This week Steve Hayes reviews the 1955 film "Picnic" -- which I happen to know was the movie some boy took my mother to see on her first date. The Tired Old Queen says: Passions flair in a Midwestern community on Labor Day, when a drifter who rides the rails sets his sights on the prettiest girl in town, in director Josh Logan's adaptation of William Inge's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Picnic." The lives of all the women he encounters are deeply changed by this strange, restless and charismatic young man. William Holden and Kim Novak lead a stellar cast including Broadway veterans Susan Strasberg, Betty Field, Oscar nominee Arthur O'Connell and the infamous Nick Adams.
Also making an indelible impression is Rosalind Russell, heartbreaking as a lonely schoolteacher unable to let go of the summer, or her one last chance at love. Shot on location in Cinemascope and Technicolor, beautifully acted and directed, with a haunting score by George Duning, "Picnic" remains one of the most memorable, romantic films of the 1950s.
1 comment:
I have this film on DVD and just have't gotten around to watching it! Gotta do that soon. (Written by, don't forget, gay William Inge).
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