A year before M.A.S.H. shot him to international fame, and ignored at the time of its release, Robert Altman made "That Cold Day in the Park", an adaptation by Gillian Freeman of Peter Miles' novel. It's like "The Collector" with the roles reversed. Sandy Dennis is the young woman who brings an apparently homeless boy back to her apartment, (so he can dry off, out of the rain she tells him), and then does her damnedest to make sure he doesn't leave. The title is apt; this is a chilly movie in every detail, in the Altman canon more in keeping with films like "Images" and "Quintet" than later masterpieces like "Nashville" and "Short Cuts".
The setting is Vancouver and the film has a European art-house feel to it like something Bergman might have made on an off-day and it was clearly never destined for commercial success. Dennis, usually the most mannered of actresses, gives a stiff, starchy performance and it's Michael Burns as the boy in question who gives the more naturalistic performance even if his initial silent acceptance of Dennis' hospitality is a bit hard to swallow while his later motives in going along with things is never really made that clear. It has now built up something of a cult reputation though I doubt most people would give it the time of day were it not an Altman movie.
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