Looking for Mr. Goodbar

Looking for Mr. Goodbar is a 1977 American crime drama film, based on Judith Rossner's best-selling 1975 novel of the same name, which was inspired by the 1973 murder of New York City schoolteacher Roseann Quinn. The film was written and directed by Richard Brooks, and stars Diane Keaton, Tuesday Weld, William Atherton, Richard Kiley and Richard Gere. The film was a commercial success, earning $22.5 million, and garnered two Academy Award nominations: Best Supporting Actress for Weld and Best Cinematography for William A. Fraker. Plot Theresa Dunn (Diane Keaton), a young schoolteacher in Chicago, experiences her sexual awakening while searching for excitement outside her ordered life. While in college, she lives with her repressive Polish-Irish Catholic parents (Richard Kiley and Priscilla Pointer) and suffers from severe body image issues following a childhood surgery for scoliosis that left a large scar on her back. Theresa later finds out that her scoliosis is congenital, and that her aunt had the same condition and committed suicide. As a result, Theresa is reluctant to have children of her own. Meanwhile, Theresa's beautiful "perfect" older sister, Katherine (Tuesday Weld), has left her husband and embarked on a wild lifestyle involving multiple affairs, a secret abortion, recreational drug use, and a short-lived marriage to a Jewish man. Theresa finds first love and loses her virginity to her much older, and married, college professor, Martin (Alan Feinstein). He ends their affair just before her graduation, leaving Theresa feeling used and lonely.