The Impossible Years | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Gordon |
Screenplay by | George Wells |
Based on | The Impossible Years 1965 play by Bob Fisher Arthur Marx |
Produced by | Lawrence Weingarten |
Starring | |
Cinematography | William H. Daniels |
Edited by | James E. Newcom |
Music by | Don Costa |
Production company | Marten Productions |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 98 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $5.8 million (North America) [1] |
The Impossible Years is a 1968 American comedy film directed by Michael Gordon, and starring David Niven. The film also features Lola Albright, Chad Everett, Ozzie Nelson in his final film appearance, and Cristina Ferrare, who was 17 years old at the time the film was shot. It is based upon the 1965 play of the same name by Bob Fisher and Arthur Marx, the son of Groucho Marx, and was adapted for the screen by George Wells.
The eponymous theme song was written by The Tokens and performed by The Cowsills.
Jonathan Kingsley is a professor of psychiatry at the local university. An author of numerous books on parenting, he and wife Alice are raising two teenage daughters. The elder, Linda, 17, begins to display uncharacteristic behavior: walking as if on air, smiling incessantly for no reason, cleaning up her room daily, showing politeness toward her little sister, and more. It is suspected that she has lost her virginity while on a school field trip to Catalina Island, and Kingsley's general practitioner confirms this. Linda, while being interrogated, admits as much, and she reveals that she is married. She insists on concealing the identity of her husband until the film's conclusion.
MGM bought the film rights to the play in 1965 for $350,000. [2] George Wells completed the script by March 1966. [3] MGM announced it for production in August 1966. The movie was greenlit by the team of Robert O'Brien and Robert M. Weitman. [4] Filming took place in October 1967.
At one stage, Peter Sellers was announced for the lead [5] but by May, David Niven had been signed. Christina Ferrare, who played Niven's nubile daughter, had been under contract to 20th Century Fox for a year. [6] The film featured the final movie performance of Ozzie Nelson. [7]
The Impossible Years premiered at New York City's Radio City Music Hall on December 5, 1968. [8]
The film was a box-office hit, earning $5.8 million in rentals in North America, [1] making it the 17th most popular movie at the U.S. box office in 1969. [9]
Critical reaction to The Impossible Years was overwhelmingly negative. [10]
The Warner Archive Collection released The Impossible Years on an MOD DVD-R on May 16, 2011. [11]
In 1970, it was reported that Jackie Cooper and Bob Finkel had written a pilot script for a TV adaptation of the play for NBC. [12]
George William Peppard was an American actor. He secured a major role as struggling writer Paul Varjak when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and later portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes in The Carpetbaggers (1964). On television, he played the title role of millionaire insurance investigator and sleuth Thomas Banacek in the early-1970s mystery series Banacek. He played Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, the cigar-smoking leader of a renegade commando squad in the 1980s action television series The A-Team.
Cynthia Cristina Ferrare is an American fashion model, actress, author and talk-show host. She had lead roles in several films in the late-1960s and early-1970s, including the 1968 comedy The Impossible Years and the 1972 Western film J. W. Coop, as well as portraying the titular character in Juan López Moctezuma's horror film Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary.
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The Impossible Years is a 1965 comedy play written by Robert Fisher and Arthur Marx, son of comedian Groucho Marx. After two previews, the Broadway production, directed by Arthur Storch, opened on October 13, 1965, at the Playhouse Theatre, where it ran for 670 performances. The original cast included Alan King, Sudie Bond, Bert Convy, Neva Small, and Scott Glenn. Ed McMahon temporarily assumed the role of Dr. Jack Kingsley for eight performances from January 17, 1966, to January 22, 1966, so Alan King could honor a previously scheduled Miami night club engagement.
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Lori Saunders is an American film and television actress, probably best known for her role as Bobbie Jo Bradley in the television series Petticoat Junction (1965–1970).
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