The Neon Ceiling
The Neon Ceiling
| 08 February 1971 (USA)
The Neon Ceiling Trailers

A housewife and her teenage daughter, fleeing their boring lives, stop in a diner in the California desert. She runs up against the diner's owner, a gruff, beer-drinking artist whose life's work is the neon sculptures he creates and attaches to the ceiling.

Reviews
IBronson

Several posters have been wondering where a copy of this movie can be found. There is a website called modcinema.com that specializes in hard-to-find films (including made-for-TV movies) from the '60s and '70s. "The Neon Ceiling" is available from that website. The movie is well worth seeking out.The work of all three main characters is first-rate. Gig young just came off of his Oscar-winning role in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They" and here delivers a completely different performance as a grizzled, lonely greasy-spoon diner owner who is effected by the mother & daughter visitors. Lee Grant was at the top of her game at this time. She had just gotten nominated for an Oscar for "The Landlord", then won an Emmy for this movie. 4 years later, she won an Oscar for "Shampoo". She, too, plays a lonely soul looking for an escape. Denise Nickerson was the true revelation here with a performance that exhibits the transition between childhood and maturity. Her next acting job would be as the gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". "The Neon Ceiling" makes the most of its locations, from the clean, white, antiseptic and confining suburbia to the expansive, darker and freeing spirit of the desert.

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sprasa03

My name is Neon Jones. I have been haunted by this movie for years. I'm interested in obtaining a copy of this movie. I'll take this movie in DVD or VHS. If someone taped it off their TV thats fine. Must have this movie. Can't rest till I get it. Also looking for a neon phone. I'm running out of things to say. I do nothing but eat, sleep and think of this movie the Neon Ceiling constanly. My house is full of Neon now. Now I'm obsessed with finishing this Neon story. Buying the Neon fan today. And also found the Neon phone. Still in love with Neon. Ever so gratefully yours. Recemtly I got a pug. And it's now named Neon pug. And my pug is love with Neon as well. In love with Neon. Gratefully yours,

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stoneyburke

This movie haunts my memory. I so remember Gig Young dancing with Lee Grant and making a comment about smelling clean hair. The kid, driving back and forth (she's NOT license-ready but determined,) and the ceiling and of COURSE the story of being lonely, love and how things can happen when it's least expected. It has been some decades since my previewing same but...Perhaps it'll show-up again on some late-night TV station and if it does I'd wager it'd be enjoyed by more NOW than THEN. Maybe those that are interested in unavailable movies can do something? Gig Young was a wonderful actor (Lee Grant is great and still is with us) and in lieu of bedroom farces, see Gig in an understated sensitive movie.

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stevecliff

I agree that this movie and other 70s TV movies (ABC Movies of the Week like Tribes, Duel, That Certain Summer, etc.) have been unjustly neglected both in reruns and movie guidebooks. However, I think perhaps the person who wrote the other comment is thinking of another movie. The movie I remember was certainly NOT a thriller. It was a very human story about the developing relationship among the three main characters. I admit that I was only thirteen years old at the time and could be wrong about this, but I was particularly fond of this movie since I had read the script before the movie was aired and remember looking forward to seeing how the final film would come out. I hope some of these great films will make a comeback. Thank you IMDb for remembering them!

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