Picnic (1955)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

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:

Picnic | Drifter | Kansas | Small Town | Beauty Queen

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 10 nominations

Cast

William Holden	...	Hal Carter
Kim Novak	...	Marjorie '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 Sidney
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Warren Frederick Adams	...	Stranger (uncredited)
Carle E. Baker	...	Grain Elevator Worker (uncredited)
George E. Bemis	...	Neighbor (uncredited)
Steve Benton	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Harold A. Beyer	...	Chamber of Commerce Member (uncredited)
Paul R. Cochran	...	Chamber of Commerce Member (uncredited)
Adlai Zeph Fisher	...	Chamber of Commerce Member (uncredited)
Don C. Harvey	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Flomanita Jackson	...	Committeewoman (uncredited)
Shirley Knight	...	Bit part (uncredited)
Phyllis Newman	...	Juanita Badger - Cool Girl (uncredited)
Henry Pagueo	...	Mayor (uncredited)
Harry Sherman Schall	...	Chamber of Commerce Member (uncredited)
Floyd Steinbeck	...	Chamber of Commerce Member (uncredited)
Wayne R. Sullivan	...	Foreman (uncredited)
Henry P. Watson	...	Chamber of Commerce President (uncredited)
Abraham Weinlood	...	Trainman - Before Opening Credits (uncredited)

Directed by
Joshua Logan

Writing credits
Daniel Taradash		(screenplay)
William Inge		(play "Picnic")

Produced by
Fred Kohlmar	....	producer

Original Music by
George Duning

Cinematography by
James Wong Howe

Film Editing by
William A. Lyon
Charles Nelson

Production Design by
Jo Mielziner

Art Direction by
William Flannery

Set Decoration by
Robert Priestley

Costume Design by
Jean Louis		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Clay Campbell	....	makeup artist
Helen Hunt	....	hair stylist
Robert J. Schiffer	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Carter De Haven Jr.	....	assistant director (as Carter DeHaven Jr.)

Sound Department
George Cooper	....	sound
John P. Livadary	....	recording supervisor (as John Livadary)

Camera and Electrical Department
Ray Cory	....	photographer: second unit

Editorial Department
Ralph James Hall	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Edgar De Lange	....	composer: song "Moonglow" (as Eddie De Lange)
Chet Forrest	....	composer: song "It's A Blue World"
Will Hudson	....	composer: song "Moonglow"
Fred Karger	....	music advisor
Irving Mills	....	composer: song "Moonglow"
Arthur Morton	....	orchestrator
Morris Stoloff	....	conductor
Bob Wright	....	composer: song "It's A Blue World"
Milton Ager	....	composer: song (uncredited)
Annie Fortescue Harrison	....	composer: song (uncredited)
J.L. Molloy	....	composer: song (uncredited)
Bob Thompson	....	music arranger (uncredited)
Jack Yellen	....	composer: song (uncredited)

Other crew
Henri Jaffa	....	technicolor color consultant
Miriam Nelson	....	choreographer (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1955) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia C.E.I.A.D. (1956) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Columbia Films (1956) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Columbia Films (1956) (France) (theatrical) (as Columbia Films S.A./35 and 16mm)
• Columbia (1956) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures (1961) (USA) (theatrical) (reissue)
• Action Gitanes (1997) (France) (theatrical) (re-issue)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2006) (Germany) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (????) (Italy) (video)
• SPHE (????) (France) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Sunset Gower Studios  sound stages
• Ultra Film Synchron  german dubbing

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) | West Germany:12 | France:U | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Burbank Studios, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Having directed William Inge's play two years previously on Broadway, Logan brought some radical cast changes to the production. Only Arthur O'Connell, Reta Shaw, and Elizabeth Wilson recreated their characterizations. Holden was cast as Hal Carter over Ralph Meeker who had played him onstage. His room-mate on Broadway had been played by Paul Newman; Cliff Robertson got the film part. Kim Stanley lost the part of Millie Owens to the much younger Susan Strasberg and Janice Rule lost out on the part of Madge to young contract player Kim Novak. Rosalind Russell actively campaigned for the role of Rosemary Sydney, the role Eileen Heckart had played it onstage.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: Judging from the position of the sun and the bustle of activity in the neighborhood, Boomer is delivering the morning paper (an edition which typically arrives around dawn) shortly before noon.

Quotes:

Flo Owens: Where is everybody?
Helen Potts: At a picnic everybody disappears. Don't you remember, Flo?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The King of Queens: I, Candy (#2.9)" (1999)

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.