While the big screen in Hollywood capitalized on sensation, fantasy, and thrill over the decades, TV productions prioritized realism in filmmaking by putting the psychological, social, and spiritual issues on the camera to keep the nation in touch with the human conscience. Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night is one such story highlighting the alarming connection between mental distress among parents and the toll it takes on the kids in the family.
Written by Joanna Lee and directed by Allen Reisner, this CBS movie from 1977 features the story of a mentally unwell young woman Rowena (Susan Dey), who comes from a respected and well-connected family. Her psychological issues get worse as her husband leaves her with their 4-year-old daughter Mary Jane Harper (Natasha Ryan). One day when Rowena brings Mary Jane to the local hospital for medical attention, the pediatrician Dr. Angela Buccieri (Tricia O’Neil) suspects that the child has been abused. But her attempts to involve the authorities are hampered by the social influence of Rowena’s family.
Though not claiming to be based on any particularly real-life event, Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night has been the story of modern developed societies for decades, and continues to be even today. Unintended violence caused by extreme mental anguish that goes unaddressed or untreated for long is a fact that keeps making news endlessly. Reisner’s movie highlights this dark reality with attention to the factors that feed into this diseased cycle. We also get to see the importance of doctors with integrity and carrying the true spirit of healing, like Dr. Buccieri, in the field of public health. For a child in a troubled home, this could mean life over death.
Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night ends at a very dark turn yet one that the audiences have to see in order to shake them out of inaction and unawareness. For its subject matter and representation of reality, this movie should be a mandatory viewing for everyone in the public health and outreach sectors and particularly for everyone who cares about children.
