Long hot summer

Ben Quick ( Paul Newman ) moves to French Band after being charged with arson of a barn and expelled from his own home. Will Warner ( Orson Welles ) owns almost everything in a small town, and, after meeting Quick, takes him to work in his store. Varner's daughter, Clara ( Joan Woodward ), according to her father, will never marry. A man matures a plan, in which Ben, the future husband of Clara, plays a key role.

Idea

Director Martin Ritt has long been planning to film four classic literary novels. From 1958 to 1962 , Ritt made the dream a reality. The producer of all four tapes was Jerry Wald , who worked with the director since the time of cooperation at Warner Bros. . It was he who suggested Ritt to make films based on the novels “ Hamlet ”And“ The Sound and the Fury ”of William Faulkner, a classic of American literature. Wald persuaded 20th Century Fox to pay about fifty thousand dollars just to buy copyright from Faulkner himself.

The first film Ritt set to work on was renamed from Hamlet to Long Hot Summer to avoid confusion with Shakespeare's eponymous play . The director felt that the project would turn out to be a great success for him. The scriptwriters of the picture were Irving Ravetsh and his wife Harriet Frank, Jr. who will subsequently work with Martin Ritt in each of his films.

Casting

Paul Newman met Ritt back in the Actors Studio , where they both studied in the same class. The director later invited Newman to five of his films. Almost the entire cast of the film consisted of graduates of the Acting Studio: Joan Woodward (the future wife of Paul Newman), Lee Remick and Anthony Francoza .

However, almost all media attention to the casting was riveted due to the possible participation of the infamous Orson Welles . 20th Century Fox has even theoretically denied Wells' claim to be Will Warner. The reason for this was the temperament and character of the actor, so famous in narrow circles. Wells's fate was decided by Martin Ritt, who insisted on his candidacy, stating that "Orson will be terrific in this film." Wells later recalled:

Wells really had a hard time: as Martin Ritt later stated, "two weeks after the filming started, no one was sure that they would end at all." Such uncertainty arose due to the fact that the actor was constantly in conflict with the director over a variety of trifles. In 1965 , in an interview with The Toronto Star newspaper, Ritt said: “When it was finally time to shoot the scene, I found him sitting in an armchair and reading a Spanish newspaper. He was not preparing for the filming of this episode. I was so angry that I told others: “Enough. We will shoot something else. " The next night, Wells called me and said: “Marty, why did you do this? Why did you humiliate me in front of everyone? ”. I replied: “I have humiliated ?! What the hell did you think about when you did the same thing yourself? "Shortly after this conversation, we did make peace."

Lee Remick was also amazed and frightened by Orson Welles: “He scared me just because I was very young then. I was frightened by his whole appearance, including weight, wit and rapier language. He spared no one. He did not care what you think there, he was an icon. And we all prayed for him. ” Martin Ritt, on the contrary, really liked Remick: “He was wonderful. I loved him. Martin was a big teddy bear. "

Filming

The shooting took place in the city of Baton Rouge , Louisiana . According to the recollections of actress Lee Remick, “the filming process took place at the wrong time of the year. It was rainy and wretched. ” This was confirmed by Martin Ritt: "We had to wait a few days just for the sun to appear at least."

The film was positively received by most of the world's film critics, who, for the most part, praised the acting of Paul Newman and the ending of the tape, made in the style of "everyone lived happily ever after" ^[2] :

• “A long, hot summer is more a transformation of Faulkner's work than its adaptation. ... Despite this, the film is built on the connection of the lines of social comedy, in which the hero wins the girl’s heart, and all misunderstandings and difficulties immediately become clear ” - Gabriel Miller, “ Martin Ritt Films: Fanfares for the average person ”
• “Newman plays evil and sharp, like the tip of a braid” - Time ^[3]
• “This family-run melodrama, which takes place in a small town, is typical of the 1950s with its main theme and tension complemented by the great acting work of Paul Newman, Joan Woodward and Lee Remick” - Emanuel Levy, emanuellevy.com ^[4]

• 1958 - Nomination for the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (Joan Woodward). ^[five]
• 1958 - The tape entered the list of ten best films of the year according to the National Council of Film Critics of the United States . ^[five]
• 1958 - participation in the competitive program of the 11th Cannes Film Festival , where the film received a prize for Best Actor (Paul Newman). ^[five]
• 1959 - Nominated for the U.S. Scriptwriters Guild Award for Best Screenplay for Movie Drama (Irving Ravelts, Harriet Frank, Jr.). ^[five]
• 1959 - Nominated for the United States Directors Guild Award for Best Director (Martin Ritt). ^[five]

• Gabriel Miller - The Films of Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man - University Press of Mississippi , 2000
• Carlton Jackson - Picking Up the Tab: The Life and Movies of Martin Ritt - Bowling Green State University Popular Press , 1994

• Long, Hot Summer at the Internet Movie Database
• “Long, Hot Summer” on allmovie