It’s Jo Mielziner.

So it is. I have made the fix, thanks.

I have seen this move a few times, and it has always left me feeling uncomfortable, like part of the story was left out, or not told. (Or maybe I just missed it!) I love everyone in it, which is why I have seen it multiple times, but there is just something off putting about it to me. After reading your post, I will watch it again and see what happens. Thanks for posting about it.

The William Inge play is a realistic slice of life, but the film mashes this together with Hollywood star melodrama. Kim Novak is not exactly your first choice as an innocent girl from Kansas, and as Emmet said, Holden is too old for his role, although he does self-loathing guilt really well (a Holden specialty) when Rosalind Russell attacks him. Perhaps this is why Heidi feels conflicting emotions about the film.

The comparison to TEOREMA is great; they’d make an interesting double feature.

I always felt the casting of William Holden was ludicrous–a middle-aged actor playing a youg man? He looked even older than his age at the time, yet no attempt was made to adjust the dialogue of the other characters, who were required to always refer to him as though he was 21. Having said that, I think his performance was excellent, as usual. Another gripe: that horrid red wig (which had been created for Rita Hayworth)was disconcerting–Kim Novak revealed in an interview that she hated being forced to wear it and that she had hacked at it in her dressing room, without permission…I still, however, consider it to be a sucessful film. The unforgettable dance is still very special.

I first saw Picnic when I was in highschool, and what it left me with were how annoying Susan Strasburg’s character was, that William Holden was too old to be a 20-something, and that Kim Novak’s character, to me, was too monotone at times in her acting. I need to see it again, perhaps I’ll appreciate it more now that I’m in my 40′s.

Loved your comparison of Holden’s performance (and power) to Terence Stamp in TEOREMA. I think Holden’s natural charisma (along with the onscreen chemistry he has with Novak) carries him through this film and I’ve never had any trouble believing that a whole household could be seduced by him, no matter what age he happens to be. PICNIC relies heavily on how viewers respond to Holden in general but I think it’s a great film. Would the film have been more successful with Paul Newman (or any younger actor) in his role? Possibly, but it works for me. I love the mood it evokes and the color palette (as you pointed out) is entrancing. Watching this for the first time on a late afternoon during a sweltering summer heatwave left an incredible impression on me when I was a preteen.

Love this movie — great write-up! Holden, though surely realistically too old does pretty well — he’s such an engaging performer, it’s hard for him not to make something work — and perhaps because he WAS a little long in the tooth to play Hal there is a more than a little pathos in his swaggering.

The movie is definitely full of hysteria and that’s not a bad thing and makes it quite entertaining. Much credit goes to George Duning’s beautiful score, and the “Moonglow”/”Theme from Picnic” mash-up is truly mesmerizing. The film is a fascinating slice-of-life from a time gone by, especially viewed from more than 50 years later.

I’ll bet that Ralph Meeker would have been scary-good in the role on Broadway; you would have really felt the dangerous sexuality of Hal, no doubt. Too much for the movies! When Madge follows her hormones and Hal’s train we pretty much know they are doomed, that was always my take on it. They’ll be living in some dingy apartment where Hal’s dreams will slowly devolve into drudgery. Would Hal and Madge have turned into Ralph and Alice Kramden?? Quite possibly, except Madge would have been endlessly fecund and they’d have a passel of screaming kids…yikes. (Or I am I reading too much into this? lol)

Can’t wait to see this newly-minted version!

William Holden was very good, but Ralph Meeker would have been great in this movie.

I saw this movie a few years ago. I remember thinking how soapy and kind of silly it was, but I still enjoyed it. I also remember thinking that William Holden was to old, but he was just so darn good in it. I really don’t see Ralph Meeker in the part. Holden had “It” and could make women swoon. Ralph didn’t have “It”. I can’t see him making a whole neighborhood of women fall for him.

Kim Novak was sexy as sin in it too.

Nice color commentary!

Bill Holden did not want to make this film because he thought that he was too old for the role. After seeing himself in the film, he said that he saw that he was right in the first place. He was too old to play the part.

By the way, just a little bit of trivia here: the words to Theme From Picnic were written by Steve Allen.

I remember this film for its odd moments: the looks on the sisters’ faces when their mother says to someone, “Madge is my pretty one, and Millie is the smart one,” thinking she’s complementing both, and you know they’re hearing, “Madge is my stupid one, and Millie is the ugly one.”
The scene at the end of the picnic when Nick Adams steers the beauty queen’s barge to shore and the camera encomapsses the whole town and there’s not a single non-white face to be seen anywhere. Only in the ’50s.

[...] A LOOK BACK AT WILLIAM HOLDEN IN ‘PICNIC‘ [...]

Duke, I think what Meeker clearly brought to the role — on Broadway — was the primal sexual urge which wasn’t really what Holden projected. Holden isn’t a bit dangerous, while Meeker, even in nice roles, always had a thuggish edge that lacks charm but still speaks of raw sexuality in a way that Holden didn’t. Different spin on the appeal that Hal had for the ladies — it was all about the appeal of sex, and low down and dirty sex, that Madge’s mother feared would repeat in her daughter, and what propelled Ros Russell’s schoolteacher to flip out. Verna Felton is the most honest and least hung-up about her frank appreciation of Hal — takes an old lady to cut through the crap!

I don’t think Holden projected any raw sexuality particularly but no way could Meeker have put across the overwhelming sensuality that Holden did in the dance scene with Novak. It’s a step deeper, very different and more romantic than what Meeker must have brought or could have brought to the role, but Holden’s interpretation probably wouldn’t have worked on stage. That’s why Holden was a big movie star and Meeker got the tough guy roles!

Since this was mid-50s Hollywood and not theater, there was no way that it could have been so obvious that it was all about Hal and his manhood, basically…but kudos to Holden for making it work as well as he did.

Boy, I’ve got to watch this again, soon!! And so also enlightening, as John Maddox Roberts wrote, to view an America that, as we clearly can see today by the resurgence of a brand of ultra-conservatism, more than a few people would love to return to, when men were men, women swooned, everybody was paler than pale, and it was Newollah all the time…

I have nothing truly constructive to add about the film “Picnic”,I’m sorry to say. I have seen many of Bill Holden’s movies over the yrs. Especially when TCM featured him as the Star of the Month awhile back. I don’t remember the month and year right this second. Any way, I keep picturing him in “Bridge on the River Kwai”, “Golden Boy”,”Stalag 17″,and of course in “the Wild Bunch”…”if they move kill’em!!” Ok,so here he is in this campy mildly sleezy(c’mon people we know what they are all hint at in this!) Yuck! It like the “Mucic Man” meets “Splendor in the Grass”. Both of which I feel would be completely wrong for Bill Holden. Though I will always love his performance on”I Love Lucy”. Too funny for words! Anyway, he is also a strange fit for his “tough guy persona”,he has a humor and sweetness to him(“Born Yesterday”).I learned a peculiar fact about him(please debunk it if it isn’t true)that he was a neat freak,he showered three times a day. I have often wondered how he managed that while shooting those dusty Westerns.Hmm?