Butterflies Are Free

Butterflies Are Free (1972) is a tender comedy-drama by Milton Katselas, free to watch online on iFILM. Don Baker, blind since birth, finally moves out from under his overprotective mother and into a San Francisco apartment of his own.

On the other side of a thin wall lives Jill, a flighty aspiring actress who says exactly what she thinks. She doesn't coddle Don or pity him, and that's precisely why the two slide past neighborly into something more. He teaches her honesty; she shows him how to let go. Then his mother arrives, and the whole fragile thing wobbles. Goldie Hawn brings her early, effortless spark to Jill, with Edward Albert as Don.

Adapted from Leonard Gershe's Broadway play, it never hides its stage roots — most of it is two people, one room, and a lot of honest talk. Eileen Heckart took the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her turn as the mother. Old-fashioned warm without turning sticky, it suits anyone who loves intimate seventies dramas about the right to live on your own terms. Stream Butterflies Are Free (1972) online on iFILM.