When husband Nick Chaney and his wife Jan, somewhat staid and socially stifled, move into an old apartment house in San Francisco, they uncover a message under layers of wallpaper left by a previous tenant ("Maxie Malone lived here! Read it, and weep!").
The crazy landlady from upstairs is overwhelmed when she sees the message and tells them about an actress, Maxie Malone, who lived there in the 1920s. Maxie was a brash, young party girl who died in a car crash the morning before her big audition for a Hollywood studio.
Her only movie legacy, mere minutes on film, is dug up by Nick who watches it with Jan, who goes to bed right afterwards. Nick is also headed to bed, but he is stopped by a voice which tells him to play the piece again. He thinks that it is Jan at first, but the voice materializes partially in front of him as Maxie and he plays the piece again for her. Then Maxie disappears and Nick goes to bed, dismissing the incident as a psychotic episode.
The next day at work, Nick's boss (who has romantic designs on him) invites him and Jan to a party. Jan is nervous about the high society bash when Nick agrees to attend, but Maxie (who has inserted her soul into Jan's body) behaves rather differently from Jan. "Jan" gets drunk, dances seductively, and sings a vamp version of "Bye Bye Blackbird" draped over the piano, flirting with every male there. Drunk, Maxie and Nick break into an amusement park and make out on a merry-go-round, only to be caught by a policeman, who lets them go after Nick makes up an excuse.
Somehow this otherworldly possession must end, so that Jan can resume her own life. The solution lies in an audition for the lead in a new film production of Cleopatra. Paired with actor Harry Hamlin (as himself), "Jan" dazzles everyone when Maxie takes over the role. A successful actress at last, Maxie moves on in the afterlife. She leaves Jan freer and happier, comfortable in expressing her own sexuality, thanks to sharing Maxie's irrepressible feminine spirit.
The novel was published in 1973. (It was later adapted into a 1997 musical, Maddie.)[3]
In 1978 film rights were in the control of Meredith MacRae who wanted to produce a feature version.[4] By the end of the decade film rights were in the hands of Paul Aaron who spent six years developing it.[5]
Filming began in October 1984 under the title Free Spirit. Location work took place in San Francisco.[6]
Glenn Close and Mandy Patinkin were both coming off Broadway successes when they made the film (The Real Thing and Sunday in the Park with George). "This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do," said Close.[2]
The surviving film clip of Maxie is that of Carole Lombard from The Campus Vamp (1928). The ending of the film differs from the novel where the audition was of a nude scene; the film changes this to a scene similar to one in Cleopatra (1963) where Jan wears a metal snake brassiere in homage to Theda Bara in the 1917 version of the film.[7]
Awards
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, USA
1986, Glenn Close was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress
1986, Ruth Gordon was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival
1986, Paul Aaron won the Silver Raven
Fantasporto
1987, Maxie was nominated for the Best Film Award International Fantasy Film Award for Best Film
Critical response
Critic Roger Ebert, in a review dated September 27, 1985, wrote, "...if Maxie had any brains, she would appear in Jan's body, take one look at the script, and decide she was better off dead."[8]
^"Mullavay, Macrae househunting here". The Honolulu Advertiser. 18 December 1978. p. 18.
^"The lively world". The Berkshire Eagle. 24 September 1985. p. 18.
^"Free Spirit begins filming". The Daily Herald. 25 October 1984. p. 28.
^Gregory N., Daugherty (2013). "Glenn Close Channels Theda Bara in Maxie (1985): A Chapter in the Social History of the Snake Bra". In Cyrino, Monica S. (ed.). Screening Love and Sex in the Ancient World. New York City: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 183–94. ISBN978-1-137-29959-8.
