Hurry Sundown (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hurry Sundown
Directed by Otto Preminger
Produced by Otto Preminger
Written by Horton Foote
Bert Gilden
Katya Gilden
Thomas C. Ryan
Starring Michael Caine
Jane Fonda
Faye Dunaway
Diahann Carroll
John Phillip Law
Music by Hugo Montenegro
Cinematography Loyal Griggs, Milton R. Krasner
Editing by Tony de Zarraga, Louis R. Loeffler, James D. Wells
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) May 25, 1967
Running time 146 minutes
Language English
Budget US $4 million
IMDb profile

Hurry Sundown is a 1967 film starring Michael Caine, Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda, and Diahann Carroll. It is based on the novel "Hurry Sundown", by K. B. Gilden, Doubleday, 1967, is actually the husband and wife team named Katya and Bert Gilden. They sold the movie rights for this first novel to Hollywood in a sliding-scale deal that could bring them more than $250,000.[1] The film was directed by Otto Preminger. While set in Georgia, the film was actually shot on location in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Henry Warren (Michael Caine) is a land owner obsessed with buying up all available land in rural Georgia in the days just after World War II. However, two parcels of land have escaped his reach, and he's determined to get them. The Scotts, an African-American family, own one of the lots that Henry is after; the matriarch of the family, Rose (Beah Richards), used to work as a servant for the family of Henry's wife, Julie Ann (Jane Fonda), so Henry sends Julie Ann to talk with her. However, not only doesn't Rose agree to sell, she gets so upset that she dies of a heart attack, and soon her son Reeve (Robert Hooks) is the owner of the land. Reeve refuses all of Henry's offers to sell out, and he even stands up to a racist lynch mob that tries to ransack his farm; when Henry attempts to prove that Reeve holds no legal deed to the property, Vivian Thurlow (Diahann Carroll), the town's black schoolmarm, is able to provide the documentation that the Scotts do indeed own their land. Meanwhile, Henry is also trying to buy some property farmed by Rod McDowell (John Phillip Law) and his wife Lou (Faye Dunaway), a poor white couple who are Henry's cousins. The McDowell farm adjoins that owned by the Scotts, so Reeve and Rod agree to join forces against Henry, which leads to violent reprisals against them. The courtroom scene features Burgess Meredith as the judge, Robert Reed as the prosecuting attorney, and Jim Backus as the defense attorney, and Madeline Sherwood as the judge's wife.

[edit] Primary cast

[edit] Production

[edit] Location

Segregation became a problem during the course of the shoot. The producers had to obtain special permission to allow the black and white cast members to stay in the same hotel. It was reported that at one stage the Ku Klux Klan fired a gun at director Otto Preminger's trailer while on location.[2]

[edit] Soundtrack

"Hurry Sundown" (1967), Hugo Montenegro composer, RCA Victor.[3]

Track listing:

1. Main Title
2. Cool It Julie
3. Hurry Sundown
4. Homecoming
5. The Loser
6. Charlie's Trip
7. Love Me Vivian
8. Hurry Sundown
9. Playing With Dynamite
10. Hurry Sundown Blues
11. Love Theme
12. Breakfast in Bed
13. Interlude and End Title

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Time Magazine: Hurry Sundown Book Review
  2. ^ Field, Matthew. Michael Caine 'You're a Big Man': The Performances That Made The Icon (2003), Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. page 32 - ISBN 071348876X
  3. ^ Hurry Sundown Soundtrack

[edit] External links