The Subject Was Roses (1968)

John Cleary: Mercy, mercy, said old Mrs. Percy.

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Nettie Cleary: In all my life, the past twelve hours are the only real freedom I've ever known.
Timmy Cleary: Did you enjoy it?
Nettie Cleary: Every moment.
Timmy Cleary: Why did you come back?
Nettie Cleary: I'm a coward.

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John Cleary: Bless us and save us, said Mrs. O'Davis.

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The Subject Was Roses was the first film Patricia Neal made after suffering three massive and near-fatal strokes, early in 1965. Neal was in a coma for two-and-a-half weeks and underwent emergency brain surgery. Paralyzed on her right side and unable to talk, she had to learn how to use her limbs again, how to speak again, and had to relearn the alphabet in order to spell the simplest of words. By early 1967, her recovery was so remarkable that it was difficult to tell that she'd suffered a stroke at all, although Neal admitted to still having memory problems. In April 1968, while shooting "The Subject Was Roses" in an old warehouse on Manhattan's West 26th Street, Neal reflected on her ordeal to critic Rex Reed: "I hated life for a year and a half, then I started learning how to be a person again and now I've loved life for a year and a half. And I love it a lot."
Martin Sheen and Jack Albertson reprised their roles (Timothy Cleary and John Cleary) in this film after previously playing the characters in the stage version on Broadway.
The play "The Subject Was Roses" won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1965.
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