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Welcome to Our Generation USA!
Below, we cover the Most Popular Movies of the
1960s (1960-1969)
that were not a Prequel or Sequel as covered under the Separate Web Page
"Popular Movie Franchises"
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
YouTube Video from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: Jumping from a cliff
Pictured: LEFT: Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) giving Etta Place (Katharine Ross) a Ride on a Bicycle; RIGHT: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) hiding from the six-man team of lawmen pursuing Butch and Sundance.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman (who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film).
Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman), and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the "Sundance Kid" (Robert Redford), who are on the run from a crack US posse after a string of train robberies.
The pair and Sundance's lover, Etta Place (Katharine Ross), flee to Bolivia in search of a more successful criminal career, where they meet their end.
In 2003, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The American Film Institute ranked Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as the 49th-greatest American film on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list.
Plot:
In late 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy is the affable, clever, talkative leader of the outlaw Hole in the Wall Gang. His closest companion is the laconic dead-shot "Sundance Kid". The two return to their hideout at Hole-in-the-Wall (Wyoming) to discover that the rest of the gang, irked at Butch's long absences, have selected Harvey Logan as their new leader.
Harvey challenges Butch to a knife fight over the gang's leadership. Butch defeats him using trickery, but embraces Harvey's idea to rob the Union Pacific Overland Flyer train on both its eastward and westward runs, agreeing that the second robbery would be unexpected and likely reap even more money than the first.
The first robbery goes well. To celebrate, Butch and Sundance visit a favorite brothel in a nearby town and watch, amused, as the town sheriff unsuccessfully attempts to organize a posse to track down the gang. They then visit Sundance's lover, schoolteacher Etta Place.
On the second train robbery, Butch uses too much dynamite to blow open the safe, blowing up the baggage car. As the gang scrambles to gather up the money, a second train arrives carrying a six-man team of lawmen pursuing Butch and Sundance, who unsuccessfully try to hide out in the brothel and to seek amnesty from the friendly Sheriff Bledsoe by enlisting in the army.
As the posse remains in pursuit, despite all attempts to elude them, Butch and Sundance determine that the group includes renowned Indian tracker "Lord Baltimore" and relentless lawman Joe Lefors, recognizable by his white skimmer. Butch and Sundance finally elude their pursuers by jumping from a cliff into a river far below. They learn from Etta that the posse has been paid by Union Pacific head E. H. Harriman to remain on their trail until Butch and Sundance are both killed.
Butch convinces Sundance and Etta that the three should escape to Bolivia, which Butch envisions as a robber's paradise. On their arrival there, Sundance is dismayed by the living conditions and regards the country with contempt, but Butch remains optimistic. They discover that they know too little Spanish to pull off a bank robbery, so Etta attempts to teach them the language.
With her as an accomplice, they become successful bank robbers known as Los Bandidos Yanquis. However, their confidence drops when they see a man wearing a white hat (the signature of determined lawman Lefors) and fear that Harriman's posse is still after them.
Butch suggests "going straight", and he and Sundance land their first honest job as payroll guards for a mining company. However, they are ambushed by local bandits on their first run and their boss, Percy Garris, is killed. Butch and Sundance ambush and kill the bandits, the first time Butch has ever shot someone.
Etta recommends farming or ranching as other lines of work, but they conclude the straight life isn't for them. Sensing they will be killed if they return to robbery, Etta decides to go back to the United States.
Butch and Sundance steal a payroll and the mules carrying it, and arrive in a small town. A boy recognizes the mules' brand and alerts the local police, leading to a gunfight with the outlaws. They take cover in a building but are both seriously wounded, after Butch makes a futile attempt to run to the mules in order to bring more ammunition, while Sundance provides cover fire.
As dozens of Bolivian soldiers surround the area, Butch suggests the duo's next destination should be Australia. They charge out of the building guns blazing, directly into a firing squad as the image freezes to the sound of dozens of muskets firing repeatedly.
Click here for more about the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman), and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the "Sundance Kid" (Robert Redford), who are on the run from a crack US posse after a string of train robberies.
The pair and Sundance's lover, Etta Place (Katharine Ross), flee to Bolivia in search of a more successful criminal career, where they meet their end.
In 2003, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The American Film Institute ranked Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as the 49th-greatest American film on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list.
Plot:
In late 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy is the affable, clever, talkative leader of the outlaw Hole in the Wall Gang. His closest companion is the laconic dead-shot "Sundance Kid". The two return to their hideout at Hole-in-the-Wall (Wyoming) to discover that the rest of the gang, irked at Butch's long absences, have selected Harvey Logan as their new leader.
Harvey challenges Butch to a knife fight over the gang's leadership. Butch defeats him using trickery, but embraces Harvey's idea to rob the Union Pacific Overland Flyer train on both its eastward and westward runs, agreeing that the second robbery would be unexpected and likely reap even more money than the first.
The first robbery goes well. To celebrate, Butch and Sundance visit a favorite brothel in a nearby town and watch, amused, as the town sheriff unsuccessfully attempts to organize a posse to track down the gang. They then visit Sundance's lover, schoolteacher Etta Place.
On the second train robbery, Butch uses too much dynamite to blow open the safe, blowing up the baggage car. As the gang scrambles to gather up the money, a second train arrives carrying a six-man team of lawmen pursuing Butch and Sundance, who unsuccessfully try to hide out in the brothel and to seek amnesty from the friendly Sheriff Bledsoe by enlisting in the army.
As the posse remains in pursuit, despite all attempts to elude them, Butch and Sundance determine that the group includes renowned Indian tracker "Lord Baltimore" and relentless lawman Joe Lefors, recognizable by his white skimmer. Butch and Sundance finally elude their pursuers by jumping from a cliff into a river far below. They learn from Etta that the posse has been paid by Union Pacific head E. H. Harriman to remain on their trail until Butch and Sundance are both killed.
Butch convinces Sundance and Etta that the three should escape to Bolivia, which Butch envisions as a robber's paradise. On their arrival there, Sundance is dismayed by the living conditions and regards the country with contempt, but Butch remains optimistic. They discover that they know too little Spanish to pull off a bank robbery, so Etta attempts to teach them the language.
With her as an accomplice, they become successful bank robbers known as Los Bandidos Yanquis. However, their confidence drops when they see a man wearing a white hat (the signature of determined lawman Lefors) and fear that Harriman's posse is still after them.
Butch suggests "going straight", and he and Sundance land their first honest job as payroll guards for a mining company. However, they are ambushed by local bandits on their first run and their boss, Percy Garris, is killed. Butch and Sundance ambush and kill the bandits, the first time Butch has ever shot someone.
Etta recommends farming or ranching as other lines of work, but they conclude the straight life isn't for them. Sensing they will be killed if they return to robbery, Etta decides to go back to the United States.
Butch and Sundance steal a payroll and the mules carrying it, and arrive in a small town. A boy recognizes the mules' brand and alerts the local police, leading to a gunfight with the outlaws. They take cover in a building but are both seriously wounded, after Butch makes a futile attempt to run to the mules in order to bring more ammunition, while Sundance provides cover fire.
As dozens of Bolivian soldiers surround the area, Butch suggests the duo's next destination should be Australia. They charge out of the building guns blazing, directly into a firing squad as the image freezes to the sound of dozens of muskets firing repeatedly.
Click here for more about the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Cleopatra is a 1963 American epic historical drama film chronicling the struggles of Cleopatra VII, the young Queen of Egypt, to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome. It was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and shot in the 70 mm Todd-AO format, with a screenplay adapted by Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall, and Martin Landau.
Cleopatra achieved notoriety during its production for its massive cost overruns and production troubles, which included changes in director and cast, a change of filming locale, sets that had to be constructed twice, lack of a firm shooting script, and personal scandal around its co-stars. It was the most expensive film ever made up to that point and almost bankrupted 20th Century-Fox.
It received mixed reviews from critics, although critics and audiences alike generally praised Taylor and Burton's performances.
It was the highest grossing film of 1963, earning US$26 million ($57.7 million total; equivalent to $445.98 million in 2016), yet made a loss due to its production and marketing costs of $44 million (equivalent to $340.09 million in 2016), making it the only film ever to be the highest grossing film of the year yet to run at a loss. Cleopatra later won four Academy Awards, and was nominated for five more, including Best Picture (which it lost to Tom Jones).
Plot:
After the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) goes to Egypt, under the pretext of being named the executor of the will of the young Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII (Richard O'Sullivan) and his sister Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor)'s father.
Cleopatra convinces Caesar to restore her throne from her younger brother. Caesar, in effective control of the kingdom, sentences Pothinus (Gregoire Aslan) to death for arranging an assassination attempt on Cleopatra, and banishes Ptolemy to the eastern desert, where he and his outnumbered army would face certain death against Mithridates.
Cleopatra is crowned Queen of Egypt, and begins to develop megalomaniacal dreams of ruling the world with Caesar, who in turn desires to become King of Rome. They marry, and when their son Caesarion is born, Caesar accepts him publicly, which becomes the talk of Rome and the Senate.
After he is made dictator for life, Caesar sends for Cleopatra. She arrives in Rome in a lavish procession and wins the adulation of the Roman people. The Senate grows increasingly discontented amid rumors that Caesar wishes to be made king, which is anathema to the Romans.
On the Ides of March in 44 BC, a group of conspirators assassinate Caesar and flee the city, starting a rebellion. An alliance between Octavian, Caesar's adopted son, Mark Antony (Richard Burton), Caesar's right-hand man and general as well as Marcus Ameilius Lepidus put down the rebellion and split up the republic between themselves. Cleopatra is angered after Caesar's will recognizes Octavian instead of Caesarion as his official heir, and angrily returns to Egypt.
While planning a campaign against Parthia in the east, Antony realizes he needs money and supplies, and cannot get enough from anywhere but Egypt. After refusing several times to leave Egypt, Cleopatra gives in and meets him in Tarsus. The two begin a love affair, with Cleopatra assuring Antony that he is much more than a pale reflection of Caesar.
Octavian's removal of Lepidus forces Antony to return to Rome, where he marries Octavian's sister, Octavia, to prevent conflict, upsetting and enraging Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra reconcile and marry, with Antony divorcing Octavia. Octavian, incensed, reads Antony's will to the Roman senate, revealing that the latter wishes to be buried in Egypt.
Rome turns against Antony, and Octavian's call for war against Egypt receives a rapturous response.
The war is decided at the naval Battle of Actium on September 2, 31 BC, where Octavian's fleet, under the command of Agrippa, defeats the Antony-Egyptian fleet. Cleopatra assumes Antony is dead and orders the Egyptian forces home. Antony follows, leaving his fleet leaderless and soon defeated.
Several months later, Cleopatra manages to convince Antony to resume command of his troops and fight Octavian's advancing army. However, Antony's soldiers abandon him during the night; Rufio (Martin Landau), the last man loyal to Antony, kills himself. Antony tries to goad Octavian into single combat, but is finally forced to flee into the city.
When Antony returns to the palace, Apollodorus, not believing that Antony is worthy of his queen, convinces him that she is dead, whereupon Antony falls on his own sword.
Apollodorus then confesses that he misled Antony and assists him to the tomb where Cleopatra and two servants have taken refuge. Antony dies in Cleopatra's arms.
Octavian and his army march into Alexandria with Caesarion's dead body in a wagon. He discovers the dead body of Apollodorus, who had poisoned himself.
Octavian receives word that Antony is dead and Cleopatra is holed up in a tomb. There he offers her his word that he will allow her to rule Egypt as a Roman province in return for her agreeing to accompany him to Rome. Cleopatra knows her son is dead and agrees to Octavian's terms, including a pledge not to harm herself.
After Octavian departs, she orders her servants in coded language to assist with her suicide. Octavian realizes that she is going to kill herself and he and his guards burst into Cleopatra's chamber and find her dressed in gold, and dead, along with her servants, while an asp crawls along the floor.
Click here for more about the Movie "Cleopatra".
Cleopatra achieved notoriety during its production for its massive cost overruns and production troubles, which included changes in director and cast, a change of filming locale, sets that had to be constructed twice, lack of a firm shooting script, and personal scandal around its co-stars. It was the most expensive film ever made up to that point and almost bankrupted 20th Century-Fox.
It received mixed reviews from critics, although critics and audiences alike generally praised Taylor and Burton's performances.
It was the highest grossing film of 1963, earning US$26 million ($57.7 million total; equivalent to $445.98 million in 2016), yet made a loss due to its production and marketing costs of $44 million (equivalent to $340.09 million in 2016), making it the only film ever to be the highest grossing film of the year yet to run at a loss. Cleopatra later won four Academy Awards, and was nominated for five more, including Best Picture (which it lost to Tom Jones).
Plot:
After the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC, Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) goes to Egypt, under the pretext of being named the executor of the will of the young Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII (Richard O'Sullivan) and his sister Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor)'s father.
Cleopatra convinces Caesar to restore her throne from her younger brother. Caesar, in effective control of the kingdom, sentences Pothinus (Gregoire Aslan) to death for arranging an assassination attempt on Cleopatra, and banishes Ptolemy to the eastern desert, where he and his outnumbered army would face certain death against Mithridates.
Cleopatra is crowned Queen of Egypt, and begins to develop megalomaniacal dreams of ruling the world with Caesar, who in turn desires to become King of Rome. They marry, and when their son Caesarion is born, Caesar accepts him publicly, which becomes the talk of Rome and the Senate.
After he is made dictator for life, Caesar sends for Cleopatra. She arrives in Rome in a lavish procession and wins the adulation of the Roman people. The Senate grows increasingly discontented amid rumors that Caesar wishes to be made king, which is anathema to the Romans.
On the Ides of March in 44 BC, a group of conspirators assassinate Caesar and flee the city, starting a rebellion. An alliance between Octavian, Caesar's adopted son, Mark Antony (Richard Burton), Caesar's right-hand man and general as well as Marcus Ameilius Lepidus put down the rebellion and split up the republic between themselves. Cleopatra is angered after Caesar's will recognizes Octavian instead of Caesarion as his official heir, and angrily returns to Egypt.
While planning a campaign against Parthia in the east, Antony realizes he needs money and supplies, and cannot get enough from anywhere but Egypt. After refusing several times to leave Egypt, Cleopatra gives in and meets him in Tarsus. The two begin a love affair, with Cleopatra assuring Antony that he is much more than a pale reflection of Caesar.
Octavian's removal of Lepidus forces Antony to return to Rome, where he marries Octavian's sister, Octavia, to prevent conflict, upsetting and enraging Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra reconcile and marry, with Antony divorcing Octavia. Octavian, incensed, reads Antony's will to the Roman senate, revealing that the latter wishes to be buried in Egypt.
Rome turns against Antony, and Octavian's call for war against Egypt receives a rapturous response.
The war is decided at the naval Battle of Actium on September 2, 31 BC, where Octavian's fleet, under the command of Agrippa, defeats the Antony-Egyptian fleet. Cleopatra assumes Antony is dead and orders the Egyptian forces home. Antony follows, leaving his fleet leaderless and soon defeated.
Several months later, Cleopatra manages to convince Antony to resume command of his troops and fight Octavian's advancing army. However, Antony's soldiers abandon him during the night; Rufio (Martin Landau), the last man loyal to Antony, kills himself. Antony tries to goad Octavian into single combat, but is finally forced to flee into the city.
When Antony returns to the palace, Apollodorus, not believing that Antony is worthy of his queen, convinces him that she is dead, whereupon Antony falls on his own sword.
Apollodorus then confesses that he misled Antony and assists him to the tomb where Cleopatra and two servants have taken refuge. Antony dies in Cleopatra's arms.
Octavian and his army march into Alexandria with Caesarion's dead body in a wagon. He discovers the dead body of Apollodorus, who had poisoned himself.
Octavian receives word that Antony is dead and Cleopatra is holed up in a tomb. There he offers her his word that he will allow her to rule Egypt as a Roman province in return for her agreeing to accompany him to Rome. Cleopatra knows her son is dead and agrees to Octavian's terms, including a pledge not to harm herself.
After Octavian departs, she orders her servants in coded language to assist with her suicide. Octavian realizes that she is going to kill herself and he and his guards burst into Cleopatra's chamber and find her dressed in gold, and dead, along with her servants, while an asp crawls along the floor.
Click here for more about the Movie "Cleopatra".
The Endless Summer is a seminal 1966 surf movie.
"They call it The Endless Summer, the ultimate surfing adventure, crossing the globe in search of the perfect wave. From the uncharted waters of West Africa, to the shark-filled seas of Australia, to the tropical paradise of Tahiti and beyond, two California surfers, Robert August and Mike Hynson, accomplish in a few months what most people never get to do in a lifetime...they live their dream."
Filmmaker/narrator Bruce Brown follows two surfers, Mike Hynson and Robert August, on a surfing trip around the world. Despite the balmy climate of their native California, cold ocean currents make local beaches inhospitable during the winter.
They, with Rodney Sumpter and Nat Young, travel to the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Tahiti and Hawaii in a quest for new surf spots and introduce locals to the sport. Other important surfers of the time, such as Miki Dora, Phil Edwards and Butch Van Artsdalen, also appear.
Its title comes from the idea, expressed at both the beginning and end of the film, that if one had enough time and money it would be possible to follow the summer around the world, making it endless.
The concept of the film was born through the suggestion of a travel agent to Bruce Brown during the planning stages of the film. The travel agent suggested that the flight from Los Angeles to Cape Town, South Africa and back would cost $50 more than a trip circumnavigating the world. After which, Bruce came up with the idea of following the summer season by traveling around the world.
The narrative presentation eases from the stiff and formal documentary of the 1950s and early 1960s to a more casual and fun-loving personal style filled with sly humor. The surf rock soundtrack to the film was provided by The Sandals. The "Theme to the Endless Summer" was written by Gaston Georis and John Blakeley of the Sandals. It has become one of the best known film themes in the surf movie genre.
When the movie was first shown, it encouraged many surfers to go abroad, giving birth to the "surf-and-travel" culture, with prizes for finding "uncrowded surf", meeting new people and riding the perfect wave. It also introduced the sport, which had become popular outside of Hawaii and the Polynesian Islands in places like California and Australia, to a broader audience. In addition, it set the style for later surf-and-travel movies, including Momentum, (These Are) Better Days, and Thicker Than Water.
Click here for more about the Movie "The Endless Summer".
"They call it The Endless Summer, the ultimate surfing adventure, crossing the globe in search of the perfect wave. From the uncharted waters of West Africa, to the shark-filled seas of Australia, to the tropical paradise of Tahiti and beyond, two California surfers, Robert August and Mike Hynson, accomplish in a few months what most people never get to do in a lifetime...they live their dream."
Filmmaker/narrator Bruce Brown follows two surfers, Mike Hynson and Robert August, on a surfing trip around the world. Despite the balmy climate of their native California, cold ocean currents make local beaches inhospitable during the winter.
They, with Rodney Sumpter and Nat Young, travel to the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Tahiti and Hawaii in a quest for new surf spots and introduce locals to the sport. Other important surfers of the time, such as Miki Dora, Phil Edwards and Butch Van Artsdalen, also appear.
Its title comes from the idea, expressed at both the beginning and end of the film, that if one had enough time and money it would be possible to follow the summer around the world, making it endless.
The concept of the film was born through the suggestion of a travel agent to Bruce Brown during the planning stages of the film. The travel agent suggested that the flight from Los Angeles to Cape Town, South Africa and back would cost $50 more than a trip circumnavigating the world. After which, Bruce came up with the idea of following the summer season by traveling around the world.
The narrative presentation eases from the stiff and formal documentary of the 1950s and early 1960s to a more casual and fun-loving personal style filled with sly humor. The surf rock soundtrack to the film was provided by The Sandals. The "Theme to the Endless Summer" was written by Gaston Georis and John Blakeley of the Sandals. It has become one of the best known film themes in the surf movie genre.
When the movie was first shown, it encouraged many surfers to go abroad, giving birth to the "surf-and-travel" culture, with prizes for finding "uncrowded surf", meeting new people and riding the perfect wave. It also introduced the sport, which had become popular outside of Hawaii and the Polynesian Islands in places like California and Australia, to a broader audience. In addition, it set the style for later surf-and-travel movies, including Momentum, (These Are) Better Days, and Thicker Than Water.
Click here for more about the Movie "The Endless Summer".
Funny Girl (1968)
YouTube Video of Barbra Streisand singing "People" from Funny Girl
Pictured: Poster from Movie
YouTube Video of Barbra Streisand singing "People" from Funny Girl
Pictured: Poster from Movie
Funny Girl is a 1968 American biographical romantic musical comedy-drama film directed by William Wyler.
The screenplay by Isobel Lennart was adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same title. It is loosely based on the life and career of Broadway and film star and comedian Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein.
Produced by Brice's son-in-law, Ray Stark, with music and lyrics by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, the film stars Barbra Streisand (reprising her Broadway role) as Brice and Omar Sharif as Arnstein, with a supporting cast featuring Kay Medford, Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon, Lee Allen, and Mae Questel.
Streisand won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, tying with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter).
In 2006, the American Film Institute ranked the film #16 on its list commemorating AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals. Previously it had ranked the film #41 in its 2002 list of 100 Years ... 100 Passions, the songs "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade" at #13 and #46, respectively, in its 2004 list of 100 Years ... 100 Songs, and the line "Hello, gorgeous" at #81 in its 2005 list of 100 Years ... 100 Movie Quotes.
Funny Girl is considered one of the greatest musical films ever.
Plot:
Set in and around New York City just prior to and following World War I, the story opens with Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice awaiting the return of husband Nicky Arnstein from prison, and then moves into an extended flashback focusing on their meeting and marriage.
Fanny is first seen as a stage-struck teenager who gets her first job in vaudeville and meets the suave Arnstein following her debut performance. They continue to meet occasionally over the years, becoming more romantically involved as Fanny's career flourishes and she becomes a star. Arnstein eventually seduces Fanny, who decides to abandon the Follies to be with him.
After winning a fortune playing poker while traveling aboard the RMS Berengaria, Nicky agrees to marry Fanny. They move into an expensive house and have a daughter, and Fanny eventually returns to Ziegfeld and the Follies. Meanwhile, Nicky's various business ventures fail, forcing them to move into an apartment. Refusing financial support from his wife, he becomes involved in a bonds scam and is imprisoned for embezzlement for eighteen months.
Following Nicky's release from prison, he and Fanny agree to separate.
Click here for more about the Movie "Funny Girl".
The screenplay by Isobel Lennart was adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same title. It is loosely based on the life and career of Broadway and film star and comedian Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein.
Produced by Brice's son-in-law, Ray Stark, with music and lyrics by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, the film stars Barbra Streisand (reprising her Broadway role) as Brice and Omar Sharif as Arnstein, with a supporting cast featuring Kay Medford, Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon, Lee Allen, and Mae Questel.
Streisand won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, tying with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter).
In 2006, the American Film Institute ranked the film #16 on its list commemorating AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals. Previously it had ranked the film #41 in its 2002 list of 100 Years ... 100 Passions, the songs "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade" at #13 and #46, respectively, in its 2004 list of 100 Years ... 100 Songs, and the line "Hello, gorgeous" at #81 in its 2005 list of 100 Years ... 100 Movie Quotes.
Funny Girl is considered one of the greatest musical films ever.
Plot:
Set in and around New York City just prior to and following World War I, the story opens with Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice awaiting the return of husband Nicky Arnstein from prison, and then moves into an extended flashback focusing on their meeting and marriage.
Fanny is first seen as a stage-struck teenager who gets her first job in vaudeville and meets the suave Arnstein following her debut performance. They continue to meet occasionally over the years, becoming more romantically involved as Fanny's career flourishes and she becomes a star. Arnstein eventually seduces Fanny, who decides to abandon the Follies to be with him.
After winning a fortune playing poker while traveling aboard the RMS Berengaria, Nicky agrees to marry Fanny. They move into an expensive house and have a daughter, and Fanny eventually returns to Ziegfeld and the Follies. Meanwhile, Nicky's various business ventures fail, forcing them to move into an apartment. Refusing financial support from his wife, he becomes involved in a bonds scam and is imprisoned for embezzlement for eighteen months.
Following Nicky's release from prison, he and Fanny agree to separate.
Click here for more about the Movie "Funny Girl".
Easy Rider (1969)
YouTube Video EASY RIDER - Born To Be Wild / Steppenwolf (feat. Peter Fonda & Dennis Hopper) (1969)
Pictured: Left to Right: Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson
YouTube Video EASY RIDER - Born To Be Wild / Steppenwolf (feat. Peter Fonda & Dennis Hopper) (1969)
Pictured: Left to Right: Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson
Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers (played by Fonda and Hopper) who travel through the American Southwest and South to sell marijuana.
The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood phase of filmmaking during the early 1970s. The film was added to the Library of Congress National Registry in 1998.
A landmark counterculture film, and a "touchstone for a generation" that "captured the national imagination", Easy Rider explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise and fall of the hippie movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle. In Easy Rider, real drugs were used in scenes showing the use of marijuana and other substances.
Plot:
The protagonists are two freewheeling guys: Wyatt (Fonda), nicknamed "Captain America", and Billy (Hopper). Fonda and Hopper have said that these characters' names refer to Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid.
Wyatt dresses in American flag-adorned leather (with an Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge affixed to it), while Billy dresses in Native American-style buckskin pants and shirts and a bushman hat.
The former is quite open to people they meet on their journey and accepting of help while the latter is more hostile and suspicious.
After smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, Wyatt and Billy sell their haul to "Connection", a man (played by Phil Spector) in a Rolls-Royce, and receive a large sum in return. With the money stuffed into a plastic tube hidden inside the Stars & Stripes-painted fuel tank of Wyatt's California-style chopper, they ride eastward aiming to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, in time for the Mardi Gras festival.
During their trip Wyatt and Billy stop to repair one of the bikes at a farmstead and have a meal with the farmer and his family. Wyatt seems to appreciate the simple, traditional lifestyle presented here.
Later Wyatt stops to pick up a hippyish hitch-hiker (Luke Askew) and he invites them to visit his commune, where they stay for the rest of the day. Life in the commune appears to be hard, with young hippies from the city struggling to grow their own crops in a dry climate with poor soil and little rainfall. (One of the children seen in the commune is played by Fonda's four-year-old daughter Bridget.)
At one point, the bikers witness a prayer for blessing of the new crop, as put by a commune-member: A chance "to make a stand", and to plant "simple food, for our simple taste". The commune is also hosting a traveling theater group that "sings for its supper" (performs for food). The notion of "free love" appears to be practiced, with two of the women, Lisa (Luana Anders) and Sarah (Sabrina Scharf), seemingly sharing the affections of the hitch-hiking commune-member before turning their attention to Wyatt and Billy. The hitch-hiker asks the two bikers to stay at the commune, saying, "the time is now", to which Wyatt replies "I'm hip about time...but I just gotta go." As the bikers leave, the hitch-hiker (known only as "Stranger on highway" in the credits) gives Wyatt some LSD for him to share with "the right people".
Later, while naughtily riding along with a parade in a small town, the pair are arrested by the local authorities for "parading without a permit" and thrown in jail. There, they befriend American Civil Liberties Union lawyer and local drunk George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) who has spent the night in jail after overindulging in alcohol. George helps them get out of jail and decides to travel with Wyatt and Billy to New Orleans.
As they camp that night, Wyatt and Billy introduce George to marijuana. As an alcoholic and a "square", George is reluctant to try the marijuana ("It leads to harder stuff", and "I don't want to get hooked"), but he quickly relents.
Stopping to eat at a small-town Louisiana diner, the trio's appearance attracts the attention of the locals. The girls in the restaurant think they're exciting but the local men and a police officer begin making loud and denigrating comments and taunts. One of the men menacingly states, "I don't believe they'll make the parish line."
The waitress does not take their order and Wyatt, Billy and George, feeling the hostility, decide to leave without any fuss. They make camp outside town. The events of the day cause George to comment: "This used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it." He observes that Americans talk a lot about the value of freedom but are actually afraid of anyone who truly exhibits it.
In the middle of the night a group of locals attack the sleeping trio, beating them with clubs. Billy screams and brandishes a knife and the attackers leave. Wyatt and Billy suffer minor injuries but George has been fatally beaten. Wyatt and Billy wrap George's body up in his sleeping bag, gather his belongings, and vow to return the items to his parents.
They continue to New Orleans and find a brothel George had told them about. Taking prostitutes Karen (Karen Black) and Mary (Toni Basil) with them, Wyatt and Billy decide to go outside and wander the parade-filled street of the Mardi Gras celebration. They end up in a cemetery, where all four ingest the LSD which the hitch-hiker had given to Wyatt. They experience a bad trip, cinematically presented by the use of quick cuts, fish-eye lenses, sound collages (including snippets of prayer) and over-exposed film.
Making camp afterward, Billy declares that their trek has been a success. Wyatt disagrees, declaring, "We blew it." The next morning, the two are continuing their trip eastward to Florida (where they hope to retire wealthy) when two rednecks in a pickup truck spot them and decide to "scare the hell out of them" with their shotgun.
As they pull alongside Billy, one of the men lazily aims the shotgun at him and threatens and insults him by saying, "Want me to blow your brains out?" and "Why don't you get a haircut?" When Billy flips his middle finger up at them, the hillbilly fires the shotgun and Billy slews the bike into the roadside, seriously wounded in the side.
As the truck then takes off past Wyatt down the road, Wyatt turns around and races back to put his jacket over his critically injured friend, who is already drenched in blood, before riding off for help. By this time, the pickup truck has turned around and closes on Wyatt.
The hillbilly fires at Wyatt as he speeds by the pickup, hitting the bike's gas tank and causing it to erupt into a fiery explosion. Wyatt is killed and the bike soars into the air and crashes down further along the road. As the murderous rednecks drive away, the film ends with a shot of the flaming bike in the middle of the deserted road, as the camera ascends to the sky.
Reception:
A box office smash with a $60-million intake, of which $41.7 million was domestic gross, it became the third highest grossing film of 1969. Along with Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate, Easy Rider helped kick-start the New Hollywood phase during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The major studios realized that money could be made from low-budget films made by avant-garde directors. Heavily influenced by the French New Wave, the films of the so-called "post-classical Hollywood" came to represent a counterculture generation increasingly disillusioned with its government as well as the government's effects on the world at large, and the Establishment in general.
Although Jack Nicholson appears only as a supporting actor and in the last half of the film, the standout performance signaled his arrival as a movie star, along with his subsequent film Five Easy Pieces in which he had the lead role. Vice President Spiro Agnew criticized Easy Rider, along with the band Jefferson Airplane, as examples of the permissiveness of the 1960s counterculture.
The film's success, and the new era of Hollywood that it helped usher in, gave Hopper the chance to direct again with complete artistic control. The result was 1971's The Last Movie, which was a notable box office and critical failure, effectively ending Hopper's career as a director for well over a decade.
Click here for more about the movie "Easy Rider"
The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood phase of filmmaking during the early 1970s. The film was added to the Library of Congress National Registry in 1998.
A landmark counterculture film, and a "touchstone for a generation" that "captured the national imagination", Easy Rider explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise and fall of the hippie movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle. In Easy Rider, real drugs were used in scenes showing the use of marijuana and other substances.
Plot:
The protagonists are two freewheeling guys: Wyatt (Fonda), nicknamed "Captain America", and Billy (Hopper). Fonda and Hopper have said that these characters' names refer to Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid.
Wyatt dresses in American flag-adorned leather (with an Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge affixed to it), while Billy dresses in Native American-style buckskin pants and shirts and a bushman hat.
The former is quite open to people they meet on their journey and accepting of help while the latter is more hostile and suspicious.
After smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, Wyatt and Billy sell their haul to "Connection", a man (played by Phil Spector) in a Rolls-Royce, and receive a large sum in return. With the money stuffed into a plastic tube hidden inside the Stars & Stripes-painted fuel tank of Wyatt's California-style chopper, they ride eastward aiming to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, in time for the Mardi Gras festival.
During their trip Wyatt and Billy stop to repair one of the bikes at a farmstead and have a meal with the farmer and his family. Wyatt seems to appreciate the simple, traditional lifestyle presented here.
Later Wyatt stops to pick up a hippyish hitch-hiker (Luke Askew) and he invites them to visit his commune, where they stay for the rest of the day. Life in the commune appears to be hard, with young hippies from the city struggling to grow their own crops in a dry climate with poor soil and little rainfall. (One of the children seen in the commune is played by Fonda's four-year-old daughter Bridget.)
At one point, the bikers witness a prayer for blessing of the new crop, as put by a commune-member: A chance "to make a stand", and to plant "simple food, for our simple taste". The commune is also hosting a traveling theater group that "sings for its supper" (performs for food). The notion of "free love" appears to be practiced, with two of the women, Lisa (Luana Anders) and Sarah (Sabrina Scharf), seemingly sharing the affections of the hitch-hiking commune-member before turning their attention to Wyatt and Billy. The hitch-hiker asks the two bikers to stay at the commune, saying, "the time is now", to which Wyatt replies "I'm hip about time...but I just gotta go." As the bikers leave, the hitch-hiker (known only as "Stranger on highway" in the credits) gives Wyatt some LSD for him to share with "the right people".
Later, while naughtily riding along with a parade in a small town, the pair are arrested by the local authorities for "parading without a permit" and thrown in jail. There, they befriend American Civil Liberties Union lawyer and local drunk George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) who has spent the night in jail after overindulging in alcohol. George helps them get out of jail and decides to travel with Wyatt and Billy to New Orleans.
As they camp that night, Wyatt and Billy introduce George to marijuana. As an alcoholic and a "square", George is reluctant to try the marijuana ("It leads to harder stuff", and "I don't want to get hooked"), but he quickly relents.
Stopping to eat at a small-town Louisiana diner, the trio's appearance attracts the attention of the locals. The girls in the restaurant think they're exciting but the local men and a police officer begin making loud and denigrating comments and taunts. One of the men menacingly states, "I don't believe they'll make the parish line."
The waitress does not take their order and Wyatt, Billy and George, feeling the hostility, decide to leave without any fuss. They make camp outside town. The events of the day cause George to comment: "This used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it." He observes that Americans talk a lot about the value of freedom but are actually afraid of anyone who truly exhibits it.
In the middle of the night a group of locals attack the sleeping trio, beating them with clubs. Billy screams and brandishes a knife and the attackers leave. Wyatt and Billy suffer minor injuries but George has been fatally beaten. Wyatt and Billy wrap George's body up in his sleeping bag, gather his belongings, and vow to return the items to his parents.
They continue to New Orleans and find a brothel George had told them about. Taking prostitutes Karen (Karen Black) and Mary (Toni Basil) with them, Wyatt and Billy decide to go outside and wander the parade-filled street of the Mardi Gras celebration. They end up in a cemetery, where all four ingest the LSD which the hitch-hiker had given to Wyatt. They experience a bad trip, cinematically presented by the use of quick cuts, fish-eye lenses, sound collages (including snippets of prayer) and over-exposed film.
Making camp afterward, Billy declares that their trek has been a success. Wyatt disagrees, declaring, "We blew it." The next morning, the two are continuing their trip eastward to Florida (where they hope to retire wealthy) when two rednecks in a pickup truck spot them and decide to "scare the hell out of them" with their shotgun.
As they pull alongside Billy, one of the men lazily aims the shotgun at him and threatens and insults him by saying, "Want me to blow your brains out?" and "Why don't you get a haircut?" When Billy flips his middle finger up at them, the hillbilly fires the shotgun and Billy slews the bike into the roadside, seriously wounded in the side.
As the truck then takes off past Wyatt down the road, Wyatt turns around and races back to put his jacket over his critically injured friend, who is already drenched in blood, before riding off for help. By this time, the pickup truck has turned around and closes on Wyatt.
The hillbilly fires at Wyatt as he speeds by the pickup, hitting the bike's gas tank and causing it to erupt into a fiery explosion. Wyatt is killed and the bike soars into the air and crashes down further along the road. As the murderous rednecks drive away, the film ends with a shot of the flaming bike in the middle of the deserted road, as the camera ascends to the sky.
Reception:
A box office smash with a $60-million intake, of which $41.7 million was domestic gross, it became the third highest grossing film of 1969. Along with Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate, Easy Rider helped kick-start the New Hollywood phase during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The major studios realized that money could be made from low-budget films made by avant-garde directors. Heavily influenced by the French New Wave, the films of the so-called "post-classical Hollywood" came to represent a counterculture generation increasingly disillusioned with its government as well as the government's effects on the world at large, and the Establishment in general.
Although Jack Nicholson appears only as a supporting actor and in the last half of the film, the standout performance signaled his arrival as a movie star, along with his subsequent film Five Easy Pieces in which he had the lead role. Vice President Spiro Agnew criticized Easy Rider, along with the band Jefferson Airplane, as examples of the permissiveness of the 1960s counterculture.
The film's success, and the new era of Hollywood that it helped usher in, gave Hopper the chance to direct again with complete artistic control. The result was 1971's The Last Movie, which was a notable box office and critical failure, effectively ending Hopper's career as a director for well over a decade.
Click here for more about the movie "Easy Rider"
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
YouTube Video of Bonnie & Clyde Death Scene (1967 Movie) With Alternate Soundtrack
Pictured: Faye Dunaway as "Bonnie" and Warren Beatty as "Clyde"
YouTube Video of Bonnie & Clyde Death Scene (1967 Movie) With Alternate Soundtrack
Pictured: Faye Dunaway as "Bonnie" and Warren Beatty as "Clyde"
Bonnie and Clyde is a 1967 American biographical crime film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the title characters Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.
The film features Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, and Estelle Parsons, with Denver Pyle, Dub Taylor, Gene Wilder, Evans Evans, and Mabel Cavitt in supporting roles.
The screenplay was written by David Newman and Robert Benton. Robert Towne and Beatty provided uncredited contributions to the script; Beatty also produced the film. The soundtrack was composed by Charles Strouse.
Bonnie and Clyde is considered a landmark film, and is regarded as one of the first films of the New Hollywood era, since it broke many cinematic taboos and was popular with the younger generation. For some members of the counterculture, the film was considered to be a "rallying cry." Its success prompted other filmmakers to be more open in presenting sex and violence in their films. The film's ending also became iconic as "one of the bloodiest death scenes in cinematic history".
The film received Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress (Estelle Parsons) and Best Cinematography (Burnett Guffey). It was among the first 100 films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Plot:
In the middle of the Great Depression, Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) meet when Clyde tries to steal Bonnie's mother's car. Bonnie, who is bored by her job as a waitress, is intrigued by Clyde, and decides to take up with him and become his partner in crime. They pull off some holdups, but their amateur efforts, while exciting, are not very lucrative.
The duo's crime spree shifts into high gear once they hook up with a dim-witted gas station attendant, C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard), then with Clyde's older brother Buck (Gene Hackman) and his wife, Blanche (Estelle Parsons), a preacher's daughter. The women dislike each other on first sight, and their feud only escalates from there: shrill Blanche has nothing but disdain for Bonnie, Clyde and C.W., while gun-moll Bonnie sees Blanche's flighty presence as a constant danger to the gang's well-being.
Bonnie and Clyde turn from pulling small-time heists to robbing banks. Their exploits also become more violent. When C.W. botches a bank robbery by parallel parking the getaway car, Clyde shoots the bank manager in the face after he jumps onto the slow-moving car's running board. The gang is pursued by law enforcement, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (Denver Pyle), who is captured and humiliated by the outlaws, then set free.
A raid later catches the outlaws off guard, mortally wounding Buck with a gruesome shot to his head and injuring Blanche. Bonnie, Clyde and C.W. barely escape with their lives. With Blanche sightless and in police custody, Hamer tricks her into revealing C.W.'s name, who was up until now still only an "unidentified suspect."
Hamer locates Bonnie, Clyde and C.W. hiding at the house of C.W.'s father Ivan Moss (Dub Taylor), who thinks the couple—and an ornate tattoo—have corrupted his son. The elder Moss strikes a bargain with Hamer:
In exchange for leniency for the boy, he helps set a trap for the outlaws. When Bonnie and Clyde stop on the side of the road to help Mr. Moss fix a flat tire, the police in the bushes open fire and riddle them with bullets. Hamer and his posse then come out of hiding, looking pensively at the couple's bodies.
Reception:
The film was controversial on its original release for its supposed glorification of murderers, and for its level of graphic violence, which was unprecedented at the time. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times was so appalled that he began to campaign against the increasing brutality of American films. Dave Kaufman of Variety criticized the film for uneven direction and for portraying Bonnie and Clyde as bumbling fools.
Joe Morgenstern for Newsweek initially panned the film as a "squalid shoot-'em-up for the moron trade." After seeing the film a second time and noticing the enthusiastic audience, he wrote a second article saying he had misjudged it and praised the film. Warner Bros. took advantage of this, marketing the film as having made a major critic change his mind about its virtues.
Roger Ebert gave Bonnie and Clyde a largely positive review, giving it four stars out of a possible four. He called the film "a milestone in the history of American movies, a work of truth and brilliance." More than 30 years later, he added the film to his The Great Movies list. Film critics Dave Kehr and James Berardinelli have also praised the film in the years since.
The fierce debate about the film is discussed at length in For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism. This 2009 documentary film chronicles what occurred as a result: The New York Times fired Bosley Crowther because his negative review seemed so out of touch with the public, and Pauline Kael, who wrote a lengthy freelance essay in The New Yorker in praise of the film, became the magazine's new staff-critic.
It performed well at the box office, and by year's end had grossed $23,000,000 in US theatrical rentals, becoming the studio's second highest grossing film of all time, right behind My Fair Lady.
Listal lists it as one of the top five grossing films of 1967 with $50,700,000 in US sales, and $70,000,000 worldwide.
Although many believe the film's groundbreaking portrayal of violence adds to the film's artistic merit, Bonnie and Clyde is still sometimes criticized for opening the floodgates for violence in cinema. It currently holds a 90% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 45/50 reviews positive.
Click here for more about the movie "Bonnie & Clyde".
The film features Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, and Estelle Parsons, with Denver Pyle, Dub Taylor, Gene Wilder, Evans Evans, and Mabel Cavitt in supporting roles.
The screenplay was written by David Newman and Robert Benton. Robert Towne and Beatty provided uncredited contributions to the script; Beatty also produced the film. The soundtrack was composed by Charles Strouse.
Bonnie and Clyde is considered a landmark film, and is regarded as one of the first films of the New Hollywood era, since it broke many cinematic taboos and was popular with the younger generation. For some members of the counterculture, the film was considered to be a "rallying cry." Its success prompted other filmmakers to be more open in presenting sex and violence in their films. The film's ending also became iconic as "one of the bloodiest death scenes in cinematic history".
The film received Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress (Estelle Parsons) and Best Cinematography (Burnett Guffey). It was among the first 100 films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Plot:
In the middle of the Great Depression, Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) meet when Clyde tries to steal Bonnie's mother's car. Bonnie, who is bored by her job as a waitress, is intrigued by Clyde, and decides to take up with him and become his partner in crime. They pull off some holdups, but their amateur efforts, while exciting, are not very lucrative.
The duo's crime spree shifts into high gear once they hook up with a dim-witted gas station attendant, C.W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard), then with Clyde's older brother Buck (Gene Hackman) and his wife, Blanche (Estelle Parsons), a preacher's daughter. The women dislike each other on first sight, and their feud only escalates from there: shrill Blanche has nothing but disdain for Bonnie, Clyde and C.W., while gun-moll Bonnie sees Blanche's flighty presence as a constant danger to the gang's well-being.
Bonnie and Clyde turn from pulling small-time heists to robbing banks. Their exploits also become more violent. When C.W. botches a bank robbery by parallel parking the getaway car, Clyde shoots the bank manager in the face after he jumps onto the slow-moving car's running board. The gang is pursued by law enforcement, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (Denver Pyle), who is captured and humiliated by the outlaws, then set free.
A raid later catches the outlaws off guard, mortally wounding Buck with a gruesome shot to his head and injuring Blanche. Bonnie, Clyde and C.W. barely escape with their lives. With Blanche sightless and in police custody, Hamer tricks her into revealing C.W.'s name, who was up until now still only an "unidentified suspect."
Hamer locates Bonnie, Clyde and C.W. hiding at the house of C.W.'s father Ivan Moss (Dub Taylor), who thinks the couple—and an ornate tattoo—have corrupted his son. The elder Moss strikes a bargain with Hamer:
In exchange for leniency for the boy, he helps set a trap for the outlaws. When Bonnie and Clyde stop on the side of the road to help Mr. Moss fix a flat tire, the police in the bushes open fire and riddle them with bullets. Hamer and his posse then come out of hiding, looking pensively at the couple's bodies.
Reception:
The film was controversial on its original release for its supposed glorification of murderers, and for its level of graphic violence, which was unprecedented at the time. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times was so appalled that he began to campaign against the increasing brutality of American films. Dave Kaufman of Variety criticized the film for uneven direction and for portraying Bonnie and Clyde as bumbling fools.
Joe Morgenstern for Newsweek initially panned the film as a "squalid shoot-'em-up for the moron trade." After seeing the film a second time and noticing the enthusiastic audience, he wrote a second article saying he had misjudged it and praised the film. Warner Bros. took advantage of this, marketing the film as having made a major critic change his mind about its virtues.
Roger Ebert gave Bonnie and Clyde a largely positive review, giving it four stars out of a possible four. He called the film "a milestone in the history of American movies, a work of truth and brilliance." More than 30 years later, he added the film to his The Great Movies list. Film critics Dave Kehr and James Berardinelli have also praised the film in the years since.
The fierce debate about the film is discussed at length in For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism. This 2009 documentary film chronicles what occurred as a result: The New York Times fired Bosley Crowther because his negative review seemed so out of touch with the public, and Pauline Kael, who wrote a lengthy freelance essay in The New Yorker in praise of the film, became the magazine's new staff-critic.
It performed well at the box office, and by year's end had grossed $23,000,000 in US theatrical rentals, becoming the studio's second highest grossing film of all time, right behind My Fair Lady.
Listal lists it as one of the top five grossing films of 1967 with $50,700,000 in US sales, and $70,000,000 worldwide.
Although many believe the film's groundbreaking portrayal of violence adds to the film's artistic merit, Bonnie and Clyde is still sometimes criticized for opening the floodgates for violence in cinema. It currently holds a 90% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 45/50 reviews positive.
Click here for more about the movie "Bonnie & Clyde".
How the West Was Won (1962)
YouTube Video from How the West Was Won (1962) --- the grand finale
Pictured: A Movie Poster
YouTube Video from How the West Was Won (1962) --- the grand finale
Pictured: A Movie Poster
How the West Was Won is a 1962 American Metrocolor epic-Western film.
The picture was one of the last "old-fashioned" epic films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to enjoy great success. Set between 1839 and 1889, it follows four generations of a family (starting as the Prescotts) as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean. The picture was filmed in the curved-screen three-projector Cinerama process.
The all-star cast includes (in alphabetical order) Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda, Carolyn Jones, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Robert Preston, Debbie Reynolds, James Stewart, Eli Wallach, John Wayne, and Richard Widmark. The film is narrated by Spencer Tracy.
The score was listed at #25 on AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. It also gained unanimous widespread critical acclaim, and a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In 1997, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
For amplification, click on any of the following hyperlinks:
The picture was one of the last "old-fashioned" epic films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to enjoy great success. Set between 1839 and 1889, it follows four generations of a family (starting as the Prescotts) as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean. The picture was filmed in the curved-screen three-projector Cinerama process.
The all-star cast includes (in alphabetical order) Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda, Carolyn Jones, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Robert Preston, Debbie Reynolds, James Stewart, Eli Wallach, John Wayne, and Richard Widmark. The film is narrated by Spencer Tracy.
The score was listed at #25 on AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. It also gained unanimous widespread critical acclaim, and a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In 1997, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
For amplification, click on any of the following hyperlinks:
- 1 Plot
- 2 Epilogue
- 3 Cast
- 4 Production
- 5 Music
- 6 Reception
- 7 Restoration
- 8 See also
- 9 References
- 10 External links
Guess Who is Coming to Dinner? (1967)
YouTube Video Guess from Who's Coming To Dinner? (1967)
Pictured: Original Movie Poster
YouTube Video Guess from Who's Coming To Dinner? (1967)
Pictured: Original Movie Poster
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is a 1967 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, and written by William Rose. It stars Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn and featuring Hepburn's niece Katharine Houghton.
The film contains a (then rare) positive representation of the controversial subject of interracial marriage, which historically had been illegal in most states of the United States, and still was illegal in 17 states—mostly Southern states—until 12 June 1967, six months before the film was released, roughly two weeks after Tracy filmed his final scene (and two days after his death), when anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia.
The movie's Oscar-nominated score was composed by Frank De Vol.
The film is notable for being the ninth and final on-screen pairing of Tracy and Hepburn, with filming ending just 17 days before Tracy's death. Hepburn never saw the completed film, saying the memories of Tracy were too painful. The film was released in December 1967, six months after his death.
Plot:
Joanna Drayton's unannounced early return from a Hawaii holiday causes a stir when she brings to her childhood upper-class home her new fiancé, John Prentice: a widowed, black physician.
Joanna's parents—newspaper publisher Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) and his wife, art gallery owner Christina Drayton (Katharine Hepburn)—are liberals who have instilled in her the idea of racial equality.
But to her surprise, Joanna's parents are deeply upset that she is planning to marry a black man. The Draytons' black maid, Tille (Isabel Sanford), is just as horrified, suspecting that John is trying to "get above himself" by marrying a white woman.
What was intended to be a sit-down steak dinner for two turns into a meet-the-in-laws dinner party, and during the pre-dinner period, John, Joanna and her parents have to work through their differences.
Joanna is perplexed by the reactions of her parents—they are unsettled by her engagement with John, since they never thought that her choice would be a black man—and further unsettled by John's decision that if Joanna's parents do not accept the engagement that day, that he will end it.
The impending problem is that Joanna, always intending in a couple weeks to join John in Geneva as the location of their marriage ceremony, has changed her mind to leave after dinner on his flight to New York City and then onward to Europe. She has also invited John's parents (Roy E. Glenn and Beah Richards) to dinner so that they can all become acquainted with what John had not explained about Joanna.
Matt's golf buddy is the Monsignor Mike Ryan (Cecil Kellaway), a Catholic priest. He shares Joanna's enthusiasm about the pending nuptials and tells her father as much. Matt says he cannot give the couple his blessing, however; he fears that Joanna will be hurt by the prejudice that she and John will surely encounter.
Meanwhile, one of Christina's employees at her gallery, Hilary (Virginia Christine), who'd briefly met John and Joanna earlier in the day, stops by the Draytons' home to express her disapproval over the relationship and, though Christina herself is still unsure of her own feelings about the matter, she is so offended at Hilary's racism that she fires her.
Cocktails at the Drayton home is musical chairs of different sets of parental characters that share their views about the situation; it shows that the mothers have more faith in their children than the fathers. Universally, it had been expressed by the parents that more than a few hours are necessary for a proper decision, but John's mother brings up her idea of what the men are missing about the situation: passion. When the elder Prentice tells John that he is making a huge mistake, John says that his father thinks of himself as a black man, whereas John thinks of himself as a man.
After thinking about the situation, Matt calls everyone together to make an announcement. He says that it does not matter what everyone else may think about John and Joanna getting married: all that matters is that they love each other. The film ends with the two families and Monsignor Ryan finally sitting down to dinner.
Cast:
Sidney Poitier, Katharine Houghton, and Skip Martin are the last surviving cast members.
Reviews and Reception:
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was a box-office hit in 1968 throughout the United States, including in Southern states where it was traditionally assumed that few white filmgoers would want to see any film with black leads.
The success of this film challenged that assumption in film marketing. Despite this success, which included numerous film award nominations, Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote in November 2008 that the film was frequently labeled as dated among liberals.
Another main point of contention was the fact that Poitier's character, the golden future son-in-law, had no flaws and a resume of good deeds. Many people felt that the dynamic between the Draytons and Poitier's character would have inevitably resulted in a happily-ever-after film ending because Poitier's character was so perfect, respectable, likable, and proper. Some people went as far as saying Prentice was "too white" not to be accepted by the Draytons.
The release of the film in the U.S. gave Poitier his third box-office success in six months in 1967, all of which placed the race of Poitier's character at issue.
In a review of the film by The New York Times, Lawrence Van Gelder wrote: "the suspicion arises that were the film made today its makers would come to grips a good deal more bluntly with the problems of intermarriage. Still, this remains a deft comedy and - most of all - a paean to the power of love."
Awards and Honors:
Wins The film won two Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards:
Nominations:
The film contains a (then rare) positive representation of the controversial subject of interracial marriage, which historically had been illegal in most states of the United States, and still was illegal in 17 states—mostly Southern states—until 12 June 1967, six months before the film was released, roughly two weeks after Tracy filmed his final scene (and two days after his death), when anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia.
The movie's Oscar-nominated score was composed by Frank De Vol.
The film is notable for being the ninth and final on-screen pairing of Tracy and Hepburn, with filming ending just 17 days before Tracy's death. Hepburn never saw the completed film, saying the memories of Tracy were too painful. The film was released in December 1967, six months after his death.
Plot:
Joanna Drayton's unannounced early return from a Hawaii holiday causes a stir when she brings to her childhood upper-class home her new fiancé, John Prentice: a widowed, black physician.
Joanna's parents—newspaper publisher Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) and his wife, art gallery owner Christina Drayton (Katharine Hepburn)—are liberals who have instilled in her the idea of racial equality.
But to her surprise, Joanna's parents are deeply upset that she is planning to marry a black man. The Draytons' black maid, Tille (Isabel Sanford), is just as horrified, suspecting that John is trying to "get above himself" by marrying a white woman.
What was intended to be a sit-down steak dinner for two turns into a meet-the-in-laws dinner party, and during the pre-dinner period, John, Joanna and her parents have to work through their differences.
Joanna is perplexed by the reactions of her parents—they are unsettled by her engagement with John, since they never thought that her choice would be a black man—and further unsettled by John's decision that if Joanna's parents do not accept the engagement that day, that he will end it.
The impending problem is that Joanna, always intending in a couple weeks to join John in Geneva as the location of their marriage ceremony, has changed her mind to leave after dinner on his flight to New York City and then onward to Europe. She has also invited John's parents (Roy E. Glenn and Beah Richards) to dinner so that they can all become acquainted with what John had not explained about Joanna.
Matt's golf buddy is the Monsignor Mike Ryan (Cecil Kellaway), a Catholic priest. He shares Joanna's enthusiasm about the pending nuptials and tells her father as much. Matt says he cannot give the couple his blessing, however; he fears that Joanna will be hurt by the prejudice that she and John will surely encounter.
Meanwhile, one of Christina's employees at her gallery, Hilary (Virginia Christine), who'd briefly met John and Joanna earlier in the day, stops by the Draytons' home to express her disapproval over the relationship and, though Christina herself is still unsure of her own feelings about the matter, she is so offended at Hilary's racism that she fires her.
Cocktails at the Drayton home is musical chairs of different sets of parental characters that share their views about the situation; it shows that the mothers have more faith in their children than the fathers. Universally, it had been expressed by the parents that more than a few hours are necessary for a proper decision, but John's mother brings up her idea of what the men are missing about the situation: passion. When the elder Prentice tells John that he is making a huge mistake, John says that his father thinks of himself as a black man, whereas John thinks of himself as a man.
After thinking about the situation, Matt calls everyone together to make an announcement. He says that it does not matter what everyone else may think about John and Joanna getting married: all that matters is that they love each other. The film ends with the two families and Monsignor Ryan finally sitting down to dinner.
Cast:
- Spencer Tracy as Matt Drayton
- Sidney Poitier as Dr. John Wayde Prentice Jr.
- Katharine Hepburn as Christina Drayton
- Katharine Houghton as Joanna "Joey" Drayton
- Cecil Kellaway as Monsignor Mike Ryan
- Beah Richards as Mary Prentice
- Roy E. Glenn as John Prentice Sr.
- Virginia Christine as Hilary St. George
- Alexandra Hay as Carhop
- Isabel Sanford as Matilda "Tillie" Binks
- Barbara Randolph as Dorothy
- D'Urville Martin as Frankie
Sidney Poitier, Katharine Houghton, and Skip Martin are the last surviving cast members.
Reviews and Reception:
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was a box-office hit in 1968 throughout the United States, including in Southern states where it was traditionally assumed that few white filmgoers would want to see any film with black leads.
The success of this film challenged that assumption in film marketing. Despite this success, which included numerous film award nominations, Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote in November 2008 that the film was frequently labeled as dated among liberals.
Another main point of contention was the fact that Poitier's character, the golden future son-in-law, had no flaws and a resume of good deeds. Many people felt that the dynamic between the Draytons and Poitier's character would have inevitably resulted in a happily-ever-after film ending because Poitier's character was so perfect, respectable, likable, and proper. Some people went as far as saying Prentice was "too white" not to be accepted by the Draytons.
The release of the film in the U.S. gave Poitier his third box-office success in six months in 1967, all of which placed the race of Poitier's character at issue.
In a review of the film by The New York Times, Lawrence Van Gelder wrote: "the suspicion arises that were the film made today its makers would come to grips a good deal more bluntly with the problems of intermarriage. Still, this remains a deft comedy and - most of all - a paean to the power of love."
Awards and Honors:
Wins The film won two Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards:
- 1967: Academy Award for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn)
- 1967: Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay)
- 1968: BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Spencer Tracy)
- 1968: BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Katharine Hepburn)
- 1968: David di Donatello for Best Foreign Producer (Stanley Kramer)
- 1968: David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor (Spencer Tracy)
- 1968: David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress (Katharine Hepburn)
Nominations:
- 1967: Academy Award for Best Picture
- 1967: Academy Award for Best Director
- 1967: Academy Award for Best Actor (Spencer Tracy)
- 1967: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (Cecil Kellaway)
- 1967: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Beah Richards)
- 1967: Academy Award for Best Art Direction (Robert Clatworthy and Frank Tuttle)
- 1967: Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Robert C. Jones)
- 1967: Academy Award for Best Original Score (Frank De Vol)
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #99
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – #58
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "You think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man." – Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – #35
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
YouTube Video: Dr. Strangelove (7/8) Movie CLIP - Kong Rides the Bomb (1964) HD
Pictured: Theatrical Release Poster
YouTube Video: Dr. Strangelove (7/8) Movie CLIP - Kong Rides the Bomb (1964) HD
Pictured: Theatrical Release Poster
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, more commonly known as Dr. Strangelove, is a 1964 political satire black comedy film that satirizes the Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the USSR and the US.
The film was directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, stars Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, and features Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, and Slim Pickens.
Production took place in the United Kingdom. The film is loosely based on Peter George's thriller novel Red Alert.
The story concerns an unhinged United States Air Force general who orders a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. It follows the President of the United States, his advisers, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a Royal Air Force (RAF) officer as they try to recall the bombers to prevent a nuclear apocalypse. It separately follows the crew of one B-52 bomber as they try to deliver their payload.
In 1989, the United States Library of Congress included it in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. It was listed as number three on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.
Plot:
United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) is commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, which houses the Strategic Air Command 843rd Bomb Wing, equipped with B-52 bombers and nuclear bombs. The 843rd is currently in-flight on airborne alert, two hours from their targets inside Russia.
General Ripper orders his executive officer, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) of the UK Royal Air Force, to put the base on alert. Ripper also issues "Wing Attack Plan R" to the patrolling aircraft, one of which is commanded by Major T. J. "King" Kong (Slim Pickens). All of the aircraft commence an attack flight on Russia and set their radios to allow communications only through the CRM 114 discriminator, which is programmed to accept only communications preceded by a secret three-letter code known only to General Ripper.
Mandrake discovers that no war order has been issued by the Pentagon and tries to stop Ripper, who locks them both in his office. Ripper tells Mandrake that he believes the Soviets have been using fluoridation of United States water supplies to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of Americans; Mandrake now realizes that Ripper is insane.
At the Pentagon, General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) briefs President Merkin Muffley (also Peter Sellers) and other officers and aides about the attack in the "War Room".
President Muffley is shocked to learn that such orders could be given without his authorization, but Turgidson reminds him that Plan R, enabling a senior officer to launch a strike against the Soviets if all superiors have been killed in a first strike on Washington, DC, allows such an action.
Turgidson reports that his men are trying every possible three-letter CRM code to issue the stand-down order, but that could take over two days and the planes are due to reach their targets in about an hour. Muffley orders the Army chief to storm the base and arrest General Ripper.
Turgidson attempts to convince Muffley to let the attack continue and use the element of surprise to annihilate the Soviet military altogether before they can strike back; Muffley, however, refuses to be party to a nuclear first strike.
Instead, he brings Soviet ambassador Alexei de Sadeski (Peter Bull) into the War Room, to telephone Soviet premier Dimitri Kissov on the "hot line". Muffley warns the Premier of the impending attack and offers to reveal the planes' positions and targets so the Russians can protect themselves.
After a heated discussion in Russian with the Premier, the ambassador informs President Muffley that the Soviet Union has created a doomsday device, which consists of many buried bombs jacketed with "Cobalt-Thorium G"connected to a computer network set to detonate them automatically should any nuclear attack strike the country. Within two months after detonation, the Cobalt-Thorium G would encircle the earth in a radioactive cloud, wiping out all human and animal life, rendering the surface of the earth uninhabitable for 93 years. The device cannot be dismantled or "un-triggered", as it is programmed to explode if any such attempt is made.
When the President's wheelchair-bound scientific advisor, former Nazi Dr. Strangelove (again, Peter Sellers), points out that such a doomsday device would only be an effective deterrent if everyone knew about it, de Sadeski replies that the Russian Premier had planned to reveal its existence to the world the following week (on the leader's birthday).
Meanwhile, United States Army forces arrive at Burpelson, which is still sealed by General Ripper's order. A bloody battle ensues, and the Army forces eventually take over the base. Ripper kills himself, fearing he will be tortured into revealing the recall code. A soldier named Colonel "Bat" Guano (Keenan Wynn) forces his way into Ripper's office, where Mandrake identifies Ripper's CRM code from his desk blotter ("OPE," a variant of both Peace on Earth and Purity of Essence).
Mandrake relays this code to the Pentagon with difficulty via payphone, the only working method of communication. Using the recall code, SAC successfully recalls most of the aircraft; however, Muffley learns that a surface-to-air missile has ruptured the fuel tank of Major Kong's plane and destroyed its communications device, making it impossible to recall this particular plane even with the correct recall code.
Muffley tells the Soviets the plane's target to help them find it but does not realize that because of the shortened range of the crippled aircraft, Major Kong has selected a closer target. As the plane approaches the new target, the crew is unable to open the damaged bomb bay doors. Major Kong crimps broken electric wiring, whereupon the doors open. With Kong straddling it, the nuclear bomb falls and detonates, triggering the doomsday machine.
Dr. Strangelove recommends that the President gather several hundred thousand people to live in deep mineshafts where the radiation will not penetrate. He suggests a 10:1 female-to-male ratio for a breeding program to repopulate the Earth when the radiation has subsided.
Turgidson, worried that the Soviets will do the same, warns about a "mineshaft gap" when the wheelchair-bound Strangelove suddenly stands and walks a few steps. Astonished by his new ability, he shouts: "Mein Führer, I can walk!" The film ends with a montage of nuclear detonations, accompanied by Vera Lynn's recording of "We'll Meet Again".
Reception:
Box office: The film was a popular success, earning US$ 4,420,000 in rentals in North America during its initial theatrical release.
Critical response: Dr. Strangelove holds a 99% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Stanley Kubrick's brilliant Cold War satire remains as funny and razor-sharp today as it was in 1964."
The film holds a score of 96 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 11 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim." The film is ranked number 7 in the All-Time High Scores chart of Metacritic's Video/DVD section.
It was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the 24th greatest comedic film of all time. It is also listed as number 26 on Empire's 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
Dr. Strangelove is on Roger Ebert's list of The Great Movies, described as "arguably the best political satire of the century." It was also rated as the fifth greatest film in the 2002 Sight & Sound's directors' poll, the only comedy in the top ten.
Awards and honors: The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and also seven BAFTA Awards, of which it won four.
Academy Awards nominations:
In addition, the film won the best written American comedy award from the Writers Guild of America, a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and the Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.
Kubrick won two awards for best director, from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, and was nominated for one by the Directors Guild of America.
The film ranked #32 on TV Guide's list of the 50 Greatest Movies on TV (and Video).
American Film Institute recognition
The film was directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, stars Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, and features Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, and Slim Pickens.
Production took place in the United Kingdom. The film is loosely based on Peter George's thriller novel Red Alert.
The story concerns an unhinged United States Air Force general who orders a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. It follows the President of the United States, his advisers, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a Royal Air Force (RAF) officer as they try to recall the bombers to prevent a nuclear apocalypse. It separately follows the crew of one B-52 bomber as they try to deliver their payload.
In 1989, the United States Library of Congress included it in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. It was listed as number three on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.
Plot:
United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) is commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, which houses the Strategic Air Command 843rd Bomb Wing, equipped with B-52 bombers and nuclear bombs. The 843rd is currently in-flight on airborne alert, two hours from their targets inside Russia.
General Ripper orders his executive officer, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers) of the UK Royal Air Force, to put the base on alert. Ripper also issues "Wing Attack Plan R" to the patrolling aircraft, one of which is commanded by Major T. J. "King" Kong (Slim Pickens). All of the aircraft commence an attack flight on Russia and set their radios to allow communications only through the CRM 114 discriminator, which is programmed to accept only communications preceded by a secret three-letter code known only to General Ripper.
Mandrake discovers that no war order has been issued by the Pentagon and tries to stop Ripper, who locks them both in his office. Ripper tells Mandrake that he believes the Soviets have been using fluoridation of United States water supplies to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of Americans; Mandrake now realizes that Ripper is insane.
At the Pentagon, General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) briefs President Merkin Muffley (also Peter Sellers) and other officers and aides about the attack in the "War Room".
President Muffley is shocked to learn that such orders could be given without his authorization, but Turgidson reminds him that Plan R, enabling a senior officer to launch a strike against the Soviets if all superiors have been killed in a first strike on Washington, DC, allows such an action.
Turgidson reports that his men are trying every possible three-letter CRM code to issue the stand-down order, but that could take over two days and the planes are due to reach their targets in about an hour. Muffley orders the Army chief to storm the base and arrest General Ripper.
Turgidson attempts to convince Muffley to let the attack continue and use the element of surprise to annihilate the Soviet military altogether before they can strike back; Muffley, however, refuses to be party to a nuclear first strike.
Instead, he brings Soviet ambassador Alexei de Sadeski (Peter Bull) into the War Room, to telephone Soviet premier Dimitri Kissov on the "hot line". Muffley warns the Premier of the impending attack and offers to reveal the planes' positions and targets so the Russians can protect themselves.
After a heated discussion in Russian with the Premier, the ambassador informs President Muffley that the Soviet Union has created a doomsday device, which consists of many buried bombs jacketed with "Cobalt-Thorium G"connected to a computer network set to detonate them automatically should any nuclear attack strike the country. Within two months after detonation, the Cobalt-Thorium G would encircle the earth in a radioactive cloud, wiping out all human and animal life, rendering the surface of the earth uninhabitable for 93 years. The device cannot be dismantled or "un-triggered", as it is programmed to explode if any such attempt is made.
When the President's wheelchair-bound scientific advisor, former Nazi Dr. Strangelove (again, Peter Sellers), points out that such a doomsday device would only be an effective deterrent if everyone knew about it, de Sadeski replies that the Russian Premier had planned to reveal its existence to the world the following week (on the leader's birthday).
Meanwhile, United States Army forces arrive at Burpelson, which is still sealed by General Ripper's order. A bloody battle ensues, and the Army forces eventually take over the base. Ripper kills himself, fearing he will be tortured into revealing the recall code. A soldier named Colonel "Bat" Guano (Keenan Wynn) forces his way into Ripper's office, where Mandrake identifies Ripper's CRM code from his desk blotter ("OPE," a variant of both Peace on Earth and Purity of Essence).
Mandrake relays this code to the Pentagon with difficulty via payphone, the only working method of communication. Using the recall code, SAC successfully recalls most of the aircraft; however, Muffley learns that a surface-to-air missile has ruptured the fuel tank of Major Kong's plane and destroyed its communications device, making it impossible to recall this particular plane even with the correct recall code.
Muffley tells the Soviets the plane's target to help them find it but does not realize that because of the shortened range of the crippled aircraft, Major Kong has selected a closer target. As the plane approaches the new target, the crew is unable to open the damaged bomb bay doors. Major Kong crimps broken electric wiring, whereupon the doors open. With Kong straddling it, the nuclear bomb falls and detonates, triggering the doomsday machine.
Dr. Strangelove recommends that the President gather several hundred thousand people to live in deep mineshafts where the radiation will not penetrate. He suggests a 10:1 female-to-male ratio for a breeding program to repopulate the Earth when the radiation has subsided.
Turgidson, worried that the Soviets will do the same, warns about a "mineshaft gap" when the wheelchair-bound Strangelove suddenly stands and walks a few steps. Astonished by his new ability, he shouts: "Mein Führer, I can walk!" The film ends with a montage of nuclear detonations, accompanied by Vera Lynn's recording of "We'll Meet Again".
Reception:
Box office: The film was a popular success, earning US$ 4,420,000 in rentals in North America during its initial theatrical release.
Critical response: Dr. Strangelove holds a 99% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Stanley Kubrick's brilliant Cold War satire remains as funny and razor-sharp today as it was in 1964."
The film holds a score of 96 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 11 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim." The film is ranked number 7 in the All-Time High Scores chart of Metacritic's Video/DVD section.
It was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the 24th greatest comedic film of all time. It is also listed as number 26 on Empire's 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
Dr. Strangelove is on Roger Ebert's list of The Great Movies, described as "arguably the best political satire of the century." It was also rated as the fifth greatest film in the 2002 Sight & Sound's directors' poll, the only comedy in the top ten.
Awards and honors: The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and also seven BAFTA Awards, of which it won four.
Academy Awards nominations:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role: Peter Sellers
- Best Adapted Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, Terry Southern
- Best Director: Stanley Kubrick
- Best Picture
- Best British Actor: Peter Sellers (nom)
- Best British Art Direction (Black and White): Ken Adam (won)
- Best British Film (won)
- Best British Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, Terry Southern (nom)
- Best Film From Any Source (won)
- Best Foreign Actor: Sterling Hayden (nom)
- UN award
In addition, the film won the best written American comedy award from the Writers Guild of America, a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and the Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.
Kubrick won two awards for best director, from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, and was nominated for one by the Directors Guild of America.
The film ranked #32 on TV Guide's list of the 50 Greatest Movies on TV (and Video).
American Film Institute recognition
- 1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #26
- 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #3
- 2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
- Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper – Nominated Villain
- Dr. Strangelove – Nominated Villain
- 2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" – #64
- "Mein Führer! I can walk!" – Nominated
- 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #39
Bullitt is a 1968 American dramatic thriller film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D'Antoni. It stars Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn and Jacqueline Bisset.
The screenplay by Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleiner was based on the 1963 novel, Mute Witness, by Robert L. Fish, writing under the pseudonym Robert L. Pike. Lalo Schifrin wrote the original jazz-inspired score, arranged for brass and percussion.
Robert Duvall has a small part as a cab driver who provides information to McQueen.
The film was made by McQueen's Solar Productions company, with his then-partner Robert E. Relyea as executive producer. Released by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts on October 17, 1968, the film was a critical and box office smash, later winning the Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Frank P. Keller) and receiving a nomination for Best Sound.
Writers Trustman and Kleiner won a 1969 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. Bullitt is notable for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, regarded as one of the most influential in movie history.
In 2007, Bullitt was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
Ambitious politician Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) is about to present a surprise star witness in a Senate Subcommittee hearing on organized crime. The witness, Johnny Ross, a defector from the Organization in Chicago, is put under San Francisco Police Department protective custody for the weekend, 40 hours until his Monday morning appearance.
To improve his own image, Chalmers requests SFPD Lieutenant Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen), who is well-liked by the local media. Bullitt and his team, Sergeant Delgetti (Don Gordon) and Inspector Carl Stanton (Carl Reindel), put Ross (Felice Orlandi) under around-the-clock protection in a cheap hotel selected by Chalmers.
Late Saturday night, while Bullitt is with his girlfriend Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset), a designer, Stanton is on solo duty when the desk clerk unexpectedly calls to announce that Chalmers wants to come up. While Stanton checks by phone with Bullitt, Ross inexplicably (at the time) unchains the hotel room door. A pair of hitmen (Paul Genge and Bill Hickman) burst in and shoot Stanton and Ross, seriously wounding both.
At the hospital, Chalmers holds Bullitt responsible. Later, a second assassination attempt is thwarted by Bullitt, but Ross soon dies of his original injuries. Helped by a sympathetic doctor (Georg Stanford Brown) who had been snubbed by Chalmers, Bullitt delays news of the death by sending the body to the morgue as a John Doe.
Bullitt and Delgetti investigate. The cab driver (Robert Duvall) who drove Ross to the hotel remembers stopping to let Ross make a long distance call from a pay phone. A confidential informant reveals that Ross was caught stealing $2 million from the Chicago Mob and fled to San Francisco after escaping an attempted hit in Chicago. Meanwhile, Chalmers serves Bullitt's captain (Simon Oakland) with a writ of habeas corpus to force him to make Bullitt give up Ross, but the lieutenant won't cooperate.
While driving his 1968 Ford Mustang GT, Bullitt spots the Ross hitmen tailing him in a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T. He maneuvers to get behind them, they attempt to flee, and a high-speed muscle car chase ensues, through the hilly streets of San Francisco's Russian Hill and out onto the highway, ending when the Mustang forces the Charger off the road and into a gas station, causing a fiery explosion that incinerates the hitmen.
Bullitt and Delgetti face their superiors. They reveal that Ross is dead and that their only lead is phone records showing that Ross made a call to a Dorothy Simmons in a hotel in nearby San Mateo. It is Sunday; the detectives are given until Monday to follow up the lead.
With his car out of commission, Bullitt gets a ride from Cathy. At the San Mateo hotel, a woman is found strangled to death in Simmons's room. Cathy is horrified by the crime scene, and later confronts Bullitt about his violent world, wondering whether she even really knows him.
Back in San Francisco, Bullitt and Delgetti search Simmons's luggage, discovering men's and women's clothing, empty ticket and passport folders, a travel brochure for Rome, and thousands of dollars in travelers' cheques made out to Albert Renick and Dorothy Renick. Bullitt requests passport information for the Renicks and a fingerprint check for the dead Ross.
Chalmers again confronts Bullitt, demanding a signed admission that Ross died while in his custody. Bullitt refuses. A facsimile of Albert Renick's passport application arrives, showing the man they thought was Ross was actually Renick, a used car salesman from Chicago with no criminal record.
Bullitt realizes that the real Ross had used Chalmers to fake his own death by setting up Renick, then murdered Renick's wife to complete the cover-up. Delgetti discovers reservations for the Renicks on an evening flight to Rome.
Bullitt and Delgetti head to the San Francisco airport to look for the real Ross (Pat Renella), who is traveling as Renick. They stake out the Rome flight gate, only to find that Ross has switched to an earlier flight that is taxiing toward takeoff.
Chalmers shows up to lay claim to the real Ross even though he is now wanted for murder, and is again rebuffed by Bullitt.
The flight is held up, and Ross escapes the plane. A foot chase across the busy runways ends in a tense cat-and-mouse pursuit inside the crowded passenger terminal. When Ross bolts and shoots a security guard, Bullitt shoots and kills Ross. Left behind, empty-handed, is Chalmers, who is driven off in a car with a bumper sticker that reads: "Support Your Local Police."
Early the next morning, Bullitt drives home. As he walks up to his apartment, he spots Cathy's car. He looks in and sees her sleeping in his bedroom but he does not wake her. He takes off his gun and balances it on a banister. As he begins to wash up at the bathroom sink, he looks up into his own reflection and contemplates himself for a long moment.
Box office performance:
Produced on a $5.5 million budget, the film grossed over $42.3 million in the US, making it the 5th highest grossing film of 1968.
Critical reception:
Bullitt was well received by critics and is considered by some to be one of the best films of 1968. At the time, Renata Adler made the film a New York Times Critics' Pick, calling it a "terrific movie, just right for Steve McQueen –-fast, well acted, written the way people talk." According to Adler, "the ending should satisfy fans from Dragnet to Camus."
In 2004, the New York Times placed the film on its list of The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made. In 2011, Time magazine listed it among the "The 15 Greatest Movie Car Chases of All Time," describing it as "the one, the first, the granddaddy, the chase on the top of almost every list," and saying "Bullitt‘s car chase is a reminder that every great such scene is a triumph of editing as much as it is stunt work.
Naturally, it won that year's Academy Award for Best Editing". Among 21st century critics, it holds a 97% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, representing positive reviews from 33 of 34 critics, in a mix of reviews dated from when the film was released to the 2000s, its consensus reading: "Steve McQueen is cool as ice in this thrilling police procedural that also happens to contain the arguably greatest car chase ever."
Awards and honors:
The film was nominated for and won several critical awards. Frank P. Keller won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Film Editing, and it was also nominated for Best Sound.
Five nominations at the BAFTA Film Awards for 1969 included Best Director for Peter Yates, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Vaughn, Best Cinematography for William A. Fraker, Best Film Editing for Frank P. Keller, and Best Sound Track. Robert Fish, Harry Kleiner, and Alan Trustman won the 1969 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture.
Keller won the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature Film. The film also received the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography (William A. Fraker) and the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing – Feature Film. It was successful at the 1970 Laurel Awards, winning Golden Laurel awards for Best Action Drama, Best Action Performance (Steve McQueen) and Best Female New Face (Jacqueline Bisset). In 2000, the Society of Camera Operators awarded Bullitt its "Historical Shot" award to David M. Walsh.
Click here for more about the movie "Bullitt".
The screenplay by Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleiner was based on the 1963 novel, Mute Witness, by Robert L. Fish, writing under the pseudonym Robert L. Pike. Lalo Schifrin wrote the original jazz-inspired score, arranged for brass and percussion.
Robert Duvall has a small part as a cab driver who provides information to McQueen.
The film was made by McQueen's Solar Productions company, with his then-partner Robert E. Relyea as executive producer. Released by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts on October 17, 1968, the film was a critical and box office smash, later winning the Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Frank P. Keller) and receiving a nomination for Best Sound.
Writers Trustman and Kleiner won a 1969 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. Bullitt is notable for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, regarded as one of the most influential in movie history.
In 2007, Bullitt was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
Ambitious politician Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) is about to present a surprise star witness in a Senate Subcommittee hearing on organized crime. The witness, Johnny Ross, a defector from the Organization in Chicago, is put under San Francisco Police Department protective custody for the weekend, 40 hours until his Monday morning appearance.
To improve his own image, Chalmers requests SFPD Lieutenant Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen), who is well-liked by the local media. Bullitt and his team, Sergeant Delgetti (Don Gordon) and Inspector Carl Stanton (Carl Reindel), put Ross (Felice Orlandi) under around-the-clock protection in a cheap hotel selected by Chalmers.
Late Saturday night, while Bullitt is with his girlfriend Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset), a designer, Stanton is on solo duty when the desk clerk unexpectedly calls to announce that Chalmers wants to come up. While Stanton checks by phone with Bullitt, Ross inexplicably (at the time) unchains the hotel room door. A pair of hitmen (Paul Genge and Bill Hickman) burst in and shoot Stanton and Ross, seriously wounding both.
At the hospital, Chalmers holds Bullitt responsible. Later, a second assassination attempt is thwarted by Bullitt, but Ross soon dies of his original injuries. Helped by a sympathetic doctor (Georg Stanford Brown) who had been snubbed by Chalmers, Bullitt delays news of the death by sending the body to the morgue as a John Doe.
Bullitt and Delgetti investigate. The cab driver (Robert Duvall) who drove Ross to the hotel remembers stopping to let Ross make a long distance call from a pay phone. A confidential informant reveals that Ross was caught stealing $2 million from the Chicago Mob and fled to San Francisco after escaping an attempted hit in Chicago. Meanwhile, Chalmers serves Bullitt's captain (Simon Oakland) with a writ of habeas corpus to force him to make Bullitt give up Ross, but the lieutenant won't cooperate.
While driving his 1968 Ford Mustang GT, Bullitt spots the Ross hitmen tailing him in a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T. He maneuvers to get behind them, they attempt to flee, and a high-speed muscle car chase ensues, through the hilly streets of San Francisco's Russian Hill and out onto the highway, ending when the Mustang forces the Charger off the road and into a gas station, causing a fiery explosion that incinerates the hitmen.
Bullitt and Delgetti face their superiors. They reveal that Ross is dead and that their only lead is phone records showing that Ross made a call to a Dorothy Simmons in a hotel in nearby San Mateo. It is Sunday; the detectives are given until Monday to follow up the lead.
With his car out of commission, Bullitt gets a ride from Cathy. At the San Mateo hotel, a woman is found strangled to death in Simmons's room. Cathy is horrified by the crime scene, and later confronts Bullitt about his violent world, wondering whether she even really knows him.
Back in San Francisco, Bullitt and Delgetti search Simmons's luggage, discovering men's and women's clothing, empty ticket and passport folders, a travel brochure for Rome, and thousands of dollars in travelers' cheques made out to Albert Renick and Dorothy Renick. Bullitt requests passport information for the Renicks and a fingerprint check for the dead Ross.
Chalmers again confronts Bullitt, demanding a signed admission that Ross died while in his custody. Bullitt refuses. A facsimile of Albert Renick's passport application arrives, showing the man they thought was Ross was actually Renick, a used car salesman from Chicago with no criminal record.
Bullitt realizes that the real Ross had used Chalmers to fake his own death by setting up Renick, then murdered Renick's wife to complete the cover-up. Delgetti discovers reservations for the Renicks on an evening flight to Rome.
Bullitt and Delgetti head to the San Francisco airport to look for the real Ross (Pat Renella), who is traveling as Renick. They stake out the Rome flight gate, only to find that Ross has switched to an earlier flight that is taxiing toward takeoff.
Chalmers shows up to lay claim to the real Ross even though he is now wanted for murder, and is again rebuffed by Bullitt.
The flight is held up, and Ross escapes the plane. A foot chase across the busy runways ends in a tense cat-and-mouse pursuit inside the crowded passenger terminal. When Ross bolts and shoots a security guard, Bullitt shoots and kills Ross. Left behind, empty-handed, is Chalmers, who is driven off in a car with a bumper sticker that reads: "Support Your Local Police."
Early the next morning, Bullitt drives home. As he walks up to his apartment, he spots Cathy's car. He looks in and sees her sleeping in his bedroom but he does not wake her. He takes off his gun and balances it on a banister. As he begins to wash up at the bathroom sink, he looks up into his own reflection and contemplates himself for a long moment.
Box office performance:
Produced on a $5.5 million budget, the film grossed over $42.3 million in the US, making it the 5th highest grossing film of 1968.
Critical reception:
Bullitt was well received by critics and is considered by some to be one of the best films of 1968. At the time, Renata Adler made the film a New York Times Critics' Pick, calling it a "terrific movie, just right for Steve McQueen –-fast, well acted, written the way people talk." According to Adler, "the ending should satisfy fans from Dragnet to Camus."
In 2004, the New York Times placed the film on its list of The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made. In 2011, Time magazine listed it among the "The 15 Greatest Movie Car Chases of All Time," describing it as "the one, the first, the granddaddy, the chase on the top of almost every list," and saying "Bullitt‘s car chase is a reminder that every great such scene is a triumph of editing as much as it is stunt work.
Naturally, it won that year's Academy Award for Best Editing". Among 21st century critics, it holds a 97% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, representing positive reviews from 33 of 34 critics, in a mix of reviews dated from when the film was released to the 2000s, its consensus reading: "Steve McQueen is cool as ice in this thrilling police procedural that also happens to contain the arguably greatest car chase ever."
Awards and honors:
The film was nominated for and won several critical awards. Frank P. Keller won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Film Editing, and it was also nominated for Best Sound.
Five nominations at the BAFTA Film Awards for 1969 included Best Director for Peter Yates, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Vaughn, Best Cinematography for William A. Fraker, Best Film Editing for Frank P. Keller, and Best Sound Track. Robert Fish, Harry Kleiner, and Alan Trustman won the 1969 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture.
Keller won the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature Film. The film also received the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography (William A. Fraker) and the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing – Feature Film. It was successful at the 1970 Laurel Awards, winning Golden Laurel awards for Best Action Drama, Best Action Performance (Steve McQueen) and Best Female New Face (Jacqueline Bisset). In 2000, the Society of Camera Operators awarded Bullitt its "Historical Shot" award to David M. Walsh.
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Lord of the Flies (1963)
YouTube Video: Lord of the Flies Trailer
Pictured below: Theatrical Movie Poster
YouTube Video: Lord of the Flies Trailer
Pictured below: Theatrical Movie Poster
Lord of the Flies is a 1963 British film adaptation of William Golding's novel of the same name about 30 schoolboys who are marooned on an island where they become savages.
It was directed by Peter Brook and produced by Lewis M. Allen. The film was in production for much of 1961, though the film was not released until 1963. Golding himself supported the film. When Kenneth Tynan was a script editor for Ealing Studios he commissioned a script of Lord of the Flies from Nigel Kneale, but Ealing Studios closed in 1959 before it could be produced.
The novel was adapted into a movie for a second time in 1990. The 1963 film is generally more faithful to the novel than the 1990 adaptation.
As with Golding's book, the pessimistic theme of the film is that fear, hate and violence are inherent in the human condition – even when innocent children are placed in seemingly idyllic isolation. The realization of this is seen as being the cause of Ralph's distress in the closing shots.
Charles Silver, Curator in the Department of Film at MoMA, wrote that the film is "about anarchy and how that thin veneer we wear of what we refer to as “civilization” is threatened by the attractive clarion call of bestiality and its accompanying hatred".
Plot:
A group of British schoolboys, living in the midst of a war, are evacuated from England. Their airliner is shot down by briefly-glimpsed fighter planes and ditches near a remote island.
The main character, Ralph, is seen walking through a tropical forest. He meets an intelligent and chubby boy, who reveals his school nickname was Piggy, but asks that Ralph not repeat that. The two go to the beach where they find a conch shell, which Ralph blows to rally the other survivors.
As they emerge from the jungle, it becomes clear that no adults have escaped the crash. Singing is then heard and a small column of school choir boys, wearing dark cloaks and hats and led by a boy named Jack Merridew, walk toward their direction.
The boys decide to appoint a chief. The vote goes to Ralph, not Jack. Initially, Ralph is able to steer the children (all of whom are aged between about six and fourteen) towards a reasonably civilized and co-operative society. Only the boy holding the conch is allowed to speak in turns during meetings or "assemblies". The choir boys make wooden spears, creating the appearance that they are warriors within the group. Crucially, Jack has a knife, capable of killing an animal.
The boys build shelters and start a signal fire using Piggy's glasses. With no rescue in sight, the increasingly authoritarian and violence-prone Jack starts hunting and eventually finds a pig. Meanwhile, the fire, for which he and his "hunters" are responsible, goes out, keeping them hidden from a passing airplane. Piggy chastises Jack, and Jack strikes him in retaliation, knocking his glasses off, and breaking one lens.
Ralph is furious with Jack. Soon some of the children begin to talk of a beast that comes from the water. Jack, obsessed with this imagined threat, leaves the group to start a new tribe, one without rules, where the boys play and hunt all day. Soon, more follow until only a few, including Piggy, are left with Ralph.
Events reach a crisis when a boy named Simon finds a sow's head impaled on a stick, left by Jack as an offering to the Beast. He becomes hypnotized by the head, which has flies swarming all around it. Simon goes to what he believes to be the nest of the Beast and finds a dead pilot under a hanging parachute. Simon runs to Jack's camp to tell them the truth, only to be killed in the darkness by the frenzied children who mistake him for the Beast. Piggy defends the group's actions with a series of rationalizations and denials.
The hunters raid the old group's camp and steal Piggy's glasses. Ralph goes to talk to the new group using the still-present power of the conch to get their attention. However, when Piggy takes the conch, they are not silent (as their rules require) but instead jeer. Roger, the cruel torturer and executioner of the tribe, pushes a boulder off a cliff and kills Piggy.
Ralph hides in the jungle. Jack and his hunters set fires to smoke him out, and Ralph staggers across the smoke-covered island. Stumbling onto the beach, Ralph falls at the feet of a naval officer who stares in shock at the painted and spear-carrying savages that the children have become, before turning to his accompanying landing party. One of the stunned boys tries to tell the officer his name, but cannot remember it. The last scene shows Ralph sobbing as flames spread across the island.
Cast:
Reception:
The film received acclaim from critics. Based on 18 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval rating of 100% from critics, with an average score of 8.3/10. However, it has a mixed to positive score from the audience, with 63%.
PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III wrote "The true surprise in Lord of the Flies is how little these child actors actually feel like 'child actors'. With few exceptions, the acting rarely seems to be forced or flat. This practiced, well-honed craft aids Brook’s vision of a fly on the wall approach that pulls the viewer into each scene."
Bosley Crowther wrote in the The New York Times that "the picture made from it by the writer-director Peter Brook is a curiously flat and fragmentary visualization of the original. It is loosely and jerkily constructed, in its first and middle phases, at least, and it has a strangely perfunctory, almost listless flow of narrative in most of its scenes".
It was directed by Peter Brook and produced by Lewis M. Allen. The film was in production for much of 1961, though the film was not released until 1963. Golding himself supported the film. When Kenneth Tynan was a script editor for Ealing Studios he commissioned a script of Lord of the Flies from Nigel Kneale, but Ealing Studios closed in 1959 before it could be produced.
The novel was adapted into a movie for a second time in 1990. The 1963 film is generally more faithful to the novel than the 1990 adaptation.
As with Golding's book, the pessimistic theme of the film is that fear, hate and violence are inherent in the human condition – even when innocent children are placed in seemingly idyllic isolation. The realization of this is seen as being the cause of Ralph's distress in the closing shots.
Charles Silver, Curator in the Department of Film at MoMA, wrote that the film is "about anarchy and how that thin veneer we wear of what we refer to as “civilization” is threatened by the attractive clarion call of bestiality and its accompanying hatred".
Plot:
A group of British schoolboys, living in the midst of a war, are evacuated from England. Their airliner is shot down by briefly-glimpsed fighter planes and ditches near a remote island.
The main character, Ralph, is seen walking through a tropical forest. He meets an intelligent and chubby boy, who reveals his school nickname was Piggy, but asks that Ralph not repeat that. The two go to the beach where they find a conch shell, which Ralph blows to rally the other survivors.
As they emerge from the jungle, it becomes clear that no adults have escaped the crash. Singing is then heard and a small column of school choir boys, wearing dark cloaks and hats and led by a boy named Jack Merridew, walk toward their direction.
The boys decide to appoint a chief. The vote goes to Ralph, not Jack. Initially, Ralph is able to steer the children (all of whom are aged between about six and fourteen) towards a reasonably civilized and co-operative society. Only the boy holding the conch is allowed to speak in turns during meetings or "assemblies". The choir boys make wooden spears, creating the appearance that they are warriors within the group. Crucially, Jack has a knife, capable of killing an animal.
The boys build shelters and start a signal fire using Piggy's glasses. With no rescue in sight, the increasingly authoritarian and violence-prone Jack starts hunting and eventually finds a pig. Meanwhile, the fire, for which he and his "hunters" are responsible, goes out, keeping them hidden from a passing airplane. Piggy chastises Jack, and Jack strikes him in retaliation, knocking his glasses off, and breaking one lens.
Ralph is furious with Jack. Soon some of the children begin to talk of a beast that comes from the water. Jack, obsessed with this imagined threat, leaves the group to start a new tribe, one without rules, where the boys play and hunt all day. Soon, more follow until only a few, including Piggy, are left with Ralph.
Events reach a crisis when a boy named Simon finds a sow's head impaled on a stick, left by Jack as an offering to the Beast. He becomes hypnotized by the head, which has flies swarming all around it. Simon goes to what he believes to be the nest of the Beast and finds a dead pilot under a hanging parachute. Simon runs to Jack's camp to tell them the truth, only to be killed in the darkness by the frenzied children who mistake him for the Beast. Piggy defends the group's actions with a series of rationalizations and denials.
The hunters raid the old group's camp and steal Piggy's glasses. Ralph goes to talk to the new group using the still-present power of the conch to get their attention. However, when Piggy takes the conch, they are not silent (as their rules require) but instead jeer. Roger, the cruel torturer and executioner of the tribe, pushes a boulder off a cliff and kills Piggy.
Ralph hides in the jungle. Jack and his hunters set fires to smoke him out, and Ralph staggers across the smoke-covered island. Stumbling onto the beach, Ralph falls at the feet of a naval officer who stares in shock at the painted and spear-carrying savages that the children have become, before turning to his accompanying landing party. One of the stunned boys tries to tell the officer his name, but cannot remember it. The last scene shows Ralph sobbing as flames spread across the island.
Cast:
- James Aubrey as Ralph
- Tom Chapin as Jack
- Hugh Edwards as Piggy
- Roger Elwin as Roger
- Tom Gaman as Simon
- David Surtees as Sam
- Simon Surtees as Eric
- Nicholas Hammond as Robert
- Roger Allan as Piers
- Kent Fletcher as Percival
- Richard Horne as Lance
- Timothy Horne as Leslie
- Andrew Horne as Matthew
- Peter Davy as Peter
- David Brujes as Donald
- Christopher Harris as Bill
- Alan Heaps as Neville
- Jonathan Heaps as Howard
- Burnes Hollyman as Douglas
- Peter Ksiezopolski as Francis
- Anthony Mcall-Judson as Maurice
- Malcolm Rodker as Harold
- David St. Clair as George
- Rene Sanfiorenzo Jr. as Charles
- Jeremy Scuse as Rowland
- John Stableford as Digby
- Nicholas Valkenburg as Rupert
- Patrick Valkenburg as Robin
- Edward Valencia as Frederick
- David Walsh as Percy
- John Walsh as Michael
- Jeremy Willis as Henry
- Erik Jordan as Head Clapper Boy
Reception:
The film received acclaim from critics. Based on 18 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval rating of 100% from critics, with an average score of 8.3/10. However, it has a mixed to positive score from the audience, with 63%.
PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III wrote "The true surprise in Lord of the Flies is how little these child actors actually feel like 'child actors'. With few exceptions, the acting rarely seems to be forced or flat. This practiced, well-honed craft aids Brook’s vision of a fly on the wall approach that pulls the viewer into each scene."
Bosley Crowther wrote in the The New York Times that "the picture made from it by the writer-director Peter Brook is a curiously flat and fragmentary visualization of the original. It is loosely and jerkily constructed, in its first and middle phases, at least, and it has a strangely perfunctory, almost listless flow of narrative in most of its scenes".
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
YouTube Video of the Movie Trailer for "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice"
Pictured: (L-R) Elliot Gould ("Ted"), Natalie Wood ("Carol"), Robert Culp ("Bob") and Dyan Cannon ("Alice")
YouTube Video of the Movie Trailer for "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice"
Pictured: (L-R) Elliot Gould ("Ted"), Natalie Wood ("Carol"), Robert Culp ("Bob") and Dyan Cannon ("Alice")
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is a 1969 comedy-drama film directed by Paul Mazursky, written by Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker, who also produced the film, and starring Natalie Wood, Robert Culp, Elliott Gould, and Dyan Cannon.
The original music score was composed by Quincy Jones, and featured Jackie DeShannon performing Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and Sarah Vaughan performing "I know that my Redeemer liveth" from Part III of Handel's Messiah.
The cinematography for the film was by Charles Lang.
The film received four Academy Award nominations, including ones for Gould and Cannon. The Box Office Receipts were $31.9 Million.
Plot:
After a weekend of emotional honesty at an Esalen-style retreat, Los Angeles sophisticates Bob and Carol Sanders (played by Robert Culp and Natalie Wood) return to their life determined to embrace complete openness.
They share their enthusiasm and excitement over their new-found philosophy with their more conservative friends Ted and Alice Henderson (Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon), though their friends remain doubtful.
Soon after, Bob, a filmmaker, has an affair with a young, blonde production assistant on a film shoot in San Francisco. He admits this to Carol after arriving home, describing the event as a purely physical act, not an emotional one. To Bob's surprise, Carol is completely accepting of this.
Later, Carol gleefully reveals the affair to Ted and Alice as they are leaving a dinner party. Alice is particularly disturbed both by Bob's infidelity, as well as Carol's candor, becoming physically ill on the drive home. She and Ted have a hard time coping with the news in bed later that evening.
However, as time passes, they grow to accept that Bob and Carol really are fine with the affair. Later, Ted admits to Bob that he was tempted to have an affair once, but never went through with it; Bob tells Ted he should, rationalizing: "You've got the guilt anyway. Don't waste it."
During another visit to San Francisco, Bob decides to skip a second encounter with the blonde woman, and instead returns home a day earlier than expected. When he arrives, he finds that Carol is having an affair of her own, with her tennis instructor. Although initially outraged, Bob quickly realizes that, like his own affair, the encounter was purely physical.
Bob settles down, and even shares a drink and conversation with the tennis instructor.
When the two couples travel together to Las Vegas, Bob and Carol reveal Carol's affair to Ted and Alice. Ted then admits to an affair on a recent business trip to Miami.
An outraged Alice demands that this new ethos be taken to its obvious conclusion: a mate-sharing foursome. Ted is reluctant, explaining that he loves Carol "like a sister," but eventually acknowledges that he finds her attractive. After discussing it, all four remove their clothes and climb into bed together. Swapping partners, Bob and Alice kiss fervently, as do Ted and Carol; however, after a few moments, all four simply stop.
The scene cuts to the couples walking to the elevator, riding it down, and walking out of the casino hand-in-hand with their original partners. A crowd of men and women of various cultures and races congregate in the casino parking lot, wherein the four main characters exchange long stares with each other and with strangers, reminiscent of the non-verbal communication shown in the early scene at the retreat.
Over this final scene, the film's theme song reminds the viewer that "what the world needs now is love." As Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice look into each partner's eyes, the film fades to black.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice":
The original music score was composed by Quincy Jones, and featured Jackie DeShannon performing Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and Sarah Vaughan performing "I know that my Redeemer liveth" from Part III of Handel's Messiah.
The cinematography for the film was by Charles Lang.
The film received four Academy Award nominations, including ones for Gould and Cannon. The Box Office Receipts were $31.9 Million.
Plot:
After a weekend of emotional honesty at an Esalen-style retreat, Los Angeles sophisticates Bob and Carol Sanders (played by Robert Culp and Natalie Wood) return to their life determined to embrace complete openness.
They share their enthusiasm and excitement over their new-found philosophy with their more conservative friends Ted and Alice Henderson (Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon), though their friends remain doubtful.
Soon after, Bob, a filmmaker, has an affair with a young, blonde production assistant on a film shoot in San Francisco. He admits this to Carol after arriving home, describing the event as a purely physical act, not an emotional one. To Bob's surprise, Carol is completely accepting of this.
Later, Carol gleefully reveals the affair to Ted and Alice as they are leaving a dinner party. Alice is particularly disturbed both by Bob's infidelity, as well as Carol's candor, becoming physically ill on the drive home. She and Ted have a hard time coping with the news in bed later that evening.
However, as time passes, they grow to accept that Bob and Carol really are fine with the affair. Later, Ted admits to Bob that he was tempted to have an affair once, but never went through with it; Bob tells Ted he should, rationalizing: "You've got the guilt anyway. Don't waste it."
During another visit to San Francisco, Bob decides to skip a second encounter with the blonde woman, and instead returns home a day earlier than expected. When he arrives, he finds that Carol is having an affair of her own, with her tennis instructor. Although initially outraged, Bob quickly realizes that, like his own affair, the encounter was purely physical.
Bob settles down, and even shares a drink and conversation with the tennis instructor.
When the two couples travel together to Las Vegas, Bob and Carol reveal Carol's affair to Ted and Alice. Ted then admits to an affair on a recent business trip to Miami.
An outraged Alice demands that this new ethos be taken to its obvious conclusion: a mate-sharing foursome. Ted is reluctant, explaining that he loves Carol "like a sister," but eventually acknowledges that he finds her attractive. After discussing it, all four remove their clothes and climb into bed together. Swapping partners, Bob and Alice kiss fervently, as do Ted and Carol; however, after a few moments, all four simply stop.
The scene cuts to the couples walking to the elevator, riding it down, and walking out of the casino hand-in-hand with their original partners. A crowd of men and women of various cultures and races congregate in the casino parking lot, wherein the four main characters exchange long stares with each other and with strangers, reminiscent of the non-verbal communication shown in the early scene at the retreat.
Over this final scene, the film's theme song reminds the viewer that "what the world needs now is love." As Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice look into each partner's eyes, the film fades to black.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice":
The Hustler is a 1961 American drama film directed by Robert Rossen from Walter Tevis's 1959 novel of the same name, adapted for the screen by Rossen and Sidney Carroll.
It tells the story of small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson and his desire to break into the "major league" of professional hustling and high-stakes wagering by high-rollers that follows it. He throws his raw talent and ambition up against the best player in the country; seeking to best the legendary pool player "Minnesota Fats." After initially losing to Fats and getting involved with unscrupulous manager Bert Gordon, Eddie returns to try again, but only after paying a terrible personal price.
The film was shot on location in New York City. It stars Paul Newman as "Fast" Eddie Felson, Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats, Piper Laurie as Sarah, and George C. Scott as Bert.
The Hustler was a major critical and popular success, gaining a reputation as a modern classic. Its exploration of winning, losing, and character garnered a number of major awards; it is also credited with helping to spark a resurgence in the popularity of pool. Real-life pool player Rudolf Wanderone, known at the time as "New York Fats" and "Chicago Fats", claimed to be the real life inspiration for Gleason's character, Minnesota Fats, and adopted the name as his own.
Plot:
Small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson travels cross-country with his partner Charlie to challenge the legendary player "Minnesota Fats". Arriving at Fats' home pool hall, Eddie declares he will win $10,000 that night. Fats arrives and he and Eddie agree to play straight pool for $200 a game. After initially falling behind, Eddie surges back to being $1,000 ahead and suggests raising the bet to $1,000 a game; Fats agrees. He sends out a runner, Preacher, to Johnny's Bar, ostensibly for whiskey, but really to get professional gambler Bert Gordon to the hall.
Eddie gets ahead $11,000 and Charlie tries to convince him to quit, but Eddie insists the game will end only when Fats says it is over. Fats agrees to continue after Bert labels Eddie a "loser." After 25 hours and an entire bottle of bourbon, Eddie is ahead over $18,000, but loses it all along with all but $200 of his original stake. At their hotel later, Eddie leaves half of the remaining stake with a sleeping Charlie and leaves.
Eddie stashes his belongings at the local bus terminal, where he meets Sarah Packard, an alcoholic who is supported by her father, attends college part-time, and walks with a limp.
He meets her again at a bar. They go back to her place but she refuses to let him in, saying he is "too hungry". Eddie moves into a rooming house and starts hustling for small stakes. He finds Sarah again and this time she takes him in, but with reservations. Charlie finds Eddie at Sarah's and tries to persuade him to go back out on the road. Eddie refuses and Charlie realizes he plans to challenge Fats again.
Eddie realizes that Charlie held out his percentage and becomes enraged, believing that with that money he could have rebounded to beat Fats. Eddie dismisses Charlie as a scared old man and tells him to "go lie down and die" by himself.
At Johnny's Bar, Eddie joins a poker game where Bert is playing, and loses $20. Afterward, Bert tells Eddie that he has talent as a pool player but no character. He figures that Eddie will need at least $3,000 to challenge Fats again. Bert calls him a "born loser" but nevertheless offers to stake him in return for 75% of his winnings; Eddie refuses.
Eddie humiliates a local pool shark, exposing himself as a hustler, and the other players punish him by breaking his thumbs. As he heals, Sarah cares for him and tells him she loves him, but he cannot say the words in return. When Eddie is ready to play, he agrees to Bert's terms, deciding that a "25% slice of something big is better than a 100% slice of nothing".
Bert, Eddie, and Sarah travel to the Kentucky Derby, where Bert arranges a match for Eddie against a wealthy local socialite named Findley. The game turns out to be carom billiards, not pool. When Eddie loses badly, Bert refuses to keep staking him. Sarah pleads with Eddie to leave with her, saying that the world he is living in and its inhabitants are "perverted, twisted, and crippled"; he refuses.
Seeing Eddie's anger, Bert agrees to let the match continue at $1,000 a game. Eddie comes back to win $12,000. He collects his $3,000 share and decides to walk back to the hotel. Bert arrives first and subjects Sarah to a humiliating sexual encounter. After, she scrawls "PERVERTED", "TWISTED", and "CRIPPLED" in lipstick on the bathroom mirror. Eddie arrives back at the hotel to learn that she has killed herself.
Eddie returns to challenge Fats again, putting up his entire $3,000 stake on a single game. He wins game after game, beating Fats so badly that Fats is forced to quit. Bert demands a share of Eddie's winnings and threatens that Eddie will be injured unless he pays. But Eddie says that if he is not killed he will kill Bert when he recovers; invoking the memory of Sarah, he shames Bert into giving up his claim. Instead, Bert orders Eddie never to walk into a big-time pool hall again. Eddie and Fats compliment each other as players, and Eddie walks out.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "The Hustler":
It tells the story of small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson and his desire to break into the "major league" of professional hustling and high-stakes wagering by high-rollers that follows it. He throws his raw talent and ambition up against the best player in the country; seeking to best the legendary pool player "Minnesota Fats." After initially losing to Fats and getting involved with unscrupulous manager Bert Gordon, Eddie returns to try again, but only after paying a terrible personal price.
The film was shot on location in New York City. It stars Paul Newman as "Fast" Eddie Felson, Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats, Piper Laurie as Sarah, and George C. Scott as Bert.
The Hustler was a major critical and popular success, gaining a reputation as a modern classic. Its exploration of winning, losing, and character garnered a number of major awards; it is also credited with helping to spark a resurgence in the popularity of pool. Real-life pool player Rudolf Wanderone, known at the time as "New York Fats" and "Chicago Fats", claimed to be the real life inspiration for Gleason's character, Minnesota Fats, and adopted the name as his own.
Plot:
Small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson travels cross-country with his partner Charlie to challenge the legendary player "Minnesota Fats". Arriving at Fats' home pool hall, Eddie declares he will win $10,000 that night. Fats arrives and he and Eddie agree to play straight pool for $200 a game. After initially falling behind, Eddie surges back to being $1,000 ahead and suggests raising the bet to $1,000 a game; Fats agrees. He sends out a runner, Preacher, to Johnny's Bar, ostensibly for whiskey, but really to get professional gambler Bert Gordon to the hall.
Eddie gets ahead $11,000 and Charlie tries to convince him to quit, but Eddie insists the game will end only when Fats says it is over. Fats agrees to continue after Bert labels Eddie a "loser." After 25 hours and an entire bottle of bourbon, Eddie is ahead over $18,000, but loses it all along with all but $200 of his original stake. At their hotel later, Eddie leaves half of the remaining stake with a sleeping Charlie and leaves.
Eddie stashes his belongings at the local bus terminal, where he meets Sarah Packard, an alcoholic who is supported by her father, attends college part-time, and walks with a limp.
He meets her again at a bar. They go back to her place but she refuses to let him in, saying he is "too hungry". Eddie moves into a rooming house and starts hustling for small stakes. He finds Sarah again and this time she takes him in, but with reservations. Charlie finds Eddie at Sarah's and tries to persuade him to go back out on the road. Eddie refuses and Charlie realizes he plans to challenge Fats again.
Eddie realizes that Charlie held out his percentage and becomes enraged, believing that with that money he could have rebounded to beat Fats. Eddie dismisses Charlie as a scared old man and tells him to "go lie down and die" by himself.
At Johnny's Bar, Eddie joins a poker game where Bert is playing, and loses $20. Afterward, Bert tells Eddie that he has talent as a pool player but no character. He figures that Eddie will need at least $3,000 to challenge Fats again. Bert calls him a "born loser" but nevertheless offers to stake him in return for 75% of his winnings; Eddie refuses.
Eddie humiliates a local pool shark, exposing himself as a hustler, and the other players punish him by breaking his thumbs. As he heals, Sarah cares for him and tells him she loves him, but he cannot say the words in return. When Eddie is ready to play, he agrees to Bert's terms, deciding that a "25% slice of something big is better than a 100% slice of nothing".
Bert, Eddie, and Sarah travel to the Kentucky Derby, where Bert arranges a match for Eddie against a wealthy local socialite named Findley. The game turns out to be carom billiards, not pool. When Eddie loses badly, Bert refuses to keep staking him. Sarah pleads with Eddie to leave with her, saying that the world he is living in and its inhabitants are "perverted, twisted, and crippled"; he refuses.
Seeing Eddie's anger, Bert agrees to let the match continue at $1,000 a game. Eddie comes back to win $12,000. He collects his $3,000 share and decides to walk back to the hotel. Bert arrives first and subjects Sarah to a humiliating sexual encounter. After, she scrawls "PERVERTED", "TWISTED", and "CRIPPLED" in lipstick on the bathroom mirror. Eddie arrives back at the hotel to learn that she has killed herself.
Eddie returns to challenge Fats again, putting up his entire $3,000 stake on a single game. He wins game after game, beating Fats so badly that Fats is forced to quit. Bert demands a share of Eddie's winnings and threatens that Eddie will be injured unless he pays. But Eddie says that if he is not killed he will kill Bert when he recovers; invoking the memory of Sarah, he shames Bert into giving up his claim. Instead, Bert orders Eddie never to walk into a big-time pool hall again. Eddie and Fats compliment each other as players, and Eddie walks out.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "The Hustler":
- Cast
- Production
- Themes
- Reception
- Legacy
- See also:
Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance. Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp who refuses to submit to the system.
The film, set in the early 1950s, is based on Donn Pearce's 1965 novel of the same name. Pearce sold the story to Warner Bros., who then hired him to write the script. Due to Pearce's lack of film experience, the studio added Frank Pierson to rework the screenplay. Newman's biographer Marie Edelman Borden states that the "tough, honest" script drew together threads from earlier movies, especially Hombre, Newman's earlier film of 1967.
The film has been cited by Roger Ebert as an anti-establishment film which was shot during the time of the Vietnam War, in which Newman's character endures "physical punishment, psychological cruelty, hopelessness and equal parts of sadism and masochism."
His influence on his prison mates and the torture that he endures is compared to that of Jesus, and Christian symbolism is used throughout the film, culminating in a photograph superimposed over crossroads at the end of the film in comparison to the crucifixion. Filming took place on the San Joaquin River Delta, and the set, imitating a southern prison farm, was built in Stockton, California. The filmmakers sent a crew to Tavares Road Prison in Tavares, Florida, to take photographs and measurements.
Upon its release, Cool Hand Luke received favorable reviews and became a box-office success. The film cemented Newman's status as one of the era's top box-office actors, while the film was described as the "touchstone of an era."
Newman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, George Kennedy won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Pearce and Pierson were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the score by Lalo Schifrin was also nominated for the Best Original Score.
In 2005, the United States Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry, considering it to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." It has a 100% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The quotation used by the prison warden (Strother Martin) in the film, which begins with "What we've got here is failure to communicate," was listed at No. 11 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 most memorable movie lines.
Plot:
Decorated war veteran Lucas "Luke" Jackson (Paul Newman), is arrested for cutting the "heads" off parking meters (cutting the meters off their poles) one drunken night. He is sentenced to two years in prison and sent to a Florida chain gang prison run by a stern warden, the Captain (Strother Martin), and a stoic rifleman, Walking Boss Godfrey (Morgan Woodward), whose eyes are always covered by a pair of mirrored sunglasses. Carr (Clifton James) the floorwalker, tells the rules to the new set of prisoners, with any violations resulting in spending the night in "the box," a small square room with limited air and very little room to move.
Luke refuses to observe the established pecking order among the prisoners and quickly runs afoul of the prisoners' leader, Dragline (George Kennedy). When the pair have a boxing match, the prisoners and guards watch with interest. Although Luke is severely outmatched by his larger opponent, he refuses to acquiesce. Eventually, Dragline refuses to continue the fight. Luke's tenacity earns the prisoners' respect and draws the attention of the guards. Later, Luke wins a poker game by bluffing with a hand worth nothing. Luke comments that "sometimes, nothing can be a real cool hand", prompting Dragline to nickname him "Cool Hand Luke".
After a visit from his sick mother, Arletta (Jo Van Fleet), Luke becomes more optimistic about his situation. He continually confronts the Captain and the guards, and his sense of humor and independence prove to be both contagious and inspiring to the other prisoners. Luke's struggle for supremacy peaks when he leads a work crew in a seemingly impossible but successful effort to complete a road-paving job in less than one day. The other prisoners start to idolize him after he makes and wins a spur-of-the moment bet that he can eat fifty hard-boiled eggs in one hour.
One day, Luke picks up a deadly rattlesnake from the grassy ditch and holds it up for Boss Godfrey to shoot with his rifle. Luke tosses the snake to the boss as a joke, before he hands him his walking cane. Dragline advises Luke to be more careful about his actions pertaining to the "man with no eyes."
A rainstorm causes everyone to prematurely end their work. Before he joins the other prisoners in the truck, Luke shouts to God, testing him. On that same evening, Luke receives a letter stating that his mother has died.
After news of his mother's death reaches Luke, the Captain, anticipating that Luke might attempt to escape in order to attend his mother's funeral, has him locked in the prison punishment box. After being released from the box, receiving word that his mother's burial is completed and being told to forget about her, Luke is determined to escape. Under the cover of a Fourth of July celebration, he makes his initial escape attempt. He is later recaptured by local police and returned to the chain gang, but not before one of the bloodhounds sent after him dies from strain caused by struggling through barbed-wire fences.
After his capture and return, the Captain has Luke fitted with leg-irons and delivers a warning speech to the other inmates, explaining, "What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men."
A short time later, Luke escapes again by using string to shake a bush and distract the guards, visiting a nearby house where he uses an axe to remove his shackles. To keep the guard dogs from following his scent, he spreads curry powder and chili powder across the ground to send them into sneezing fits and overload their sensitive sense of smell.
While free, Luke mails Dragline a magazine that includes a photograph of him with two beautiful women. He is soon recaptured, beaten, returned to the prison camp, and fitted with two sets of leg irons. Luke is warned by the Captain that if he ever attempts to escape again, he will be killed on the spot. Luke is now annoyed by the other prisoners fawning over the magazine photo and reveals it to be a fake. At first, the other prisoners are angry, but after a long stay in the box, when Luke is forced to eat a huge serving of rice, they come to help him finish it.
As punishment for his escape, he is forced to repeatedly dig a grave-sized hole in the prison camp yard, fill it back in, and then be beaten. The prisoners observe his persecution, singing spirituals. Finally, as the other prisoners watch from the windows of the bunkhouse, an exhausted Luke collapses in the hole, begging God for mercy and pleads with the bosses not to hit him again. Believing Luke is finally broken, the Captain stops the punishment. Boss Paul warns Luke that he will be killed if ever he runs away again, which Luke promises in tears not to do. The prisoners begin to lose their idealized image of Luke, and one tears up the photograph of Luke with the women.
Seemingly broken, and again working on the chain gang, Luke stops working to give water to a prisoner. Watched by the disappointed prisoners, he runs to one of the trucks to take Boss Godfrey's rifle to him. After Boss Godfrey shoots a snapping turtle, Luke retrieves it from a slough for him, complimenting the boss for his shot. Luke takes one last stab at freedom when he is ordered to take the turtle to the truck. He steals the dump truck, as well as the keys to the other trucks. In the excitement of the moment, Dragline jumps in the dump truck and joins Luke in his escape.
Later, after abandoning the truck, Luke tells Dragline that they should part ways. Dragline agrees and leaves. Luke enters a church, where he talks to God and blames Him for sabotaging him so he cannot win in life. Moments later, police cars arrive.
Dragline walks in and tells Luke that the police and bosses have promised not to hurt Luke if he surrenders peacefully. But Luke, feeling that his life is no longer worth living, walks to a window facing the police and mocks the Captain by repeating the first part of his speech ("What we've got here is a failure to communicate.").
He is immediately shot in the neck by Boss Godfrey. Dragline carries Luke outside, then charges at Boss Godfrey and attempts to strangle him until he is beaten and subdued by the other guards. In tears, Dragline implores Luke to live. The local police want to take Luke to a nearby hospital, but the Captain tells them to take him to the prison hospital instead, a long enough distance that Luke's chances of survival are slim.
As the captain's car drives away, it crushes Boss Godfrey's glasses. After Luke's implied death, Dragline and the other prisoners reminisce about him. In the final scene, the prison crew is seen working near a rural intersection close to where Luke was shot. Dragline is now wearing leg irons, and there is a new Walking Boss. As the camera zooms out, the torn photograph of Luke grinning with the two women is superimposed on a bird's eye view of the cross-shaped road junction.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Cool Hand Luke":
The film, set in the early 1950s, is based on Donn Pearce's 1965 novel of the same name. Pearce sold the story to Warner Bros., who then hired him to write the script. Due to Pearce's lack of film experience, the studio added Frank Pierson to rework the screenplay. Newman's biographer Marie Edelman Borden states that the "tough, honest" script drew together threads from earlier movies, especially Hombre, Newman's earlier film of 1967.
The film has been cited by Roger Ebert as an anti-establishment film which was shot during the time of the Vietnam War, in which Newman's character endures "physical punishment, psychological cruelty, hopelessness and equal parts of sadism and masochism."
His influence on his prison mates and the torture that he endures is compared to that of Jesus, and Christian symbolism is used throughout the film, culminating in a photograph superimposed over crossroads at the end of the film in comparison to the crucifixion. Filming took place on the San Joaquin River Delta, and the set, imitating a southern prison farm, was built in Stockton, California. The filmmakers sent a crew to Tavares Road Prison in Tavares, Florida, to take photographs and measurements.
Upon its release, Cool Hand Luke received favorable reviews and became a box-office success. The film cemented Newman's status as one of the era's top box-office actors, while the film was described as the "touchstone of an era."
Newman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, George Kennedy won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Pearce and Pierson were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the score by Lalo Schifrin was also nominated for the Best Original Score.
In 2005, the United States Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry, considering it to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." It has a 100% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The quotation used by the prison warden (Strother Martin) in the film, which begins with "What we've got here is failure to communicate," was listed at No. 11 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 most memorable movie lines.
Plot:
Decorated war veteran Lucas "Luke" Jackson (Paul Newman), is arrested for cutting the "heads" off parking meters (cutting the meters off their poles) one drunken night. He is sentenced to two years in prison and sent to a Florida chain gang prison run by a stern warden, the Captain (Strother Martin), and a stoic rifleman, Walking Boss Godfrey (Morgan Woodward), whose eyes are always covered by a pair of mirrored sunglasses. Carr (Clifton James) the floorwalker, tells the rules to the new set of prisoners, with any violations resulting in spending the night in "the box," a small square room with limited air and very little room to move.
Luke refuses to observe the established pecking order among the prisoners and quickly runs afoul of the prisoners' leader, Dragline (George Kennedy). When the pair have a boxing match, the prisoners and guards watch with interest. Although Luke is severely outmatched by his larger opponent, he refuses to acquiesce. Eventually, Dragline refuses to continue the fight. Luke's tenacity earns the prisoners' respect and draws the attention of the guards. Later, Luke wins a poker game by bluffing with a hand worth nothing. Luke comments that "sometimes, nothing can be a real cool hand", prompting Dragline to nickname him "Cool Hand Luke".
After a visit from his sick mother, Arletta (Jo Van Fleet), Luke becomes more optimistic about his situation. He continually confronts the Captain and the guards, and his sense of humor and independence prove to be both contagious and inspiring to the other prisoners. Luke's struggle for supremacy peaks when he leads a work crew in a seemingly impossible but successful effort to complete a road-paving job in less than one day. The other prisoners start to idolize him after he makes and wins a spur-of-the moment bet that he can eat fifty hard-boiled eggs in one hour.
One day, Luke picks up a deadly rattlesnake from the grassy ditch and holds it up for Boss Godfrey to shoot with his rifle. Luke tosses the snake to the boss as a joke, before he hands him his walking cane. Dragline advises Luke to be more careful about his actions pertaining to the "man with no eyes."
A rainstorm causes everyone to prematurely end their work. Before he joins the other prisoners in the truck, Luke shouts to God, testing him. On that same evening, Luke receives a letter stating that his mother has died.
After news of his mother's death reaches Luke, the Captain, anticipating that Luke might attempt to escape in order to attend his mother's funeral, has him locked in the prison punishment box. After being released from the box, receiving word that his mother's burial is completed and being told to forget about her, Luke is determined to escape. Under the cover of a Fourth of July celebration, he makes his initial escape attempt. He is later recaptured by local police and returned to the chain gang, but not before one of the bloodhounds sent after him dies from strain caused by struggling through barbed-wire fences.
After his capture and return, the Captain has Luke fitted with leg-irons and delivers a warning speech to the other inmates, explaining, "What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men."
A short time later, Luke escapes again by using string to shake a bush and distract the guards, visiting a nearby house where he uses an axe to remove his shackles. To keep the guard dogs from following his scent, he spreads curry powder and chili powder across the ground to send them into sneezing fits and overload their sensitive sense of smell.
While free, Luke mails Dragline a magazine that includes a photograph of him with two beautiful women. He is soon recaptured, beaten, returned to the prison camp, and fitted with two sets of leg irons. Luke is warned by the Captain that if he ever attempts to escape again, he will be killed on the spot. Luke is now annoyed by the other prisoners fawning over the magazine photo and reveals it to be a fake. At first, the other prisoners are angry, but after a long stay in the box, when Luke is forced to eat a huge serving of rice, they come to help him finish it.
As punishment for his escape, he is forced to repeatedly dig a grave-sized hole in the prison camp yard, fill it back in, and then be beaten. The prisoners observe his persecution, singing spirituals. Finally, as the other prisoners watch from the windows of the bunkhouse, an exhausted Luke collapses in the hole, begging God for mercy and pleads with the bosses not to hit him again. Believing Luke is finally broken, the Captain stops the punishment. Boss Paul warns Luke that he will be killed if ever he runs away again, which Luke promises in tears not to do. The prisoners begin to lose their idealized image of Luke, and one tears up the photograph of Luke with the women.
Seemingly broken, and again working on the chain gang, Luke stops working to give water to a prisoner. Watched by the disappointed prisoners, he runs to one of the trucks to take Boss Godfrey's rifle to him. After Boss Godfrey shoots a snapping turtle, Luke retrieves it from a slough for him, complimenting the boss for his shot. Luke takes one last stab at freedom when he is ordered to take the turtle to the truck. He steals the dump truck, as well as the keys to the other trucks. In the excitement of the moment, Dragline jumps in the dump truck and joins Luke in his escape.
Later, after abandoning the truck, Luke tells Dragline that they should part ways. Dragline agrees and leaves. Luke enters a church, where he talks to God and blames Him for sabotaging him so he cannot win in life. Moments later, police cars arrive.
Dragline walks in and tells Luke that the police and bosses have promised not to hurt Luke if he surrenders peacefully. But Luke, feeling that his life is no longer worth living, walks to a window facing the police and mocks the Captain by repeating the first part of his speech ("What we've got here is a failure to communicate.").
He is immediately shot in the neck by Boss Godfrey. Dragline carries Luke outside, then charges at Boss Godfrey and attempts to strangle him until he is beaten and subdued by the other guards. In tears, Dragline implores Luke to live. The local police want to take Luke to a nearby hospital, but the Captain tells them to take him to the prison hospital instead, a long enough distance that Luke's chances of survival are slim.
As the captain's car drives away, it crushes Boss Godfrey's glasses. After Luke's implied death, Dragline and the other prisoners reminisce about him. In the final scene, the prison crew is seen working near a rural intersection close to where Luke was shot. Dragline is now wearing leg irons, and there is a new Walking Boss. As the camera zooms out, the torn photograph of Luke grinning with the two women is superimposed on a bird's eye view of the cross-shaped road junction.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Cool Hand Luke":
- Cast
- Production
- Themes
- Release and reception
- Legacy
- See Also:
- List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a film review aggregator website
- Cool Hand Luke at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Cool Hand Luke on Internet Movie Database
- Cool Hand Luke at the TCM Movie Database
- Cool Hand Luke at AllMovie
- Cool Hand Luke at Rotten Tomatoes
The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The film tells the story of 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), a recent college graduate with no well-defined aim in life, who is seduced by an older woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), then falls in love with her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross).
The film was released on December 22, 1967, received positive reviews and grossed $104.9 million. With the figures adjusted for inflation the film's gross is $754 million, making it the 22nd highest-ever grossing film in North America.
In 1996, The Graduate was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Initially, the film was placed at number 7 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list in 1998. When AFI revised the list in 2007, the film was moved to number 17.
The Graduate won the Academy Award for Best Director for Nichols and was nominated in six other categories, making it the last film so far to win Best Director and nothing else.
Plot:
Benjamin Braddock, aged twenty-one, has earned his bachelor's degree from Williams College and has returned home to a party celebrating his graduation at his parents' house in Pasadena, California. Benjamin, visibly uncomfortable as his parents deliver accolades and neighborhood friends ask him about his future plans, evades those who try to congratulate him.
Mrs. Robinson, the neglected wife of his father's law partner, insists that he drive her home. Benjamin is coerced inside to have a drink and Mrs. Robinson attempts to seduce him. She invites him up to her daughter Elaine's room to see her portrait and then enters the room naked, making it clear that she is available to him. Benjamin initially rebuffs her but a few days later after his scuba demonstration on his birthday, he clumsily organizes a tryst at the Taft hotel.
Benjamin spends the remainder of the summer drifting around in the pool by day, purposefully neglecting to select a graduate school, and seeing Mrs. Robinson at the hotel by night. He discovers that he and Mrs. Robinson have nothing to talk about.
However, after Benjamin pesters her one evening, Mrs. Robinson reveals that she entered into a loveless marriage when she accidentally became pregnant with Elaine. Both Mr. Robinson and Benjamin’s parents encourage him to call Elaine, even though Mrs. Robinson makes her disapproval clear.
Benjamin takes Elaine on a date but tries to sabotage it by ignoring her, driving recklessly and taking her to a strip club. After Elaine runs out of the strip club in tears, Benjamin has a change of heart, realizes how rude he was to her, and discovers that Elaine is someone with whom he is comfortable.
In search of a late-night drink they visit the Taft hotel but when the staff greet Benjamin as "Mr. Gladstone" (the name he uses during his rendezvous with Mrs. Robinson) Elaine correctly guesses that he has been having an affair with a married woman and accepts his assurances that the affair is now over.
To preempt a furious Mrs. Robinson, who threatens to tell Elaine her version of their affair, Benjamin tells Elaine that the married woman was her mother. Elaine is distraught and returns to Berkeley. Benjamin pursues her there and tries to talk to her. She reveals that her mother's story is that he raped her while she was drunk, and refuses to believe that it was in fact Mrs. Robinson who seduced Benjamin. After much discussion over several days, Benjamin begins to talk her around.
After discovering the affair Mr. Robinson arrives at Berkeley and confronts Benjamin at his rooming house, not knowing whether he can prosecute him but he thinks he can, and threatens to put him behind bars if he sees his daughter again. Mr. Robinson then forces Elaine to drop out of college and takes her away to marry Carl, a classmate with whom she had briefly been involved.
Returning to Pasadena in search of Elaine, Benjamin breaks into the Robinson home but encounters Mrs. Robinson. She tells him he will not be able to stop the wedding and then calls the police claiming that her house is being burgled.
Benjamin visits Carl’s fraternity brothers who tell him that the wedding is in Santa Barbara, California that very morning. He rushes to the church and arrives just as Elaine is married. He bangs on the glass at the back of the church and screams out "Elaine!" repeatedly. After a brief hesitation, Elaine screams out "Ben!" and starts to run toward him. A brawl ensues as guests try to stop Elaine and Benjamin from leaving together.
Elaine manages to break free from her mother, who then slaps her. Benjamin manages to keep the guests at bay by using a large cross and jamming it into the doors of the church. Both he and Elaine then run into the street to flag down a passing bus and take the back seat, elated at their victory. As the bus drives away, they smile, then stop, looking uncertain.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "The Graduate":
The film was released on December 22, 1967, received positive reviews and grossed $104.9 million. With the figures adjusted for inflation the film's gross is $754 million, making it the 22nd highest-ever grossing film in North America.
In 1996, The Graduate was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Initially, the film was placed at number 7 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list in 1998. When AFI revised the list in 2007, the film was moved to number 17.
The Graduate won the Academy Award for Best Director for Nichols and was nominated in six other categories, making it the last film so far to win Best Director and nothing else.
Plot:
Benjamin Braddock, aged twenty-one, has earned his bachelor's degree from Williams College and has returned home to a party celebrating his graduation at his parents' house in Pasadena, California. Benjamin, visibly uncomfortable as his parents deliver accolades and neighborhood friends ask him about his future plans, evades those who try to congratulate him.
Mrs. Robinson, the neglected wife of his father's law partner, insists that he drive her home. Benjamin is coerced inside to have a drink and Mrs. Robinson attempts to seduce him. She invites him up to her daughter Elaine's room to see her portrait and then enters the room naked, making it clear that she is available to him. Benjamin initially rebuffs her but a few days later after his scuba demonstration on his birthday, he clumsily organizes a tryst at the Taft hotel.
Benjamin spends the remainder of the summer drifting around in the pool by day, purposefully neglecting to select a graduate school, and seeing Mrs. Robinson at the hotel by night. He discovers that he and Mrs. Robinson have nothing to talk about.
However, after Benjamin pesters her one evening, Mrs. Robinson reveals that she entered into a loveless marriage when she accidentally became pregnant with Elaine. Both Mr. Robinson and Benjamin’s parents encourage him to call Elaine, even though Mrs. Robinson makes her disapproval clear.
Benjamin takes Elaine on a date but tries to sabotage it by ignoring her, driving recklessly and taking her to a strip club. After Elaine runs out of the strip club in tears, Benjamin has a change of heart, realizes how rude he was to her, and discovers that Elaine is someone with whom he is comfortable.
In search of a late-night drink they visit the Taft hotel but when the staff greet Benjamin as "Mr. Gladstone" (the name he uses during his rendezvous with Mrs. Robinson) Elaine correctly guesses that he has been having an affair with a married woman and accepts his assurances that the affair is now over.
To preempt a furious Mrs. Robinson, who threatens to tell Elaine her version of their affair, Benjamin tells Elaine that the married woman was her mother. Elaine is distraught and returns to Berkeley. Benjamin pursues her there and tries to talk to her. She reveals that her mother's story is that he raped her while she was drunk, and refuses to believe that it was in fact Mrs. Robinson who seduced Benjamin. After much discussion over several days, Benjamin begins to talk her around.
After discovering the affair Mr. Robinson arrives at Berkeley and confronts Benjamin at his rooming house, not knowing whether he can prosecute him but he thinks he can, and threatens to put him behind bars if he sees his daughter again. Mr. Robinson then forces Elaine to drop out of college and takes her away to marry Carl, a classmate with whom she had briefly been involved.
Returning to Pasadena in search of Elaine, Benjamin breaks into the Robinson home but encounters Mrs. Robinson. She tells him he will not be able to stop the wedding and then calls the police claiming that her house is being burgled.
Benjamin visits Carl’s fraternity brothers who tell him that the wedding is in Santa Barbara, California that very morning. He rushes to the church and arrives just as Elaine is married. He bangs on the glass at the back of the church and screams out "Elaine!" repeatedly. After a brief hesitation, Elaine screams out "Ben!" and starts to run toward him. A brawl ensues as guests try to stop Elaine and Benjamin from leaving together.
Elaine manages to break free from her mother, who then slaps her. Benjamin manages to keep the guests at bay by using a large cross and jamming it into the doors of the church. Both he and Elaine then run into the street to flag down a passing bus and take the back seat, elated at their victory. As the bus drives away, they smile, then stop, looking uncertain.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "The Graduate":
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a 1961 American romantic comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and written by George Axelrod, loosely based on Truman Capote's novella of the same name. Starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard, and featuring Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, and Mickey Rooney, the film was initially released on October 5, 1961 by Paramount Pictures.
Hepburn's portrayal of Holly Golightly as the naïve, eccentric socialite is generally considered to be the actress's most memorable and identifiable role. Hepburn regarded it as one of her most challenging roles, since she was an introvert required to play an extrovert.
Breakfast at Tiffany's was received positively at the time, and won two Academy Awards: Best Original Score and Best Original Song for "Moon River", which was also selected as the fourth most memorable song in Hollywood history by the American Film Institute in 2004.
The film was also nominated for three other Academy Awards: Best Actress for Hepburn, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Art Direction. In 2012, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot:
Early one morning, a taxi pulls up at Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue in New York City, from which elegantly dressed Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) emerges. After looking into the shop's windows, she strolls home. Outside her apartment, she fends off Sid Arbuck (Claude Stroud), her date from the disastrous night before.
Inside the apartment building, Holly can't find her keys so she buzzes her landlord, Mr. Yunioshi (Mickey Rooney), who begrudgingly lets her in. Later, she is awakened by new neighbor Paul Varjak (George Peppard), ringing her doorbell to get into the building. The pair chat as she dresses to leave for her weekly visit to Sally Tomato (Alan Reed), a mobster incarcerated at Sing Sing prison. Tomato's lawyer, O'Shaughnessy, pays her $100 a week to deliver "the weather report".
As she is leaving for Sing Sing, Holly is introduced to Paul's "decorator", wealthy older woman Emily Eustace Failenson (Patricia Neal), whom Paul nicknames "2E". That night, Holly goes out onto the fire escape to elude an over-eager date (Mel Blanc). She peeks into Paul's apartment and sees 2E leaving money and kissing Paul goodbye.
After 2E leaves, Holly enters Paul's apartment and learns that he is a writer who has not had anything published since a book of vignettes five years before. Holly, in turn, explains that she is trying to save money to support her brother Fred when he gets out of the Army.
The pair fall asleep, but are awakened when Holly has a nightmare about Fred. She later buys Paul a typewriter ribbon to apologize and invites him to a party at her apartment. There, Paul meets her Hollywood agent, O. J. Berman (Martin Balsam), who describes Holly's transformation from country girl into Manhattan socialite. He is also introduced to José da Silva Pereira (José Luis de Vilallonga), a wealthy Brazilian politician, and Rusty Trawler (Stanley Adams), the "ninth richest man in America under 50".
In the days that follow, Paul and Holly become closer. One day, 2E enters Paul's apartment, worried that she is being followed. Paul tells her that he will investigate and eventually confronts Doc Golightly (Buddy Ebsen), Holly's estranged husband. Doc explains that Holly's real name is Lula Mae Barnes. They married when she was 14, and he wants to take her back to Texas, as Fred will be returning. After Paul reunites Holly and Doc, she tells Paul the marriage was annulled. At the bus station, she tells Doc she is not going with him. Doc leaves broken-hearted.
After drinking at a club, Paul and Holly return to her apartment, where she drunkenly tells him that she plans to marry Trawler for his money. A few days later, Paul learns that one of his short stories will be published. On the way to tell Holly, he sees a newspaper headline stating that Trawler has married someone else. Holly and Paul agree to spend the day together, taking turns doing things that each has never done before.
At Tiffany's, Paul has the ring from Doc Golightly's box of Cracker Jack engraved as a present for Holly. After spending the night together, he awakens to find her gone. When 2E arrives, Paul ends their relationship. She calmly accepts, having earlier concluded that he and some other woman are in love.
Holly schemes to marry José for his money, which angers Paul. After Holly receives a telegram notifying her of Fred's death, she trashes her apartment. Months later, Paul has moved out. He is invited to dinner by Holly, who is leaving the next morning for Brazil to continue her relationship with José. However, they are arrested in connection with Sally Tomato's drug ring, and Holly spends the night in jail.
The next morning, Holly is released on bail and finds Paul waiting, and they take a cab. He has her cat and a letter from José explaining he must end their relationship due to her arrest. Holly insists she will go to Brazil anyway, asks the cab to pull over, and releases the cat into the rain.
Paul confronts Holly about his love and her behavior, then leaves, tossing the Cracker Jack ring they had engraved for her by Tiffany's into her lap and telling her to examine her life. She goes through a decision making moment, puts on the ring, and runs after Paul, who has gone looking for the cat. She searches the alley and finally finds the cat. Paul and Holly look into each other's eyes and kiss.
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Hepburn's portrayal of Holly Golightly as the naïve, eccentric socialite is generally considered to be the actress's most memorable and identifiable role. Hepburn regarded it as one of her most challenging roles, since she was an introvert required to play an extrovert.
Breakfast at Tiffany's was received positively at the time, and won two Academy Awards: Best Original Score and Best Original Song for "Moon River", which was also selected as the fourth most memorable song in Hollywood history by the American Film Institute in 2004.
The film was also nominated for three other Academy Awards: Best Actress for Hepburn, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Art Direction. In 2012, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot:
Early one morning, a taxi pulls up at Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue in New York City, from which elegantly dressed Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) emerges. After looking into the shop's windows, she strolls home. Outside her apartment, she fends off Sid Arbuck (Claude Stroud), her date from the disastrous night before.
Inside the apartment building, Holly can't find her keys so she buzzes her landlord, Mr. Yunioshi (Mickey Rooney), who begrudgingly lets her in. Later, she is awakened by new neighbor Paul Varjak (George Peppard), ringing her doorbell to get into the building. The pair chat as she dresses to leave for her weekly visit to Sally Tomato (Alan Reed), a mobster incarcerated at Sing Sing prison. Tomato's lawyer, O'Shaughnessy, pays her $100 a week to deliver "the weather report".
As she is leaving for Sing Sing, Holly is introduced to Paul's "decorator", wealthy older woman Emily Eustace Failenson (Patricia Neal), whom Paul nicknames "2E". That night, Holly goes out onto the fire escape to elude an over-eager date (Mel Blanc). She peeks into Paul's apartment and sees 2E leaving money and kissing Paul goodbye.
After 2E leaves, Holly enters Paul's apartment and learns that he is a writer who has not had anything published since a book of vignettes five years before. Holly, in turn, explains that she is trying to save money to support her brother Fred when he gets out of the Army.
The pair fall asleep, but are awakened when Holly has a nightmare about Fred. She later buys Paul a typewriter ribbon to apologize and invites him to a party at her apartment. There, Paul meets her Hollywood agent, O. J. Berman (Martin Balsam), who describes Holly's transformation from country girl into Manhattan socialite. He is also introduced to José da Silva Pereira (José Luis de Vilallonga), a wealthy Brazilian politician, and Rusty Trawler (Stanley Adams), the "ninth richest man in America under 50".
In the days that follow, Paul and Holly become closer. One day, 2E enters Paul's apartment, worried that she is being followed. Paul tells her that he will investigate and eventually confronts Doc Golightly (Buddy Ebsen), Holly's estranged husband. Doc explains that Holly's real name is Lula Mae Barnes. They married when she was 14, and he wants to take her back to Texas, as Fred will be returning. After Paul reunites Holly and Doc, she tells Paul the marriage was annulled. At the bus station, she tells Doc she is not going with him. Doc leaves broken-hearted.
After drinking at a club, Paul and Holly return to her apartment, where she drunkenly tells him that she plans to marry Trawler for his money. A few days later, Paul learns that one of his short stories will be published. On the way to tell Holly, he sees a newspaper headline stating that Trawler has married someone else. Holly and Paul agree to spend the day together, taking turns doing things that each has never done before.
At Tiffany's, Paul has the ring from Doc Golightly's box of Cracker Jack engraved as a present for Holly. After spending the night together, he awakens to find her gone. When 2E arrives, Paul ends their relationship. She calmly accepts, having earlier concluded that he and some other woman are in love.
Holly schemes to marry José for his money, which angers Paul. After Holly receives a telegram notifying her of Fred's death, she trashes her apartment. Months later, Paul has moved out. He is invited to dinner by Holly, who is leaving the next morning for Brazil to continue her relationship with José. However, they are arrested in connection with Sally Tomato's drug ring, and Holly spends the night in jail.
The next morning, Holly is released on bail and finds Paul waiting, and they take a cab. He has her cat and a letter from José explaining he must end their relationship due to her arrest. Holly insists she will go to Brazil anyway, asks the cab to pull over, and releases the cat into the rain.
Paul confronts Holly about his love and her behavior, then leaves, tossing the Cracker Jack ring they had engraved for her by Tiffany's into her lap and telling her to examine her life. She goes through a decision making moment, puts on the ring, and runs after Paul, who has gone looking for the cat. She searches the alley and finally finds the cat. Paul and Holly look into each other's eyes and kiss.
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- Male prostitution in the arts
- Portrayal of East Asians in Hollywood
- Whitewashing in film
- List of Academy Award-winning films
- List of American films of 1961
- List of Audrey Hepburn credits
- List of comedy films of the 1960s
- List of films set in New York City
- List of Paramount Pictures films
- List of short fiction made into feature films
- List of fictional books from non-print media
- Breakfast at Tiffany's on Internet Movie Database
- Breakfast at Tiffany's at the TCM Movie Database
- Breakfast at Tiffany's at AllMovie
- Breakfast at Tiffany's at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Breakfast at Tiffany's at Rotten Tomatoes
Barefoot in the Park is a 1967 American comedy film. The film stars Jane Fonda as Corie and Robert Redford as Paul.
Based on Neil Simon's 1963 play of the same name, it focuses on newlyweds Corie and Paul Bratter and their adventures living in a minuscule sixth floor walk-up apartment in a Greenwich Village brownstone.
Stuffed-shirt Paul is a hard-working young attorney just starting his practice, while spontaneous bride Corie is determined to create a romantic environment in one room with no heat, a hole in the skylight, and oddball neighbors.
The title refers to Paul becoming drunk, throwing caution to the wind and running barefoot in Washington Square Park in response to his wife's repeated complaints about his sober and cautious demeanor.
The film's screenplay was written by Simon. Gene Saks directed Robert Redford, reprising reprising his Broadway role of Paul, and Jane Fonda, who replaced the play's Elizabeth Ashley. Mildred Natwick reprises her stage role as the bride's mother, Charles Boyer is featured as the eccentric upstairs neighbor, and Herb Edelman reprises his stage role as a telephone installer.
The lead female role had been offered to Natalie Wood who had already played opposite Redford in two movies. Wood declined the offer because she wanted to take time off.
Natwick was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Fonda was nominated for a BAFTA as Best Foreign Actress, and Simon received a nod from the Writers Guild of America.
Premise:
Corie (Jane Fonda), a free spirited young woman, and Paul Bratter (Robert Redford), a more conservative, less free-spirited man, are a recently married couple, who move into a fifth floor apartment in Greenwich Village (one of the ongoing jokes is the fact that everyone has to climb so many stairs to get to the apartment). Corie decorates the small, leaky apartment, turning it into a picturesque little home for the two.
One of the many odd people living in the apartment building, the quirky Victor Velasco (Charles Boyer), befriends Corie, often even flirting with her. He lives in the attic of the building, once even climbing through the Bratters' apartment window to get to his. Victor helps Corie with the apartment, teaching her how to work the seemingly broken heating and plumbing.
Corie sets up a dinner date with herself, Paul, their new friend and neighbor Victor, and Corie's mother, Ethel Banks (Mildred Natwick) in a scheme to get Corie's mother to fall for Victor; Corie feels that her mother is lonely now that she lives alone and needs love.
Victor takes them all to an Albanian restaurant on Staten Island where he knows the owner. There, the group drinks, and Corie and Victor get up to dance with the belly dancer, while Paul and Ethel watch in embarrassment and awe.
Afterwards, Corie and Victor return to the apartment in high energy as Paul and Ethel drag themselves with fatigue. As Victor escorts Ethel outside, Corie and Paul begin an argument over their differences.
Corie feels her adventurous spirit is not equal to Paul's cautious demeanor. One of the examples she gives is that he would not go barefoot in the park with her one evening. His excuse was that it was freezing.
Corie says she will kick Paul out and get a big dog to protect her from him. Paul says maybe it will finally allow her to have someone who will go barefoot in the park with her. They eventually go to sleep, Corie in their tiny bedroom and Paul sleeping on the couch under a hole in the skylight on a snowy February night.
The next day, Paul comes home with a fever, but Corie still insists she wants a divorce. The two spend an awkward time together in their apartment before Corie kicks Paul out. She then gets a call from her aunt, saying that Ethel did not come home. Scared, Corie begins to panic, but eventually finds out that her mother was at Victor's apartment.
Apparently, while Victor was escorting her to her home in New Jersey the night prior, Ethel slipped on some ice, and Victor took her back to his apartment where they spent the night. Strangely, Ethel was wearing nothing but her undergarments and Victor's Japanese kimono. Fearing for what seemed obvious, it turned out that Victor had Ethel's dress drycleaned.
Meanwhile, drunk, Paul skips work and sits in Washington Square Park. With her mother's advice, Corie goes out searching for Paul and finds him, drunk and running shoeless and barefoot through the park. The once cautious Paul is now a fun loving drunk while cautious Corie chases after him in order to get him to sober up. Eventually, Paul says it's his apartment too and he's going back home. Corie follows.
Back at the apartment, Paul, still fairly drunk, climbs onto the roof of the apartment. Scared he might fall, Corie begs him to come down while speaking to him through the hole in the glass ceiling. He says he will only come down if she repeats after him. He wants her to admit that her husband is a crazy drunk, when a few nights before she scolded him for being so cautious and practical even when he is drunk.
Meanwhile, realizing where he is, Paul becomes scared after almost falling off the building. Corie tries to climb up onto the roof to help him down but Paul does not want her to leave him. Corie asks Paul to sing an Albanian folk song they had heard at the restaurant that Victor had taken them to.
While he sings, Corie climbs up to the roof to help him down. A crowd of onlookers starts to gather in the street, watching along, including Corie's mother, Ethel, and her new love, Victor. When Corie reaches Paul, they kiss and climb back down as the crowd cheers on.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the 1967 Movie "Barefoot in the Park":
Based on Neil Simon's 1963 play of the same name, it focuses on newlyweds Corie and Paul Bratter and their adventures living in a minuscule sixth floor walk-up apartment in a Greenwich Village brownstone.
Stuffed-shirt Paul is a hard-working young attorney just starting his practice, while spontaneous bride Corie is determined to create a romantic environment in one room with no heat, a hole in the skylight, and oddball neighbors.
The title refers to Paul becoming drunk, throwing caution to the wind and running barefoot in Washington Square Park in response to his wife's repeated complaints about his sober and cautious demeanor.
The film's screenplay was written by Simon. Gene Saks directed Robert Redford, reprising reprising his Broadway role of Paul, and Jane Fonda, who replaced the play's Elizabeth Ashley. Mildred Natwick reprises her stage role as the bride's mother, Charles Boyer is featured as the eccentric upstairs neighbor, and Herb Edelman reprises his stage role as a telephone installer.
The lead female role had been offered to Natalie Wood who had already played opposite Redford in two movies. Wood declined the offer because she wanted to take time off.
Natwick was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Fonda was nominated for a BAFTA as Best Foreign Actress, and Simon received a nod from the Writers Guild of America.
Premise:
Corie (Jane Fonda), a free spirited young woman, and Paul Bratter (Robert Redford), a more conservative, less free-spirited man, are a recently married couple, who move into a fifth floor apartment in Greenwich Village (one of the ongoing jokes is the fact that everyone has to climb so many stairs to get to the apartment). Corie decorates the small, leaky apartment, turning it into a picturesque little home for the two.
One of the many odd people living in the apartment building, the quirky Victor Velasco (Charles Boyer), befriends Corie, often even flirting with her. He lives in the attic of the building, once even climbing through the Bratters' apartment window to get to his. Victor helps Corie with the apartment, teaching her how to work the seemingly broken heating and plumbing.
Corie sets up a dinner date with herself, Paul, their new friend and neighbor Victor, and Corie's mother, Ethel Banks (Mildred Natwick) in a scheme to get Corie's mother to fall for Victor; Corie feels that her mother is lonely now that she lives alone and needs love.
Victor takes them all to an Albanian restaurant on Staten Island where he knows the owner. There, the group drinks, and Corie and Victor get up to dance with the belly dancer, while Paul and Ethel watch in embarrassment and awe.
Afterwards, Corie and Victor return to the apartment in high energy as Paul and Ethel drag themselves with fatigue. As Victor escorts Ethel outside, Corie and Paul begin an argument over their differences.
Corie feels her adventurous spirit is not equal to Paul's cautious demeanor. One of the examples she gives is that he would not go barefoot in the park with her one evening. His excuse was that it was freezing.
Corie says she will kick Paul out and get a big dog to protect her from him. Paul says maybe it will finally allow her to have someone who will go barefoot in the park with her. They eventually go to sleep, Corie in their tiny bedroom and Paul sleeping on the couch under a hole in the skylight on a snowy February night.
The next day, Paul comes home with a fever, but Corie still insists she wants a divorce. The two spend an awkward time together in their apartment before Corie kicks Paul out. She then gets a call from her aunt, saying that Ethel did not come home. Scared, Corie begins to panic, but eventually finds out that her mother was at Victor's apartment.
Apparently, while Victor was escorting her to her home in New Jersey the night prior, Ethel slipped on some ice, and Victor took her back to his apartment where they spent the night. Strangely, Ethel was wearing nothing but her undergarments and Victor's Japanese kimono. Fearing for what seemed obvious, it turned out that Victor had Ethel's dress drycleaned.
Meanwhile, drunk, Paul skips work and sits in Washington Square Park. With her mother's advice, Corie goes out searching for Paul and finds him, drunk and running shoeless and barefoot through the park. The once cautious Paul is now a fun loving drunk while cautious Corie chases after him in order to get him to sober up. Eventually, Paul says it's his apartment too and he's going back home. Corie follows.
Back at the apartment, Paul, still fairly drunk, climbs onto the roof of the apartment. Scared he might fall, Corie begs him to come down while speaking to him through the hole in the glass ceiling. He says he will only come down if she repeats after him. He wants her to admit that her husband is a crazy drunk, when a few nights before she scolded him for being so cautious and practical even when he is drunk.
Meanwhile, realizing where he is, Paul becomes scared after almost falling off the building. Corie tries to climb up onto the roof to help him down but Paul does not want her to leave him. Corie asks Paul to sing an Albanian folk song they had heard at the restaurant that Victor had taken them to.
While he sings, Corie climbs up to the roof to help him down. A crowd of onlookers starts to gather in the street, watching along, including Corie's mother, Ethel, and her new love, Victor. When Corie reaches Paul, they kiss and climb back down as the crowd cheers on.
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Barbarella is a 1968 science fiction film directed by Roger Vadim based on the French comic Barbarella. The film stars Jane Fonda as Barbarella, a representative of the United Earth government in the 41st century sent out to locate the scientist Durand Durand whose positronic ray could end humanity.
Producer Dino De Laurentiis bought the rights to adapt Barbarella into a film. Vadim took the role as director as he had been a fan of comics and wanted to adapt one to film. Vadim attempted to cast several actors in the title role, including Virna Lisi, Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren before casting his then wife, Jane Fonda.
Vadim also had his friend Terry Southern write the screenplay; this was heavily altered during filming and several other writers are credited with it.
The film was particularly popular on its release in the United Kingdom, where it was the second highest grossing film of the year after The Jungle Book. Contemporary film critics praised the film's visuals and cinematography, but found the film's storyline to be weak after the first few scenes. Since its release, several attempts at sequels, remakes and other adaptations have been planned but none have entered production.
Premise:
In an unspecified future, Barbarella is assigned by the President of Earth to retrieve Doctor Durand Durand from the Tau Ceti region. Durand Durand is the inventor of the Positronic Ray, a weapon that Earth leaders fear will fall into the wrong hands.
Barbarella crashes on the 16th planet of Tau Ceti and is knocked unconscious by two girls. The two take Barbarella into the wreckage of a spaceship where she is tied up as several dolls which have razor-sharp teeth emerge to attack Barbarella.
She is rescued by Mark Hand, the Catchman, who patrols the ice looking for errant children. Hand reveals that Durand-Durand is in the city of Sogo. Barbarella shows her appreciation by having sex with him in the "old-fashioned" way that has long been replaced on Earth by exaltation-transference pills.
Barbarella leaves the planet and accidentally crashes into a labyrinth inhabited by outcasts from Sogo. She is found by a blind angel named Pygar who has lost the will to fly. Pygar introduces her to Professor Ping, who offers to repair her ship.
Pygar flies Barbarella to Sogo after his will to fly is restored by Barbarella after the two have sex in the old-fashioned way. On arriving, Pygar and Barbarella are captured by Sogo's Black Queen and her concierge. The concierge explains about the Matmos, living energy in liquid form that Sogo is used as an energy source and powered by "evil thoughts".
Pygar is put into a mock crucifixion, while Barbarella is placed in a cage where she is about to be attacked by hundreds of birds. She is rescued by Dildano, the head of the local underground revolutionaries who joins in her pursuit to find Durand-Durand. Dildano offers her an invisible key to a chamber of dreams where the Queen sleeps, and sends her back into Sogo.
Barbarella is promptly recaptured by the concierge, He places Barbarella in a device called the Excessive Pleasure machine which induces fatal sexual pleasure. Barbarella manages to outlast the machine which causes it blow its fuses. Shocked at its destruction, The concierge is revealed to be Durand-Durand who has aged 30 years due to the influence of the Matmos.
He explains his desire to become the new leader of Sogo and overthrow the Black Queen, which requires his Positronic Ray and access to the chamber of dreams. Durand-Durand takes Barbarella to the chamber and locks her inside with the invisible key. Inside, Barbarella meets the Queen who states that if two people are in the chamber, the Matmos will devour them.
Meanwhile, Durand-Durand assumes control of Sogo while Dildano and his rebels begin their attack on Sogo. The Black Queen retaliates by releasing the Matmos which destroys Sogo. Protected by what the Black Queen refers to as Barbarella's innocence, they escape the Matmos and find Pygar who clutches both Barbarella and the Black Queen in his arms and flies off with them.
When asked by Barbarella why he saved the Tyrant after everything she had done to him, Pygar responds, "An angel has no memory."
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Producer Dino De Laurentiis bought the rights to adapt Barbarella into a film. Vadim took the role as director as he had been a fan of comics and wanted to adapt one to film. Vadim attempted to cast several actors in the title role, including Virna Lisi, Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren before casting his then wife, Jane Fonda.
Vadim also had his friend Terry Southern write the screenplay; this was heavily altered during filming and several other writers are credited with it.
The film was particularly popular on its release in the United Kingdom, where it was the second highest grossing film of the year after The Jungle Book. Contemporary film critics praised the film's visuals and cinematography, but found the film's storyline to be weak after the first few scenes. Since its release, several attempts at sequels, remakes and other adaptations have been planned but none have entered production.
Premise:
In an unspecified future, Barbarella is assigned by the President of Earth to retrieve Doctor Durand Durand from the Tau Ceti region. Durand Durand is the inventor of the Positronic Ray, a weapon that Earth leaders fear will fall into the wrong hands.
Barbarella crashes on the 16th planet of Tau Ceti and is knocked unconscious by two girls. The two take Barbarella into the wreckage of a spaceship where she is tied up as several dolls which have razor-sharp teeth emerge to attack Barbarella.
She is rescued by Mark Hand, the Catchman, who patrols the ice looking for errant children. Hand reveals that Durand-Durand is in the city of Sogo. Barbarella shows her appreciation by having sex with him in the "old-fashioned" way that has long been replaced on Earth by exaltation-transference pills.
Barbarella leaves the planet and accidentally crashes into a labyrinth inhabited by outcasts from Sogo. She is found by a blind angel named Pygar who has lost the will to fly. Pygar introduces her to Professor Ping, who offers to repair her ship.
Pygar flies Barbarella to Sogo after his will to fly is restored by Barbarella after the two have sex in the old-fashioned way. On arriving, Pygar and Barbarella are captured by Sogo's Black Queen and her concierge. The concierge explains about the Matmos, living energy in liquid form that Sogo is used as an energy source and powered by "evil thoughts".
Pygar is put into a mock crucifixion, while Barbarella is placed in a cage where she is about to be attacked by hundreds of birds. She is rescued by Dildano, the head of the local underground revolutionaries who joins in her pursuit to find Durand-Durand. Dildano offers her an invisible key to a chamber of dreams where the Queen sleeps, and sends her back into Sogo.
Barbarella is promptly recaptured by the concierge, He places Barbarella in a device called the Excessive Pleasure machine which induces fatal sexual pleasure. Barbarella manages to outlast the machine which causes it blow its fuses. Shocked at its destruction, The concierge is revealed to be Durand-Durand who has aged 30 years due to the influence of the Matmos.
He explains his desire to become the new leader of Sogo and overthrow the Black Queen, which requires his Positronic Ray and access to the chamber of dreams. Durand-Durand takes Barbarella to the chamber and locks her inside with the invisible key. Inside, Barbarella meets the Queen who states that if two people are in the chamber, the Matmos will devour them.
Meanwhile, Durand-Durand assumes control of Sogo while Dildano and his rebels begin their attack on Sogo. The Black Queen retaliates by releasing the Matmos which destroys Sogo. Protected by what the Black Queen refers to as Barbarella's innocence, they escape the Matmos and find Pygar who clutches both Barbarella and the Black Queen in his arms and flies off with them.
When asked by Barbarella why he saved the Tyrant after everything she had done to him, Pygar responds, "An angel has no memory."
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The Odd Couple Movie (1968)
YouTube Video of The Odd Couple - Trailer
Pictured: Illustration with (L-R) Jack Lemmon as Felix Unger and Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison
YouTube Video of The Odd Couple - Trailer
Pictured: Illustration with (L-R) Jack Lemmon as Felix Unger and Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison
The Odd Couple is a 1968 American comedy Technicolor film in Panavision, written by Neil Simon, based on his play The Odd Couple, directed by Gene Saks, and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. It is the story of two divorced men—neurotic neat-freak Felix Ungar and fun-loving slob Oscar Madison—who decide to live together, even though their personalities clash.
The film was successful with critics and audiences, grossing over $44.5 million, making it the fourth highest-grossing picture of 1968. The success of the film was the basis for the ABC television sitcom of the same name, starring Tony Randall as Felix and Jack Klugman as Oscar.
Premise:
Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) checks into a fleabag hotel near Times Square, Manhattan and attempts to kill himself by jumping out of the window, but he fails to open it and pulls a muscle in his back. Limping back on the street he tries to get drunk at a dance bar and ends up hurting his neck when he throws down a shot. He stands on a bridge, contemplating jumping into the river.
Meanwhile, in the frowzy Upper West Side apartment of divorced sportswriter Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) on a hot and sticky summer evening, Oscar and his buddies Speed (Larry Haines), Roy (David Sheiner), Vinnie (John Fiedler), and Murray (Herb Edelman) the cop are playing poker and discussing their friend, Felix Ungar, who is unusually late for the game.
Murray's wife calls and tells him that Felix is missing. Oscar then calls Felix's wife Frances who says that she and Felix have split up. As they are discussing what to do, and worried that Felix might try to commit suicide, Felix arrives not knowing that his friends already know that his wife has kicked him out of the house.
Felix eventually breaks down crying and his friends try to console him. Oscar then suggests that Felix move in with him, since Oscar has lived alone since he split up with his own wife, Blanche, several months earlier. Felix agrees, and urges Oscar to not be shy about letting him know if he gets on Oscar's nerves.
Within only a week, Oscar is going nuts. Felix is a neurotic, obsessive-compulsive nut, who runs around the apartment cleaning, picking up after Oscar, and berating him for being such a slob. He also refuses to have any fun, spending most of his time thinking about Frances. Felix at one point even telephones Oscar at Shea Stadium telling him not to eat any hot dogs at the game, because Felix is preparing franks and beans for dinner; this distraction causes Oscar to miss seeing a rare triple-play at the Mets game on which he is reporting.
The two men are shown bowling, shooting pool, and walking the city streets. Felix has a sinus attack, making loud obnoxious noises while seated in a coffee shop. Finally, after Felix drives everyone at the weekly poker game crazy, Oscar convinces Felix to lighten up and join him on a double-date with two British girls who live in the building – the Pigeon sisters, Cecily (Monica Evans) and Gwendolyn (Carole Shelley), who actually "coo" when they laugh.
As the date commences, Oscar tries to get Felix to loosen up by leaving him alone for a while in their living room with the two attractive, and somewhat frisky, sisters. Instead, he winds up talking about Frances, and breaks down weeping.
When Oscar returns from their kitchen, the Pigeon sisters, one a divorcee, the other widowed, are sobbing as uncontrollably as Felix. Oscar cheers them up and they invite the boys upstairs for what should be a wild night. Instead, Felix, who realizes that he is still too attached to his wife, refuses to go, opting to "scrub the pots and wash his hair" instead. Oscar joins the sisters in their apartment, but winds up spending the night drinking tea and telling them all about Felix.
Furious about Felix's ruining the date, Oscar resorts to giving Felix the silent treatment and torturing him by messing up the apartment as much as possible. Felix retaliates by just being himself, driving Oscar insane with his endless cleaning and neurotic behavior.
Eventually, the tension explodes into an argument that results in Oscar demanding that Felix move out. Felix complies, but leaves Oscar with a major-league guilt trip for having abandoned his still-in-need friend.
Feeling awful about throwing Felix out, and not knowing where he has gone, Oscar assembles his poker buddies to search New York City for Felix in Murray's NYPD police car, which he's not supposed to use.
After searching for hours, they return to Oscar's apartment to find out that Felix has moved in with the Pigeon sisters. Oscar and Felix apologize to each other, and realize that a bit of each has rubbed off on the other, with each being a better person for it. Felix agrees that next Friday night, he will be at Oscar's apartment for their poker game. Oscar tells his friends to clean up their mess after the poker game is over, ending the film.
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The film was successful with critics and audiences, grossing over $44.5 million, making it the fourth highest-grossing picture of 1968. The success of the film was the basis for the ABC television sitcom of the same name, starring Tony Randall as Felix and Jack Klugman as Oscar.
Premise:
Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) checks into a fleabag hotel near Times Square, Manhattan and attempts to kill himself by jumping out of the window, but he fails to open it and pulls a muscle in his back. Limping back on the street he tries to get drunk at a dance bar and ends up hurting his neck when he throws down a shot. He stands on a bridge, contemplating jumping into the river.
Meanwhile, in the frowzy Upper West Side apartment of divorced sportswriter Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) on a hot and sticky summer evening, Oscar and his buddies Speed (Larry Haines), Roy (David Sheiner), Vinnie (John Fiedler), and Murray (Herb Edelman) the cop are playing poker and discussing their friend, Felix Ungar, who is unusually late for the game.
Murray's wife calls and tells him that Felix is missing. Oscar then calls Felix's wife Frances who says that she and Felix have split up. As they are discussing what to do, and worried that Felix might try to commit suicide, Felix arrives not knowing that his friends already know that his wife has kicked him out of the house.
Felix eventually breaks down crying and his friends try to console him. Oscar then suggests that Felix move in with him, since Oscar has lived alone since he split up with his own wife, Blanche, several months earlier. Felix agrees, and urges Oscar to not be shy about letting him know if he gets on Oscar's nerves.
Within only a week, Oscar is going nuts. Felix is a neurotic, obsessive-compulsive nut, who runs around the apartment cleaning, picking up after Oscar, and berating him for being such a slob. He also refuses to have any fun, spending most of his time thinking about Frances. Felix at one point even telephones Oscar at Shea Stadium telling him not to eat any hot dogs at the game, because Felix is preparing franks and beans for dinner; this distraction causes Oscar to miss seeing a rare triple-play at the Mets game on which he is reporting.
The two men are shown bowling, shooting pool, and walking the city streets. Felix has a sinus attack, making loud obnoxious noises while seated in a coffee shop. Finally, after Felix drives everyone at the weekly poker game crazy, Oscar convinces Felix to lighten up and join him on a double-date with two British girls who live in the building – the Pigeon sisters, Cecily (Monica Evans) and Gwendolyn (Carole Shelley), who actually "coo" when they laugh.
As the date commences, Oscar tries to get Felix to loosen up by leaving him alone for a while in their living room with the two attractive, and somewhat frisky, sisters. Instead, he winds up talking about Frances, and breaks down weeping.
When Oscar returns from their kitchen, the Pigeon sisters, one a divorcee, the other widowed, are sobbing as uncontrollably as Felix. Oscar cheers them up and they invite the boys upstairs for what should be a wild night. Instead, Felix, who realizes that he is still too attached to his wife, refuses to go, opting to "scrub the pots and wash his hair" instead. Oscar joins the sisters in their apartment, but winds up spending the night drinking tea and telling them all about Felix.
Furious about Felix's ruining the date, Oscar resorts to giving Felix the silent treatment and torturing him by messing up the apartment as much as possible. Felix retaliates by just being himself, driving Oscar insane with his endless cleaning and neurotic behavior.
Eventually, the tension explodes into an argument that results in Oscar demanding that Felix move out. Felix complies, but leaves Oscar with a major-league guilt trip for having abandoned his still-in-need friend.
Feeling awful about throwing Felix out, and not knowing where he has gone, Oscar assembles his poker buddies to search New York City for Felix in Murray's NYPD police car, which he's not supposed to use.
After searching for hours, they return to Oscar's apartment to find out that Felix has moved in with the Pigeon sisters. Oscar and Felix apologize to each other, and realize that a bit of each has rubbed off on the other, with each being a better person for it. Felix agrees that next Friday night, he will be at Oscar's apartment for their poker game. Oscar tells his friends to clean up their mess after the poker game is over, ending the film.
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The Great Escape is a 1963 American World War II epic film based on an escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from a German POW camp, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough, filmed in Panavision.
The film is based on Paul Brickhill's 1950 book of the same name, a non-fiction first-hand account of the mass escape from Stalag Luft III in Sagan (now Żagań, Poland), in the province of Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany.
The characters are based on real men, and in some cases are composites of several men. However, many details of the actual escape attempt were changed for the film, and the role of American personnel in both the planning and the escape was largely fabricated. The Great Escape was made by The Mirisch Company, released by United Artists, and produced and directed by John Sturges.
The film had its Royal World Premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 20 June 1963.
Plot:
In 1943, having expended enormous resources on recapturing escaped Allied POWs, the Germans move those POWs most determined to escape to a new, high-security prisoner of war camp. The commandant, Luftwaffe Colonel von Luger, tells the senior British officer, Group Captain Ramsey, "There will be no escapes from this camp."
Meanwhile, Gestapo agents Kuhn and Preissen and SS Lieutenant Dietrich bring RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett to the camp. Known as "Big X", Bartlett is introduced as the principal escape organiser. As Kuhn leaves, he warns Bartlett that if he escapes again, he will be shot. However, Bartlett remains defiant and, realizing he is locked up with "every escape artist in Germany", he immediately plans the greatest escape ever attempted, with tunnels to break out 250 prisoners.
The POWs organize into teams:
Hendley takes it upon himself to be Blythe's guide in the escape. The prisoners work on three tunnels simultaneously, calling them "Tom", "Dick", and "Harry".
USAAF Captain Virgil Hilts, the "Cooler King", irritates guards with frequent escape attempts and irreverence.
Hilts and Scottish RAF Flying Officer Archibald "Archie" Ives conceive an escape attempt through a short tunnel at a blind spot near the edge of the camp, a proposal which is accepted by Bartlett on the grounds that vetoing every independent escape attempt would raise suspicion of the collective escape attempt being planned.
However, Hilts and Ives are caught and returned to the "cooler". Upon release from the cooler, Bartlett requests that Hilts use his next escape attempt as an opportunity for a reconnaissance of the area immediately surrounding the camp; Hilts turns down Bartlett's request but does assist the prisoners as a scrounger.
Meanwhile, Hendley forms a friendship with German guard Werner, which he exploits as a means of obtaining his private documents, and then as blackmail to get hold of other items for the escape. Soon, Bartlett orders "Dick" and "Harry" to be sealed off, as "Tom" is closest to completion.
While the POWs enjoy a 4th of July celebration arranged by the three Americans in the camp, the guards discover "Tom". The mood drops to despair, and Ives walks in a daze to the barbed wire surrounding the camp and climbs it in view of guards; Hilts runs to stop him but is too late, and Ives is shot dead. The prisoners switch their efforts to "Harry", and Hilts agrees to reconnoiter outside the camp and allow himself to be recaptured. The information he brings back is used to create maps to guide the escapees.
The last part of the tunnel is completed on the scheduled night, but it proves to be twenty feet short of the woods. Knowing there are no other options, Bartlett orders the escape to go ahead, and Hilts improvises a rope signal system to allow them to exit the tunnel between sweeps of the guards on patrol.
The claustrophobic Danny nearly refuses to go, but is helped along by Willie. Seventy-six prisoners escape, aided by an air-raid blackout: once back on the rope, however, Griffith impatiently exits the tunnel in view of the guards, and the escape is discovered.
After attempts to reach neutral Switzerland, Sweden, or Spain, almost all the POWs are recaptured or killed. Hendley and Blythe steal a plane to fly over the Swiss border, but the engine fails, and they crash-land. Soldiers arrive and Blythe, his eyesight damaged, stands and is shot. Hendley surrenders as Blythe dies.
When Bartlett is identified in a railway station by Gestapo agent Kuhn, Ashley-Pitt overpowers and shoots Kuhn with his own gun but is killed by soldiers while fleeing the station. The resulting confusion allows Bartlett and MacDonald to slip away, but they are later caught while boarding a bus.
MacDonald is quickly apprehended, but Bartlett escapes until he is recognized and arrested by SS Lieutenant Steinach. Hilts steals a motorcycle at a checkpoint and is pursued by German soldiers; he jumps a first-line barbed wire fence at the German-Swiss border but before he's able to jump the second-line fence, the motorcycle is shot, causing it and him to become entangled in the bigger, second line of the fence and be captured.
Three truckloads of recaptured POWs are driven down a country road and split off in three directions. One truck, containing Bartlett, MacDonald, Cavendish, Haynes, and others, stops in a field and the POWs are told to get out to "stretch their legs". As Bartlett expresses that he's "never been happier", the prisoners are shot dead under the pretense that they were trying to escape. In all, 50 escapees are murdered; Hendley and 10 others are returned to the camp.
Von Luger is relieved of command of the camp by SS Lieutenant Steinach for having failed to prevent the breakout.
Only three POWs make it to safety: Danny and Willie steal a rowboat and proceed downriver to the Baltic coast, where they sneak aboard the Swedish merchant ship Alta; while Sedgwick slips through the countryside on a stolen bicycle before hiding aboard a freight train to France, where he is guided by the Resistance into Spain.
Hilts is returned to the camp in handcuffs and taken back to the cooler, just as von Luger is relieved of his command. Lieutenant Goff, one of the Americans, fetches Hilts's baseball and glove and throws them to him when Hilts and his guards pass. The guard locks him in his cell and walks away but pauses when he hears Hilts bouncing his baseball against a cell wall.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "The Great Escape":
The film is based on Paul Brickhill's 1950 book of the same name, a non-fiction first-hand account of the mass escape from Stalag Luft III in Sagan (now Żagań, Poland), in the province of Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany.
The characters are based on real men, and in some cases are composites of several men. However, many details of the actual escape attempt were changed for the film, and the role of American personnel in both the planning and the escape was largely fabricated. The Great Escape was made by The Mirisch Company, released by United Artists, and produced and directed by John Sturges.
The film had its Royal World Premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 20 June 1963.
Plot:
In 1943, having expended enormous resources on recapturing escaped Allied POWs, the Germans move those POWs most determined to escape to a new, high-security prisoner of war camp. The commandant, Luftwaffe Colonel von Luger, tells the senior British officer, Group Captain Ramsey, "There will be no escapes from this camp."
Meanwhile, Gestapo agents Kuhn and Preissen and SS Lieutenant Dietrich bring RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett to the camp. Known as "Big X", Bartlett is introduced as the principal escape organiser. As Kuhn leaves, he warns Bartlett that if he escapes again, he will be shot. However, Bartlett remains defiant and, realizing he is locked up with "every escape artist in Germany", he immediately plans the greatest escape ever attempted, with tunnels to break out 250 prisoners.
The POWs organize into teams:
- Flight Lieutenant Robert Hendley is "the scrounger" who finds needed materials, from a camera to clothes and identity cards.
- Australian Flying Officer Louis Sedgwick, "the manufacturer", makes tools like picks for digging and bellows for pumping air into the tunnels.
- Flight Lieutenants Danny Velinski and William "Willie" Dickes are "the tunnel kings" in charge of the digging.
- Flight Lieutenant Andrew MacDonald acts as intelligence provider and Bartlett's second-in-command.
- Lieutenant Commander Eric Ashley-Pitt of the Royal Navy devises a method of spreading soil from the tunnels over the camp, under the guards' noses.
- Flight Lieutenant Griffith acts as "the tailor", creating civilian outfits from scavenged cloth.
- Forgery is handled by Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe, who becomes nearly blind due to progressive myopia caused by intricate work by candlelight;
Hendley takes it upon himself to be Blythe's guide in the escape. The prisoners work on three tunnels simultaneously, calling them "Tom", "Dick", and "Harry".
USAAF Captain Virgil Hilts, the "Cooler King", irritates guards with frequent escape attempts and irreverence.
Hilts and Scottish RAF Flying Officer Archibald "Archie" Ives conceive an escape attempt through a short tunnel at a blind spot near the edge of the camp, a proposal which is accepted by Bartlett on the grounds that vetoing every independent escape attempt would raise suspicion of the collective escape attempt being planned.
However, Hilts and Ives are caught and returned to the "cooler". Upon release from the cooler, Bartlett requests that Hilts use his next escape attempt as an opportunity for a reconnaissance of the area immediately surrounding the camp; Hilts turns down Bartlett's request but does assist the prisoners as a scrounger.
Meanwhile, Hendley forms a friendship with German guard Werner, which he exploits as a means of obtaining his private documents, and then as blackmail to get hold of other items for the escape. Soon, Bartlett orders "Dick" and "Harry" to be sealed off, as "Tom" is closest to completion.
While the POWs enjoy a 4th of July celebration arranged by the three Americans in the camp, the guards discover "Tom". The mood drops to despair, and Ives walks in a daze to the barbed wire surrounding the camp and climbs it in view of guards; Hilts runs to stop him but is too late, and Ives is shot dead. The prisoners switch their efforts to "Harry", and Hilts agrees to reconnoiter outside the camp and allow himself to be recaptured. The information he brings back is used to create maps to guide the escapees.
The last part of the tunnel is completed on the scheduled night, but it proves to be twenty feet short of the woods. Knowing there are no other options, Bartlett orders the escape to go ahead, and Hilts improvises a rope signal system to allow them to exit the tunnel between sweeps of the guards on patrol.
The claustrophobic Danny nearly refuses to go, but is helped along by Willie. Seventy-six prisoners escape, aided by an air-raid blackout: once back on the rope, however, Griffith impatiently exits the tunnel in view of the guards, and the escape is discovered.
After attempts to reach neutral Switzerland, Sweden, or Spain, almost all the POWs are recaptured or killed. Hendley and Blythe steal a plane to fly over the Swiss border, but the engine fails, and they crash-land. Soldiers arrive and Blythe, his eyesight damaged, stands and is shot. Hendley surrenders as Blythe dies.
When Bartlett is identified in a railway station by Gestapo agent Kuhn, Ashley-Pitt overpowers and shoots Kuhn with his own gun but is killed by soldiers while fleeing the station. The resulting confusion allows Bartlett and MacDonald to slip away, but they are later caught while boarding a bus.
MacDonald is quickly apprehended, but Bartlett escapes until he is recognized and arrested by SS Lieutenant Steinach. Hilts steals a motorcycle at a checkpoint and is pursued by German soldiers; he jumps a first-line barbed wire fence at the German-Swiss border but before he's able to jump the second-line fence, the motorcycle is shot, causing it and him to become entangled in the bigger, second line of the fence and be captured.
Three truckloads of recaptured POWs are driven down a country road and split off in three directions. One truck, containing Bartlett, MacDonald, Cavendish, Haynes, and others, stops in a field and the POWs are told to get out to "stretch their legs". As Bartlett expresses that he's "never been happier", the prisoners are shot dead under the pretense that they were trying to escape. In all, 50 escapees are murdered; Hendley and 10 others are returned to the camp.
Von Luger is relieved of command of the camp by SS Lieutenant Steinach for having failed to prevent the breakout.
Only three POWs make it to safety: Danny and Willie steal a rowboat and proceed downriver to the Baltic coast, where they sneak aboard the Swedish merchant ship Alta; while Sedgwick slips through the countryside on a stolen bicycle before hiding aboard a freight train to France, where he is guided by the Resistance into Spain.
Hilts is returned to the camp in handcuffs and taken back to the cooler, just as von Luger is relieved of his command. Lieutenant Goff, one of the Americans, fetches Hilts's baseball and glove and throws them to him when Hilts and his guards pass. The guard locks him in his cell and walks away but pauses when he hears Hilts bouncing his baseball against a cell wall.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "The Great Escape":
- Cast
- Production
- Reception
- In popular culture
- See also:
- The Great Escape on IMDb
- The Great Escape at the TCM Movie Database
- The Great Escape at AllMovie
- The Great Escape at the American Film Institute Catalog
- The Great Escape at Box Office Mojo
- New publication with private photos of the shooting & documents of 2nd unit cameraman Walter Riml
- Photos of the filming
- The Great Escape locations
- The Great Escape at Rotten Tomatoes
In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 American mystery drama film directed by Norman Jewison. It is based on John Ball's 1965 novel of the same name and tells the story of Virgil Tibbs, a black police detective from Philadelphia, who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a small town in Mississippi.
The movie stars Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, and was produced by Walter Mirisch. The screenplay was by Stirling Silliphant.
The film won five Academy Awards, including the 1967 awards for Best Picture and Rod Steiger for Best Actor.
The film was followed by two sequels, They Call Me Mister Tibbs! in 1970, and The Organization in 1971. In 1988, it also became the basis of a television series adaptation of the same name.
Although the film was set in the fictional Mississippi town of Sparta (with supposedly no connection to the real Sparta, Mississippi), most of the movie was filmed in Sparta, Illinois, where many of the film's landmarks can still be seen.
The quote "They call me Mister Tibbs!" was listed as number 16 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes, a list of top film quotes.
In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
In 1966, a wealthy industrialist named Phillip Colbert has moved from Chicago to Sparta, Mississippi to build a factory. One night, police officer Sam Wood discovers that Colbert has been murdered.
Chief Gillespie leads the investigation. A doctor estimates that Colbert had been dead for a few hours. Wood finds a black man named Virgil Tibbs at the train station and arrests him. Gillespie quickly assumes that Tibbs is the culprit and tries to get Tibbs to make a confession.
However, he is embarrassed to learn that Tibbs is a top homicide detective from Philadelphia. Gillespie phones Tibbs' chief, who confirms this and recommends that Tibbs should assist them. This idea does not appeal to Gillespie or Tibbs, but they reluctantly agree.
Gillespie arrests another suspect, but Tibbs clears him. The victim's widow is frustrated by the ineptitude of the local police and impressed by Tibbs. She threatens to stop the construction of the factory unless Tibbs leads the investigation. Despite the rocky start, the two policemen begin to respect each other as they are forced to work together.
Tibbs initially suspects plantation owner Endicott, a racist who publicly opposes the new factory. When Tibbs attempts to interrogate Endicott, Endicott slaps him in the face and Tibbs slaps him back. Endicott sends a gang of hooligans after Tibbs. Gillespie rescues him from the fight and tells him to leave town for his safety, but Tibbs is convinced he can solve the case.
Tibbs examines Colbert's body and suggests the murder happened earlier than initially thought. He examines Colbert's car and deduces that Colbert was murdered elsewhere and the culprit moved the body. Tibbs asks Wood to retrace his car patrol route on the night of the murder, and Gillespie joins them. When Tibbs notices that Wood has changed his route, Gillespie starts suspecting Wood, though Tibbs hints there is another reason.
Gillespie discovers that Wood made a sizable deposit into his bank account the day after the murder while Purdy, a local, files charges against Wood for getting his 16-year-old sister Delores pregnant. Gillespie arrests Wood, despite Tibbs' protests, and Delores is interrogated. Purdy is offended that a black man was present at the interrogation, and he gathers a mob to get revenge. Tibbs reveals that the murder was committed at the site of the planned factory and clears Wood. He also admits that he knew why Wood had changed his route: Delores is an exhibitionist and Wood has been spying on her.
Tibbs visits a backstreet abortionist, who reveals that someone paid for Delores to have an abortion. When Delores arrives, Tibbs follows her outside and is confronted by the murderer, Ralph. Purdy's mob tracks down Tibbs and holds him at gunpoint; he responds by proving that Ralph got Delores pregnant. Ralph shoots Purdy dead before Tibbs disarms him. Ralph is arrested (presumptively for both murders) and confesses to Colbert’s: he robbed Colbert to fund Delores's abortion but accidentally killed him.
The final scene shows Tibbs boarding a train bound for Philadelphia, as Gillespie respectfully bids him farewell.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the Movie "In the Heat of the Night":
The movie stars Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, and was produced by Walter Mirisch. The screenplay was by Stirling Silliphant.
The film won five Academy Awards, including the 1967 awards for Best Picture and Rod Steiger for Best Actor.
The film was followed by two sequels, They Call Me Mister Tibbs! in 1970, and The Organization in 1971. In 1988, it also became the basis of a television series adaptation of the same name.
Although the film was set in the fictional Mississippi town of Sparta (with supposedly no connection to the real Sparta, Mississippi), most of the movie was filmed in Sparta, Illinois, where many of the film's landmarks can still be seen.
The quote "They call me Mister Tibbs!" was listed as number 16 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes, a list of top film quotes.
In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot:
In 1966, a wealthy industrialist named Phillip Colbert has moved from Chicago to Sparta, Mississippi to build a factory. One night, police officer Sam Wood discovers that Colbert has been murdered.
Chief Gillespie leads the investigation. A doctor estimates that Colbert had been dead for a few hours. Wood finds a black man named Virgil Tibbs at the train station and arrests him. Gillespie quickly assumes that Tibbs is the culprit and tries to get Tibbs to make a confession.
However, he is embarrassed to learn that Tibbs is a top homicide detective from Philadelphia. Gillespie phones Tibbs' chief, who confirms this and recommends that Tibbs should assist them. This idea does not appeal to Gillespie or Tibbs, but they reluctantly agree.
Gillespie arrests another suspect, but Tibbs clears him. The victim's widow is frustrated by the ineptitude of the local police and impressed by Tibbs. She threatens to stop the construction of the factory unless Tibbs leads the investigation. Despite the rocky start, the two policemen begin to respect each other as they are forced to work together.
Tibbs initially suspects plantation owner Endicott, a racist who publicly opposes the new factory. When Tibbs attempts to interrogate Endicott, Endicott slaps him in the face and Tibbs slaps him back. Endicott sends a gang of hooligans after Tibbs. Gillespie rescues him from the fight and tells him to leave town for his safety, but Tibbs is convinced he can solve the case.
Tibbs examines Colbert's body and suggests the murder happened earlier than initially thought. He examines Colbert's car and deduces that Colbert was murdered elsewhere and the culprit moved the body. Tibbs asks Wood to retrace his car patrol route on the night of the murder, and Gillespie joins them. When Tibbs notices that Wood has changed his route, Gillespie starts suspecting Wood, though Tibbs hints there is another reason.
Gillespie discovers that Wood made a sizable deposit into his bank account the day after the murder while Purdy, a local, files charges against Wood for getting his 16-year-old sister Delores pregnant. Gillespie arrests Wood, despite Tibbs' protests, and Delores is interrogated. Purdy is offended that a black man was present at the interrogation, and he gathers a mob to get revenge. Tibbs reveals that the murder was committed at the site of the planned factory and clears Wood. He also admits that he knew why Wood had changed his route: Delores is an exhibitionist and Wood has been spying on her.
Tibbs visits a backstreet abortionist, who reveals that someone paid for Delores to have an abortion. When Delores arrives, Tibbs follows her outside and is confronted by the murderer, Ralph. Purdy's mob tracks down Tibbs and holds him at gunpoint; he responds by proving that Ralph got Delores pregnant. Ralph shoots Purdy dead before Tibbs disarms him. Ralph is arrested (presumptively for both murders) and confesses to Colbert’s: he robbed Colbert to fund Delores's abortion but accidentally killed him.
The final scene shows Tibbs boarding a train bound for Philadelphia, as Gillespie respectfully bids him farewell.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the Movie "In the Heat of the Night":
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