Cool Hand Luke (1967), by Arthur Penn
« What we’ve got here…Is failure to communicate. »
The Captain
Jack Lemmon had been disappointed by Paul Newman’s refusal of the title role in this new script,
Cool Hand Luke. Newman felt already busy in 1966 with the filming of
Hombre and wanted to prepare to
Fahrenheit 451, Truffaut having convinced him to participate to the movie as the main character, Montag. [1] Without this big name, Lemmon decided to stick with his original plan : still refuse the title role, but produce the movie instead [2] but playing a little role in the film ; in order to bring more attention to the script, he settled for the prison Captain’s role, feeling that going for a negative role would be suitable for his already long career. As a result, he proposed to his pal Walter Matthau a very small role, that of the Sheriff who takes away Luke in the end. [3]
With substantial roles nailed, just in order to show Lemmon’s commitment to the movie and attract would-be producers, remained the question of the two most important roles : that of Luke himself and his friend, Dragline. For Dragline, Donn Pearce accepted to rewrite the role from an old convict to a younger yet still smart detainee, as Lemmon was considering Robert Redford. The young actor had become the favorite of all Hollywood after his performances in
Inside Daisy Clover and
Barefoot in the Park, but he was struggling to avoid being typecasted as the handsome blond male. [4] The harsh, sweaty script for
Cool Hand Luke was perfect for him, as he would show himself as a physical actor and commit himself as a cynical and tough character.
In the same ways, Doris Day, who was quite disappointed of having refused Mike Nichols’ proposal of the first role in
The Graduate, and struggling with her « girl next door » image that wasn’t fitting the times anymore and made her career on the down side, decided to accept the role of Luke’s mother. Her screentime was abbreviated, in order to concentrate on the main action, yet Day was really pushed by her husband to accept a substantial role. [5]
If a young and rather good-looking actor was chosen as Luke’ sidekick, and a famous actress to play his mother, it was because an actor considered before for the role had been recontacted.
Telly Savalas had made little roles in heavy productions in the Sixties, but his performance as the religious and sadistic convict Archer Maggott in Robert Aldrich’s
The Dirty Dozen had established him as an actor to follow : this new unexpected exposure led the producers to confirm him as the main character of
Cool Hand Luke, as they felt that the budget had been greatly reduced by the absence of Paul Newman, and that the mention of Jack Lemmon as producer would lead the spectators into the theaters. As director, they finally settled on Arthur Penn, who had been hailed for
The Miracle Worker and had worked with Robert Redford on
The Chase : Penn felt that this prison story, about the tale of a man who stands alone against the whole system, caught the
zeitgeist of this particular era. He brought on French New Wave’s film techniques, in the limits that the producers would accept, of course.
The filming went quite smoothly, under the hard sun of Florida : the relations between the actors were excellent, with the main actors or the numerous extras playing prison convicts who would ultimately prove very famous, such as Dennis Hopper, Harry Dean Stanton and Jack Nicholson. [5] Interestingly enough, the Savalas-Redford worked very well. At first sight, the producers were reluctant, feeling that a bald main actor would never have enough charisma to carry the movie. But with the sun reflecting on his scalp, Savalas would give the character an intense strength, giving him the prestance of someone who has seen it all, but still dispalying a cockiness that would not be awaited from such a tough-looking guy. As of Redford, his youth actually worked out well with the role : when he is hostile to Luke in the beginning, he looks like the unexperienced young wolf who finally went to rule the convict population and wants to control the newcomer too ; but then it turns to genuine admiration to the ever defying Cool Hand Luke. [6]
The film upon release was critically acclaimed, far from the bulk of prison films thanks to the intelligent script, the skills of Arthur Penn’s directing and the performance of Telly Savalas and Robert Redford : Savalas enjoyed a new fame while Redford finally managed to convert his career. As of Doris Day, even if her interpretation was noticed by critics, her personal problems quickly made her to the front page of gossip newspapers. With 14 million dollars made at the American box-office, it was a medium success, but still an excellent gross thanks to the reduced budget of this movie. [7] The movie also made a breakthrough in the Academy Awards, garthering four nominations, including Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, yet failing to gain any.
INFORMATIONS :
Directed by Arthur Penn
Produced by Gordon Carroll
Written by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson, after the novel
Cool hand Luke, by Donn Pearce
Music by Lalo Schifrin
Cinematography by Conrad Hall
Editing by Sam O’Steen
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) November, 1 1967
-Telly Savalas as Luke Jackson
-Robert Redford as Dragline
-Doris Day as Mrs. Jackson
-Jack Lemmon as The Captain
-Walter Matthau as The Sheriff
-Jack Nicholson as Tattoo
-Dennis Hopper as Babalugats
-Dean Stanson as Tramp
Academy Awards performance :
-Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Adapted for the Screen – Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson
-Best Actor in a Leading Role – Telly Savalas
-Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Robert Redford
-Best Music, Original Music Score – Lalo Schifrin
Author’s footnotes :
[1] The title role in
Cool Hand Luke was first offered to Jack Lemmon who, after further reading, thought that the role was more suitable to his friend Paul Newman.
[2] Which he did IOTL, although he isn’t mentioned in the credits.
[3] The Lemmon-Matthau pair had begun in 1966 with
The Fortune Cookie.
[4) That led him to refuse
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? and The Graduate. He would get this transition with
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
[5] Doris Day was considered IOTL for the role. At the death of her husband, she discovered he had been a real crook for their seventeen years of marriage, squandering her earnings with his business partner. Let’s say his husband, in order to gain a few dollars more, push her for the role.
[6] Then-unknowns Hopper and Stanton actually appear in the movie ; Jack Nicholson is an invention of mine, but would be possible, as he was then an actor struggling with Roger Corman productions. ITTL,
Cool Hand Luke then becomes the « Hey, it’s that guy ! » movie.
[7] If Telly Savalas’ interpretation is rather close to Paul Newman’s (with the baldness bonus), Redford makes something interesting of the Dragline character, but still not as good as George Kennedy’s, who had really nailed the nature of the character.
[8) Yet the absence of Paul Newman in distribution still convinces less spectators to go to the theaters. The reaction is like : « Seeing a prison movie with a bald guy ? I would rather see that one with the 25-years-old virgin or the gangsters ! »