In 1936, Daisy Clover is a tomboy living with her eccentric mother in a ramshackle trailer in the seaside town of Angel Beach. Wishing to become an actress, Daisy submits a recorded song to studio owner Raymond Swan.
Swan signs her to a contract for five years and arranges to commit her mother to a mental institution. Daisy meets and spends time with fellow actor Wade Lewis, but Raymond fears that the romance will interrupt Daisy's career. Wade asks Daisy to marry him and the ceremony is held at Raymond's house. During the honeymoon, Wade disappears and leaves Daisy in Arizona. When Daisy returns to California, Raymond's intoxicated wife Melora reveals that she had an affair with Wade, who is bisexual. Raymond confirms Wade's secret life to Daisy and begins an affair with her.
Daisy removes her mother from the institution to a house on the beach. When her mother unexpectedly dies, Daisy suffers a nervous breakdown. Unable to work, she spends her days at home under the care of a private nurse. Impatient with Daisy's long recovery, Raymond angrily asserts that she must finish her contract and pending film. After Raymond and the nurse leave the house, Daisy attempts suicide, only to be foiled by constant interruptions.
Daisy decides to leave everything behind. Before departing the beach house, she sets the oven's gas to full power and the house explodes behind her as she walks along the beach. When a passing fisherman asks her what has happened. Daisy replies, “Someone declared war.”
Upon its release, the film was a box office and critical failure.[2][3][4] However, the film later gained a cult following when it was shown on television and released on home video.[5]
The New York World-Telegram and The Sun found much to criticize: "[The film] conducts a spectacular travesty of some of Hollywood's preposterously lush nooks without stirring any notable amount of mirth. And it follows Hollywood's predatory smothering of an impulsive, endearing Cinderella without stirring much sentiment or sympathy... Oh! This pathetic innocent is hurt, hurt, hurt but no one cares, cares, cares so long as her picture is finished and rolls in dough, dough, dough... The makers of the picture do not care to make themselves altogether clear but there are hints of the depravity of its Hollywood in fleeting insinuations of dope and homosexuality. The orgies of sex and liquor are much more explicitly presented... [Natalie Wood] seems about to become the movie's biggest dubbing job since Rita Hayworth made her long series of musicals, coming equipped with a different voice for nearly every picture."[6]
Redford reportedly insisted that his character, gay in the original novel, have some interest in women. Warner Bros., fearful of the potential controversy, insisted that the film only acknowledge the character's bisexuality through brief and oblique lines of dialogue.[7]
The house that was destroyed at the climax of the film was once owned by actress Barbara La Marr.[8]
Wood's vocal recordings, completed for other songs, were unused and unheard on commercial recordings until the Film Score Monthly CD #187 was released in April 2009.
