A prequel to
Horton Foote's
1918, On Valentine's Day was filmed in 1984, then held back from release till 1986. On the titular day, Elizabeth Vaughn (
Hallie Foote, Horton's daughter) and Horace Robedeaux (William Converse-Roberts) elope. Horace stubbornly refuses to ask for financial assistant from his parents or in-laws, so the penniless couple is compelled to live in an inexpensive boarding house. Their fellow tenants are the usual assortment of eccentrics, including alcoholic Bobby Pate (
Richard Jenkins), spinster Miss Ruth (Carol Goodheart), heartbroken George Tyler (
Steven Hill) and garrulous young Bessie (Jeanne McCarthy). After several months of enduring the woes of the other boarders, Horace swallows his pride and agrees to allow father-in-law Michael Higgins to support him and Elizabeth. There's a reconciliation, but one tinged with the premonition that Horace and Elizabeth aren't out of the woods yet. Together with
Portrait of a Marriage (never released theatrically), On Valentine's Day and
1918 were later reedited and incorporated into a
Horton Foote TV trilogy on the PBS network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide