Movie-A-Day #28: To Kill a Clown (1972).

Due in large part to his role as Hawkeye Pierce in “M*A*S*H,” today’s birthday boy Alan Alda has become something of a poster child for 1970s-style sensitive white liberalism. So be prepared for some cognitive dissonance while watching “To Kill a Clown,” in which Alda plays a conservative, militaristic psychopath who terrorizes a young hippie couple, played by Blythe Danner (Gwenyth Paltrow’s mom) and Heath Lamberts. Not only was this Danner’s film debut, but it was also Alda’s last pre-TV megastar role – it opened less than a month before “M*A*S*H” aired for the first time.