Starring: Cher, Karen Black, Kathy Bates, Sandy Dennis

Based on the play by Ed Graczyk (also directed by Robert Altman), Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean is an inventive low budget American classic that reveals the hidden secrets, regrets, and obsessions of women who are reunited after twenty years. Centering around their passion for Jimmy Dean, they meet at a Woolworth’s five and dime just down the road from where Giant was filmed as they promised to do decades before. There’s Mona (Sandy Dennis) who claims to have given birth to James Dean’s child after being an extra on Giant, Sissy (Cher in her breakout dramatic performance) who is a snappy waitress unaware of her sex appeal, and Joanne (Karen Black) who has the most shocking revelation of all. Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean contains a feminist-driven narrative that addresses patriarchy and the changing dynamic of women’s roles during this time period.

Filmed on Super-16 color and then transferred to 35mm, Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean is a theatrical production. The past and present of these women’s lives are represented through the two-way mirror that punctuates the space; one side features them young and naive while the other side shows the present-day unfoldings. This meant that the actors had to precisely navigate that space to render this doubling while viewers must also be agile in processing what happens on screen.