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Picnic (Full Screen)

Starring: William Holden, Kim Novak Director: Joshua Logan MPAA Rating: PG
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
Price: CDN$ 14.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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  • This item: Picnic (Full Screen) DVD ~ William Holden

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What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?

Picnic (Full Screen)
86% buy the item featured on this page:
Picnic (Full Screen) 4.7 out of 5 stars (74)
CDN$ 14.95
Eddy Duchin Story (Widescreen)
9% buy
Eddy Duchin Story (Widescreen) 4.8 out of 5 stars (11)
CDN$ 19.99
The Long, Hot Summer
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Product Details

Product Description

From Amazon.com

William Holden is the hunky drifter who rides the rails into a small Midwest town with dreams of landing a "respectable" job with his rich college buddy (Cliff Robertson). Kim Novak is the small-town beauty queen engaged to Robertson who falls for the cocky dreamer, as do repressed schoolmarm spinster Rosalind Russell and Novak's tomboyish kid sister Susan Strasberg. Their unleashed passions reach a crescendo at the Labor Day picnic.

Joshua Logan directed William Inge's play on Broadway and carried it to Hollywood, earning Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director in his screen-directing debut. Holden is years too old for the role but oozes sex appeal and makes a swoony stud when he takes his shirt off (or when, better yet, it's ripped from his back by a boozing Russell), and Novak is a lovely lost girl yearning for something she can't quite grasp. Arthur O'Connell earned an Oscar nomination as Russell's tippling boyfriend. The film was a huge popular and critical hit, but Logan's stiff and strident direction hasn't dated well. He makes his points in big capital letters--subtlety was never his strong point--and loses the natural beauty of the Kansas locations when he takes the climactic picnic scenes into an obviously artificial soundstage. Picnic remains a loved American classic, largely for Holden's tough-guy vulnerability and James Wong Howe's brilliant widescreen color photography. --Sean Axmaker

Review

Based on a highly acclaimed play and awarded numerous Oscar nominations, Picnic has not aged as well as many other films from the same period. What in 1955 seemed daring and erotic now comes across as overly obvious and frightfully tame, a great deal of much ado about nothing. Worse, the film belies its stage origins, always feeling like a play instead of a movie, despite logical attempts to open it up. Speeches which had a significant impact onstage come across as mannered and artificial, and director Joshua Logan has a difficult time setting up shots and sequences involving more than two or three characters. Still, there's an undercurrent of deeper meaning underneath the surface that still manages to make its presence felt in a powerful way, and the famous dance segment still packs a punch. Although too old for the part, William Holden conveys the hidden desperation and fear of his character well and has the right physical presence the role requires. Kim Novak gives one of her better performances; the somewhat disconnected feeling she brings to her roles works well for a young girl who is disconnected from her surroundings and her future. Many may feel that Rosalind Russell goes too far over the top, but it's a brave attempt that mostly works and that creates some touching and deeply painful moments. As her love interest, Arthur O'Connell has a quiet strength that plays very nicely off of Russell. Picnic also benefits from its rich cinematography, capturing the golden tones of a summer day with beauty and precision, and from its sinuous score. Logan would direct the film version of another Inge play, Bus Stop, the following year. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
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Customer Reviews

74 Reviews
5 star:
 (61)
4 star:
 (8)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (74 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Story that mirrors the human condition, April 9 2005
By Suz (New Castle, PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Picnic (VHS Tape)
I first saw Picnic in the mid seventies as a young teen. I was a little young to understand the romantic entanglements at that age but I've watched this movie repeatedly through the years and the characters have become more three dimensional, their motivations more clear with each watching.
I think most everyone can find a piece of themselves in Hal (the drifter who boasts to conceal his shyness and feelings of worthlessness), Millie (the brainy younger sister of Madge who feels overshadowed by her beautiful sister), Mrs. Potts (who no doubt wished for romance and family as a young woman but found herself tied to an invalid mother), Miss Sydney (the old maid school teacher whose clock is ticking and who is growing more desparately lonely with each new school year). Even Madge's mother, who finds herself a bit flattered on her first introduction to Hal, is somewhat sympathetic. She, herself, fell for a charasmatic charmer, only to be left behind by his drinking and womanizing. She's allowed herself to harden through the years, seeing young Mr. Benson and his wealth as a way out for her daughter, Madge. I admit, I've seen this movie so many times, I mouth the dialogue along with the characters. When Madge's mother is consoling her, explaining her protectiveness towards Millie, I fairly scream, "Don't you see...I'm trying to make up for all those golden years you had that she didn't." So...spread out a blanket, gather up the tissues and prepare for a sweet and bittersweet summer Picnic.
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5.0 out of 5 stars William Holden & Kim Novak are OUTSTANDING in Picnic, Jun 20 2004
By Mr. Shashi Haryal (London, Great Britain) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Picnic (VHS Tape)
I saw PICNIC during its release in 1956 in India when I was in
school. I was crazy about English films and never missed a good
film.one of my class mates saw the film before me and remarked
about the energetic dancing of Holden as spellbinding.I was not
that keen in the beginning to see the film due to its title which meant lightweight and fun. But when I saw the film the experience was tremendous, I had just seen a masterpiece. William Holden and Kim Novak were just outstanding. Holden

brought a breath of fresh air as soon as he appeared, and Kim
Novak was not just a small town beauty queen, she oozed raw sex
and hidden desires exposed to the full by carefree but passionate William Holden. Although, without doubt the highlight of the film was the picnic and the dancing where all the principal players of the film are envolved emotionally and the finale to the story builds up, there other memorable scenes notably the swing scene where Holden gets hold of the swing where Novak is sitting, he begins playing with it unintentionally and realises for the first time that he has fallen for the fiancee of his best friend. Then there is that passionate scene beside the waterfall where both Holden and Novak admit their love for each other and kiss intensly, Holden with torn shirt. After this Holden runs and catches the running train and finally Novak follows him, her true love in the Greyhound. The execution of all these scenes and the whole story is nothing less than perfect. James Wong Hoe's technicolor photography is outstanding. Needless to say I have seen this film many times since and found it always charming.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Holden Sparks, Novak Smolders, Kansas Burns, May 6 2004
By Michael C. Smith "MGMboy@aol.com" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
In a decade of conformity and great prosperity William Inge and Tennessee Williams tackled subjects ahead of their time. Of course they in some cases had to veil the subject matter but that lead to some wonderful revelations in writing and reading between the lines. In this DVD from Colombia of Inge's Pulitzer Prize winning 'Picnic' we have one of the best films of this genre of sexual repression, animal heat, and desperation in small town America.
Most reviewers of this film might begin with the leads but I must start of with the wonderful Verna Felton as Helen Potts the sweet old lady who is caretaker of her aged mother and lives next door to the Owens family. This gifted and now forgotten character actress sets the tone of the picture as she welcomes drifter Hal Carter (William Holden) into her house. At the end of the film she glows in tender counterpoint to the dramatic ending. She is the only person who understands Hal, even more than Madge (Kim Novak). Her speech about having a man in the house is pure joy to watch. It is a small but important performance that frames the entire story with warmth and understanding.
Betty Field turns in a sterling performance as Flo Owens, Mother of Madge and Millie. She is disapproving of Millie's rebellious teen and smothering of her Kansas hothouse rose Madge. A single Mom trying in desperation to keep Madge from making the same mistakes she did. She becomes so wrapped up in Madge's potential for marriage to the richest boy in town she completely ignores the budding greatness that is bursting to get out in her real treasure. Millie.
Susan Strasberg creates in her Millie a sweet comic oddball. She is the youngest daughter who awkwardly moves through the landscape nearly un-noticed, reading the scandalous "Ballad of the Sad Café" being the only one who is different and can't hide it. Her yearning to get out of the smallness of small town life is colored with the skill of a young actress with greatness her.
Rosalind Russell nearly steals the show as the fourth woman in the Owens household boarder, Rosemary, a frantic, hopeless and clutching spinster. In the capable hands of Miss Russell we have a real powerhouse of a performance. She imbues Rosemary with all the uptight disapproval of a woman who knows that her time has past and there are very few options left. She is electric in her need for love. Every nuance of her emotions is sublime in her presentation. Just watch her hands alone.
Floating above all of this is Madge Owens, the kind of girl who is too pretty to be real. The kind of girl who in a small town like this is not understood to have any real feelings or thoughts other than those that revolve around being beautiful and empty. Enter Kim Novak, who is just such a girl. Who could ever expect such a beauty to be anything more than just pretty? But Miss Novak, a vastly underrated actress in her day paints a knowing and glowing portrait of Madge. Her explosion of sexual heat upon meeting Hal for the first time is internal and barely perceptible until she looks at him from behind the safety of the screen door the end of their first scene. That screen door is a firewall protecting her from the flames. She fights in the early part of the film to keep her sexual desire for Hal in check. That night she loses her fight at the picnic and we watch as she opens to reveal a woman of feelings and dreams so much deeper than the prettiness of her eyes or the luminosity of her skin. This is one of Kim Novak's early great roles and one she fills out with lush and deep emotion.
The lives of all of these women of Nickerson Kansas are changed one Labor Day when Hal comes steaming into town. William Holden gives a raw and wounded portrayal to Hal, a man at the edge of his youth and on the verge of becoming a lost man. He lives as he always has, on the fading glow of his golden boy charm and his muscular magnetism. Holden was 35 when he made Picnic, a real golden boy at the edge of his youth. He was perfect for the part. Some reviewers say he was too old to play Hal, but I disagree. Without being thirty-five in real life as well as in the story Rosemary's "Crummy Apollo" speech would not be so effective or devastating. Hal is a man who never bothered to grow up, a man who never let anyone get too close for fear they might see through is bravado and discover his fears of feeling something, anything before it's too late.
Holden also brings a sexual heat to the film that is eons beyond the time it was filmed. He is presented almost like a slab of meat. He struts around in a pre-Stonewall dream of sexy hotness. Not only the girls in town notice him but a few boys too. (There are several layers to Nick Adams paperboy if one bothers to look.) When finally Holden sparks with Novak they blow the lid off of the uptight code bound studio-strangled world of Hollywood in the Fifties.
The film is photographed magnificently in lush color and cinemascope by famed cinematographer James Wong Howe. The famous score by George Durning is classic not only for the famous reworking of the old standard "Moonglow" but for his virtuosity in dramatic power. This is a giant of a score from the silver age of film music. The direction by Josh Logan is perfect in every way and stands among the best of his work.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Moonglow moments
You know it's good:

1. It's the look on William Holden's face when he first catches a glimpse of Kim Novak coming down the stairs in that pink dress. Read more

Published on Mar 12 2004 by bobbyblue202

5.0 out of 5 stars Much better than Far From Heaven or Mona Lisa Smile
Excellent 1955 classic starring William Holden and Kim Novak that accurately portrays the way things were in America circa 1955. Read more
Published on Feb 11 2004 by cjrogan2003

3.0 out of 5 stars A PICNIC IN THE COUNTRY
OK version of the William Inge Broadway play casts thirtysomething William Holden in the twentysomething role of Hal, a drifter who blows into a sleepy Kansas town on a Labor Day... Read more
Published on Oct 22 2003 by Guy De Federicis

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't pass this one up!
This wonderful movie satisfies on many levels. It calls us back to a simpler time in our minds. It is Americana. Read more
Published on Sep 26 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best films of 1955!!!
Wonderful. Not because of the fun it was watching it. Or the romance on screen. But because of it's supporting of the fabulous 50's era. Classic movie making at its best!
Published on July 2 2003 by G. Crofford

5.0 out of 5 stars Steamy Pulitzer Prize Play comes to WideScreen DVD !!
Columbia Pictures brings William Inges steamy romantic 1955 Pulitzer Prize Winning Play to the big screen starring Academy Award Winner William Holden and Kim Novak. Read more
Published on May 17 2003 by forrie

5.0 out of 5 stars "I gotta get somewhere in this world. I just gotta..."
Hal Carter is a middle-aged drifter jumping freight trains through middle America. He hops off in a small Kansas town and looks up his old college buddy, Alan Benson. Read more
Published on April 4 2003 by Brad Baker

5.0 out of 5 stars Sexiest Scene Ever Put On Film
This movie is certainly one of the best of it's time. Still great viewing today. But what makes this film one of the best ever put on film is the scene where Kim Novak comes down... Read more
Published on Mar 2 2003 by Wayne S. Crooker

5.0 out of 5 stars Overly serious pseudo-cinemaphiles like me . . .
aren't supposed to like an overheated melodrama like "Picnic," but I am a passionate fan even though it's SO over the top, SO Fifties, but nonetheless so outstanding, immensely... Read more
Published on Oct 25 2002 by Allen Smalling

5.0 out of 5 stars The best acting you'll ever see.
Everything was done right in this classic motion picture. The wonderful script, superb actors, brilliant music score and a wonderful story and a director who really knew how to... Read more
Published on Oct 5 2002 by Rick D. Barszcz

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