Rabbit, Run | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Jack Smight |
Screenplay by | Howard B. Kreitsek |
Based on | Rabbit, Run by John Updike |
Produced by | Howard B. Kreitsek |
Starring | James Caan Carrie Snodgress Anjanette Comer Jack Albertson Arthur Hill Melodie Johnson Henry Jones Josephine Hutchinson |
Cinematography | Philip H. Lathrop |
Edited by | Archie Marshek |
Music by | Ray Burton Brian King |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 94 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Rabbit, Run is a 1970 American independent drama film directed by Jack Smight. The film was adapted from John Updike's 1960 novel by screenplay writer Howard B. Kreitsek, who also served as producer. The film starred James Caan as Rabbit Angstrom, Carrie Snodgress as Rabbit's wife Janice, and Anjanette Comer as his girlfriend Ruth. The movie co-starred Jack Albertson as Coach Marty Tothero, Arthur Hill as Rev. Jack Eccles, and Henry Jones and Josephine Hutchinson as Rabbit's parents. [1] [2]
In Reading, Pennsylvania, former high school basketball star Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is dissatisfied with both his failure to find a career and with his loveless marriage to Janice, an alcoholic who is pregnant with a child neither of them wants. Following an argument with Janice, Rabbit looks up his old basketball coach Marty Tothero, who is now living in squalor. Marty decides that Rabbit needs a woman, and he introduces him to Ruth, a part-time prostitute. When Rabbit moves in with Ruth, Jack Eccles, the family minister, tries to persuade him to return to his wife, but Rabbit refuses.
Eventually, Rabbit also becomes disenchanted with Ruth, and when Janice has her baby, Rabbit goes to the hospital and effects a reconciliation. For a time, they live in relative harmony, but Janice's insistence on a less active sex life leads to bitterness, and Rabbit again takes off. Janice resumes her solitary drinking, this time with tragic results; while in a drunken stupor, she accidentally drowns the baby. Learning of his child's death, Rabbit returns home and finds that everyone holds him responsible.
At the funeral, Rabbit responds to his parents' and in-laws' accusing glances by screaming his innocence. Fleeing from the cemetery, he goes to Ruth's apartment; but Ruth, who is now pregnant with his child, refuses to let him in unless he agrees to divorce Janice and marry her. Although he promises to do so, Rabbit is still unable to make a commitment to anyone and runs away again.
James Caan later said he did this film instead of M*A*S*H , adding, "I was at odds — not screaming or fighting — with this guy, writer Howard Kreitsek... Some of the dialogue was horrendous. And I said, "I can't say this!" And they would say, "Well, John Updike wrote it!" So I said, "Well then get fuckin' Updike to play it!" It was just not good. The director [Jack Smight] was not good." [3] It was the last in a series of financially unsuccessful films where Caan played the lead. [4]
Following a dispute over the cut of the film submitted by producer Howard B. Kreitsek, director Smight asked Warner Bros. and the Directors Guild of America for his name to be removed from the film. [5]
The film, which was released by Warner Bros., had its world premiere in Updike's hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania, on 28 October 1970. [2] The film poster reads, "3 months ago Rabbit Angstrom ran out to buy his wife cigarettes. He hasn't come home yet." [6]
The reception by the Reading audience was poor and Warner Bros. aborted a wide release for the film, which didn't even play in New York City. As late as 1973, John Updike was still hoping that Warners would reshoot scenes he considered weak and re-release the film. [7]
NBC aired the film on NBC Monday Night at the Movies in January 1974.
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, Updike published more than twenty novels, more than a dozen short-story collections, as well as poetry, art and literary criticism and children's books during his career.
Caroline Louise Snodgress was an American actress. She is best remembered for her role in the film Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award as well as winning two Golden Globes and two Laurel Awards.
James Edmund Caan was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (1972) – a performance that earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised his role in The Godfather Part II (1974). He received a motion-picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978.
Freebie and the Bean is a 1974 American buddy cop black comedy action film starring James Caan and Alan Arkin, and directed by Richard Rush. The film follows two offbeat police detectives who wreak havoc in San Francisco attempting to bring down an organized crime boss. The film, which had been originally scripted as a serious crime drama, morphed into what is now known as the "buddy-cop" genre due to the bantering, improvisational nature of the acting by Caan and Arkin. Reportedly, by the end of filming, both actors were confused by the purpose of the movie, not knowing that they had stumbled into a successful character formula. The film was popular enough to spawn various other successful film franchises such as, Lethal Weapon, 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop. Loretta Swit and Valerie Harper appeared in support roles.
Rabbit at Rest is a 1990 novel by John Updike. It is the fourth and final novel in a tetralogy, succeeding Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; and Rabbit Is Rich. A related novella, Rabbit Remembered, was published in 2001. Rabbit at Rest won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1991, the second "Rabbit" novel to garner that award.
Rabbit Is Rich is a 1981 novel by John Updike. It is the third novel of the tetralogy that begins with Rabbit, Run, continues with Rabbit Redux, and concludes with Rabbit at Rest. There is also a related novella, Rabbit Remembered (2001). Rabbit Is Rich was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1982, as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1981. The first-edition hardcover "rainbow" dust jacket for the novel was designed by the author and is significantly different from the horizontal-stripe designs deployed on the other three Rabbit novel covers. Subsequent printings, however, including trade paperbacks, feature the stripe motif with stock images of a set of car keys or an image of a late-1970s Japanese automobile.
Brewer, Pennsylvania is a fictional city that serves as the major setting for American writer John Updike's "Rabbit" cycle of novels. It is the center of the only fictional universe which Updike developed across multiple works, and symbolically represents his assessment of American culture from 1959 to 1999.
Rabbit, Run is a 1960 novel by John Updike. The novel depicts three months in the life of a 26-year-old former high school basketball player named Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, who is trapped in a loveless marriage and a boring sales job, and attempts to escape the constraints of his life. It spawned several sequels, including Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest, as well as a related 2001 novella, Rabbit Remembered. In these novels, Updike takes a comical and retrospective look at the relentless questing life of Rabbit against the background of the major events of the latter half of the 20th century.
Mark Rydell is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has directed several Academy Award-nominated films including The Fox (1967), The Reivers (1969), Cinderella Liberty (1973), The Rose (1979), and The River (1984). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for On Golden Pond (1981).
She Was an Acrobat's Daughter is an animated short in the Merrie Melodies series, produced by Vitaphone Productions and released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. on April 10, 1937. This animated short was directed by I. Freleng and produced by Leon Schlesinger. The short is currently available to stream on Max and is a part of the Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and iTunes releases of Goodfellas as a part of a Merrie Melodies & Looney Tunes bonus features compilation.
Rabbit Remembered is a 2001 novella by John Updike and postscript to his "Rabbit" tetralogy. It first appeared in his collection of short fiction titled Licks of Love. Portions of the novella first appeared in The New Yorker in two parts under the title "Nelson and Annabelle".
Anjanette Comer is an American actress.
Kaleidoscope is a 1966 British comedy crime film directed by Jack Smight and starring Warren Beatty and Susannah York.
Harper is a 1966 American mystery thriller film directed by Jack Smight from a screenplay by William Goldman, based on the 1949 novel The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald. The film stars Paul Newman as Lew Harper, with a cast that includes Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Wagner, and Shelley Winters.
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Starlift is a 1951 American musical film released by Warner Bros. starring Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Virginia Mayo, Dick Wesson, and Ruth Roman. It was directed by Roy Del Ruth and written by John D. Klorer and Karl Kamb, from a story by Klorer. The film was made during the beginning of the Korean War and centers on a U.S. Air Force flyer's wish to meet a film star, and her fellow stars' efforts to perform for injured men at the air force base.
About Face is a 1952 American musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Gordon MacRae, Eddie Bracken and Virginia Gibson. It was future Oscar winner Joel Grey's film debut. It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of the 1936 play Brother Rat by John Monks Jr. and Fred F. Finklehoffe and a remake of the 1938 film of the same title.
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Hot Car Girl is a 1958 American film directed by Bernard L. Kowalski. Seeing Hot Car Girl in a four-walled playoff in 1958 gave the audience the sense that they were witnessing something clandestine and taboo.
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