365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 126 - Summer's End Film Festival: Picnic

Picnic is another film that is best viewed as a type of time capsule. By today's standards it is an overwrought melodrama filled with unstated but ridiculously obvious sexual tension. The dialogue is overly dramatic and the film does not really work anymore. But if you view it in the context of the period it was made, than it can be seen with some merit for being a perfect "slice of life" view of small town America in 1955. You can admire the work of the supporting players, especially Arthur O'Connell and the way the film shows the relationships amongst the five key women, and the roles women played in mid 20th century America.

The movie is based on the hit play by William Inge and tells the story of a drifter who arrives in a small Kansas town on labor Day and disrupts the routine quiet lives of a small family.

The drifter is played by William Holden who is terribly miscast. He tries his best to portray a young man down on his luck a few years after getting out of college, but at 37 Holden was just too old for the part. This is a role that should have gone to a young Paul Newman or another star of that generation. But Columbia would not risk casting an unknown in such an important film. It is the first big starring role for Kim Novack  and she gives plenty of her longing looks and sighs, but she seems much too passive in the role.

The stars of the movie are Arthur O'Connell, who was also in the Broadway play, Rosalind Russell as an old maid school teacher and Susan Strasberg as Millie, a girl who has lived in the shadow of her older sister's beauty.

The overall problem with the film is the directing. Joshua Logan was primarily a theatre director and it shows in the way the film is shot. He directed the play on Broadway and it feels like he just transferred the Broadway show to film. The movie has it's moments, but it is slow and old-fashioned and easily dismissed by modern audiences.

At The Movie House rating **