The plot follows the conflicts of the Varner family after ambitious drifter Ben Quick (Newman) arrives in their small Mississippi town. Will Varner (Welles), the patriarch, has doubts about his son, Jody (Franciosa) and sees Ben as a better choice to inherit his position. Will tries to push Ben and his daughter Clara (Woodward) into marriage.
Filmed in Clinton, Louisiana, the cast was composed mostly of former Actors Studio students, whom Ritt met while he was an assistant teacher to Elia Kazan. For the leading role, Warner Bros. loaned Newman to 20th Century Fox. The production was marked by conflicts between Welles and Ritt, which drew media attention. The music score was composed by Alex North and the title song, "The Long Hot Summer", written by North and Sammy Cahn, was performed by Jimmie Rodgers.
The film was well received by critics but did not score significant results at the box office. Its critical success revitalized Ritt's career, after his having been blacklisted during most of the 1950s. Newman won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
Ben Quick talks to Clara Varner. On the left is Agnes.
Ben Quick is on trial for barn-burning, but since there is no evidence the judge just orders him to leave town. Ben hitches a ride to Frenchman's Bend, Mississippi, with two young women in a convertible, Clara Varner and her sister-in-law Eula. Clara's father, Will Varner, is the domineering owner of most of the town.
Will is away, but his only son, Eula's husband Jody, agrees to let Ben become a sharecropper on a vacant farm. When Will returns from a stay in the hospital, he is furious at Jody for hiring a notorious "barn burner", but soon begins to see in Ben a younger version of himself and comes to admire his ruthlessness and ambition, qualities that Jody lacks. Will is also disappointed that his 23-year-old daughter, Clara, has not married the man she has been seeing for five or six years: Alan Stewart, a genteel Southern "blue blood" and a mama's boy.
Will therefore schemes to push his daughter and Ben together. However, she is openly hostile to the crude upstart. Will is determined to have his bloodline go on, so he offers to make Ben wealthy if he marries Clara. Meanwhile, Minnie Littlejohn, Will's longtime mistress, is dissatisfied with their arrangement and wants to get married.
Eula and Jody
Jody becomes increasingly frustrated, seeing his position being undermined, and his marriage falters. After Ben sells some worthless wild horses for Will, he is rewarded with the job of clerk in Will's general store, alongside Jody. Will even invites him to live in the family mansion.
Jody pulls a gun on Ben and threatens to kill him. Ben talks his way out by telling Jody about buried Civil War-era treasure he has supposedly found on a property that Will gave him, a down payment to seal their bargain over Clara. Jody starts digging and finds a bag of coins. He is elated, thinking he might finally be able to escape his father's domination; he buys the land from Ben. Late that night, Will finds his son, still digging. After examining a coin, Will notices that it was minted in 1910. Jody is shattered.
Ben aggressively pursues Clara. She finally asks Alan what his intentions are, and he replies that he only wants to "help" her. Misinterpreting what Clara tells him, Will goes to congratulate Alan and his mother on the impending marriage, and is infuriated when he learns the truth. He returns home. A defeated Jody finds his father alone in their barn. Jody bolts the entrance and sets the barn on fire, but he cannot go through with it and releases Will. Will is touched by Jody's change of heart and calls him his "strong right arm." Men from town assume Ben is the culprit and intend to lynch him, but Clara rescues him from the mob and drives him back to the plantation. Will defuses the situation by telling the lynch mob he accidentally started the fire.
Ben confesses to Clara that his father was a barn-burner, committing arson when offended, and that he has been falsely dogged by such accusations because of his father. Ben tells her he is leaving town, but Clara makes it clear she has fallen in love with him.
Cast
Paul Newman as Ben Quick. Newman met director Martin Ritt as a student at the Actors Studio, where Ritt was a teacher-assistant for Elia Kazan.[4] Newman, who was under a contract with Warner Brothers, was loaned to 20th Century Fox for a fee of US$75,000. Meanwhile, his contract earned him US$17,500 for each ten-week shot.[5] He traveled to Clinton, Louisiana, before the start of filming to study the mannerisms, accent and speech of the Southern men in order to create a proper characterization.[6]
Orson Welles as Will Varner. The character was inspired by Big Daddy Pollitt from Tennessee Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.[3] Welles' presence on the film was marked by multiple conflicts with director Martin Ritt. He agreed to take the role due to a tax debt of US$150,000; he stated years later, "I hated making Long Hot Summer. I've seldom been as unhappy in a picture."[7]
Director Martin Ritt met the three cast members listed below while they were students at the Actors Studio.[8][9]
Joanne Woodward as Clara Varner. Woodward married Newman in 1958.
Lee Remick as Eula Varner. Remick later admitted that during the shooting she was intimidated by Orson Welles on the set because of his "icon" status.[10]
Producer Jerry Wald hired former co-worker and Warner Brothers director Martin Ritt to shoot the adaptation of two William Faulkner novels based on a recommendation by script writer Irving Ravetch.[12] Wald convinced the studio executives to pay US$50,000 for the rights for the novels The Sound and the Fury and The Hamlet. The first to be produced, The Hamlet, was renamed The Long Hot Summer to avoid confusion with William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.[13] Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr. wrote the script, also adding fragments from Faulkner's short stories "Barn Burning" and "Spotted Horses".[14] In the new script, the book's main character, Flem Snopes, and the rest of the Snopes family were removed. The plot was recentered on a minor character, Ben Quick, and the reconciliation of the Varner family.[15][16] On their first important screenplay, Ravetch and Frank implemented their signature style, using the names of characters and a few details of the plot but significantly modifying the details of the story.[17] The final product was heavily influenced by Tennessee Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,[6] resulting in an "erotically charged" story.[18][19]
Orson Welles as Will Varner
Locations
The film was shot in Clinton and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in CinemaScope color,[13] with a budget of US$1,645,000.[1] A Southern Gothic story,[19] Ritt decided to shoot it on location to capture the characteristics of the area, emphasizing the regional details.[14] Ritt met leading actor Paul Newman while teaching at the Actors Studio. The rest of the main cast also consisted of former Actors Studio alumni, including Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa and Lee Remick.[13]
Casting
The film attracted attention for the appearance of Orson Welles as Will Varner, the patriarch of the family. 20th Century Fox wanted to avoid casting Welles because of his temperament, but the studio was persuaded by Ritt, who considered him the right actor for the role.[13][16] The director and the actor had several marked differences during the shooting of the movie, which included problems with the interpretation of the lines, costume design and the position of Welles while shooting the scenes.[20] At one point during the production, Welles informed Ritt that he did not want to memorize his lines, requesting instead that they be dubbed afterwards.[7] Part of the cast was intimidated by Welles' temperamental attitude.[10]
The conflicts between Welles and Ritt attracted media attention. Immediately after filming was completed, during an interview with Life, Welles explained that the cause of his behavior was that he did not know what kind of "monkeyshines" his co-stars would be or the "caprices" they would receive from him. He also stated that they overcame the differences and completed the film.[21] Welles later wrote a letter to Ritt praising his work and apologizing for his interference during the making of the movie. Ritt replied, expounding his admiration for Welles.[22] Despite the mutual apologies, during an interview in 1965, Ritt recalled an incident on the set. While the film was being shot, it was often stopped by bad weather. During a day suitable for shooting, he found Welles not ready for the scene, instead reading a newspaper in Spanish. Ritt decided to skip Welles's scene and shoot the next one. He attributed Welles' later cooperation to the incident, which Welles had found humiliating. Ritt thus earned the nickname "the Orson Tamer" throughout the Hollywood community.[10]
Alex North composed the film's score, which leaned toward a jazz style. "The Long Hot Summer" was the only song written by North to be used as the title track of a film. Composed in an AABA form, it was characterized by its lyricisms and its "tense dissonant" jazz-figures. The lyrics of the song were written by Sammy Cahn, while instrumental variations of the melody were used throughout the film, underlining the progression of the relationship between Ben and Clara.[23] Recorded by Jimmie Rodgers, it was released by Roulette Records, reaching number 77 on Billboard's Top 100 Sides in June 1958.[24] The orchestra was conducted by Lionel Newman.[25][26]
Billboard described the soundtrack as "a model of music use in a dramatic film".[27] On another review, Billboard favored the album, stating that it "makes for good listening out of the cinematic context" and that the financial success of the soundtrack may have been propelled by Jimmie Rodgers' "smooth vocal treatment". The publication praised North's musical understanding of the deep South, and particularly praised the song "Eula", describing it as a "pure gem of sex-on-wax".[28]
The movie opened on March 13, 1958, in several cities around the United States, including Los Angeles and San Francisco.[29] It grossed $48,000 from four theaters in Los Angeles and $15,000 in San Francisco in its first week.[30] It opened to good reviews but did not score a significant profit at the box office,[31] grossing US$3,500,000.[32]
Billboard commended the acting as "first-rate" and "robust", with particular praise for Woodward, and also praised Ritt's direction.[27] Meanwhile, The Reporter highlighted the film's similarities to the play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and described the cast as "an impressive one", but remarked that the actors and characters "never seem to get together". The review called Welles "great" and "gusty", but described Woodward's participation as a "poker bluff".[33]
Publicity portrait for the film, featuring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
Time described Newman's performance as "mean and keen as a cackle-edge scythe". The publication also praised Woodward, stating her acting was delivered with "fire and grace not often seen in a movie queen", but decried Welles's acting as "scarcely an improvement" on his performance in his previous role, in Moby Dick.[34]Variety praised the scriptwriters for the successful merging of the three Faulkner stories that inspired the film. The review also praised Martin Ritt, the camerawork by Joseph LaShelle, and the film's musical score.[35]Cosmopolitan called the movie a "gutsy melodrama".[36]
Advertisement from 1958
For The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther noted Ravetch and Frank's "tight, word-cracking" script that featured fast-paced scenes with "slashing dialogue". The reviewer felt that the cast was "clicking nicely" until the story of the writers "plunged" from the dramatic scenes to "sheer story-telling make-believe", while Crowther concluded that it went from "superb" to a "senseless, flabby heap".[37] The Los Angeles Times opened its review qualifying the movie as "provocative, evocative". While critic Phillip K. Scheuer failed to see the plot's relation to The Hamlet, he praised the work of writers Ravetch and Frank, as well as the "exacting direction" of Ritt. Scheuer perceived the southern accents of the cast and the use of redness on their make-up to be unauthentic, but he felt that the use of the Louisiana landscapes and the development of the characters gave the film a "comulative bite" and a "powerful persuader" that "you are there". The review described Welles' acting as "terrific" and as dominating of the plot, while it favored Newman, Woodward and the supporting cast. Closing the piece, Scheuer wrote that he could not "get the sense" of the ending, while it mentioned as "top credits" the contributions of North on the soundtrack and Lashelle's camerawork.[38]
The Miami Herald pointed that the story did not resemble Faulkner's work excepting his use of "lusty accessories". The reviewer implied that most moviegoers would be not familiar with the work of Faulkner, while he remarked that the film would be "perfectly satisfactory". The piece closed by again criticizing the producers that felt that "Louisiana looked more than Mississippi than Mississippi does", and the newspaper took it as an example of the "liberties" taken with Faulkner's work.[39]The Memphis Press-Scimitar welcomed Welles' performance as "superb", while it also remarked the large difference between the original stories and the movie.[40] Also in Memphis, The Commercial Appeal defined The Long, Hot Summer as a "sizzler", that showed a "superior" performance by Woodward, as well as a "stellar" cast. The piece determined that the "tempestuous, earthy" plotline would not be suitable for the "immature", rather for the "adult" that would find it to be a "dynamic drama" for the "swirling turbulence" of the Varner family and the "frank omnipresence of sex".[41] The Austin American-Statesman considered that Welles represented "one of the picture's more entertaining features" that made the film "gripping", along with the "able performances" and "crisp dialogue".[42]
For the New York Daily News, Kate Cameron gave The Long, Hot Summer four stars. She described the work of the writers in integrating Faulkner's three works as a "fascinating saga". Cameron called the cast "first rate", with a "smoothly and convincingly" direction by Ritt.[43] The Chicago Tribune wrote that the movie had a "first rate" cast, praised the photography and defined the result as "engrossing entertainment".[44]The Boston Globe defined the location as "authentic", while the reviewer felt that the plot "has bite" and its pace advanced as "a race horse". The newspaper hailed Woodward's interpretation of the character as "a polished perfection of understanding".[45]The Cincinnati Enquirer opened stating that doubts regarding Woodward's acting "are put at rest" with the release that it called "adult theater".[46]
Legacy
The film revived the career of Martin Ritt, who had been on the blacklist for most of the decade for alleged associations with communists.[47]
Paul Newman's performance as Ben Quick brought him national fame,[48] as well as the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. During the production, Newman married co-star Woodward.[49]
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, racing driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Anthony George Franciosa was an American actor most often billed as Tony Franciosa at the height of his career. He began his career on stage and made a breakthrough portraying the brother of the drug addict in the play A Hatful of Rain, which earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He reprised his role in its subsequent film adaptation, for which he won the 1957 Venice Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Hud is a 1963 American Western film starring Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Brandon deWilde, and Patricia Neal. Directed by Martin Ritt, it was produced by Ritt and Newman's recently founded company, Salem Productions, and was their first film for Paramount Pictures. Hud was filmed on location on the Texas Panhandle, including Claude, Texas. Its screenplay was by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. and was based on Larry McMurtry's 1961 novel, Horseman, Pass By. The film's title character, Hud Bannon, was a minor character in the original screenplay, but was reworked as the lead role. With its main character an antihero, Hud was later described as a revisionist Western.
Murphy's Romance is a 1985 American romantic-comedy film directed by Martin Ritt. The screenplay by Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch was based on the 1980 novella by Max Schott. The film stars Sally Field, James Garner, Brian Kerwin, and Corey Haim, and was produced by Laura Ziskin for Field's production company Fogwood Films.
Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American retired actress. She made her career breakthrough in the 1950s and earned esteem and respect playing complex women with a characteristic nuance and depth of character. Her accolades include an Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She is the oldest living Best Actress Oscar-winner.
From the Terrace is a 1960 American DeLuxe Color romantic drama film in CinemaScope directed by Mark Robson from a screenplay by Ernest Lehman, based on the 1958 novel of the same name by John O'Hara. The film stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Myrna Loy, Ina Balin, George Grizzard, and Leon Ames, with a young Barbara Eden appearing in one scene. The plot tells the story of the estranged son of a Pennsylvania factory owner who marries into a prestigious family and moves to New York to seek his fortune.
Martin Ritt was an American director, producer, and actor, active in film, theatre and television. He was known mainly as an auteur of socially-conscious dramas and literary adaptations, described by Stanley Kauffmann as "one of the most underrated American directors, superbly competent and quietly imaginative."
Jerome Irving Wald was an American screenwriter and a producer of films and radio programs.
Stanley & Iris is a 1990 American romantic drama film directed by Martin Ritt and starring Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro. The screenplay by Harriet Frank, Jr. and Irving Ravetch is loosely based on the 1982 novel Union Street by Pat Barker.
The Hamlet is a novel by the American author William Faulkner, published in 1940, about the fictional Snopes family of Mississippi. Originally a standalone novel, it was later followed by The Town (1957) and The Mansion (1959), forming the Snopes trilogy.
Hombre is a 1967 American revisionist Western film directed by Martin Ritt, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard and starring Paul Newman, Fredric March, Richard Boone and Diane Cilento.
The Long Hot Summer is an American drama series from 20th Century Fox Television that was broadcast on ABC-TV for one season from 1965–1966. It was aired in the UK on ITV.
The Best of Everything is a 1959 American drama film directed by Jean Negulesco from a screenplay by Edith Sommer and Mann Rubin, based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Rona Jaffe. It stars Hope Lange, Stephen Boyd, Suzy Parker, Martha Hyer, Diane Baker, Brian Aherne, Robert Evans, Louis Jourdan, and Joan Crawford. The film follows the professional careers and private lives of three women who share a small apartment in New York City and work together at a paperback publishing firm. Alfred Newman wrote the musical score, the last under his longtime contract as 20th Century-Fox's musical director.
Harriet Frank Jr. was an American screenwriter and producer. Working with her husband Irving Ravetch, Frank received many awards during her career, including the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and the Writers Guild of America Award, and several nominations.
Irving Dover Ravetch was an American screenwriter and film producer who frequently collaborated with his wife Harriet Frank Jr.
The Sound and the Fury is a 1959 American drama film directed by Martin Ritt. It is loosely based on the 1929 novel of the same title by William Faulkner.
The Long Hot Summer is a 1985 American made-for-television romantic drama film starring Don Johnson. It is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name.
This article is the filmography of Paul Newman
"The 80 Yard Run" is an American television play broadcast on January 16, 1958, as part of the second season of the CBS television series Playhouse 90. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward co-starred. Franklin Schaffner directed, and David Shaw wrote the teleplay as an adaptation of a story written by his brother Irwin Shaw.
The Last Movie Stars is an American documentary television miniseries created by Emily Wachtel and directed by Ethan Hawke. All six episodes of the series were released on HBO Max on July 21, 2022. After discovering transcripts of interviews conducted at Paul Newman's request for an abandoned memoir project, a daughter of Newman and Joanne Woodward asked Hawke to tell their story, personally and as artists. Hawke assembled actors to read pieces of the interviews, conducted and edited by writer Stewart Stern, including interviews with Newman and Woodward. The marriage spanned 50 years and was often cited as one of the great Hollywood successful marriages and love stories.
Leonard, William (April 6, 1958). "Oscar Winner Tops March's Best Movies". Part 7. Chicago Tribune. Vol.117, no.14. Retrieved July 21, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
Lisante, Tom (2000). Fantasy Femmes of 60s Cinema: Interviews With 20 Actresses from Biker, Beach, and Elvis Movies. McFarland. ISBN978-0-7864-0868-9.
Matelski, Marilyn (1991). "Variety: Film, Video, Theatre, Music". Variety: Film, Video, Theatre, Music: The Year in Review. Focal Press. ISSN0959-1486.
Miller, Gabriel (2000). The Films of Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN978-1-61703-496-1.
Miller, Gabriel (2003). Martin Ritt: Interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN978-1-57806-433-5.
Palmer, William; Bray, William Robert (2009). Hollywood's Tennessee: The Williams Films and Postwar America. University of Texas Press. ISBN978-0-292-71921-7.
Quirk, Lawrence (2009). Paul Newman: A Life. Taylor Trade Publications. ISBN978-1-58979-438-2.
Sinclair, Charles (April 14, 1958). "Reviewed in Brief". Billboard. Vol.70, no.18. ISSN0006-2510.
Solomon, Aubrey (1989). Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Scarecrow Press. ISBN978-0-8108-4244-1.
Soundtrack Collector staff (2006). "Long, Hot Summer, The (1958)". Soundtrack Collector. C&C Concept and Creation. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
United States Congress (2009). Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 110th Congress. Government Printing Office.
Pryor, Thomas (27 July 1958). "Hollywood Scene: Jerry Wald Presents His Treasurer's Report – Blaustein's 'Horsemen'". The New York Times. p.X5.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
Radcliffe, E. B. (April 2, 1958). "Joanne Holds Her Own With Welles". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Vol.117, no.358. Retrieved July 25, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
Scheuer, Phillip K. (March 14, 1958). "'Hot Summer' Plumbs Dixie". Part III. Los Angeles Times. Vol.LXXVII. Retrieved July 20, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
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