Charly (marketed and stylized as CHAЯLY) is a 1968 American science fiction drama film directed and produced by Ralph Nelson and written by Stirling Silliphant.

The film also stars Claire Bloom, Lilia Skala, Leon Janney, Dick Van Patten and Barney Martin.

Robertson had played the same role in a 1961 television adaptation titled "The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon," an episode of the anthology series The United States Steel Hour.

Fleeing the convention and seeing hallucinations of his previous self everywhere, Charly stops to help a busboy pick up a tray of dropped glasses after observing that he is intellectually disabled.

Charly overhears Alice, Nemur, and Straus discussing his situation and offers to assist in finding a way to preserve his intelligence, but their combined efforts prove fruitless.

The short story Flowers for Algernon had been the basis of "The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon", a 1961 television adaptation in which Robertson had also starred for The United States Steel Hour.

[5] Robertson had starred in a number of television shows that were turned into films with other actors playing his roles, such as Days of Wine and Roses.

"[11] Time magazine called Charly an "odd little movie about mental retardation and the dangers of all-conquering science, done with a dash of whimsy."

While "the historic sights in and around Charly's Boston setting have never been more lovingly filmed", "The impact of [Robertson's] performance...is lessened by Producer-Director Ralph Nelson's determination to prove that he learned how to be new and now at Expo '67: almost every other sequence is done in split screens, multiple images, still shots or slow motion.

"[14] Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, writing "The relationship between Charly (Cliff Robertson) and the girl (Claire Bloom) is handled delicately and well.

"[17] In the late 1970s, following a period of extended unemployment after having alerted authorities to illegal activities committed by Columbia Pictures president David Begelman, Robertson wrote and attempted to produce Charly II, to no avail.