James Kirkwood wrote the kind of engaging novels you recommend to friends. (He's best-known for the book for "A Chorus Line".) "There Must Be a Pony" is a semi-autobiographical novel about his growing up as the son of a once-popular actress (Lila Lee). The TV movie is a disaster -- not only poorly written, but inappropriately cast.I've never been a fan of Elizabeth Taylor, but there's no denying that, as a young actress, she was beautiful and talented. Somewhere along the line ("Cleopatra", perhaps) she turned into an edgy b****. Too much of this remains in her portrayal of Marguerite Sydney. She's supposedly a naïve, dependent woman who makes bad choices, especially in men. Little of this comes through in an unsympathetic and unconvincing performance.Robert Wagner is similarly miscast as a man who genuinely loves Sydney. Kirkwood was likely thinking of Cary Grant, and Wagner doesn't come close to being the elegant gentleman Ben is supposed to be.James Coco plays a close gay friend, who in the novel is skinny and birdlike. Kirkwood probably had Roddy McDowall in mind; the heavyset Coco just doesn't work.Of the principals, only Chad Lowe escapes unscathed. His performance throughout is sincere and believable. He makes Taylor and Wagner look quite bad.A lot of the problems have to be laid at Matt Crowley's door. Josh is the novel's narrator, but you know darn well Liz ain't gonna appear in a film where somebody else is the lead. Crowley therefore had the task of imagining scenes where Josh wasn't present. Unfortunately, his dialog is often boring and/or clichéd.It doesn't help that Crowley discards the best sequence in the book. Josh is a klutz at just about everything, and his attempt to bake a cake ends in comic disaster. Then, a page later, he finds Ben's body. Kirkwood pulls this off perfectly: "I laughed and I cried". In the movie, Josh is awakened by noises, and finds Ben's body without any contrasting prior emotion.If you haven't read the novel, you might like the movie. But the movie is poor, for no justifiable reason. Its problems could have been resolved long before the cameras rolled.

The phrase "based on a true story" is one of the most hackneyed in all movie reviews. This film is, however, more than based on a true story; James Kirkwood who wrote the novel and play on which the movie takes its story actually lived the plot. His mother, a former movie star with severe problems, was under suspicion for shooting her boyfriend at Manhattan Beach in the 1930s. Young Jim found the body, and hence you have the heart of this tale. The real question about whether the victim was murdered or committed suicide created tabloid headlines in its day. The question of whether Kirkwood knew the answer may be hidden in his book and, to some extent, in this film version. Updated to a modern Hollywood, the tale still contains fine performances by its major stars and still contains much amusing cynicism about the movie business that was the hallmark of the original play (starring Myrna Loy) in 1962. Many do not know that a revival of the play in 1982 starred producer Dean Devlin who grew up from the boy in the story to become the producer of films like INDEPENDENCE DAY. The film version of Kirkwood's life is well produced by Robert Wagner and is a great introduction to the writings of James Kirkwood.

No one else has commented on this film so I will. "There Must Be A Pony" has an award winning cast about a recovering woman (Elizabeth Taylor) who has suffered from mental illness from years in the movie industry. She is trying to get back into the "business" but her reputation and her attitude prevents her from doing so.After her son (Chad Lowe) comes for a visit at their rented home in Malibu, she meets up with Robert Wagner after being introduced at the horse track by another close friend, Mickey Rooney. Lowe is befriended by Wagner and a strong friendship develops. James Coco plays her confidante and best friend. It is a sweet movie with excellent acting, but it has a sad ending.This film should DEFINITELY be available on DVD. I think it is a shame that it isn't (yet).