Picnic (1955)

Director:

Joshua Logan

Writers:

Daniel Taradash (screenplay)
William Inge (play)

Release Date:

16 February 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Electrically attracted to each other...Overwhelmingly engulfed by it...Guiltily in love!

Plot:

Emotions are ignited amongst the complacent townsfolk when a handsome drifter arrives in a small Kansas community on the morning of the Labour Day picnic.

Plot Keywords:

Sexual Attraction | Picnic | Beautiful Woman | Small Town Life | Atmospheric

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 10 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Tue. July 15

8:00 PM

TCM

Cast

William Holden	...	Hal Carter
Kim Novak	...	Madge Owens
Betty Field	...	Flo Owens
Susan Strasberg	...	Millie Owens
Cliff Robertson	...	Alan Benson
Arthur O'Connell	...	Howard Bevans
Verna Felton	...	Helen Potts
Reta Shaw	...	Irma Kronkite
Nick Adams	...	Bomber
Raymond Bailey	...	Mr. Benson
Elizabeth Wilson	...	Christine Schoenwalder (as Elizabeth W. Wilson)
Rosalind Russell	...	Rosemary

Runtime:

115 min | USA:113 min (DVD version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (re-rating) (1990) | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Halstead, Kansas, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Big screen debut of Reta Shaw.

Goofs:

Continuity: After the sunset scene, Madge and Hal are down by the river and there is direct sunlight sparkling on the water.

Quotes:

Hal Carter: I gotta get somewhere in this world. I just gotta.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hôtel de la plage, L' (1978)

Moonglow and Rosalind Russell

William Inge had his finger on the pulse of small town America. He wasn't checking the heartbeats of its inhabitants but his own. I've just said that as if I knew all about it and I don't, but I sense it. I mean, "Splendor In The Grass", "The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs", "Come Back Little Sheeba" That's all the evidence we need to know that he was a male writer with a woman's heart. "Picnic" epitomises that theory. Director Joshua Logan and writer Daniel Taradash trusted Inge's world without questioning it. Everything flows with the irrational sanity of a woman's heart. William Holden was a bit too old for the part but who cares! He is William Holden, capable to provoke passions of Mediterranean intensity at any age. He seems a bit self conscious at times and that helps the character's foibles no end. Kim Novak is breathtaking. Susan Strasberg milks her tomboy with a longing for all its worth. Betty Field, Daisy Buchanan in the original "Great Gatsby", gives a masterful performance without uttering a word that may reveal what she's actually feeling, until the end of course. That scene in which she tries to stop her daughter from going away, is as much Field's as it is Inge's. Rosalind Russell didn't get the Oscar for her superb, time bomb disguised in a school teacher's dress, performance. Her craving for sex and romance and sex and marriage and sex is as bold as anything she had ever done and Rosalind Russell new how to be bold from "His Girl Friday" to "Auntie Mame". The Moonglow sequence has become a classic moment in pictures. Deservedly so. I would suggest, if you haven't done it yet, take a trip through William Inge's territory. Familiar faces, familiar landscapes, familiar feelings, all completely new.