{"id":15500,"date":"2011-01-13T13:20:35","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T20:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=15500"},"modified":"2021-07-27T14:00:47","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T21:00:47","slug":"hurry-sundown-1967","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=15500","title":{"rendered":"Hurry Sundown (1967)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Land lasts: you take care of it, and it&#8217;ll take care of you.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Poster-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-15502\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Poster-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe unscrupulous husband (Michael Caine) of a land-owning Southern heiress (Jane Fonda) attempts to buy out two small plots of land: one owned by his poor cousin (John Phillip Law) and his wife (Faye Dunaway), the other by a black farmer (Robert Hooks) whose mother (Beah Richards) was Fonda&#8217;s wetnurse.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>African Americans<\/li>\n<li>Burgess Meredith Films<\/li>\n<li>Deep South<\/li>\n<li>Faye Dunaway Films<\/li>\n<li>George Kennedy Films<\/li>\n<li>Jane Fonda Films<\/li>\n<li>Michael Caine Films<\/li>\n<li>Otto Preminger Films<\/li>\n<li>Race Relations<\/li>\n<li>Rex Ingram Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nNotoriously lambasted by critics and viewers alike, Otto Preminger&#8217;s adaptation of K.B. Gilden&#8217;s novel is perhaps best remembered today for the hellacious time its cast and crew members had working with Preminger (who described the film as &#8220;his most important project&#8221;). Anecdotes abound, with Caine apparently reporting to film critic Rex Reed that Preminger was <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hurry_Sundown_%28film%29\">&#8220;only happy when everybody else [was] miserable&#8221;<\/a>, and Faye Dunaway (in her screen debut) so distressed by working with Preminger &#8212; who she insisted didn&#8217;t know <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hurry_Sundown_%28film%29\">&#8220;anything at all about the process of acting&#8221;<\/a> &#8212; that she went to court and paid a large sum of money to get out of her five-film contract with him. Meanwhile, the very process of filming on southern soil during the height of Jim Crow racial tensions was incredibly stressful for all involved, with Hooks noting, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hurry_Sundown_%28film%29#cite_note-4\">&#8220;All of us were convinced that we were surrounded by some of the dumbest and meanest people on the face of the earth, to say nothing of being the most cowardly.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, the film itself is not really as bad as its reputation warrants &#8212; and its inclusion in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Fifty_Worst_Films_of_All_Time\">the Medved brothers&#8217; <em>The Fifty Worst Films of All Time<\/em> (1978)<\/a> seems highly suspect.  By focusing on the intersecting fates of three &#8220;representative&#8221; southern households &#8212; one white and monied, one white and poor, one black and poor &#8212; the film does make (perhaps unintended) &#8220;statements&#8221; about class and race in the South, but the primary characters themselves are reasonably nuanced (though not all are provided with enough screentime for full development). Most impressive is Jane Fonda, giving a compelling performance in a pivotal role as an unhappily married woman forced to confront her husband&#8217;s deception and malpractice; the film eventually becomes <em>her<\/em> story, and she does a fine job investing viewers in the discomfort of her character&#8217;s increasing cognitive dissonance. Diahann Carroll is also noteworthy in a small role that should have been fleshed out more fully. <\/p>\n<p>However, the film most definitely has its share of &#8220;bad movie&#8221; moments and performances. Both Burgess Meredith as a bigoted lawyer and George Kennedy as a buffoonish sheriff are laughably one-dimensional; Caine&#8217;s southern accent falters a bit too often (though he IS, naturally, believable as a caddish heel); and Richards (in a tiny, underdeveloped role) gives a sensitive, heartbreaking performance &#8212; up until the moment her heart LITERALLY &#8220;breaks&#8221;, and she melodramatically pantomimes an attack. Meanwhile, Fonda and Caine&#8217;s emotionally disturbed son (John Mark) is never convincing (nor is the lame back-story attempting to explain why he suddenly &#8220;became&#8221; the way he is), and a number of essential plot elements &#8212; such as Law&#8217;s unconvincing friendship with Hooks (why does he slip in and out of bigotry?) &#8212; are handled sloppily. Finally, Hugo Montenegro&#8217;s energetic film score is ultimately inappropriate (it sounds better suited for a western), and egregiously misused at times.  <\/p>\n<p>With all that said, this is one you&#8217;ll have to watch for yourself to determine whether you consider to be an entirely skippable clunker, or a flawed but well-intentioned and occasionally compelling misfire. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jane Fonda as Julie Ann Warren<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Fonda.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Fonda-1024x640.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-15510\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Fonda-1024x640.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Fonda-128x80.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Fonda-300x187.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Fonda.png 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Diahann Carroll as Vivian Thurlow<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Carroll.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Carroll-1024x640.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-15511\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Carroll-1024x640.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Carroll-128x80.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Carroll-300x187.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Hurry-Sundown-Carroll.png 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though film fanatics may be curious to check it out, given its historical notoriety. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0061796\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/hurry-sundown-1967\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s3531hurr.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chicagoreader.com\/chicago\/hurry-sundown\/Film?oid=1069803\">Chicago Reader Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Land lasts: you take care of it, and it&#8217;ll take care of you.&#8221; Synopsis: The unscrupulous husband (Michael Caine) of a land-owning Southern heiress (Jane Fonda) attempts to buy out two small plots of land: one owned by his poor cousin (John Phillip Law) and his wife (Faye Dunaway), the other by a black farmer (Robert Hooks) whose mother (Beah Richards) was Fonda&#8217;s wetnurse. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: African Americans Burgess Meredith Films Deep South Faye Dunaway Films George&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=15500\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15500"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74499,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15500\/revisions\/74499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}