The Day of the Locust

Director: John Schlesinger John Schlesinger

Overview

The Day of the Locust is anything but a cheerful, light look at Hollywood in the '30s. It recreates both the town as well as the filmmaking world around which much of the town revolved with devastating accuracy. The movie tells the twin tales of talentless wannabe actress Faye Greener (Karen Black) and Homer Simpson (Donald Sutherland), a lovelorn accountant who couldn't care less about movies. Around this framework, a huge and intricate social network is tellingly revealed, until the film's gruesome and tragic ending. Not for those who prefer to hang onto their illusions about the glory days of Hollywood, The Day of the Locust, based on the novel by Nathanael West, is a must-see for serious film buffs.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/22/2020
UPC:	0032429353603
Original Release:	1975
Rating:	R
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Language:	English
Time:	2:24:00
Sales rank:	23,933

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Donald Sutherland	Homer
Karen Black	Faye Greener
Burgess Meredith	Harry Greener
William Atherton	Tod Hackett
Geraldine Page	Big Sister
Richard Dysart	Claude Estee
Bo Hopkins	Earle Shoop
Pepe Serna	Miguel
Lelia Goldoni	Mary Dove
Billy Barty	Abe
Jackie Earle Haley	Adore
Gloria LeRoy	Mrs. Loomis
Jane Hoffman	Mrs. Odlesh
Norman Leavitt	Mr. Odlesh
Madge Kennedy	Mrs. Johnson
Ina Gould	Lee Sister
Florence Lake	Lee Sister
Margaret Willey	The Gingo
John War Eagle	The Gingo
Natalie Schafer	Audrey Jennings
Gloria Stroock	Alice Estee
Nita Talbot	Joan
Nicholas Cortland	Projectionist
Alvin Childress	Butler
Ann Coleman	Girl
Gyl Roland	Girl
Paul Stewart	Helverston
John Hillerman	Ned Grote
William Castle	Director
Grainger Hines	French Lieutenant
DeForest Covan	Shoeshine Boy
Michael Quinn	Major Domo
Robert Pine	Apprentice
Jerry Fogel	Apprentice
Dennis Dugan	Apprentice
David Ladd	Apprentice
Bob Holt	Tour Guide
Paul Jabara	Nightclub Entertainer
Queenie Smith	Palsied Lady
Margaret Jenkins	Choral Director
Jonathan Kidd	Undertaker
Kenny Solms	Boy in Chapel
Wally Berns	Theatre Manager,Theatre Manager
Dick Powell Jr.	Dick Powell
Bill Baldwin	Announcer at Premiere
Angela Greene	Actor
Byron Paul	Actor
Roger Price	Actor
Robert Ragland	Guests at Audrey Jennings
Wally Rose	Assistant Director
Virginia Baker	Actor
Fred Scheiwiller	Actor
John Barry	Composer

Technical Credits

Waldo Salt

Nathanael West

Waldo Salt	Screenwriter
John Schlesinger	Director
Nathanael West	Screenwriter
Jerome Hellman	Producer
Sheldon Schrager	Producer
Ronald Shedlo	Producer
Tom Overton	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Scripted by Waldo Salt from Nathaniel West's scalding 1930s Hollywood novel, John Schlesinger's lavish adaptation of The Day of the Locust (1975) is a wrenching, if imperfect, indictment of America's Tinseltown mindset. Recreating Golden Age Hollywood with seedy realism and film fantasy artificiality, Schlesinger and Salt punctuate the downward spiral of William Atherton's aspiring art director, Karen Black's talentless actress, and Donald Sutherland's wealthy rube with flashes of the decadent beauty, self-delusion, and killer ambition that render the film industry an irresistible snake pit. Though the characters played by Atherton and Sutherland remain frustratingly underdeveloped, the surreal climactic riot that engulfs them is a genuinely horrifying confluence of mob hysteria and visceral bloodshed that unstintingly reveals the depths of media culture insanity. A box-office disappointment that earned only mixed reviews, The Day of the Locust nonetheless garnered Oscar nominations for Conrad Hall's mistily golden cinematography and Burgess Meredith's bravura performance as a broken-down vaudevillian-turned-huckster.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola