Up the Sandbox is a 1972 American comedy-drama film directed by Irvin Kershner and starring Barbra Streisand. Paul Zindel's screenplay, based on the novel by Anne Roiphe, focuses on Margaret Reynolds, a bored, young wife and mother who slips into increasingly bizarre fantasies. The cast includes David Selby, Paul Benedict, George S. Irving, Conrad Bain, Isabel Sanford, Lois Smith, Jacobo Morales playing a character who closely resembles Fidel Castro, and Stockard Channing in her film debut. Plot Margaret Reynolds, a young wife and mother of two, severely bored with her day-to-day life in New York City and neglected by her husband Paul (David Selby), discovers that she is pregnant again. She does not tell her husband at first, and instead she finds refuge in her outrageous fantasies: being sexually pursued by a Central American dictator modeled on Fidel Castro, imagined confrontations with her husband and mother, an anthropological visit to an African tribe that promises a ritual of pain-free childbirth, and a terrorist mission to plant explosives in the Statue of Liberty. After one final fantasy of first visiting and then fleeing an abortion clinic, Margaret finally tells Paul about the pregnancy and then leaves in a taxi to enjoy a day without parenting responsibilities. Cast Barbra Streisand as Margaret Reynolds David Selby as Paul Reynolds Ariane Heller as Elizabeth Reynolds Jane Hoffman as Mrs. Koerner John C. Becher as Mr. Koerner Jacobo Morales as Fidel Castro Paul Benedict as Dr. Beineke George S. Irving as Dr. Keglin Conrad Bain as Dr. Gordon Isabel Sanford as Maria Paul Dooley as Statue of Liberty Guard Anne Ramsey as Battleaxe Lois Smith as Elinore Lee Chamberlin as Jan Jennifer Darling as Joanne Marilyn Coleman as Rose White Stockard Channing (uncredited) as Judy Stanley Production Director Irvin Kershner reportedly told Barbra Streisand's biographer James Spada that he was originally unhappy with the script and that he was advised not to express his dissatisfaction to Streisand. Several days into filming, when Streisand went to Kershner and asked him why they were having so much trouble, he told her that they had started shooting with a weak script. Kershner said "Your people warned me not to tell you." Streisand said "That's ridiculous! If a script isn't good enough, let's work to improve it." Kershner originally planned to shoot on a backlot at MGM. When Streisand convinced him it would be better for the film to