The story of three anguished women waiting fir their men to return from North Vietnam prison camp provides Kate Jackson, Katherine Justice and Kathleen Nolan highly dramatic emotional roles in the Mark Robson production from The Filmmaker Group, “Limbo.”
“It’s a universal love story,” says director Robson. “We hear of thousands of American wives who are real-life contemporaries, leading lives of a personal limbo passing dread hours in painful introspection.”
In the desperate lives led by three women without husbands is mirrored the tragedy of thousands of American wives whose men are prisoners of war or missing-in-action servicemen.
Mary Kaye Buell (KATHLEEN NOLAN) is 35 years old, with an ascorbic sense of humor, four children, and a husband who has been a POW in Vietnam for seven years.
Sandy Lawton (KATE JACKSON), a pert, brown-eyed girl of 20, was married to Lt. Roy Lawton for two weeks before he was shipped to combat duty.
Sharon Dornbeck (KATHERINE JUSTICE), 26, blue-eyed, red-haired and once a Homecoming Queen of a southern university, is married to a third generation Air Force man. She lives in the private fantasy that her missing-in-action husband is still alive, through she has been told not to count on it.

These are the three women in limbo. Sharon cannot cope with a lost life. Sandy finds carnal love more real than a society-knotted, two week marriage. Mary goes past seven hell-ridden years in her wait for the husband who fathered her four children. To pass the time, Sandy returns to college and meets young Alan Webber (RUSSELL WIGGINS), who cares enough about her to want to marry her. Sandy rebuffs him. Jane York (HAZEL MEDINA), a black MIA wife, invites her to join her on a trip to Paris to speak with the North Vietnamese delegation about their husbands. Sandy and Sharon join Jane on the trek. The trip is a traumatic experience for the women. Instead of information, they are given propaganda. When she returns, Sandy moves in with Alan. Word arrives that Mary’s husband is dead. And Sandy’s husband returns. The story is frozen in times as Roy, exiting the plane, looks at Sandy, who reaches her arms out into the space that lies between them.
MARK ROBSON’S “LIMBO,” TIMELY STORY FROM TODAY’S HEADLINES
Mark Robson’s production for Universal, “Limbo” comes to the Theatres. Photographed in Technicolor, the Filmmakers Group picture stars Kate Jackson, Katherine Justice, Stuart Margolin, Hazel Medina, Karhleen Nolan and Russell Wiggins.
It is based on a story by Joan Silver and a novel by her and Linda Gottlieb which was selected by the Literary Guild as its February, 1972 offering to its members. Miss Silvers wrote the screenplay in collaboration with James Bridges, and Miss Gottlieb produced. The screen story follows the novel with fidelity in its examination of the desperate lives of three women who wait day after day for word of their husbands. 
Robson, who directed, was attracted to the property for its dramatic content and contemporary significance. A distinguished director-producer, he has among his credits such successful and critically acclaimed films as “The Bridges at Toko Ri,” “The Harder They Fall,” “Peyton Place,” “Nine Hours To Rama,” “Von Ryan’s Express,” and two classics from Stanley Kramer’s producing company – “Champion” and “Home of the Brave”.
Miss Nolan, cast as a 35-year-old wife and mother whose husband has been a POW for seven years, brings dedication and skill to her first dramatic role in a major motion picture. Established as a deft comedienne for her role of Kate McCoy in television’s “The Real McCoys,” she has appeared in more than 800 TV shows.

The important starring role of a young woman who was married to an officer for two weeks before he was shipped to combat duty, went to strikingly beautiful Kate Jackson. A new screen personality, she is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
The Sharon Dornbeck of the popular novel is brought to life on the screen by Miss Justice. As the wife who lives in a private fantasy world in which she wills her husband to be alive, the red-haired actress has appeared importantly in “Five Card Stud,” “The Stepmother,” “The Way West” and “The Impulsion.”
Miss Medina, who plays the tragic Jane York, has been seen in “Uptight,” “The Dealer,” “Women In Chains,” “Watermelon Man,” “The Christian Licorice Store” and “The Grasshopper.”
Shot entirely in Florida, a section of the OpaLocka Air Field was reconstructed to resemble the fictional Chester Air Force Base. Other sequences were filmed at El Portal, a famous bird sanctuary; the Dade County Court House, which served as a Congressional hearing room; and Key Biscayne. Interiors were filmed at Ivan Tors Studio in Miami.
“Limbo” is rated “PG – Parental Guidance Suggested. Some material may not be suitable for pre-teenagers.”
Mark Robson’s production “Limbo,” the first motion picture to deal with American women whose men are prisoners of war or are listed as missing-in-action.. The Universal picture from The Filmmakers Group stars Kate Jackson, Katherine Justice, Stuart Margolin, Hazel Medina, Kathleen Nolan and Russell Wiggins.
“Limbo” was directed by Robson in Technicolor and produced by Linda Gottlieb from a screenplay by Joan Silver and James Bridges based on a story by Miss Silver.

Women’s liberation, motion picture division, take note! The Mark Robson production, “Limbo,” introduces the first original music to be created and conducted by a woman in a major motion picture. Composer Anita Kerr is the tradition shatterer. Miss Kerr comes to the assignment with a background encompassing every phase of music. She has been a successful vocalist, instrumentalist, arranger, composer, and has produced record albums and commercials.

Speaking of herself as an actress, Kathleen Nolan says there are a hundred or more women inside her. One of them has emerged in the character of the 35-year-old wife of a prisoner-of-war in “Limbo,” Mark Robson’s production from The Filmmaker Group for Universal.
The Technicolor feature marks a complete change-over in performance for Kathleen who has made more than 80 guest star appearances on television, and has appeared on the legitimate stage.
“I’ve portrayed every sort of woman from every walk of life and I feel almost ‘faceless’ as the result,” she says. “Each characterization brought a new challenge. That’s why I speak of the thousands of women in my being all crowding to get out. Eventually they will.”

Most young Hollywood stars don’t know what to do with themselves between pictures. Russell Wiggins can tell them! He attends the nearest college in San Fernando Valley, where he is enrolled in the Theatre department, takes a course in Shakespeare, and appears in campus productions of The Bard’s works.
“Shakespeare is where it’s at for the actor who wants to learn his craft,” Wiggins says. “I discovered this while I was with the New York Shakespeare festival. Speak the master’s words well, and you’re developing your voice and clarifying your diction.”
Wiggins, a Vietnam veteran turned actor, makes his motion pictures debut in the Mark Robson production from The Filmmakers Group, “Limbo.” The Universal picture was photographed in Technicolor.

Mark Robson’s “Limbo,” was filmed entirely in Florida where the dramatic story of three wives of Vietnam prisoners-of-war takes place. A section of the OpoLocka Air Field was reconstructed to resemble the fictional Chester Air Force Base. Other sequences were filmed in Technicolor at El Portal, a famous Florida bird sanctuary; the Dade Country Court House, which served as the interior of Washington, D.C.’s Rayburn Building Hearing Room, and Key Biscayne. Interiors were filmed at the Ivan Tors Studio in Miami.
BURNING, CURRENT HUMAN ISSUE EXAMINED IN ROBSON’S “LIMBO”
Director Mark Robson describes “Limbo,” as “honest in dramatic concept because it concerns a burning human issue in the affairs of today’s catastrophic world, so painfully true as almost to have been photographed from life, and the most intimate and personal thing I’ve ever done.”
These are definitive words from the veteran filmmaker, whose track record includes such memorables as “Champion,” “Home of the Brave,” “The Bridges at Toko-Ri,” and “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.”
“Limbo” depicts the excruciating emotions of wives of American prisoners-of-war in North Vietnam, and the loneliness and frustration of endless hours spent waiting and wondering.
“This is a picture of war from the woman’s point of view,” Robson says. “There are thousands of prisoners-of-war and missing-in-action wives in this country existing under the thrall of unbearable suspense, desperately anticipating some kind of breakthrough and the ending of their agony.
“My associates and I talked to hundreds of these women and heard first-hand accounts of their vigil. We had no need of any further dramatization of material.”
The film concentrates on three such wives living near a Florida air base awaiting the homecoming of their absent mates. Playing the role are a trio of relative newcomers to films; Kate Jackson, Katherine Justice and Kathleen Nolan who hail from the stage and television.
The screenplay was written by Joan Silver and James Bridges from a story by Miss Silver. Linda Gottlieb produced. Limbo (Also Known As "Chained to Yesterday" and  "Women in Limbo") has not been released on VHS nor in DVD yet.