Charly is a 1968 film which tells the story of a mentally retarded man, working at a bakery, who becomes a subject of an experiment to increase his mental capacity. As he reaches genius level, he realizes that the treatment is temporary, and that he will soon revert to his previous mental ability. It stars Cliff Robertson, Claire Bloom, Lilia Skala, Leon Janney and Dick Van Patten.

The movie was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It was directed by Ralph Nelson.

Cliff Robertson won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his work in this movie.

Robertson had appeared in many television versions of screenplays that had gone on to be made into movies starring other actors (most notably Days of Wine and Roses, which had starred Jack Lemmon). So, when he saw a television version of Flowers for Algernon, he bought the rights so that he would be sure to make the movie.

Flowers for Algernon was made into a 2000 television movie starring Matthew Modine, Kelli Williams, Bonnie Bedelia and Ron Rifkin. It was adapted by John Pielmeier and directed by Jeff Bleckner .

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