Joanne Woodward attempts to resolve Sean Connery’s writing block with a headlock
One important lesson you learn by watching A Fine Madness , is that you better not mess around with your psychiatrist’s wife. In his portrayal of a wild, rage-aholic, blocked poet named Samson, Sean Connery does just this (in a hot tub with Jean Seberg) and his reward is a double lobotomy.
Evidently Samson is blocked up because the scope of the poem he is working on is of such an epic magnitude that he enters a profound agony when trying to write. Such issues often occur for writers who undertake major projects, and a degree of emotional volatility is frequently part of the territory. In this stunningly pre-women’s liberation farce (1966), Samson’s frustration expresses itself through wacky wife battering incidents and serial infidelities. Finally his wife, a long-suffering codependent portrayed by Joanne Woodward, sets him up to see a shrink.
The analyst becomes interested in Samson’s case until he witnesses his wife’s hot tub romp with his new patient, at which point he prescribes the double lobotomy. One would suppose that such a procedure would not only address Samson’s anger management issues, but also terminate his career as a writer. In this case however, a double lobotomy turns out to have no impact on Samson’s impulse control problems (he cold-cocks his wife when she tells him she’s pregnant) and he ends up completing his poem to boot.
If you are considering ordering this movie from Netflix, you may want to consider a lobotomy before watching it. In the world of writer’s block treatment, the “A Fine Madness” approach is certainly the road less travelled, but Sean Connery does show us a path – a sociopath.
But you did write some of your earliest songs in a hot tub of water……
Ha!