Lovin' Molly is a 1974 American drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Anthony Perkins, Beau Bridges, Blythe Danner in the title role, Ed Binns, and Susan Sarandon.

Over a span of nearly 40 years, Gid and Johnny, a pair of Texas farm boys, compete for the affections of Molly Taylor, a free spirit who cares for both of them.

Despite their frequent feud and arguments, Gid and Johnny's friendship never ends during their excursions and errands for Molly's father to sell and buy cattle for the family farm.

Wanting out of the place, Johnny takes Gid away from the hospital for a few days to visit Molly who is still living at her father's farm and is contemplating selling it.

In March 1966 The Los Angeles Times reported the film rights to Leaving Cheyenne, McMurtry's second novel, were purchased by Warner Bros for producer William Conrad, with Larry Marcus to write the script.

Great plan, and it almost worked ...Female star Blythe Danner started rehearsing for the movie twelve days after having given birth to her daughter Gwyneth Paltrow.

Lumet directed this film during a span when his Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon, Network and Equus were nominated for a combined 27 Academy Awards.

[12]McMurtry felt Lumet's "indifference to locale was so total that one is sorry he was put to the anguish of uprooting himself from home and hearth for even the few short weeks he could bring himself to stay in Texas.

"[14] Variety called the film "a misguided, heavy-handed attempt to span 40 years in the lives of three Texas rustics and their bizarre but homey menage a trois.

"[15] Kevin Thomas of The Los Angeles Times wrote, "Perkins is expressive and incisive in one of the richest roles he's ever had" but felt the film "leaves one with the impression that we'd be better off having read McMurtry's book.

"[16] Sight and Sound wrote, "Imagine Jules and Jim transplanted to rural Texas, with destructive Catherine replaced by constructive Molly, and you arrive at the thematic basis of this adaptation...

Unlikely as it sounds, Anthony Perkins, Beau Bridges and Blythe Danner as the lovable trio come dangerously close to making it work.

"[17] Jonathan Rosenbaum, in Monthly Film Bulletin, called the movie: A kind of rural Carnal Knowledge, with the lives of three characters split into discrete and isolated episodes from which the physical fact of their environment is virtually stripped away.

And yet... the film gets away with a lot more than one would have any right to expect... the cumulative impact of the three leads often persuades one to forget the quaint precocity of the material with which they are working.

[18]In a 1975 review of the film Hearts of the West Pauline Kael referred to Lovin' Molly which she called "crudely made, but there were suggestive spaces in it - you couldn’t tie it all up.

However, if you’re a Blythe Danner fan and consequently regret that she didn’t make it as a ticket-selling leading lady, this is the picture that proves she had the beauty and talent to have been a star if she’d been promoted properly.