| The King of Marvin Gardens | |
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| Directed by | Bob Rafelson |
| Written by | Jacob Brackman |
| Starring | Jack Nicholson Bruce Dern Ellen Burstyn |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 12, 1972 |
| Running time | 103 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The King of Marvin Gardens is a 1972 American drama film. It stars Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn and Scatman Crothers. It is one of several collaborations between Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson. The majority of the film is set in a wintry Atlantic City, New Jersey, with the plot and the cinematography by László Kovács. The title alludes to one of the properties in the game Monopoly (original version).[1]
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Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern play estranged siblings David and Jason, the former a depressive late-night-radio talk show host, the latter an extroverted con man. When Jason drags his younger brother and his (Jason's) bitter aging beauty-queen squeeze (Burstyn) to a dreary Atlantic City and into a real-estate scam, events spiral toward tragedy. A skeptical David has no faith in Jason's scam. Albeit in a fit of anger and frustration, Jason at one point chides David for wallowing in his dark, lonely depressed life. The Burstyn character becomes a disgruntled woman who winds up shooting Jason. The movie ends with David escorting his brother's corpse on a train ride home. The movie was filmed almost entirely in Atlantic City, and offers a lot of shots of Atlantic City as it still looked in 1972, before the big Casino-Hotels.
The character of Jessica is a step-daughter from the Burstyn character's prior marriage. The film briefly alludes to some sort of kinky threeway relationship between the two women and the Bruce Dern character; in one scene, we see the two women topless in a hotel bedroom, squirting water guns at each other. And then Jason enters the bedroom and closes the door, leaving David by himself in an adjoining room.
Lewis, played by Scatman Crothers, is an Atlantic City gangster who has engaged in some dealings with Jason.
The film has many surreal scenes including a simulated Miss America Pageant in a deserted hall and a horseback confrontation between David and Jason.
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