Olly Olly Oxen Free (film)
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| Olly Olly Oxen Free | |
|---|---|
 DVD Cover |
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| Directed by | Richard A. Colla |
| Produced by | Richard A. Colla |
| Written by | Richard A. Colla Maria L. De Ossio Eugene Poinc |
| Starring | Katharine Hepburn Kevin McKenzie Dennis Dimster |
| Music by | Bob Alcivar |
| Cinematography | Gayne Rescher |
| Editing by | Lee Burch |
| Distributed by | Sanrio Communications |
| Release date(s) | August 1978  United States |
| Running time | 83 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Olly, Olly, Oxen Free (aka The Great Balloon Adventure and The Great Balloon Race) is a 1978 American black comedy film directed by Richard A. Colla. The screenplay by Eugene Poinc is based on a story by Poinc, Colla, and Maria L. de Ossio. The title is derived from a phrase used in a children's game.
Elderly, eccentric Miss Pudd (Katharine Hepburn) is the owner of a store she considers an antique shop but most would call a junkyard. She frequently refuses to part with her merchandise because of its sentimental value, but she does agree to sell some items to two small boys, Alby (Kevin McKenzie) and Chris (Dennis Dimster), who are repairing a hot air balloon that belonged to the older boy's grandfather, a stunt man named The Great Sandusky. They plan to take it aloft to celebrate the man's birthday. Miss Pudd encourages the two to sail the balloon from San Francisco to Los Angeles, with her and their English sheepdog as passengers.
The low-budget movie was filmed on location in Calistoga and St. Helena, California in the summer of 1976 but failed to find a distributor until two years later, when it was given a limited release in the Midwest. In 1981 it was released in New York City to indifferent reviews and vanished quickly from theaters.
[edit] References
A Remarkable Woman: A Biography of Katharine Hepburn by Anne Edwards, published by William Morrow (1985), pages 392-93 ISBN 0-688-04528-6
