This mint julep melodrama is a hooty delight. I suppose that at the time it was meant to shine a light on racial injustice in the south but it just comes off as an over-baked soap opera. Preminger was the wrong director for such a piece of honeyed excess, this is the type of thing at which Douglas Sirk excelled and could make trenchant observations while still entertaining the masses. Still worth watching for the cast alone. Jane Fonda gives the most enjoyable performance even if her honeychile accent comes and goes. And even as a sharecropper's wife with four kids Faye Dunaway manages to look ravishing. If you like overdone melodramas with lots of stars and little sense than this is for you, if not stay away!
35 Reviews
Otto Preminger Classic
HotToastyRag8 October 2017
It's difficult to concisely describe the plot of Hurry Sundown; it's a film about the racial divide, family squabbles, class distinction, and corporate takeover of land. Among the subplots are marital difficulties, Southern life, parenthood, a developmentally challenged child, questionable honor of the legal system, and coming-of-age dilemmas.
Michael Caine is married to Jane Fonda, and while they're a well-to-do Southern couple on the outside, beneath the surface lies infidelity and parenting issues. Michael's poor cousin, John Phillip Law, is married to Faye Dunaway, and he also has trouble with his children. Robert Hooks and his mother Beah Richards live on land that used to belong to Jane's family, back when they owned slaves. As a gift, they gave the land to Beah, but when Michael Caine's company wants to build on it, racial tensions lead to unforeseen consequences that affect all three families.
Even though I have a soft spot in my heart for Michael Caine and refuse to ever really see him as a bad guy, he's known for his meaner roles. In Hurry Sundown, he's just about as mean as it gets. He gives a fantastically chilling performance, and his Southern accent is nearly flawless. Faye Dunaway also stands out in her smaller role, since it's unlike the cold, calculating, classy roles she usually takes. Be on the lookout for Diahann Carroll, Burgess Meredith, and George Kennedy as the adorable but incompetent sheriff.
This is a very well-acted film that fits in with other hot-blooded films of its time, like In the Heat of the Night and The Long, Hot Summer. It's one of the steamiest films made in the 1960s, and it sheds light on a number of important issues. Director Otto Preminger, king of films that push the envelope, creates another masterpiece that makes you feel like you need a good scrubbing after watching it.
Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to racial language, sexual situations, and violence involving children, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.
Michael Caine is married to Jane Fonda, and while they're a well-to-do Southern couple on the outside, beneath the surface lies infidelity and parenting issues. Michael's poor cousin, John Phillip Law, is married to Faye Dunaway, and he also has trouble with his children. Robert Hooks and his mother Beah Richards live on land that used to belong to Jane's family, back when they owned slaves. As a gift, they gave the land to Beah, but when Michael Caine's company wants to build on it, racial tensions lead to unforeseen consequences that affect all three families.
Even though I have a soft spot in my heart for Michael Caine and refuse to ever really see him as a bad guy, he's known for his meaner roles. In Hurry Sundown, he's just about as mean as it gets. He gives a fantastically chilling performance, and his Southern accent is nearly flawless. Faye Dunaway also stands out in her smaller role, since it's unlike the cold, calculating, classy roles she usually takes. Be on the lookout for Diahann Carroll, Burgess Meredith, and George Kennedy as the adorable but incompetent sheriff.
This is a very well-acted film that fits in with other hot-blooded films of its time, like In the Heat of the Night and The Long, Hot Summer. It's one of the steamiest films made in the 1960s, and it sheds light on a number of important issues. Director Otto Preminger, king of films that push the envelope, creates another masterpiece that makes you feel like you need a good scrubbing after watching it.
Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to racial language, sexual situations, and violence involving children, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.
I liked Hurry Sundown despite the unevenness of the story and characters
tavm28 August 2012
I first knew about this film when I read about it in the book, "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time" and I also found out about its location shooting in my current hometown of Baton Rouge, La., either there or elsewhere. I also read that the locals there treated the cast and crew hostilely which makes me glad that my family didn't even move there until 1975 when I was about 7 and being just a kid, I usually got away with getting occasionally angry whenever other children my age called me "Chinese" (I'm actually of Filipino descent). About the movie itself, well, the first 30 minutes seemed all right dramatically-wise with the setting up of characters before Beah Richards' over-the-top heart attack turned the picture into close of an overheated soap opera worthy of "Dallas"-of which George Kennedy, who's a hoot as the sheriff with a penchant for liking the "coloreds", would join the cast of in the late '80s-especially whenever that mentally-challenged kid of Michael Caine and Jane Fonda was constantly crying. Caine had just become a star with Alfie while Ms. Fonda would become a sex symbol with Barbarella though maybe this film also contributed to her status when she played hubby Caine's sax. Another notable appearance was that of Faye Dunaway in an early role just before she became a star in Bonnie and Clyde. Burgess Meredith chews plenty of scenery as a bigoted judge especially when sharing some of that with Jim Backus as one of the attorneys in a court scene. By the way, Backus wasn't the only Sherwood Schwartz series regular-from "Gilligan's Island"-in that sequence as future star of "The Brady Bunch"-Robert Reed-would be his opposite here. And then there's Diahann Carroll who would later star in her own groundbreaking series the following year called "Julia". Okay, with that out of the way, I'll just say that I thought the drama was entertaining but I also knew that it's not for all tastes and leave it at that. So on that note, I recommend Hurry Sundown. P.S. On Wikipedia, I just found out that Preminger picked BR on the recommendation of production designer Gene Callahan who lived and eventually died there.
Devils and Dust
tieman6421 May 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Otto Preminger followed the remarkable "Bunny Lake is Missing" (1965) with the ridiculous "Hurry Sundown" (1967), a Tennessee Williamsesque drama in which wealthy landowners conspire to scam poor farmers of their land.
Elia Kazan directed "Wild River" in 1960, a somewhat sophisticated look at class, race and property in the American South. "Sundown" aims to do something similar, but the result is overblown, condescending and dull. Filled with unnecessary subplots, and marred by a shapeless script, tasteless sexual innuendos and bad casting (actor Michael Caine's American accent is atrocious), the film was based on a novel by K. B. Gilden. This novel was widely ridiculed, but Preminger was determined to turn it into gold. With this aim he hired screenwriter Horton Foote, who'd scripted "To Kill a Mockingbird" some years earlier. No luck. Both Foote and Preminger would later admit to have been dissatisfied with the film's ultimate screenplay.
"Hurry Sundown" stars Jane Fonda as a wealthy Southern woman and Burgess Meredith as a mean, racist judge. Knowingly melodramatic, both seem to be the only actors in Preminger's production to understand the tone required of such material. Whilst everyone bathes in sanctimony, Fonda and Burgess embrace trash.
5/10 – Worth one viewing.
Elia Kazan directed "Wild River" in 1960, a somewhat sophisticated look at class, race and property in the American South. "Sundown" aims to do something similar, but the result is overblown, condescending and dull. Filled with unnecessary subplots, and marred by a shapeless script, tasteless sexual innuendos and bad casting (actor Michael Caine's American accent is atrocious), the film was based on a novel by K. B. Gilden. This novel was widely ridiculed, but Preminger was determined to turn it into gold. With this aim he hired screenwriter Horton Foote, who'd scripted "To Kill a Mockingbird" some years earlier. No luck. Both Foote and Preminger would later admit to have been dissatisfied with the film's ultimate screenplay.
"Hurry Sundown" stars Jane Fonda as a wealthy Southern woman and Burgess Meredith as a mean, racist judge. Knowingly melodramatic, both seem to be the only actors in Preminger's production to understand the tone required of such material. Whilst everyone bathes in sanctimony, Fonda and Burgess embrace trash.
5/10 – Worth one viewing.
Tale of cousins
bkoganbing8 August 2019
I'm really not understanding why folks are so down on this film. Hurry Sundown
is far from the masterpiece of Otto Preminger's career. But he did assemble a
good cast who as an ensemble do quite well in their roles.
Michael Caine and John Philip Law are cousins. Caine used to work on a shrimp boat but married into southern gentry when he wed Jane Fonda. He's now trying to be a big shot businessman putting together parcels of land. Only two won't sell out Law and black neighbor Robert Hooks.
Law has just returned from World War 2 to wife Faye Dunaway and their kids. The war has taken him away from the south and given him an itch to wonder. He might sell, but Caine relies too much on the blood connection and approaches him all wrong.
Law does the unheard of thing in the post World War 2 south, he partners with Hooks and they dig some needed irrigation ditches using explosives.
That sets off all that follows because law and with some trepidation goes into a partnership with a black man. Something that just wasn't done in Georgia of 1946.
Both Fonda and Dunaway are ravishing and both are coming into their own as name players. Caine follows in the tradition of British actors playing southerners that seems to have started with Leslie Howard and Gone With The Wind. Law is the key character in this drama, it's his decisions are what turn the plot and he runs a good range of emotions doing it.
Hurry Sundown is not a bad picture of the south just before the civil rights revolution. Believe me pay no attentions to the bad reviews.
Michael Caine and John Philip Law are cousins. Caine used to work on a shrimp boat but married into southern gentry when he wed Jane Fonda. He's now trying to be a big shot businessman putting together parcels of land. Only two won't sell out Law and black neighbor Robert Hooks.
Law has just returned from World War 2 to wife Faye Dunaway and their kids. The war has taken him away from the south and given him an itch to wonder. He might sell, but Caine relies too much on the blood connection and approaches him all wrong.
Law does the unheard of thing in the post World War 2 south, he partners with Hooks and they dig some needed irrigation ditches using explosives.
That sets off all that follows because law and with some trepidation goes into a partnership with a black man. Something that just wasn't done in Georgia of 1946.
Both Fonda and Dunaway are ravishing and both are coming into their own as name players. Caine follows in the tradition of British actors playing southerners that seems to have started with Leslie Howard and Gone With The Wind. Law is the key character in this drama, it's his decisions are what turn the plot and he runs a good range of emotions doing it.
Hurry Sundown is not a bad picture of the south just before the civil rights revolution. Believe me pay no attentions to the bad reviews.
racial issues
ksf-212 July 2017
Otto Preminger....one year before Skidoo (which you HAVE to see if you haven't seen it. he even uses some of the same cast in Sundown... John Law, Burgess Meredith). The weirdest part of this whole thing is star Michael Caine trying to do a southern accent. Some fun names in this one.. Jim Backus, George Kennedy, Robert Reed, Jane Fonda. It's post WW II, and the land developers are buying up all the land for a housing development. Of course, there are two holdouts, and one of them is African American. And this town is dealing with serious racial tensions. Pretty much everyone has to choose a side. The married couple, the Warrens, (Fonda and Caine) are battling over trying to convince the black family to sell their property, where Mrs. Warren's mammy still lives. This one is very different from some of Preminger's other wacky films; a pretty serious drama, tackling some serious issues of the time. especially in the south, where this takes place. The story is pretty uneven, and everyone's performance is over the top. One bright spot was the singing they were doing in Reeve's house. of course, the it sounded like a lot more voices than the few that were in the room, but it was quite pretty. If you haven't seen this, its worth it to see all those big names in 1967. It IS available on DVD from Olive Films, but I have not seen this one on Turner Classics.
Incredible cast in flaccid racial melodrama...
moonspinner5516 April 2007
Lousy Otto Preminger film from K. B. Gilden's bestseller (adapted by Thomas C. Ryan and, of all people, Horton Foote!) concerns a greedy white land-owner in Georgia planning to dupe his wife's black guardian and her sharecropper husband out of their real estate, setting off a race war. Everyone is here, from Faye Dunaway to Brady dad Robert Reed, but the script is such a mess--and Preminger is so ham-handed--that nobody survives "Sundown" without looking foolish. Jane Fonda flirts with husband Michael Caine using his saxophone (!) while Beah Richards pantomimes a heart attack as if this were a stage-play. Preminger goes out of his way to make the rich whites despicable and the black folk saintly and reasonable--so much so that the picture might have started its own race war in 1967 (probably the exact type of controversy the director wanted). It certainly gave work to many underemployed, sensational actors like Madeleine Sherwood, Diahann Carroll, Rex Ingram and Jim Backus, but results are laughable. *1/2 from ****
Racism rears its ugly little face.....
mark.waltz30 November 2011
Warning: Spoilers
And it has an all-star cast. Director Otto Preminger trails down Tennessee Williams territory in this southern saga of greed, prejudice, power struggles and romantic longing. Set in Georgia just after the end of World War II, the epic surrounds the attempts of a land developer (Michael Caine) to get his hands on two farms-one owned by white John Phillip Law, the other supposedly by aging Beah Richards. Ms. Richards was the nanny of Caines' heiress wife (Jane Fonda), and claims that decades ago, her grandfather purchased the land. Fonda and Caine have many difficulties in their married, one of which is a mentally disturbed young son who throws tantrums and cries at just about anything. Law is married to the beautiful Dunaway, and has three children, one of whom resents his parents and wishes he were Caine's son. Ms. Richards' recently returned veteran son (Robert Hooks) has been taking care of the farm for her, and has hopes that beautiful school teacher Diahann Carroll will marry him. Everything explodes for these people when Fonda pays a visit on Richards at Caine's request to ask her to move. Richards refuses, and the resulting trial (from a lawsuit filed by Fonda) explodes into chaos with a violent outcome.
Family ties and long acquaintances are all threatened in this tragedy that makes "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" look like "Song of the South". The plot line is convoluted and the film a bit overlong, but it moves fast, and features outstanding production values. The acting is another matter. Some performances are mixed (Fonda and Caine's Southern accents are not always convincing), overacted (Burgess Meredith as the town's bigoted judge), subtle (Madeline Sherwood as his seemingly loyal wife who has a mind of her own), or heartbreaking (Richards). Familiar faces as Robert Reed, Jim Backus and Doro Merande also appear. I was looking forward to seeing future mega-stars Jane Fonda and Faye Dunaway working together, but the only scene they share does not have any real dialogue between them. Both of them do share scenes with the lovely Diahann Carroll, and her scene in a white ladies' bathroom with Fonda is unforgettable. As I mentioned, Meredith overacts. It seems like he hadn't gotten "Batman's" Penguin out of his system before doing his scenes, only the makeup. The film seems very well intended, but with the plethora of Southern based melodramas at the time ("The Chase", "This Property is Condemned"), "Hurry Sundown" comes off as just another trashy novel flashily adapted for the screen.
Family ties and long acquaintances are all threatened in this tragedy that makes "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" look like "Song of the South". The plot line is convoluted and the film a bit overlong, but it moves fast, and features outstanding production values. The acting is another matter. Some performances are mixed (Fonda and Caine's Southern accents are not always convincing), overacted (Burgess Meredith as the town's bigoted judge), subtle (Madeline Sherwood as his seemingly loyal wife who has a mind of her own), or heartbreaking (Richards). Familiar faces as Robert Reed, Jim Backus and Doro Merande also appear. I was looking forward to seeing future mega-stars Jane Fonda and Faye Dunaway working together, but the only scene they share does not have any real dialogue between them. Both of them do share scenes with the lovely Diahann Carroll, and her scene in a white ladies' bathroom with Fonda is unforgettable. As I mentioned, Meredith overacts. It seems like he hadn't gotten "Batman's" Penguin out of his system before doing his scenes, only the makeup. The film seems very well intended, but with the plethora of Southern based melodramas at the time ("The Chase", "This Property is Condemned"), "Hurry Sundown" comes off as just another trashy novel flashily adapted for the screen.
the ultimate kind of movie that can only be remembered for its cast
lee_eisenberg10 April 2005
"Hurry Sundown" was, without a doubt, an embarrassment for Otto Preminger. After movies like "Anatomy of a Murder," it seems like he could have come up with more than this litany of hackneyed-ness. Exaggerating every stereotype imaginable, the only memorable part is the cast.
Now, let's talk about the cast. Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, Faye Dunaway, John Philip Law, Robert Hooks and Burgess Meredith. That sounds good enough, but it's not. Maybe it's just that the years since have associated these people with other roles, but the courtroom scene is almost laughable. Michael Caine (aka Alfie) and Jane Fonda (aka Barbarella) are represented by Robert Reed (aka the "Brady Bunch" dad), while John Philip Law (aka the "Barbarella" angel) and Faye Dunaway (aka Bonnie Parker) are represented by Jim Backus (aka Mr. Howell on "Gilligan's Island"). Meanwhile, Burgess Meredith (aka Penguin on "Batman") is the judge, and Madeleine Sherwood (aka Mother Superior on "The Flying Nun") is his wife. I sort of wished that Batman and Robin would enter the courtroom and tackle the "Penguin" and start a Battle Royale, while the Bradys would escort out "Mike," the Castaways would escort out "Mr. Howell" and Bertrille would escort out "Mother Superior." Maybe the casts of "I Dream of Jeannie," "Bewitched," "Get Smart," "All in the Family," "Sanford and Son" and "Happy Days" could also appear, just to jazz things up a bit. Meanwhile, "Barbarella" and "the angel" would return to outer space, while "Bonnie" disappears with Clyde and "Alfie" continues womanizing.
Anyway, the movie's not outright swill, but given all the people involved in it, they should have done better.
Now, let's talk about the cast. Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, Faye Dunaway, John Philip Law, Robert Hooks and Burgess Meredith. That sounds good enough, but it's not. Maybe it's just that the years since have associated these people with other roles, but the courtroom scene is almost laughable. Michael Caine (aka Alfie) and Jane Fonda (aka Barbarella) are represented by Robert Reed (aka the "Brady Bunch" dad), while John Philip Law (aka the "Barbarella" angel) and Faye Dunaway (aka Bonnie Parker) are represented by Jim Backus (aka Mr. Howell on "Gilligan's Island"). Meanwhile, Burgess Meredith (aka Penguin on "Batman") is the judge, and Madeleine Sherwood (aka Mother Superior on "The Flying Nun") is his wife. I sort of wished that Batman and Robin would enter the courtroom and tackle the "Penguin" and start a Battle Royale, while the Bradys would escort out "Mike," the Castaways would escort out "Mr. Howell" and Bertrille would escort out "Mother Superior." Maybe the casts of "I Dream of Jeannie," "Bewitched," "Get Smart," "All in the Family," "Sanford and Son" and "Happy Days" could also appear, just to jazz things up a bit. Meanwhile, "Barbarella" and "the angel" would return to outer space, while "Bonnie" disappears with Clyde and "Alfie" continues womanizing.
Anyway, the movie's not outright swill, but given all the people involved in it, they should have done better.
Not that bad at all - check it out!
wvmcl20 February 2013
I get the impression that most of the comments here are more influenced by the entry in "The 50 Worst Films of All Time" than by the film "Hurry Sundown" itself. Personally I don't give much credit to that book since I consider Michael Medved to be one of the four or five worst film reviewers of all time.
"Hurry Sundown" has been pretty much out of circulation in recent years. I shudder to think how network censors would have butchered it when it was broadcast on TV; anyone who saw it that way saw a different movie. It is now finally available on a good widescreen DVD and also on Amazon and Netflix streaming. I had been wanting to see it for a long time, if for no other reason than it being one of the handful of mainstream Hollywood films to earn a "condemned" rating from the Catholic Legion of Decency.
It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected; in fact I thought it was pretty good. It held my unflagging interest for its almost two-and-a-half hour running time, which is an accomplishment in itself; the worst thing a movie can be is boring. Not a great film, but an entertaining piece of Southern Gothic.
I couldn't get that upset at the casting of Michael Caine. I've certainly heard worse southern accents in movies. How about "Gone with the Wind" in which two of the four leads were played by Brits (and neither Leslie Howard nor Clark Gable even tried to sound southern)? Caine looked and sounded tentative in the opening helicopter scene (maybe that was the first scene filmed) but got more comfortable with the part as it went along. In many ways, Caine fit the role perfectly, since his character was a self-absorbed philanderer just like "Alfie."
People have scoffed at Burgess Meredith's racist judge, but let's face it, folks – people like that really existed in the South back then (and maybe still do; is that Arizona sheriff much different?). Was Meredith's portrayal much more over-the-top than Ed Begley's in "Sweet Bird of Youth", which won an Oscar? I got the impression that Meredith might have been basing his character on George Wallace (the pre-1968 version), and he wouldn't have been far off.
As for the poor having better sex than the rich, well that's one of those clichés that just might have a bit of truth in it, especially when the poor girl is Faye Dunaway.
Were the black characters over-idealized? Perhaps, but that is the way Hollywood handled race issues back in the civil rights era. See, for example, pretty much anything starring Sidney Poitier. I don't remember anyone trying to make a film of William Faulkner's "Light in August," in which the central character is a mixed-race psychopath.
"Hurry Sundown" is a good choice when you want a nice juicy wallow in southern decadence. The color photography is pretty good, as is the musical score by Hugo Montenegro.
"Hurry Sundown" has been pretty much out of circulation in recent years. I shudder to think how network censors would have butchered it when it was broadcast on TV; anyone who saw it that way saw a different movie. It is now finally available on a good widescreen DVD and also on Amazon and Netflix streaming. I had been wanting to see it for a long time, if for no other reason than it being one of the handful of mainstream Hollywood films to earn a "condemned" rating from the Catholic Legion of Decency.
It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected; in fact I thought it was pretty good. It held my unflagging interest for its almost two-and-a-half hour running time, which is an accomplishment in itself; the worst thing a movie can be is boring. Not a great film, but an entertaining piece of Southern Gothic.
I couldn't get that upset at the casting of Michael Caine. I've certainly heard worse southern accents in movies. How about "Gone with the Wind" in which two of the four leads were played by Brits (and neither Leslie Howard nor Clark Gable even tried to sound southern)? Caine looked and sounded tentative in the opening helicopter scene (maybe that was the first scene filmed) but got more comfortable with the part as it went along. In many ways, Caine fit the role perfectly, since his character was a self-absorbed philanderer just like "Alfie."
People have scoffed at Burgess Meredith's racist judge, but let's face it, folks – people like that really existed in the South back then (and maybe still do; is that Arizona sheriff much different?). Was Meredith's portrayal much more over-the-top than Ed Begley's in "Sweet Bird of Youth", which won an Oscar? I got the impression that Meredith might have been basing his character on George Wallace (the pre-1968 version), and he wouldn't have been far off.
As for the poor having better sex than the rich, well that's one of those clichés that just might have a bit of truth in it, especially when the poor girl is Faye Dunaway.
Were the black characters over-idealized? Perhaps, but that is the way Hollywood handled race issues back in the civil rights era. See, for example, pretty much anything starring Sidney Poitier. I don't remember anyone trying to make a film of William Faulkner's "Light in August," in which the central character is a mixed-race psychopath.
"Hurry Sundown" is a good choice when you want a nice juicy wallow in southern decadence. The color photography is pretty good, as is the musical score by Hugo Montenegro.
Thoroughly rotten Deep South melodrama.
barnabyrudge4 August 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Few would believe that a film directed by Otto Preminger and full to the brim of top-class stars could be as awful as Hurry Sundown. But the evidence is here for all to see. Taken from a K.B. Gilden novel, Hurry Sundown is a hysterically over-ripe melodrama set in the Deep South in 1945. The film was made in Louisiana, and legend goes that many of the white locals were Ku Klux Klan members. They were so furious when they learned that black actors were working on a film in their neighbourhood that they sent threatening notes to the film crew and deliberately slashed the tyres on their cars, resulting in a permanent armed guard being stationed at the hotel where the cast and crew were staying. One can only marvel how ironic it is that this behind-the-scenes drama is infinitely more fascinating than the film itself!
Ambitious young land prospector Henry Warren (Michael Caine) is bent on buying up land in 1940s Georgia for real estate. His plans are hampered when he comes across two pockets of land that he can't get hold of. One is owned by a poor black family, the other by a poor white family. Warren sends his wife Julie Ann (Jane Fonda) to persuade the black family to sell up, believing that her childhood relationship with the mother of the clan, Rose Scott (Beah Richards), will count for a lot. But the plan backfires, and Rose is so stressed at the threat of losing her family home that she suffers a fatal heart attack. Her son Reeve (Robert Hooks) takes control of the family land and also refuses to sell, resulting in a long and bitter court battle which ultimately goes in favour of the black family. Later, Warren focuses his attention on the other piece of land, owned by his cousin Rad McDowell (John Philip Law). Rad is equally unwilling to sell up, so Warren resorts to desperate measures in order to force them off the land. His plan is to sabotage a nearby dam, thus flooding and destroying the homes of those who won't sell. But his despicable scheme results in a tragic accident, and out of the ruin the families that Warren hoped to intimidate emerge even stronger and more determined than ever to stand firm against him.
Preminger is light years away from the form of his masterpieces - Laura (1944) and Anatomy Of A Murder (1959) - with this piece of overlong trash. His approach to the characters is so patronising and vulgar that one can only look on in disbelief. Even more extraordinary is the fact that some exceptional actors agreed to play these preposterous characters. What was Burgess Meredith thinking when he signed up to portray the bigoted Judge Purcell? How could George Kennedy go from an Oscar-winning performance in Cool Hand Luke and a box-office gem like The Dirty Dozen, and then choose this for his next project? And what on earth possessed Michael Caine to think he could pull off a Southern accent as the conniving land prospector? At nearly two-and-a-half hours, this isn't even brief junk it actually requires a good bit of your time to sit through, and few will be charitable enough to give it the time or attention that it requires. Just about the only positive that can be said of the film is that it is handsomely photographed, but that counts for little when the story and events on screen are so staggeringly awful. In various biographies and interviews, Caine has always stated that the worst film he ever made was Ashanti: Land Of No Mercy . but once you've experienced Hurry Sundown, you might just be ready to disagree with him!
Ambitious young land prospector Henry Warren (Michael Caine) is bent on buying up land in 1940s Georgia for real estate. His plans are hampered when he comes across two pockets of land that he can't get hold of. One is owned by a poor black family, the other by a poor white family. Warren sends his wife Julie Ann (Jane Fonda) to persuade the black family to sell up, believing that her childhood relationship with the mother of the clan, Rose Scott (Beah Richards), will count for a lot. But the plan backfires, and Rose is so stressed at the threat of losing her family home that she suffers a fatal heart attack. Her son Reeve (Robert Hooks) takes control of the family land and also refuses to sell, resulting in a long and bitter court battle which ultimately goes in favour of the black family. Later, Warren focuses his attention on the other piece of land, owned by his cousin Rad McDowell (John Philip Law). Rad is equally unwilling to sell up, so Warren resorts to desperate measures in order to force them off the land. His plan is to sabotage a nearby dam, thus flooding and destroying the homes of those who won't sell. But his despicable scheme results in a tragic accident, and out of the ruin the families that Warren hoped to intimidate emerge even stronger and more determined than ever to stand firm against him.
Preminger is light years away from the form of his masterpieces - Laura (1944) and Anatomy Of A Murder (1959) - with this piece of overlong trash. His approach to the characters is so patronising and vulgar that one can only look on in disbelief. Even more extraordinary is the fact that some exceptional actors agreed to play these preposterous characters. What was Burgess Meredith thinking when he signed up to portray the bigoted Judge Purcell? How could George Kennedy go from an Oscar-winning performance in Cool Hand Luke and a box-office gem like The Dirty Dozen, and then choose this for his next project? And what on earth possessed Michael Caine to think he could pull off a Southern accent as the conniving land prospector? At nearly two-and-a-half hours, this isn't even brief junk it actually requires a good bit of your time to sit through, and few will be charitable enough to give it the time or attention that it requires. Just about the only positive that can be said of the film is that it is handsomely photographed, but that counts for little when the story and events on screen are so staggeringly awful. In various biographies and interviews, Caine has always stated that the worst film he ever made was Ashanti: Land Of No Mercy . but once you've experienced Hurry Sundown, you might just be ready to disagree with him!
Poor have great sex!
TSMChicago29 November 2003
This is the most embarrassing excuse for a serious picture I have ever seen.
I'm sure "Hurry Sundown" tested the pre-ratings MPAA for it's supposedly frank depiction of sexual themes. It probably required television editing as ABC ran this film several times in the early '70s.
You could cut the sexual tension with a knife if it wasn't so funny. Jane Fonda seductively playing the sax with Michael Caine was probably suggestive enough to cause the censors to get nervous. But then we have Faye Dunaway's cartoonish overacting in that bedroom scene with John Phillip Law. At least poor white trash have healthy sex lives.
The only thing criminal about this movie is that it attempted to tackle the thorny subject of race relations in the 1940s in such a cheap, heavy handed manner.
I'm sure "Hurry Sundown" tested the pre-ratings MPAA for it's supposedly frank depiction of sexual themes. It probably required television editing as ABC ran this film several times in the early '70s.
You could cut the sexual tension with a knife if it wasn't so funny. Jane Fonda seductively playing the sax with Michael Caine was probably suggestive enough to cause the censors to get nervous. But then we have Faye Dunaway's cartoonish overacting in that bedroom scene with John Phillip Law. At least poor white trash have healthy sex lives.
The only thing criminal about this movie is that it attempted to tackle the thorny subject of race relations in the 1940s in such a cheap, heavy handed manner.
A mercifully forgotten flick.
theowinthrop27 March 2006
In 1967, for some unknown reason, my father took me, my sister, and my mother to see this film. It was pretty bad. It was also the first time I saw a film starring Jane Fonda and Michael Caine, and the only time I saw a film directed by Otto Preminger, in a movie house. As such it has significance to me - but that is marred by it being such a ridiculous film.
The Civil Rights Movement was in full gear, and Preminger, always wanting to be on the cutting edge of movie making and current events, made this film about the "modern south". The heroes are the poor white trash (John Philip Law) and the poor African American sharecropper (Robert Hooks) who worked together to build up a bigot-less America. Their enemies are led by sneaky, greedy, land grabber Michael Caine, as well as George Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, and most of the other whites. The film ends with Caine discovering that his villainy kills one of the few human beings he loves.
There was plenty of saxophone playing (supposedly by Caine) who does that to get into the mood to have sexual encounters. And there was little else that was memorable.
One thing I did recall was a confrontation in Burgess Meredith's courtroom, where he is hoping to disengage Hooks deed to the valuable land by typical southern skulduggery. But Hooks is defended by a Yankee lawyer (Jim Backus, in possibly the best performance in the film - and a short one), who produces the original documents that show that Hooks owns the farmland. Meredith tries to question "this chicken scrawl" signature at the end of the paper. Backus points out it is the signature of Meredith's grandfather, also a judge. That was the best moment of the film - you can imagine what the film is really like.
The Civil Rights Movement was in full gear, and Preminger, always wanting to be on the cutting edge of movie making and current events, made this film about the "modern south". The heroes are the poor white trash (John Philip Law) and the poor African American sharecropper (Robert Hooks) who worked together to build up a bigot-less America. Their enemies are led by sneaky, greedy, land grabber Michael Caine, as well as George Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, and most of the other whites. The film ends with Caine discovering that his villainy kills one of the few human beings he loves.
There was plenty of saxophone playing (supposedly by Caine) who does that to get into the mood to have sexual encounters. And there was little else that was memorable.
One thing I did recall was a confrontation in Burgess Meredith's courtroom, where he is hoping to disengage Hooks deed to the valuable land by typical southern skulduggery. But Hooks is defended by a Yankee lawyer (Jim Backus, in possibly the best performance in the film - and a short one), who produces the original documents that show that Hooks owns the farmland. Meredith tries to question "this chicken scrawl" signature at the end of the paper. Backus points out it is the signature of Meredith's grandfather, also a judge. That was the best moment of the film - you can imagine what the film is really like.
An effort that does not live up to the stellar cast
AlsExGal13 April 2017
In 1946 Georgia, Henry Warren (Michael Caine) is setting up a land deal to make himself richer and put his town on the map. To complete the deal, he just needs two landowners, Reeve Scott (Robert Hooks) and WW II veteran Rad McDowell (John Phillip Law) to sell their land to him. Neither one will sell. The rest of the film is about Warren's attempts to make them sell, and about how everyone in this economic backwater is affected by that and racism.
The main problem here is a rambling, diffuse script that attempts to fit a 900 page book into just over two hours. When Preminger first announced he would be filming this book, he said it would be a four hour film; the final cut was two hours and twenty minutes. Some performances have been noticeably cut; characters drop out of sight from the film without warning, plot threads are set up, then abruptly dropped. The performances are all over the map in terms of effectiveness.
However, Jane Fonda, as Julie Warren, is unexpectedly good as the Southern girl who grows up and finally sees what a louse she's married to. When angered, she oozes sarcasm overlaid with a dose of charm. Madeleine Sherwood, as Eula Purcell, the woman who won the social lottery when she snagged herself a judge to marry, is very funny as she tries to improve her social and financial position. Her best scene is when she throws a tantrum because her husband has jeopardized their daughters' wedding. Diahann Carroll, as the sharp-witted schoolteacher from the North, is very amusing as she puts on an subservient act to get access to land records. Robert Hooks and John Philip Law both put in solid performances.
The problematic part includes Michael Caine's involvement in all of this. He gets off to a dreadful start when in his first scene he sounds like he came from London with stops in Little Rock and Savannah; his accent is that bad in the beginning. He improves over the film, but he tends to overact all film long. As a sheriff, George Kennedy is effective in a part that has noticeably been edited. Burgess Meredith's role as Judge Purcell is so poisonously and obviously racist that I don't see how anyone could play it believably. Hugh Montenegro's musical score sounds more like contemporary 1960's music than anything that would take the viewer back to the 1940's.
The film is obvious and a plodding and ponderous effort at that, but is much better than its reputation as it was counted among the "50 Worst Films of All Time" in the 1978 book.
The main problem here is a rambling, diffuse script that attempts to fit a 900 page book into just over two hours. When Preminger first announced he would be filming this book, he said it would be a four hour film; the final cut was two hours and twenty minutes. Some performances have been noticeably cut; characters drop out of sight from the film without warning, plot threads are set up, then abruptly dropped. The performances are all over the map in terms of effectiveness.
However, Jane Fonda, as Julie Warren, is unexpectedly good as the Southern girl who grows up and finally sees what a louse she's married to. When angered, she oozes sarcasm overlaid with a dose of charm. Madeleine Sherwood, as Eula Purcell, the woman who won the social lottery when she snagged herself a judge to marry, is very funny as she tries to improve her social and financial position. Her best scene is when she throws a tantrum because her husband has jeopardized their daughters' wedding. Diahann Carroll, as the sharp-witted schoolteacher from the North, is very amusing as she puts on an subservient act to get access to land records. Robert Hooks and John Philip Law both put in solid performances.
The problematic part includes Michael Caine's involvement in all of this. He gets off to a dreadful start when in his first scene he sounds like he came from London with stops in Little Rock and Savannah; his accent is that bad in the beginning. He improves over the film, but he tends to overact all film long. As a sheriff, George Kennedy is effective in a part that has noticeably been edited. Burgess Meredith's role as Judge Purcell is so poisonously and obviously racist that I don't see how anyone could play it believably. Hugh Montenegro's musical score sounds more like contemporary 1960's music than anything that would take the viewer back to the 1940's.
The film is obvious and a plodding and ponderous effort at that, but is much better than its reputation as it was counted among the "50 Worst Films of All Time" in the 1978 book.
Awful star-studded film with some unintentional laughs
highwaytourist25 September 2009
This corny and dreary Peyton Place wannabe is a discredit to everyone involved in it. The attempt to cash in on the civil rights movement was just appalling. The story features stereotypes that were incredible even back in its day, let alone now. It's amazing to see so many well-known actors cast here, but none of them rise above the muck. The story concerns the efforts to make a fortune by a rich, racist, and greedy aristocrat (Michael Caine) who's a cross between Simon Legree and J.R. Ewing. The only reason to watch the film are that the stereotypes are so over the top, it's almost comical. Also amusing are the bogus, Honey Chile' southern accents. I did laugh a few times, which broke the embarrassment and boredom. But there weren't even enough of those moments.
"Trashy", racist people did and still do exist, sad to say
BBROTHERSUN26 May 2011
I won't argue with someone who says, "I hated this film". Clearly many people (including film critics) did. But, I disagree with those who say the acting performances were bad-----they were spot on. I disagree with those who say the "trashy" racist characters were over-the-top caricatures-----you haven't met some of my relatives. And, I disagree with those who say that real people never act like these characters do-----pick up a newspaper sometime, either 1950 or 2011. Yes, parts of the movie made me squirm and want to look away-----because the scenes were TOO real and heartbreaking. I, for one, do NOT want racism, past or present, swept under the rug. Show its ugliness. Make people squirm. Hollywood would never make "Hurry Sundown" today, because it is "politically incorrect". The film says our parents, children, neighbors, law enforcement officers, and politicians could be capable of violent racism. Really! No! Surely only in the movies!
Hurry ... and end
JasparLamarCrabb1 June 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Otto Preminger really missteps with this half-hearted expose of racism in the US south shortly after the end of WWII. It's really about a money hungry land grabbing scheme and quite a bit less about racism than one would think. Michael Caine (sporting the worst southern accent imaginable) is married to wealthy Jane Fonda and wants to sell her land (and two adjacent lots) to a developer. He's stopped by farmers John Phillip Law & Robert Hooks. Despite the inflammatory issues that are raised, Preminger pulls his punches and instead of making anything as socially relevant as IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, he makes a glossy soap opera with one caricature after another paraded out. Law and Hooks are the noble poor, Caine is nearly psychotic, Burgess Meredith (as a bigoted judge) is a complete travesty and Madeline Sherwood (as his social climbing wife) comes across as community theater version of Big Mama. Dismal in the extreme and featuring what may very well be the least erotic seduction scene ever filmed (Fonda "plays" Caine's saxophone in hopes of luring him into bed). Blech! The typically large Preminger cast includes Faye Dunaway, Diahann Carroll, George Kennedy, Robert Reed, and Jim Backus.
"Sundown" and dirty....
Mister-65 February 2002
You know, if the South ever does rise up and crush the North, they could use this movie as a perfect reason to do so.
"Hurry Sundown" is without a doubt the worst, most reprehensible treatment of human beings (of all race, creeds and colors) ever perpetrated by a "name" director (or any director, for that matter). Even the fact that it was co-written by Horton Foote lends little to nothing to a story that spends all of its lengthy running time creating living, breathing stereotypes.
Caine plays a good ol' Southern boy (yeah, right) who plans to buy up all the land in the South including two parcels owned by a poor hard-working colored family led by Robert Hooks and a poor hard-working white trash family led by John Philip Law...no matter what.
All kinds of Simon Lagree-type antics ensue from courtroom hysterics, lynch mobs, floods and Burgess Meredith in one of his most overblown performances ever as a bigoted judge who snarls out every third word or so.
There's a monumental cast at work here (Carroll, Dunaway, Kennedy, etc.) and you even get to see Jane Fonda work Caine's saxophone, but why did it have to gather for THIS story? The treatment of black people here is right out of a minstrel show and is beneath contempt, even for Hollywood. And the sexual hijinks within will make you cringe, no matter how much you think you can take.
What else can I say? Critics of the day lambasted this loser left and right, the National Catholic Office condemned it and its box office hardly covered the film stock it was printed on. If nothing else, "Hurry Sundown" will make all races unite - to track down Otto Preminger.
Not one single, solitary star for this claptrap. Avoid "Hurry Sundown" at all costs; do your part for civil rights.
"Hurry Sundown" is without a doubt the worst, most reprehensible treatment of human beings (of all race, creeds and colors) ever perpetrated by a "name" director (or any director, for that matter). Even the fact that it was co-written by Horton Foote lends little to nothing to a story that spends all of its lengthy running time creating living, breathing stereotypes.
Caine plays a good ol' Southern boy (yeah, right) who plans to buy up all the land in the South including two parcels owned by a poor hard-working colored family led by Robert Hooks and a poor hard-working white trash family led by John Philip Law...no matter what.
All kinds of Simon Lagree-type antics ensue from courtroom hysterics, lynch mobs, floods and Burgess Meredith in one of his most overblown performances ever as a bigoted judge who snarls out every third word or so.
There's a monumental cast at work here (Carroll, Dunaway, Kennedy, etc.) and you even get to see Jane Fonda work Caine's saxophone, but why did it have to gather for THIS story? The treatment of black people here is right out of a minstrel show and is beneath contempt, even for Hollywood. And the sexual hijinks within will make you cringe, no matter how much you think you can take.
What else can I say? Critics of the day lambasted this loser left and right, the National Catholic Office condemned it and its box office hardly covered the film stock it was printed on. If nothing else, "Hurry Sundown" will make all races unite - to track down Otto Preminger.
Not one single, solitary star for this claptrap. Avoid "Hurry Sundown" at all costs; do your part for civil rights.
Hurry Away From This Stinker!
BarneyBergman29 August 2006
What a dull and boring film. What a shock that such a highly regarded group of acting greats starred in this terrible mess. Clearly out-dated, but even so, the whole story is utterly stupid, the Southern accents are laughable, the sex scenes are without steam, and the script is first grade at best.
The only worthwhile thing in this snore bore is the beautiful and sexy Jane Fonda. Jane's scene with a sax is interesting to say the least. Poor Faye Dunaway is wasted here. Micheal Cain tries his best, but just can't pull it off. John Phillip Law is tall and handsome, however he is wooden and stiff and is a total flop.
I'd Hurray away from this mess!
The only worthwhile thing in this snore bore is the beautiful and sexy Jane Fonda. Jane's scene with a sax is interesting to say the least. Poor Faye Dunaway is wasted here. Micheal Cain tries his best, but just can't pull it off. John Phillip Law is tall and handsome, however he is wooden and stiff and is a total flop.
I'd Hurray away from this mess!
Oh dear!
christopher-underwood28 February 2014
Oh dear! Otto Preminger, I am certain, made this with the best of intentions, but how after the glorious and mysteriously complex, Bunny Lake Is Missing, could he spend time on this? Over long and overwrought, this race drama is surely one of his most misguided enterprises. Michael Caine's acting limitations are cruelly exposed as he struggles even with the accent. Jane Fonda is good and although she was already an established actor her big star stuff was around the corner. Faye Dunaway is also fine and this her breakout film with fame and fortune beckoning. Burgess Meredith is a sad sight in this but amazingly he was only mid career and a great survivor. I'm really trying to avoid having to keep saying how bad I thought this was. Particularly because so much of it was okay, do I feel so annoyed and frustrated at the whole chunks that should have been rewritten (or left out). I understand a cut version showed on US TV and I can see that there are a couple of sexual scenes that whilst not particularly explicit do sit uneasily within this tale where children are shown to be so involved in the troubling scenes of racism.
A sleazy soap opera that is pretty dumb, but oddly entertaining.
planktonrules8 February 2010
Warning: Spoilers
While I would not agree with Harry Medved that this should have been one of his inclusions in his exceptional book "The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time", it is a bad film...but it's also highly entertaining. Plus, while bad, it just isn't bad enough to make any list of worst films. Now if there was a list of overdone and stupid soap operas, then it WOULD clearly make that list--with nearly enough crazy plot and overacting to put it up there with the best of the worst! The film may have at one point begun with high-minded aspirations. Heck, a film about people triumphing against race prejudice in the 1940s is a good idea. But, unfortunately, somewhere along the way, the film makers lost there way and the end result was a shrill and silly spectacle. Too bad, but the film in no way is in the same league as good race relations films with similar themes like "Pinky" and "Intruder in the Dust"--two fine films that I strongly recommend.
Why is the movie so enjoyably bad? Well, much of it has to do with the often cartoon-like characters. The good guys are perfect and noble and the bad guys are like Snidely Whiplash! In particular, you've got to see the snarling and scene-chewing performance by Burgess Meredith--who, I think, kept mixing up this role with the Penguin from "Batman"! That much bellowing and wheezing is like watching a couple of pigs rutting--not a real Southern bigot. Real bigotry is often deceptively nice or at least overtly evil--not funny like his character in the film. It's funny because it was just so badly overdone--like a pot roast cooked for 9 hours! Another hilarious portrayal is George Kennedy as the Sheriff--they don't come much dumber! Now this isn't to say the rest of them were particularly great, though a few performances were decent--Jane Fonda was good and Michael Caine's character was stupid and one-dimensional, but at least I could respect his assuming a somewhat credible Southern accent. They it begs you to think "of all the actors in the world, why pick Michael Caine for the part".
Apart from that, if I were to try to describe the film it would be like "Miss Jane Pitman" combined with "Dynasty" combined with "Valley of the Dolls" and "Peyton Place"--it's not a pretty concoction to say the least. Yet, the combination is so bad and hokey and silly that you want stop watching--even if the film is ridiculously overlong and bad. And the ending was, perhaps, the most overdone and awful ones I've seen in some time--as the director apparently lost his mind and just blew everything up! To make things worse, the kid at the end might just be the dumbest child in movie history!! Having all the cast hold hands and sing "We are the World" would have been more believable!
By the way, director Otto Preminger has long had a very good reputation. Sure, he made some wonderful films like "Laura" and "Anatomy of a Murder". However, later in his career his output became craptastic--with films like "Bunny Lake is Missing", "Skidoo" and this film--hardly the sort of end to a famous career.
Why is the movie so enjoyably bad? Well, much of it has to do with the often cartoon-like characters. The good guys are perfect and noble and the bad guys are like Snidely Whiplash! In particular, you've got to see the snarling and scene-chewing performance by Burgess Meredith--who, I think, kept mixing up this role with the Penguin from "Batman"! That much bellowing and wheezing is like watching a couple of pigs rutting--not a real Southern bigot. Real bigotry is often deceptively nice or at least overtly evil--not funny like his character in the film. It's funny because it was just so badly overdone--like a pot roast cooked for 9 hours! Another hilarious portrayal is George Kennedy as the Sheriff--they don't come much dumber! Now this isn't to say the rest of them were particularly great, though a few performances were decent--Jane Fonda was good and Michael Caine's character was stupid and one-dimensional, but at least I could respect his assuming a somewhat credible Southern accent. They it begs you to think "of all the actors in the world, why pick Michael Caine for the part".
Apart from that, if I were to try to describe the film it would be like "Miss Jane Pitman" combined with "Dynasty" combined with "Valley of the Dolls" and "Peyton Place"--it's not a pretty concoction to say the least. Yet, the combination is so bad and hokey and silly that you want stop watching--even if the film is ridiculously overlong and bad. And the ending was, perhaps, the most overdone and awful ones I've seen in some time--as the director apparently lost his mind and just blew everything up! To make things worse, the kid at the end might just be the dumbest child in movie history!! Having all the cast hold hands and sing "We are the World" would have been more believable!
By the way, director Otto Preminger has long had a very good reputation. Sure, he made some wonderful films like "Laura" and "Anatomy of a Murder". However, later in his career his output became craptastic--with films like "Bunny Lake is Missing", "Skidoo" and this film--hardly the sort of end to a famous career.
Entertaining if flawed
bkrauser-81-3110643 September 2011
If Otto Preminger's "Hurry Sundown" is guilty of anything, it's biting off more than it can chew. With a 146 minute running time, a clutter of stars and characters, and what seems like a jumble of conflicting themes, "Hurry Sundown" has been seen by many critics as opportunistic rabble-rousing, overtly melodramatic and clunky. But if you look past Preminger's drive to get attention and Michael Caine's questionable southern accent, you may find a wholly entertaining film or failing that, a period piece that encapsulates the feelings of its maker/s at a time when such issues as racism ran rampant.
When a cannery looks to buy large plots of uncultivated farmland, local big cheese Henry Warren (Michael Caine) enthusiastically becomes partners to the plan selling his wife Julie's (Jane Fonda) family's land at a profit. However, to make the deal he must convince his cousin Rad (John Phillip Law) and his wife's old mammy Rose (Beah Richards) to sell their plots as well. When Rose dies of a heart attack, her son Reeve (Robert Hooks) becomes landowner but is then sued for ownership by Henry. Reeve and Rad must then work together to fight battles both real and legal to keep their homes from being destroyed.
The lack of tact in this film is stupefyingly brilliant. With the bluntness of TNT, "Hurry Sundown" creates not characters but caricatures. George Kennedy makes an appearance as a bumbling Sheriff, Burgess Meredith as a bigoted judge and Madeleine Sherwood as the saintly teacher who eggs Reeves on. All you need is a snooty butler and a buxom blonde bimbo and you got yourself a stock character Christmas. Still it's in their simplicity that you find the true virtue of the film. Their is no nuance in racism, nor is their any when you're exploiting friends and family like Henry does. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, their is no in-between and for better or worse, Preminger seems to feel very strongly about that fact.
Racism is the primary theme and focus of "Hurry Sundown" but it is by no means the only theme, nor the only controversy during release. sexuality and fidelity have their time in the sun as well. Rad and his wife Lou (Faye Dunaway) enjoy a healthy sex life while Henry and Julie sexually frustrate each other to the point of violence. Preminger really does seem to take delight in toying with the emotions of his characters (as well as taking suggestive camera shots), as shown when Fonda attempts to seduce Henry with his own saxophone. In addition, family relationships, greed, corruption, religion are also expanded on, creating a solid if hyperbolic worldview. Like a splatter painting its messy yet colorful.
All in all, "Hurry Sundown" has the pulpy sensationalism you can expect from an Otto Preminger production. His passion for the material shines through even when the story strays into melodrama. While filming in Louisiana, locals attempted to sabotage filming to the point of sniping a convoy of cast and crew members. It reminds me of an adage I once heard; "If they're shooting at you, you're doing something right."
http://theyservepopcorninhell.blogspot.com/
When a cannery looks to buy large plots of uncultivated farmland, local big cheese Henry Warren (Michael Caine) enthusiastically becomes partners to the plan selling his wife Julie's (Jane Fonda) family's land at a profit. However, to make the deal he must convince his cousin Rad (John Phillip Law) and his wife's old mammy Rose (Beah Richards) to sell their plots as well. When Rose dies of a heart attack, her son Reeve (Robert Hooks) becomes landowner but is then sued for ownership by Henry. Reeve and Rad must then work together to fight battles both real and legal to keep their homes from being destroyed.
The lack of tact in this film is stupefyingly brilliant. With the bluntness of TNT, "Hurry Sundown" creates not characters but caricatures. George Kennedy makes an appearance as a bumbling Sheriff, Burgess Meredith as a bigoted judge and Madeleine Sherwood as the saintly teacher who eggs Reeves on. All you need is a snooty butler and a buxom blonde bimbo and you got yourself a stock character Christmas. Still it's in their simplicity that you find the true virtue of the film. Their is no nuance in racism, nor is their any when you're exploiting friends and family like Henry does. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, their is no in-between and for better or worse, Preminger seems to feel very strongly about that fact.
Racism is the primary theme and focus of "Hurry Sundown" but it is by no means the only theme, nor the only controversy during release. sexuality and fidelity have their time in the sun as well. Rad and his wife Lou (Faye Dunaway) enjoy a healthy sex life while Henry and Julie sexually frustrate each other to the point of violence. Preminger really does seem to take delight in toying with the emotions of his characters (as well as taking suggestive camera shots), as shown when Fonda attempts to seduce Henry with his own saxophone. In addition, family relationships, greed, corruption, religion are also expanded on, creating a solid if hyperbolic worldview. Like a splatter painting its messy yet colorful.
All in all, "Hurry Sundown" has the pulpy sensationalism you can expect from an Otto Preminger production. His passion for the material shines through even when the story strays into melodrama. While filming in Louisiana, locals attempted to sabotage filming to the point of sniping a convoy of cast and crew members. It reminds me of an adage I once heard; "If they're shooting at you, you're doing something right."
http://theyservepopcorninhell.blogspot.com/
Hurry Sundown
henry8-37 December 2020
Drama set in the Deep South - all slavery and grits - with Caine, a property owner determined to buy additional land from his cousin (Law) and his sometime friend (Hooks) who are determined not to sell. Trouble ensues.
Supposedly a big deep south drama covering ambition and class struggle against a strong background of racism, this may have dated, but it was always full of unconvincing dramatic scenes, ridiculous characters eg Burgess Meredith (a few short steps to The Penguin in Batman) and, despite a good effort, the wild miscasting of Caine. Fonda, Carroll and Dunaway just about survive intact as does the always enjoyable Kennedy. Overall though, despite direction from the great Preminger, this is a tedious, misguided and unconvincing mess.
Supposedly a big deep south drama covering ambition and class struggle against a strong background of racism, this may have dated, but it was always full of unconvincing dramatic scenes, ridiculous characters eg Burgess Meredith (a few short steps to The Penguin in Batman) and, despite a good effort, the wild miscasting of Caine. Fonda, Carroll and Dunaway just about survive intact as does the always enjoyable Kennedy. Overall though, despite direction from the great Preminger, this is a tedious, misguided and unconvincing mess.
Southern Fried Corn
richardchatten4 December 2020
Any film that has both Michael Caine & Rex Ingram in it couldn't possibly be totally without interest. But this very long film based on a very big book full of overheated passions and hilarious attempts at Southern accents is sadly typical late Preminger.
God knows what poor John Mark, who gives the film's worst performance as Fonda & Caine's horrible child (Burgess Meredith of course gives the best) would have done if an accent had ever been required of him, but he doesn't even get the chance since he just spends the whole film mewling.
(Conspicuous by their absence from the film itself is the Ku Klux Klan. But they were keeping a watchful eye on the film's production in Georgia, which required police protection.)
God knows what poor John Mark, who gives the film's worst performance as Fonda & Caine's horrible child (Burgess Meredith of course gives the best) would have done if an accent had ever been required of him, but he doesn't even get the chance since he just spends the whole film mewling.
(Conspicuous by their absence from the film itself is the Ku Klux Klan. But they were keeping a watchful eye on the film's production in Georgia, which required police protection.)
Michael Caine totally miscast in this southern race drama
vampire_hounddog16 August 2020
Henry Warren is a southern businessman (Michael Caine) in Georgia has married into land owning wealth, but is having trouble with his marriage. He needs to evict a former maid to the family from a slave family who have lived on the land for over a 100 years including an old woman (Beah Richards) and her son (Robert Hooks), as well as a poor cousin (John Philip Law). In doing so Warren runs into trouble.
An uneccessarily odd film peppered with cliches and adapted from K.B. Gilden's novel, this highly flawed film includes jaw droppingly bizarre casting of Caine as a Deep South businessman and Jane Fonda as his fed up wife. There is little nuance in the film, only heavy handedness. Caine's jazz saxophone solo is one of the few highlights of the film.
An uneccessarily odd film peppered with cliches and adapted from K.B. Gilden's novel, this highly flawed film includes jaw droppingly bizarre casting of Caine as a Deep South businessman and Jane Fonda as his fed up wife. There is little nuance in the film, only heavy handedness. Caine's jazz saxophone solo is one of the few highlights of the film.
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