A lovely gesture - a bouquet of roses - from husband to wife becomes the catalyst for a clash of long-repressed emotion in the movie adaptation of the Tony - and Pulitzer Prize®-winning stage hit The Subject Was Roses. Martin Sheen, as the son home from war, and Jack Albertson, Academy Award winner* as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the distant father, both appeared in the Broadway version, where Albertson had already captured a Tony? Award for his powerful work. Patricia Neal plays the third side of the family triangle in a moving performance that earned her a Best Actress Oscar® nomination* and marked her triumphant return to the screen after a debilitating series of strokes.

John Cleary (Jack Albertson) returns from the war to find his parents occupying a cold, unloving home. John confronts his parents in ways both combative and eventually loving in Ulu Grosbard's screen version of Frank D. Gilroy's adaptation of his own Pultitzer Prize winning play. Albertson won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and Patricia Neal was nominated for her emotional performance as the matriarch.