A Tiger's Tale

A Tiger's Tale
A Tiger's Tale
	Theatrical poster
Directed by	Peter Douglas
Screenplay by	Peter Douglas
Based on	Love and Other Natural Disasters by; Allen Hannay III
Produced by	Don Goldman; Peter Douglas
Starring	Ann-Margret; C. Thomas Howell; Charles Durning; Kelly Preston
Cinematography	Tony Pierce-Roberts
Edited by	David Campling
Music by	Lee Holdridge, the Textones
Production; company	Vincent Pictures
Distributed by	Atlantic Releasing
Release date	12 February 1988;
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Box office	$89,000

A Tiger's Tale is a 1987 American comedy-drama film starring Ann-Margret and C. Thomas Howell, written and directed by Peter Douglas, based on the novel Love and Other Natural Disasters by Allen Hannay III.

Plot

Bubber Drumm is a Houston high school student. Rose Butts is an alcoholic, more than twice his age, and the mother of his girlfriend, Shirley. Bubber and Rose begin an affair after Bubber fixes Shirley up with his pal, Ransom McKnight.

Bubber and Rose carry on their affair under the nose of her daughter until everything comes out in the open at a drive-in movie theater. To get even with Bubber and Rose for "behaving badly", Shirley pricks a hole in Rose's diaphragm. Shirley goes on to live with her father and Bubber moves in with Rose along with his pet tiger. The diaphragm incident results in Rose getting pregnant with Bubber's baby. The couple must decide whether to keep the baby and continue their May/December romance or part ways.

Throughout the film, they end up in the small town of Fairchilds, Texas, and they go dancing at the Fairchild Hall.

Principal cast

Actor	Role
Ann-Margret	Rose Butts
C. Thomas Howell	Bubber Drumm
Charles Durning	Charlie Drumm
Kelly Preston	Shirley Butts
Ann Wedgeworth	Claudine
William Zabka	Randy
James Noble	Sinclair
Sean Patrick Flanery	Buddy

Music

The non-score music is by the Textones (Carla Olson, Phil Seymour, Joe Read, George Callins, Tom Jr Morgan).

Critical reception

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 out of 4 stars although he did like certain aspects of the film:^[2]

Some movies don't seem to know what they're really about, and A Tiger's Tale is one of them... What does work in the film, however, is the unlikely relationship between Howell and Ann-Margret... The movie is top-heavy with plot, and what's good in it gets lost in the confusion.
— Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

Janet Maslin of The New York Times:^[3]

A Tiger's Tale, which opens today at Loews 84th Street Six, is most notable for what it doesn't have: a heavy hand. The material has more than enough potential to become painfully silly, and Mr. Douglas's biggest accomplishment is making sure that doesn't happen.
— Janet Maslin, The New York Times