Petulia

Archie Bollen (George C. Scott) is a bored, middle-aged surgeon trying to to adjust to single life after a lengthy marriage. He feels guilty about having recently walked out on his wife Polo (Shirley Knight) and their two sons. Archie is a bit jealous of Warren (Roger Bowen) a man Polo wants to marry. At a party, Archie meets a screwed-up young married woman name Petulia (Julie Christie), who convinces him to have an affair with her. Although she changed her mind about having sex with him that night, she tells Archie that in time she will marry him. Archie and Petulia do have an intense affair, although very little time is spend in bed. He is fascinated by her unpredictability and feels she has pumped new life into him; he cannot stop thinking about her. Unbeknowst to Archie, Petulia had planned to "accidentally" met him. She had seen him perform a successful operation on Oliver, a young Mexican boy for whom she secretly provides fore. Petulia loves Archie because of gentile surgeon's hands. Petulia's husband David (Richard Chamberlain) once had gentle hands also. But since they got married six month earlier, he has taken to beating her up. David has become abusive to Petulia because she has refused to attempt lovemaking with him since he was impotent on their wedding night. David orders Petulia to throw Oliver out of their house, screaming at her: "He's not mine!" When David finds Petulia in Archie's apartment, he brutally beats her. Archie, returning home from work, finds the badly injured Petulia, bloody and broken. He takes her to the hospital and watches over her during her long recovery. One day, Archie is horrified to find that she has checked out of the hospital and gone home with David. Archie goes to their mansion to confront them, but Petulia will not leave with him. Angry and worried about Petulia's welfare, Archie charges off. That night, David promises Petulia that he will never beat her again. Tearlfully, he asks her not to expect too much of him, as she did when she married him. Petulia comfort David. Nine month later... Polo has married Warren. Petulia is pregnant and about to have David's baby. In the hospital, Archie asks Petulia to come away with him. She says she will, but as she expected, he changes his mind (apparently seeing that she will never leave her husband). Archie leaves the hospital just as the flower-carrying David enters. In the final scene, as another doctor's gentile had touches her face, she asks hopefully, "Archie?" She looks up but it is a different doctor with a surgical mask covering his face. Petulia is put to sleep for the delivery.