Lord Love a Duck



Lord Love a Duck is a 1966 black comedy starring Roddy McDowall and Tuesday Weld. The film was a satire of popular culture at the time, its targets ranging from progressive education to beach party films. It is based on Al Hine's 1961 novel of the same name.

Plot
From his prison cell, Alan Musgrave dictates his experiences of the previous year, which he dedicated to fulfilling the unending wishes and ambitions of high school senior Barbara Ann Greene. The daughter of Marie, a cocktail waitress sinking unhappily into her forties, Barbara Ann wants every kind of success and for everyone to love her.

Signing a pact with Alan in wet cement, Barbara Ann soon has the 12 cashmere sweaters needed to join an exclusive girls' club. She drops out of school to become the principal's new secretary and gets involved in church activities run by strait-laced but hyper-hormonal Bob Bernard. When Barbara Ann decides she wants Bob for her husband, Alan facilitates this by keeping Bob's eccentric mother Stella, who disapproves of Barbara Ann, perpetually drunk. Then Barbara meets schlock producer T. Harrison Belmont, the King of Beach Party movies, and decides to become the biggest star that ever was. Bob refuses, however, to allow his wife to have a Hollywood screen test, so Barbara Ann decides she wants a divorce. Since Bob's mother frowns upon divorce, Alan takes matters into his own hands to kill Bob. Although Bob proves to be almost indestructible, by graduation time Alan has him in a wheelchair. At the graduation ceremony, Alan pursues Bob with a tractor, apparently killing him and several people on the speakers' platform. Barbara Ann goes on to Hollywood fame in her debut film Bikini Widow, while Alan is sent to prison.

Cast

 * Roddy McDowall as Alan "Mollymauk" Musgrave
 * Tuesday Weld as Barbara Ann Greene
 * Lola Albright as Marie Greene
 * Martin West as Bob Bernard
 * Ruth Gordon as Stella Bernard
 * Harvey Korman as Weldon Emmett
 * Sarah Marshall as Miss Schwartz
 * Lynn Carey as Sally Grace
 * Donald Murphy as Phil Neuhauser
 * Max Showalter as Howard Greene
 * Joe Mell as Dr. Milton Lippman
 * Dan Frazer as Honest Joe
 * Martine Bartlett as Inez
 * Jo Collins as Kitten
 * Martin Gabel as T. Harrison "Harry" Belmont (uncredited)

Awards
Lola Albright won the Silver Bear for Best Actress award at the 16th Berlin International Film Festival in 1966.