The Sterile Cuckoo

Pookie Adams (Liza Minnelli) and Jerry Payne (Wendell Burton) meet while traveling by bus to their respective colleges in upstate New York. The outspoken behavior of Pookie overwhelms the reserved Jerry, and he is relieved when she departs. No sooner has Jerry settled down to sharing a dormitory room with the athletic, beer-drinking Charlie Shumacher (Tim McIntire), than Pookie arrives in a dilapidated old car and announces that she has come to visit him for the weekend. Shocked by her brashness, but unable to ask her to leave, Jerry finds Pookie accommodations at a boardinghouse and devotes all of his time to her. Before long, Jerry is visiting Pookie at her school seventy miles away; and, as friendship turns to romance, they awkwardly and nervously make love in a motel cabin. Trouble erupts when Jerry accepts Charlie's offer to spend Christmas skiing at his parents' mountain cabin. Offended by this, Pookie tells Jerry that she is pregnant. Alarmed at the news, Jerry asks Pookie to marry him, but she refuses. After Christmas, Pookie tells him that the baby "went away." When Jerry takes her to a college party, she gets drunk and insults all the students. Later, Jerry telephones Pookie, and she is contrite, but he announces that he will be staying at school over the Easter vacation to study. Tearfully pleading that she will be quiet if Jerry lets her stay with him, Pookie wins his consent. Cookie and Jerry's week together at Jerry's dorm is sometimes fun and loving, but mostly strained. As a result, Jerry decides that they should not see each other for a few weeks. When he finally calls her, he learns that she has left college. Sometime later, Jerry finds Pookie, alone and subdued, staying at the boardinghouse. Jerry suggests to Pookie that she return home to visit her father. Reluctantly, Pookie says goodbye and leaves.