

[edit]

* Butterfly at IMDb
* Butterfly at Rotten Tomatoes

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Matt Cimber

* Single Room Furnished (1968)
* He and She (1970)
* The Black Six (1974)
* The Candy Tangerine Man (1975)
* Lady Cocoa (1975)
* The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976)
* A Time to Die (1983)
* Butterfly (1982)
* Fake-Out (1982)
* Hundra (1983)
* Yellow Hair and the Fortress of Gold (1984)
* Miriam (2006)

Awards for Butterfly

* v
* t
* e

Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress

* Brooke Shields (1980)
* Bo Derek / Faye Dunaway (1981)
* Pia Zadora (1982)
* Pia Zadora (1983)
* Bo Derek (1984)
* Linda Blair (1985)
* Madonna (1986)
* Madonna (1987)
* Liza Minnelli (1988)
* Heather Locklear (1989)
* Bo Derek (1990)
* Sean Young (1991)
* Melanie Griffith (1992)
* Madonna (1993)
* Sharon Stone (1994)
* Elizabeth Berkley (1995)
* Demi Moore (1996)
* Demi Moore (1997)
* Spice Girls (1998)
* Heather Donahue (1999)
* Madonna (2000)
* Mariah Carey (2001)
* Madonna / Britney Spears (2002)
* Jennifer Lopez (2003)
* Halle Berry (2004)
* Jenny McCarthy (2005)
* Sharon Stone (2006)
* Lindsay Lohan (2007)
* Paris Hilton (2008)
* Sandra Bullock (2009)
* Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, and Sarah Jessica Parker (2010)
* Adam Sandler in drag (2011)
* Kristen Stewart (2012)
* Tyler Perry in drag (2013)
* Cameron Diaz (2014)
* Dakota Johnson (2015)
* Rebekah Turner (2016)
* Tyler Perry in drag (2017)
* Melissa McCarthy (2018)
* Hilary Duff (2019)
* Kate Hudson (2020/21)
* Jeanna de Waal (2021)
* Golden Raspberry Awards (for nominating Ryan Kiera Armstrong, 2022)
* Megan Fox (2023)
* Dakota Johnson (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor

* John Adames / Laurence Olivier (1980)
* Steve Forrest (1981)
* Ed McMahon (1982)
* Jim Nabors (1983)
* Brooke Shields (1984)
* Rob Lowe (1985)
* Jerome Benton (1986)
* David Mendenhall (1987)
* Dan Aykroyd (1988)
* Christopher Atkins (1989)
* Donald Trump (1990)
* Dan Aykroyd (1991)
* Tom Selleck (1992)
* Woody Harrelson (1993)
* O. J. Simpson (1994)
* Dennis Hopper (1995)
* Marlon Brando (1996)
* Dennis Rodman (1997)
* Joe Eszterhas (1998)
* Ahmed Best (1999)
* Barry Pepper (2000)
* Charlton Heston (2001)
* Hayden Christensen (2002)
* Sylvester Stallone (2003)
* Donald Rumsfeld (2004)
* Hayden Christensen (2005)
* M. Night Shyamalan (2006)
* Eddie Murphy (2007)
* Pierce Brosnan (2008)
* Billy Ray Cyrus (2009)
* Jackson Rathbone (2010)
* Al Pacino (2011)
* Taylor Lautner (2012)
* Will Smith (2013)
* Kelsey Grammer (2014)
* Eddie Redmayne (2015)
* Jesse Eisenberg (2016)
* Mel Gibson (2017)
* John C. Reilly (2018)
* James Corden (2019)
* Rudy Giuliani (2020/21)
* Jared Leto (2021)
* Tom Hanks (2022)
* Sylvester Stallone (2023)
* Jon Voight (2024)

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