The Arrangement (1969)

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writers:

Elia Kazan (novel)
Elia Kazan (writer)

Release Date:

18 November 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The girl knew about the wife. The wife knew about the girl. It was all part of the arrangement.

Plot:

Eddie is a very rich man who has everything he wants; money, family, success. But a car crash is all...

Plot Keywords:

Car Accident | Female Nudity | Advertising | Based On Novel

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Kirk Douglas	...	Eddie Anderson
Faye Dunaway	...	Gwen
Deborah Kerr	...	Florence Anderson
Richard Boone	...	Sam
Hume Cronyn	...	Arthur
Michael Higgins	...	Michael
Carol Eve Rossen	...	Gloria (as Carol Rossen)
William Hansen	...	Dr. Weeks
Harold Gould	...	Dr. Leibman
Michael Murphy	...	Father Draddy
John Randolph Jones	...	Charles
Anne Hegira	...	Thomna
Charles Drake	...	Finnegan
E.J. André	...	Uncle Joe
Philip Bourneuf	...	Judge Morris

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Company:

Athena Productions

Trivia:

The character of Gwen in Kazan's 1967 best-seller is based on his second wife, Barbara Loden. Ironically, Faye Dunaway - who played Gwen in the movie - had been Loden's understudy in the 1964 Broadway production of After the Fall (1974) (TV), in which Loden played the role of Maggie. The character of Maggie was based on Marilyn Monroe, the second wife of the play's author, Arthur Miller. The 1964 production by the Lincoln Center Repetory Company was directed by Kazan, who was the co-manager of the acting troupe. Loden won the 1964 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Dunaway played the part of Maggie in the 1974 TV movie. According to Mark Harris in his 2008 book "Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood" (one of which was Bonnie and Clyde (1967), which made Dunaway a star), Dunaway as a tyro actress who was part of Kazan's Lincoln Center repertory company, carefully studied Loden's performance.

Quotes:

Gwen: OK, yes, I know, I'm nothing, I never was, but you! You could have been...
Eddie Anderson: What? What?!
Gwen: ...What you could have been. ...What happened to you, Eddie? Must kill you to think what you might have been.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Brando (2007) (TV)

THE ARRANGEMENT (Elia Kazan, 1969) ***

Adapted by Kazan from his own novel, this ambitious if little-seen (at least in my neck of the woods) character drama emerges as an absorbing and highly personal adult piece, but one which is also pretty heavy-going and somewhat uneven in quality. Still, the director elicits excellent performances from his entire cast (with the star trio baring more than their souls in front of the cameras); Kirk Douglas is particularly impressive in one of his most interesting roles (certainly at this stage of his career, here playing the son of Richard Boone who, in real-life, is actually a year younger than Douglas!)...though Kazan, in his autobiography, seemed unhappy with having to make do with him over his first choice, Marlon Brando. It's strange that he hadn't thought of Douglas immediately to personify his alter ego on screen, since both had been immigrants and the actor would therefore have an instant connection with the character; actually, I feel that Brando's brooding intensity - as opposed to Douglas' dynamic hysterics - would have worn the film down even more than it already is...and, in any case, Marlon got to do his "mid-life crisis act" three years later in LAST TANGO IN Paris (1972)!

What is essentially an old-fashioned melodrama, particularly given the lack of young actors involved, it's brought up-to-date - and, one might say, to life - by a variety of cinematic tricks (which sometimes exasperate the spectator, as if Kazan had gone through one too many viewings of Richard Lester's strikingly similar PETULIA [1968]!): multiple flashbacks and fantasy sequences (Douglas has visions of mistress Faye Dunaway everywhere, and even has her morphing into wife Deborah Kerr during a love scene); we also get visualizations of his interior monologues in which the younger, successful Douglas straightens out his older, bitter self; and, at one point, there's even a fist-fight underscored by cartoon captions a' la the campy 1960s "Batman" TV series!! On the other hand, the film's production values - as is to be expected from a glossy studio product of its time - are tops.

Leonard Maltin strangely rates this one a BOMB in his "Movie Guide"; true, it may not be top-tier Kazan but it's nowhere near as bad as he seems to think it is. Curiously enough, I followed this viewing with the director's subsequent film, THE VISITORS (1972), also awarded the unenviable "bottom-of-the-barrel" accolade from the genial critic...though, in its case, it's a bit more understandable - as can be perceived from my own comments below!