F. Scott Fitzgerald And The Last Of The Belles (1974)

During a particularly difficult time in their marriage, the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (Richard Chamberlain) writes a short story called THE LAST OF THE BELLES in which he fictionalizes the first meeting of he and his wife Zelda (Blythe Danner) and gives it the ending that maybe it should have had instead of what actually transpired. Directed by George Schaefer, the film spends most of its running time on Fitzgerald's short story with the fictional Fitzgerald (David Hoffman, tragically murdered at 39) and Zelda (Susan Sarandon) which is just as well since it's far the more compelling of the storylines. As Fitzgerald, Chamberlain is inauthentic and though Zelda is underwritten, Danner brings an inner life which makes you want more of her performance while Sarandon makes for a bewitching Southern belle. The film's insistent use of period tunes eventually becomes grating, as if the film makers didn't trust us (despite the setting and costumes) to get that this was taking place during WWI. With James Naughton, Brooke Adams, Richard Hatch, Jane Hoffman and Ernest Thompson (who would later write ON GOLDEN POND).