Picnic

On Labor Day morning a stranger drops off a freight train into a small Kansas town. Hal has come to ask an old college friend for work, and starts by taking off his shirt to do yard chores. The same day the town is preparing its picnic. Hal meets Madge, his friend's intended, and in a single day the whole balance of the place comes apart. The real subject is not desire but the absence of options. Madge knows she is known for nothing but her looks, her sister Millie is consoled with being clever, and Rosemary, the schoolteacher who boards with them, is trying to marry so as not to be left alone. The film's most painful scene is hers. The source is William Inge's 1953 Pulitzer-winning play. Joshua Logan, who staged it on Broadway, directed the film. William Holden plays Hal, Kim Novak plays Madge, Rosalind Russell plays Rosemary, with Cliff Robertson and Susan Strasberg in support. The dance at the picnic became one of the most quoted moments in American cinema. Holden was uneasy about it, unsure of his dancing, and that unease somehow works on screen. Who it is for: anyone who likes fifties widescreen melodrama and Inge adaptations. Who it is not for: anyone who cannot overlook Holden being visibly too old for the part. The film also forces every townsperson to a decision inside one day.