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Life in Podunk: Remembering “The Last Picture Show” On Its 50th Anniversary
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LIFE IN PODUNK: REMEMBERING “THE LAST PICTURE SHOW” ON ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY
By Michael Coate
“With excellent performances from an ensemble cast, moody and insightful direction by Peter Bogdanovich, and a lovely melancholy that will stay with you long after viewing it,The Last Picture Show is one of my favorite movies.” — Raymond Benson, Cinema Retro
The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this multi-page retrospective commemorating the golden anniversary of the release of The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich’s (Targets, What’s Up, Doc?) critically acclaimed film based upon Larry McMurtry’s 1966 novel set in a small Texas town during the early 1950s.
The Last Picture Show starred Timothy Bottoms (Johnny Got His Gun), Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski), Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist), Ben Johnson (The Wild Bunch), Chloris Leachman (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), and Cybill Shepherd (Moonlighting), and was nominated for eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and was the winner of two (supporting nods for Johnson and Leachman).
In 1998 the Library of Congress selected The Last Picture Show for preservation in the National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” Its most recent home media release (excluding imports), on Blu-ray Disc, was in 2010 as a part of Criterion’s America Lost and Found: The BBS Story multi-disc set.
For the occasion of the film’s recent anniversary, The Bits features a historian Q&A along with a package of box-office data and statistics, passages from film reviews, and a reference listing of its first-run theatrical presentations in the key markets of North America.
NUMBERS
1 = Number of cinemas playing the film during its opening weekend
2 = Box-office rank among films directed by Bogdanovich (adjusted for inflation)
2 = Number of Academy Awards
6 = Rank among top-earning films during the 1972 calendar year
7 = Rank among top-earning films released in 1971 (lifetime/retroactive)
8 = Number of Academy Award nominations
9 = Rank among Columbia’s all-time top-earning films at close of first run
77 = Peak all-time box-office chart position
$1.3 million = Production cost
$8.9 million = Production cost (adjusted for inflation)
$12.8 million = Domestic box-office rental (earnings through 12/31/1972)
$13.1 million = Domestic box-office rental (earnings through 12/31/1973)
$29.1 million = Box-office gross
$87.9 million = Box-office rental (adjusted for inflation)
$194.0 million = Box-office gross (adjusted for inflation)
PASSAGES FROM A SAMPLING OF FILM REVIEWS
“The Last Picture Show is an exceptional and original work, not so much a movie-movie as a film buff’s film, an exercise in regret and a reminder of various losses.” — Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times
“Young Peter Bogdanovich’s first major opus is one of the past year’s finest. With insight and compassion it deals with some teenagers and their elders in a wind-blown little Texas town in the early 1950s. Not to be missed.” — Clyde Gilmour, The Toronto Star
“My fear is that some unfortunates are going to confuse it with Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie, to which The Last Picture Show is kin only by title.” — Vincent Canby, The New York Times
“Cybill Shepherd, in her film debut, makes Jacy the most memorable figure in the film—and the most convincing movie incarnation of a bitch in quite some time. I’m not sure if it’s imaginative acting or instinctive understanding, but whatever it is, her Jacy is right on the money, an uncanny mixture of desirability and treachery.” — Gary Arnold, The Washington Post
“The movie runs nearly two hours which is far too long. It is too complicated to have the simple impact that Bogdanovich obviously intended and it is spangled with gratuitous nudity to attract the with-it crowd.” — Emerson Batdorff, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
“The Last Picture Show is one of the finest films of the year. It has already added considerable distinction to the New York Film Festival where it premiered last month and it is, I think, a classic American movie in a tradition that has long since been blithely abandoned by Hollywood. [I]t is a spare and honest evocation of sex and love, life and death in a small Texas town in the early 50s. Because it is told with simplicity, and genuine sentiment, it creates a common experience that touches us all.” — Kevin Kelly, The Boston Globe
“‘It’s beyond envy,’ director Mike Nichols is reported to have said after seeing Peter Bogdanovich’s film, The last Picture Show. That is about as succinct a critical statement as we are likely to get about this film which is, indeed, good enough to overwhelm with admiration any impulse toward jealousy on the part of a fellow craftsman.” — Howell Raines, The Atlanta Constitution
“Peter Bogdanovich is possibly the most exciting new director in America today.” — Stefan Kanfer, Time Magazine
“Credit for the authentic look of the film must be shared between Bogdanovich and his production designer Polly Platt. The Last Picture Show is certain to do for the clothing of the ‘50s what Bonnie and Clyde did for the fashions of the ‘30s. I’m hunting for a western shirt with flap pockets fastened with mother-of-pearl snaps.” — Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune
“The Last Picture Show has been described as an evocation of the classic Hollywood narrative film. It is more than that: it is a belated entry in that age—the best film of 1951, you might say. Using period songs and décor to create nostalgia is familiar enough, but to tunnel down to the visual level and that right, too, and in a way that will affect audiences even if they aren’t aware how, is one hell of a directing accomplishment. Movies create our dreams as well as reflect them, and when we lose the movies we lose the dreams. I wonder if Bogdanovich’s film doesn’t at last explain what it was that Pauline Kael, and a lot of the rest of us, lost at the movies.” — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“Ben Johnson gives the performance of his life as Sam the Lion. Known heretofore as supporting actor in Westerns, Johnson injects remarkable insight into a role that is both disturbing and appealing. Also effective—and outstandingly so—were Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, and Cybill Shepherd. The latter, a former top model, could be the screen’s next sex goddess, if she doesn’t let her fine acting get in the way.” — James A. Perry, The States-Item (New Orleans)
“The Last Picture Show is going to look particularly quaint in its initial Twin Cities run. It is opening at the Cooper Cinerama Theater, a building whose total design was conceived for the showing of color films on the widest of screens. The Last Picture Show, occupying a fractional center arc of the Cooper’s vast curved screen, started out looking like one of those old black-and-white sequences inserted in a modern film for effect. The initial suspicion was that surely everything would widen and blossom into color. And, of course, it doesn’t. It just hangs in there and makes its points in nice, trusty old black-and-white. And boy, does it make its points!” — Will Jones, Minneapolis Tribune
“[Bogdanovich] accomplishes something that two expensive [recent] films attempted—Summer of ’42 (corny, unreal), Red Sky at Morning (well made, unsuccessful at the boxoffice), and that perhaps no other American picture has ever been able to do. [H]e has captured America. Not just small town America, but ritualistic America, decent America, cruel America, intelligent America, ignorant America.” — John Huddy, The Miami Herald
“The Last Picture Show is the most distinguished of the new crop of Christmas-season movies and one of the best of the year. [Y]oung filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich has drawn a moving essay on an America which is forever changing, not always for the better.” — William B. Collins, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Add one more name to the long, long list of those who count Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show among the best American movies ever made.” — Susan Stark, Detroit Free Press
“The Last Picture Show is one of the vital motion pictures of 1971 and it has already wreaked Texas controversy on the heads of Larry McMurtry, who wrote the book, and Peter Bogdanovich, who directed and helped write the screenplay.” — Francis Raffetto, The Dallas Morning News
“With The Last Picture Show we once again have the good film that is placed in danger of being a disappointment simply because it is oversold. It is indeed an impressive achievement in film directing, writing, acting and photography. It is unquestionably a film that will be considered a landmark by film buffs, whether it is a commercial bonanza or not. However, when such things are said, people go expecting to be overwhelmed, rocked back in their seats at the spectacle or moved to tears by the intensity of their involvement. Some may be disappointed because The Last Picture Show is not likely to affect them that way. Its effects are subtle. It impresses by its insights into its characters and the times in which they live.” — Ted Mahar, The Oregonian (Portland)
“A perceptive friend of mine said, ‘That wasn’t a movie at all. That was somebody hiding in one of those buildings watching that little town disintegrate.’ Precisely. The film vibrates with a life so real, an ache so acute, a laughter so accurate. The angst and elation, the anger and ennui of Bogdanovich’s ‘50s-fraught West Texas town are as perfectly observed as any emotion in any film, anytime.” — Tom McElfresh, The Cincinnati Enquirer
“A very good movie! Some of the best acting you’re likely to see this year! But what grants it a claim to greatness is its precise, humane understanding of how generations succeed and fail in communicating.” — Richard Schickel, Life
“The Last Picture Show is a masterpiece! It is not merely the best American movie of a rather dreary year; it is the most impressive work by a young American director since Citizen Kane!.” — Paul D. Zimmerman, Newsweek
“The attempt to capture both time and place has been eminently successful! What happens to these people makes one ache with recognition and remembrance.” — Hollis Alpert, Saturday Review
“In making this admirable film of an appalling—but not unusual—small town Bogdanovich has used certain sentimental devices. To film the drama in black-and-white is a copout. Life is not in black-and-white so why should a movie be? Cinematically it may be more difficult, but that is beside the point. The waitress (Eileen Brennan) is more charitable than believable, the older men less sympathetic than one might expect when a mentally retarded town character is killed, but withal, this is an irresistible picture, unreservedly recommended.” — Paine Kickerbocker, San Francisco Chronicle
“Peter Bogdanovich is a 32-year-old film critic who has turned director because he wants to make the kind of pictures he used to enjoy, in a time when movies were less nihilistic and fragmented than they are today. He has succeeded beyond anyone’s dreams with his second film, The last Picture Show.” — John Hartl, The Seattle Times
“The film uncovers the cruelty, hypocrisy, loneliness and raunchy vice that lurk behind the town’s cheerless facades. In this respect, it calls to mind other exposes, like Peyton Place, only the sexual attitudes are treated more intelligently and never luridly.” —Stanley Eichelbaum, San Francisco Examiner
“Nostalgia is not what it used to be. At least not in The Last Picture Show. Writer-director Peter Bogdanovich has looked at the recent American past realistically rather than romantically. The result is a smashing motion picture experience not to be confused with Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie.” — James Meade, The San Diego Union
“Bogdanovich and McMurtry have avoided soap opera and the nasty merely small-town sin exposes of Peyton Place and The Bramble Bush, by a realistic approach and dramatic integrity. The film is, on the whole, quite moving, a major work that is one of the best pictures of the year. The atmosphere, enhanced by a realistic score that is solely pop tunes of the day by entertainment names of the period, heard on car radios and juke boxes, is perfect, and the accents are authentic. All the principals deliver striking acting performances. But certainly [Ben] Johnson’s, with his simple, touching speech by the lake recalling the days of glory and the time a beautiful young married woman rode naked with him on horses swimming across the lake, deserves a supporting actor Oscar.” — Myles Standish, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Peter Bogdanovich has accomplished something remarkable. He has retained fidelity to both a specific stylistic aesthetic and, distracting to that, to a humanistic realism, with its untidiness and incohesion. I deeply respect Bogdanovich for fusing these elements and making them not only cohabitate but serve each other. We are able to look at Last Picture Show as a superb piece of filmmaking and—remembering and forgetting that at the same time—react to the life that’s going on inside the frame as if no one were arranging and collating it for our consumption.” — Jeff Millar, Houston Chronicle
“The Last Picture Show arrives just when it seemed time to announce that movies as pop culture were dead. The few movies for the mass audience that succeeded were—artistically speaking—so macabre that it was best to forget about them, and the new, smaller movie audience was becoming used to looking for sparks of talent and was learning to reconcile itself to messy, semi-boring, promising failures. I think that maybe everyone who has kept going to the movies has understood that the explosion of forms ismessy, and has felt the excitement of what was happening. The old commercial crust was being cleaned away. Fiascos like Drive, He Said weren’t dead, in the way that fiascos like The Last Run were. And now Bogdanovich has made a film for everybody—not just the Airport audience but the youth audience and the educated older audience, too. The danger is that The Last Picture Show, which is a story about growing up in a small town in Texas in the early fifties—the kind of straightforward, involving, narrative picture that doesn’t often get produced anymore—will turn into a bludgeon to beat other filmmakers with.” — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
THE FIRST-RUN ENGAGEMENTS
What follows is a chronological reference listing of The Last Picture Show‘s openings in the key markets of the United States and Canada. The emphasis is on the largest and earliest markets in which the film played. The information is designed to provide a sense of the film’s rollout in the early stage of its release in what the industry considers the important and higher-grossing locales.
The presentations of The Last Picture Show were in 35mm (1.85:1 aspect ratio) with monaural audio.
Opening Date YYYY-MM-DD … City — Cinema [notes]
1971-10-02 … New York — Lincoln Center [New York Film Festival]
1971-10-03 … New York — Columbia I
1971-11-04 … Los Angeles — Chinese [FILMEX]
1971-11-10 … Boston — Abbey I
1971-11-10 … San Francisco — Vogue
1971-11-17 … Los Angeles — 4 Star
1971-12-19 … Chicago — Esquire
1971-12-22 … Philadelphia — Cinema 19
1971-12-25 … Washington — Fine Arts
1972-01-26 … Denver — Centre
1972-01-26 … Kansas City — Embassy 1
1972-01-26 … Kansas City — Embassy 2
1972-01-26 … Phoenix (Scottsdale) — Camelback Mall
1972-01-26 … Sacramento — Sacramento Inn II
1972-01-26 … San Jose — Century 22B
1972-01-26 … Seattle — Cinema 70
1972-01-28 … Fresno — Manchester Mall
1972-01-28 … San Diego — Capri
1972-02-02 … Des Moines — Fleur 1
1972-02-02 … Detroit — Studio New Center
1972-02-02 … Detroit (Birmingham) — Studio 4
1972-02-02 … Detroit (Dearborn Heights) — Fairlane
1972-02-02 … Memphis — Park
1972-02-02 … Miami — Kendall Mall Twin II
1972-02-02 … Miami — Westchester
1972-02-02 … Miami (Fort Lauderdale) — Sunrise I
1972-02-02 … Miami (Miami Beach) — Normandy
1972-02-02 … Miami (North Miami Beach) — 167th Street Twin I
1972-02-02 … Miami (North Miami Beach) — 167th Street Twin II
1972-02-02 … New Haven (Orange) — Showcase 2
1972-02-02 … Oklahoma City — Shepherd Twin 1
1972-02-02 … Omaha — Cinema Center II
1972-02-02 … Providence — Avon
1972-02-04 … Portland — Broadway
1972-02-04 … St. Louis — Stadium I
1972-02-04 … St. Louis (Clayton) — Shady Oak
1972-02-04 … Toronto — York I
1972-02-04 … Tucson — Fox
1972-02-09 … Dallas — Delman
1972-02-11 … Austin — Varsity
1972-02-11 … Charlotte — Manor
1972-02-11 … Minneapolis (St. Louis Park) — Cooper
1972-02-16 … Houston — Delman
1972-02-16 … New Orleans (Metairie) — Sena Mall
1972-02-16 … Salt Lake City (South Salt Lake) — Century 22
1972-02-17 … Cincinnati — 20th Century
1972-02-17 … Pittsburgh — Kings Court
1972-02-18 … Atlanta — Fine Art
1972-02-18 … Indianapolis — Loews Twin 1
1972-02-23 … Cleveland — Detroit
1972-02-23 … Cleveland (Cleveland Heights) — Cedar Lee
1972-02-25 … Buffalo (Amherst) — Boulevard Mall II
1972-02-25 … Montreal — Cote-des-Neiges 1
1972-02-25 … Ottawa — St. Laurent Odeon I
1972-02-25 … Vancouver — Coronet
1972-03-01 … Baltimore (Randallstown) — Liberty I
1972-03-01 … Baltimore (Towson) — Hillendale
1972-03-01 … Hartford — Rivoli
1972-03-01 … Hartford (Manchester) — Theatre East
1972-03-01 … Las Vegas — Guild
1972-03-01 … Louisville — Showcase 3
1972-03-01 … Rochester — Paramount
1972-03-01 … St. Paul — World
1972-03-01 … St. Petersburg — Tyrone
1972-03-01 … Syracuse (DeWitt) — Mini 1
1972-03-03 … Columbus (Whitehall) — Cinema East
1972-03-03 … San Antonio — North Star Mall II
1972-03-03 … Tampa — Palace
1972-03-08 … Jacksonville — Town & Country
1972-03-09 … Richmond — Capitol
1972-03-10 … Fort Worth — Opera House
1972-03-10 … Orlando — Northgate 3
1972-03-15 … Milwaukee (West Allis) — Southtown
1972-03-15 … Norfolk — Showcase 2
1972-03-15 … Norfolk (Virginia Beach) — The Movie Theatres Twin 1
1972-03-15 … Spokane — United Artists 1
1972-03-15 … Toledo — Franklin Park 4
1972-03-15 … Tulsa — Delman
1972-03-22 … Akron (Cuyahoga Falls) — Falls
1972-03-22 … Dayton — Ames
1972-03-30 … Calgary — Uptown
1972-03-31 … Edmonton — Avenue
1972-03-31 … Winnipeg — Garrick Two
1972-04-05 … Albuquerque — Lobo
1972-04-05 … Wichita — Mall
1972-04-07 … Birmingham — Village East 2
1972-04-07 … Nashville — Belcourt II
1972-04-12 … Corpus Christi — Deux Cine II
1972-04-12 … El Paso — Fox Bassett Center
1972-04-12 … Honolulu — Waikiki 1
1972-04-12 … Little Rock — Capitol
1972-04-14 … Colorado Springs — Chief
It should be noted the engagements cited above represent only a fraction of the film’s bookings. Not cited are bookings in smaller markets and lower-population locales, expansion waves in larger markets, second-run, re-issue, international, etc. What you also won’t find in the listing is an entry for October 22nd, the date numerous sources erroneously claim was the film’s U.S. release date.
THE Q&A
Raymond Benson is the author of over forty published books. He is most well-known as the third—and first American—continuation author of original James Bond novels commissioned by the Ian Fleming Estate, and for his acclaimed and best-selling five-book serial, The Black Stiletto. Raymond has taught Film History college courses in New York and Illinois for years, contributes a regular column and occasional pieces in Cinema Retro magazine (“The Essential Guide to Movies of the ’60s & ’70s”), and co-stars inDann & Raymond’s Movie Club, a monthly live presentation on cinema history in the Chicago area (with Chicago’s Daily Herald film critic, Dann Gire), now in its 15th season.www.raymondbenson.com
Raymond was previously interviewed for this column’s retrospective on 2001: A Space Odyssey. He spoke to The Bits again recently about the appeal and legacy of The Last Picture Show.
Michael Coate (The Digital Bits): How do you think The Last Picture Show ought to be remembered on its 50th anniversary?
Raymond Benson: There are many things about the film that will be remembered, but perhaps the biggest, for me, are the revelations of the casting and the performances. While many of the actors had done previous work in film and television, I think for most of us in the audience in 1971, we didn’t really know them. Ben Johnson we knew, but not like he is here, and we may have seen Cloris Leachman. Both deserved their Oscars. Jeff Bridges and Ellen Burstyn—oh my. Also nominated. Such star power. New to me at the time. Then there were the others new to me, whether this was their debut or not—Timothy Bottoms, Cybill Shepherd, Randy Quaid, Eileen Brennan, Clu Gulager… For all of these actors, The Last Picture Showmade their careers.
The Digital Bits: What was your first impression of the film?
Benson: I saw the film on first release in Odessa, Texas, where I grew up. Odessa is in pretty much the same locale as the movie—West Texas—and my town mentioned by the characters in the picture as where they’d go on the weekend to have a good time. At the time Odessa was larger (but not by much) than fictional Anarene, so it was considered the “big city” by the small-town folk there. I felt as if I knew those characters and that world. I was blown away by the movie.
The Digital Bits: In what way is The Last Picture Show a significant motion picture?
Benson: The film probably did more for original author Larry McMurtry than the previous adaptation of his work (Hud). I, for one, started reading his books in the 70s. I’ve already mentioned that it certainly launched the careers of most of the cast, but the same is true for director Peter Bogdanovich. It wasn’t Bogdanovich’s first movie, but it might as well have been. We all knew his name after The Last Picture Show.
The Digital Bits: How does the film compare to the source material?
Benson: I did read the novel many years ago and I seem to recall that the film was mostly faithful to it. The book was sexier, I think! McMurtry knew and lived in West Texas and was able to evoke the milieu in profound ways. As a native West Texan, I was always drawn to his books after I discovered them. McMurtry brought back some of the characters from The Last Picture Show—mostly Duane—in four subsequent novels, so the success of the film paved the way for those.
The Digital Bits: In what way was Peter Bogdanovich an ideal choice to direct, and where does the film rank among Bogdanovich’s body of work?
Benson: For me, this is Bogdanovich’s crown jewel. I don’t like to use the word “best” when describing art, so I’ll say it’s my “favorite” of his titles. For several years, I made it a point to see anything he did after The Last Picture Show, because of that movie’s strengths.
The Digital Bits: Which are the film’s standout scenes?
Benson: I love all the scenes on the main street—the lonely, deserted, windy, tumbleweed-dotted main street where the “picture show” stood. It really captured that ghost town feeling of those small hamlets in West Texas where I grew up. Those townsare in black-and-white! Other standout moments are, of course, the skinny-dipping pool party—how could it not be memorable? The final kitchen scene with Bottoms and Leachman is always a heart-clutcher. I was amazed that the diegetic music on the radio in the scene was both sides of It’s In the Book by Johnny Standley (the drunk “preacher” talking about Little Bo Peep losing her sheep, and singing about “Grandma’s Lye Soap”). I had grown up with that 45 single in the house, and I knew the comedy routine by heart. It added an oddly quirky counterpoint to the tragedy of the scene.
The Digital Bits: Any thoughts on the performances in the film?
Benson: Jeff Bridges and Ellen Burstyn obviously went on to greater glory and numerous Oscar nominations and a respective win down the road. Cloris Leachman did very well for herself after winning the Oscar for the movie. Ben Johnson showed us that he was more than a supporting player in a John Ford western. The protagonist, Timothy Bottoms, was effective enough, but the role was nothing flashy. I’ve always liked his work, and it’s too bad that he never reached the heights of success that his co-stars did.
The Digital Bits: Do you believe The Last Picture Show has been well represented on home video? Does it deserve lavish special-edition treatment like so many other movies have received?
Benson: The Criterion Collection’s edition of the film in its boxed set of the BBS Productions is magnificent. Most home video versions of the film are a few minutes longer than the theatrical cut, as Bogdanovich restored a couple of scenes and lengthened some. The BBS people (who were executive producers of the film)—Bert Schneider, Bob Rafelson, and Stephen Blauner—were Hollywood mavericks who played on the edge of the sandbox. I adore most of the titles in that boxed set, and Criterion dida “lavish special-edition treatment” of The Last Picture Show!
The Digital Bits: Any thoughts on the sequel, Texasville?
Benson: I’m afraid it’s not very memorable. I liked McMurtry’s book, though.
The Digital Bits: How would you describe The Last Picture Show to someone who has never seen it?
Benson: This is a drama about a small, dying town in West Texas during the 1950s. It’s a place where people have secrets that are impossible to keep, desires that are forbidden but irresistible, and where life exists in a bubble. With excellent performances from an ensemble cast, moody and insightful direction by Peter Bogdanovich, and a lovely melancholy that will stay with you long after viewing it, The Last Picture Show is one of my favorite movies.
The Digital Bits: What do you think is the legacy of The Last Picture Show?
Benson: Again, the actors and performances are its legacy. It’s difficult to think of another ensemble film from the period in which so many of the cast went on to bigger and better things (maybe American Graffiti?). For me, it’s also the quintessential Larry McMurtry film adaptation, even more so than the TV movie of his acknowledged masterpiece, Lonesome Dove.
The Digital Bits: Thank you, Raymond, for sharing your thoughts about The Last Picture Show on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.
IMAGES
Selected images copyright/courtesy BBS Productions, Columbia Pictures, Columbia TriStar Home Video, The Criterion Collection, Last Picture Show Productions, National Screen Service, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
SOURCES/REFERENCES
The primary references for this project were the motion picture The Last Picture Show(Columbia, 1971), regional newspaper coverage, trade reports published in Boxofficeand Variety, and an interview conducted by the author. All figures and data pertain to North America (i.e. United States and Canada) except where stated otherwise.
SPECIAL THANKS
David Ayers, Don Beelik, Raymond Benson, Diane Buckley (Virginia Beach Public Library), Lanham Bundy (Providence Public Library), Kevin Geisert (Norfolk Public Library), Isaac (Buffalo & Erie County Public Library), Allison Mason (Jacksonville Public Library), Stan Malone, W.R. Miller, Jennifer Pawlowski (Tulsa City-County Library).
IN MEMORIAM
Joe Heathcock (“The Sheriff”), 1914-1980
Jessie Lee Fulton (“Miss Mosey”), 1912-1983
Walter Scott Herndon (art director), 1927-1984
Robert Surtees (director of photography), 1906-1985
Richard Amsel (key art/promotional material illustrator), 1947-1985
Harold Schneider (associate producer), 1939-1994
Helena Humann (“Jimmie Sue”), 1942-1994
Bill Thurman (“Coach Popper”), 1920-1995
Grover Lewis (“Mr. Crawford”), 1934-1995
Charles Seybert (“Andy Fanner”), 1925-1995
Ben Johnson (“Sam the Lion”), 1918-1996
Stephen J. Friedman (producer), 1937-1996
Joye Hash (“Mrs. Jackson”), 1929-2003
Noble Willingham (“Chester”), 1931-2004
Sam Bottoms (“Billy”), 1955-2008
Floyd Mahaney (“Oklahoma Patrolman”), 1926-2009
Gary Brockette (“Bobby Sheen”), 1947-2010
Don Guest (unit production manager), 1934-2010
Bert Schneider (executive producer), 1933-2011
Polly Platt (design), 1939-2011
Eileen Brennan (“Genevieve”), 1932-2013
Jack Mueller (“Oil Pumper”), 1925-2014
Janice O’Malley (“Mrs. Clarg”), 1938-2016
John Hillerman (“Teacher”), 1932-2017
Robert Glenn (“Gene Farrow”), 1925-2018
Chloris Leachman (“Ruth Popper”), 1926-2021
Larry McMurtry (novel and screenplay co-writer), 1936-2021
Peter Bogdanovich (director and co-writer), 1939-2022
Originally posted by The Digital Bits/Michael Coate
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LIFE IN PODUNK: REMEMBERING “THE LAST PICTURE SHOW” ON ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY
By Michael Coate
“With excellent performances from an ensemble cast, moody and insightful direction by Peter Bogdanovich, and a lovely melancholy that will stay with you long after viewing it,The Last Picture Show is one of my favorite movies.” — Raymond Benson, Cinema Retro
The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this multi-page retrospective commemorating the golden anniversary of the release of The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich’s (Targets, What’s Up, Doc?) critically acclaimed film based upon Larry McMurtry’s 1966 novel set in a small Texas town during the early 1950s.
The Last Picture Show starred Timothy Bottoms (Johnny Got His Gun), Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski), Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist), Ben Johnson (The Wild Bunch), Chloris Leachman (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), and Cybill Shepherd (Moonlighting), and was nominated for eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and was the winner of two (supporting nods for Johnson and Leachman).
In 1998 the Library of Congress selected The Last Picture Show for preservation in the National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” Its most recent home media release (excluding imports), on Blu-ray Disc, was in 2010 as a part of Criterion’s America Lost and Found: The BBS Story multi-disc set.
For the occasion of the film’s recent anniversary, The Bits features a historian Q&A along with a package of box-office data and statistics, passages from film reviews, and a reference listing of its first-run theatrical presentations in the key markets of North America.
NUMBERS
1 = Number of cinemas playing the film during its opening weekend
2 = Box-office rank among films directed by Bogdanovich (adjusted for inflation)
2 = Number of Academy Awards
6 = Rank among top-earning films during the 1972 calendar year
7 = Rank among top-earning films released in 1971 (lifetime/retroactive)
8 = Number of Academy Award nominations
9 = Rank among Columbia’s all-time top-earning films at close of first run
77 = Peak all-time box-office chart position
$1.3 million = Production cost
$8.9 million = Production cost (adjusted for inflation)
$12.8 million = Domestic box-office rental (earnings through 12/31/1972)
$13.1 million = Domestic box-office rental (earnings through 12/31/1973)
$29.1 million = Box-office gross
$87.9 million = Box-office rental (adjusted for inflation)
$194.0 million = Box-office gross (adjusted for inflation)
PASSAGES FROM A SAMPLING OF FILM REVIEWS
“The Last Picture Show is an exceptional and original work, not so much a movie-movie as a film buff’s film, an exercise in regret and a reminder of various losses.” — Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times
“Young Peter Bogdanovich’s first major opus is one of the past year’s finest. With insight and compassion it deals with some teenagers and their elders in a wind-blown little Texas town in the early 1950s. Not to be missed.” — Clyde Gilmour, The Toronto Star
“My fear is that some unfortunates are going to confuse it with Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie, to which The Last Picture Show is kin only by title.” — Vincent Canby, The New York Times
“Cybill Shepherd, in her film debut, makes Jacy the most memorable figure in the film—and the most convincing movie incarnation of a bitch in quite some time. I’m not sure if it’s imaginative acting or instinctive understanding, but whatever it is, her Jacy is right on the money, an uncanny mixture of desirability and treachery.” — Gary Arnold, The Washington Post
“The movie runs nearly two hours which is far too long. It is too complicated to have the simple impact that Bogdanovich obviously intended and it is spangled with gratuitous nudity to attract the with-it crowd.” — Emerson Batdorff, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
“The Last Picture Show is one of the finest films of the year. It has already added considerable distinction to the New York Film Festival where it premiered last month and it is, I think, a classic American movie in a tradition that has long since been blithely abandoned by Hollywood. [I]t is a spare and honest evocation of sex and love, life and death in a small Texas town in the early 50s. Because it is told with simplicity, and genuine sentiment, it creates a common experience that touches us all.” — Kevin Kelly, The Boston Globe
“‘It’s beyond envy,’ director Mike Nichols is reported to have said after seeing Peter Bogdanovich’s film, The last Picture Show. That is about as succinct a critical statement as we are likely to get about this film which is, indeed, good enough to overwhelm with admiration any impulse toward jealousy on the part of a fellow craftsman.” — Howell Raines, The Atlanta Constitution
“Peter Bogdanovich is possibly the most exciting new director in America today.” — Stefan Kanfer, Time Magazine
“Credit for the authentic look of the film must be shared between Bogdanovich and his production designer Polly Platt. The Last Picture Show is certain to do for the clothing of the ‘50s what Bonnie and Clyde did for the fashions of the ‘30s. I’m hunting for a western shirt with flap pockets fastened with mother-of-pearl snaps.” — Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune
“The Last Picture Show has been described as an evocation of the classic Hollywood narrative film. It is more than that: it is a belated entry in that age—the best film of 1951, you might say. Using period songs and décor to create nostalgia is familiar enough, but to tunnel down to the visual level and that right, too, and in a way that will affect audiences even if they aren’t aware how, is one hell of a directing accomplishment. Movies create our dreams as well as reflect them, and when we lose the movies we lose the dreams. I wonder if Bogdanovich’s film doesn’t at last explain what it was that Pauline Kael, and a lot of the rest of us, lost at the movies.” — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“Ben Johnson gives the performance of his life as Sam the Lion. Known heretofore as supporting actor in Westerns, Johnson injects remarkable insight into a role that is both disturbing and appealing. Also effective—and outstandingly so—were Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, and Cybill Shepherd. The latter, a former top model, could be the screen’s next sex goddess, if she doesn’t let her fine acting get in the way.” — James A. Perry, The States-Item (New Orleans)
“The Last Picture Show is going to look particularly quaint in its initial Twin Cities run. It is opening at the Cooper Cinerama Theater, a building whose total design was conceived for the showing of color films on the widest of screens. The Last Picture Show, occupying a fractional center arc of the Cooper’s vast curved screen, started out looking like one of those old black-and-white sequences inserted in a modern film for effect. The initial suspicion was that surely everything would widen and blossom into color. And, of course, it doesn’t. It just hangs in there and makes its points in nice, trusty old black-and-white. And boy, does it make its points!” — Will Jones, Minneapolis Tribune
“[Bogdanovich] accomplishes something that two expensive [recent] films attempted—Summer of ’42 (corny, unreal), Red Sky at Morning (well made, unsuccessful at the boxoffice), and that perhaps no other American picture has ever been able to do. [H]e has captured America. Not just small town America, but ritualistic America, decent America, cruel America, intelligent America, ignorant America.” — John Huddy, The Miami Herald
“The Last Picture Show is the most distinguished of the new crop of Christmas-season movies and one of the best of the year. [Y]oung filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich has drawn a moving essay on an America which is forever changing, not always for the better.” — William B. Collins, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Add one more name to the long, long list of those who count Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show among the best American movies ever made.” — Susan Stark, Detroit Free Press
“The Last Picture Show is one of the vital motion pictures of 1971 and it has already wreaked Texas controversy on the heads of Larry McMurtry, who wrote the book, and Peter Bogdanovich, who directed and helped write the screenplay.” — Francis Raffetto, The Dallas Morning News
“With The Last Picture Show we once again have the good film that is placed in danger of being a disappointment simply because it is oversold. It is indeed an impressive achievement in film directing, writing, acting and photography. It is unquestionably a film that will be considered a landmark by film buffs, whether it is a commercial bonanza or not. However, when such things are said, people go expecting to be overwhelmed, rocked back in their seats at the spectacle or moved to tears by the intensity of their involvement. Some may be disappointed because The Last Picture Show is not likely to affect them that way. Its effects are subtle. It impresses by its insights into its characters and the times in which they live.” — Ted Mahar, The Oregonian (Portland)
“A perceptive friend of mine said, ‘That wasn’t a movie at all. That was somebody hiding in one of those buildings watching that little town disintegrate.’ Precisely. The film vibrates with a life so real, an ache so acute, a laughter so accurate. The angst and elation, the anger and ennui of Bogdanovich’s ‘50s-fraught West Texas town are as perfectly observed as any emotion in any film, anytime.” — Tom McElfresh, The Cincinnati Enquirer
“A very good movie! Some of the best acting you’re likely to see this year! But what grants it a claim to greatness is its precise, humane understanding of how generations succeed and fail in communicating.” — Richard Schickel, Life
“The Last Picture Show is a masterpiece! It is not merely the best American movie of a rather dreary year; it is the most impressive work by a young American director since Citizen Kane!.” — Paul D. Zimmerman, Newsweek
“The attempt to capture both time and place has been eminently successful! What happens to these people makes one ache with recognition and remembrance.” — Hollis Alpert, Saturday Review
“In making this admirable film of an appalling—but not unusual—small town Bogdanovich has used certain sentimental devices. To film the drama in black-and-white is a copout. Life is not in black-and-white so why should a movie be? Cinematically it may be more difficult, but that is beside the point. The waitress (Eileen Brennan) is more charitable than believable, the older men less sympathetic than one might expect when a mentally retarded town character is killed, but withal, this is an irresistible picture, unreservedly recommended.” — Paine Kickerbocker, San Francisco Chronicle
“Peter Bogdanovich is a 32-year-old film critic who has turned director because he wants to make the kind of pictures he used to enjoy, in a time when movies were less nihilistic and fragmented than they are today. He has succeeded beyond anyone’s dreams with his second film, The last Picture Show.” — John Hartl, The Seattle Times
“The film uncovers the cruelty, hypocrisy, loneliness and raunchy vice that lurk behind the town’s cheerless facades. In this respect, it calls to mind other exposes, like Peyton Place, only the sexual attitudes are treated more intelligently and never luridly.” —Stanley Eichelbaum, San Francisco Examiner
“Nostalgia is not what it used to be. At least not in The Last Picture Show. Writer-director Peter Bogdanovich has looked at the recent American past realistically rather than romantically. The result is a smashing motion picture experience not to be confused with Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie.” — James Meade, The San Diego Union
“Bogdanovich and McMurtry have avoided soap opera and the nasty merely small-town sin exposes of Peyton Place and The Bramble Bush, by a realistic approach and dramatic integrity. The film is, on the whole, quite moving, a major work that is one of the best pictures of the year. The atmosphere, enhanced by a realistic score that is solely pop tunes of the day by entertainment names of the period, heard on car radios and juke boxes, is perfect, and the accents are authentic. All the principals deliver striking acting performances. But certainly [Ben] Johnson’s, with his simple, touching speech by the lake recalling the days of glory and the time a beautiful young married woman rode naked with him on horses swimming across the lake, deserves a supporting actor Oscar.” — Myles Standish, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Peter Bogdanovich has accomplished something remarkable. He has retained fidelity to both a specific stylistic aesthetic and, distracting to that, to a humanistic realism, with its untidiness and incohesion. I deeply respect Bogdanovich for fusing these elements and making them not only cohabitate but serve each other. We are able to look at Last Picture Show as a superb piece of filmmaking and—remembering and forgetting that at the same time—react to the life that’s going on inside the frame as if no one were arranging and collating it for our consumption.” — Jeff Millar, Houston Chronicle
“The Last Picture Show arrives just when it seemed time to announce that movies as pop culture were dead. The few movies for the mass audience that succeeded were—artistically speaking—so macabre that it was best to forget about them, and the new, smaller movie audience was becoming used to looking for sparks of talent and was learning to reconcile itself to messy, semi-boring, promising failures. I think that maybe everyone who has kept going to the movies has understood that the explosion of forms ismessy, and has felt the excitement of what was happening. The old commercial crust was being cleaned away. Fiascos like Drive, He Said weren’t dead, in the way that fiascos like The Last Run were. And now Bogdanovich has made a film for everybody—not just the Airport audience but the youth audience and the educated older audience, too. The danger is that The Last Picture Show, which is a story about growing up in a small town in Texas in the early fifties—the kind of straightforward, involving, narrative picture that doesn’t often get produced anymore—will turn into a bludgeon to beat other filmmakers with.” — Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
THE FIRST-RUN ENGAGEMENTS
What follows is a chronological reference listing of The Last Picture Show‘s openings in the key markets of the United States and Canada. The emphasis is on the largest and earliest markets in which the film played. The information is designed to provide a sense of the film’s rollout in the early stage of its release in what the industry considers the important and higher-grossing locales.
The presentations of The Last Picture Show were in 35mm (1.85:1 aspect ratio) with monaural audio.
Opening Date YYYY-MM-DD … City — Cinema [notes]
1971-10-02 … New York — Lincoln Center [New York Film Festival]
1971-10-03 … New York — Columbia I
1971-11-04 … Los Angeles — Chinese [FILMEX]
1971-11-10 … Boston — Abbey I
1971-11-10 … San Francisco — Vogue
1971-11-17 … Los Angeles — 4 Star
1971-12-19 … Chicago — Esquire
1971-12-22 … Philadelphia — Cinema 19
1971-12-25 … Washington — Fine Arts
1972-01-26 … Denver — Centre
1972-01-26 … Kansas City — Embassy 1
1972-01-26 … Kansas City — Embassy 2
1972-01-26 … Phoenix (Scottsdale) — Camelback Mall
1972-01-26 … Sacramento — Sacramento Inn II
1972-01-26 … San Jose — Century 22B
1972-01-26 … Seattle — Cinema 70
1972-01-28 … Fresno — Manchester Mall
1972-01-28 … San Diego — Capri
1972-02-02 … Des Moines — Fleur 1
1972-02-02 … Detroit — Studio New Center
1972-02-02 … Detroit (Birmingham) — Studio 4
1972-02-02 … Detroit (Dearborn Heights) — Fairlane
1972-02-02 … Memphis — Park
1972-02-02 … Miami — Kendall Mall Twin II
1972-02-02 … Miami — Westchester
1972-02-02 … Miami (Fort Lauderdale) — Sunrise I
1972-02-02 … Miami (Miami Beach) — Normandy
1972-02-02 … Miami (North Miami Beach) — 167th Street Twin I
1972-02-02 … Miami (North Miami Beach) — 167th Street Twin II
1972-02-02 … New Haven (Orange) — Showcase 2
1972-02-02 … Oklahoma City — Shepherd Twin 1
1972-02-02 … Omaha — Cinema Center II
1972-02-02 … Providence — Avon
1972-02-04 … Portland — Broadway
1972-02-04 … St. Louis — Stadium I
1972-02-04 … St. Louis (Clayton) — Shady Oak
1972-02-04 … Toronto — York I
1972-02-04 … Tucson — Fox
1972-02-09 … Dallas — Delman
1972-02-11 … Austin — Varsity
1972-02-11 … Charlotte — Manor
1972-02-11 … Minneapolis (St. Louis Park) — Cooper
1972-02-16 … Houston — Delman
1972-02-16 … New Orleans (Metairie) — Sena Mall
1972-02-16 … Salt Lake City (South Salt Lake) — Century 22
1972-02-17 … Cincinnati — 20th Century
1972-02-17 … Pittsburgh — Kings Court
1972-02-18 … Atlanta — Fine Art
1972-02-18 … Indianapolis — Loews Twin 1
1972-02-23 … Cleveland — Detroit
1972-02-23 … Cleveland (Cleveland Heights) — Cedar Lee
1972-02-25 … Buffalo (Amherst) — Boulevard Mall II
1972-02-25 … Montreal — Cote-des-Neiges 1
1972-02-25 … Ottawa — St. Laurent Odeon I
1972-02-25 … Vancouver — Coronet
1972-03-01 … Baltimore (Randallstown) — Liberty I
1972-03-01 … Baltimore (Towson) — Hillendale
1972-03-01 … Hartford — Rivoli
1972-03-01 … Hartford (Manchester) — Theatre East
1972-03-01 … Las Vegas — Guild
1972-03-01 … Louisville — Showcase 3
1972-03-01 … Rochester — Paramount
1972-03-01 … St. Paul — World
1972-03-01 … St. Petersburg — Tyrone
1972-03-01 … Syracuse (DeWitt) — Mini 1
1972-03-03 … Columbus (Whitehall) — Cinema East
1972-03-03 … San Antonio — North Star Mall II
1972-03-03 … Tampa — Palace
1972-03-08 … Jacksonville — Town & Country
1972-03-09 … Richmond — Capitol
1972-03-10 … Fort Worth — Opera House
1972-03-10 … Orlando — Northgate 3
1972-03-15 … Milwaukee (West Allis) — Southtown
1972-03-15 … Norfolk — Showcase 2
1972-03-15 … Norfolk (Virginia Beach) — The Movie Theatres Twin 1
1972-03-15 … Spokane — United Artists 1
1972-03-15 … Toledo — Franklin Park 4
1972-03-15 … Tulsa — Delman
1972-03-22 … Akron (Cuyahoga Falls) — Falls
1972-03-22 … Dayton — Ames
1972-03-30 … Calgary — Uptown
1972-03-31 … Edmonton — Avenue
1972-03-31 … Winnipeg — Garrick Two
1972-04-05 … Albuquerque — Lobo
1972-04-05 … Wichita — Mall
1972-04-07 … Birmingham — Village East 2
1972-04-07 … Nashville — Belcourt II
1972-04-12 … Corpus Christi — Deux Cine II
1972-04-12 … El Paso — Fox Bassett Center
1972-04-12 … Honolulu — Waikiki 1
1972-04-12 … Little Rock — Capitol
1972-04-14 … Colorado Springs — Chief
It should be noted the engagements cited above represent only a fraction of the film’s bookings. Not cited are bookings in smaller markets and lower-population locales, expansion waves in larger markets, second-run, re-issue, international, etc. What you also won’t find in the listing is an entry for October 22nd, the date numerous sources erroneously claim was the film’s U.S. release date.
THE Q&A
Raymond Benson is the author of over forty published books. He is most well-known as the third—and first American—continuation author of original James Bond novels commissioned by the Ian Fleming Estate, and for his acclaimed and best-selling five-book serial, The Black Stiletto. Raymond has taught Film History college courses in New York and Illinois for years, contributes a regular column and occasional pieces in Cinema Retro magazine (“The Essential Guide to Movies of the ’60s & ’70s”), and co-stars inDann & Raymond’s Movie Club, a monthly live presentation on cinema history in the Chicago area (with Chicago’s Daily Herald film critic, Dann Gire), now in its 15th season.www.raymondbenson.com
Raymond was previously interviewed for this column’s retrospective on 2001: A Space Odyssey. He spoke to The Bits again recently about the appeal and legacy of The Last Picture Show.
Michael Coate (The Digital Bits): How do you think The Last Picture Show ought to be remembered on its 50th anniversary?
Raymond Benson: There are many things about the film that will be remembered, but perhaps the biggest, for me, are the revelations of the casting and the performances. While many of the actors had done previous work in film and television, I think for most of us in the audience in 1971, we didn’t really know them. Ben Johnson we knew, but not like he is here, and we may have seen Cloris Leachman. Both deserved their Oscars. Jeff Bridges and Ellen Burstyn—oh my. Also nominated. Such star power. New to me at the time. Then there were the others new to me, whether this was their debut or not—Timothy Bottoms, Cybill Shepherd, Randy Quaid, Eileen Brennan, Clu Gulager… For all of these actors, The Last Picture Showmade their careers.
The Digital Bits: What was your first impression of the film?
Benson: I saw the film on first release in Odessa, Texas, where I grew up. Odessa is in pretty much the same locale as the movie—West Texas—and my town mentioned by the characters in the picture as where they’d go on the weekend to have a good time. At the time Odessa was larger (but not by much) than fictional Anarene, so it was considered the “big city” by the small-town folk there. I felt as if I knew those characters and that world. I was blown away by the movie.
The Digital Bits: In what way is The Last Picture Show a significant motion picture?
Benson: The film probably did more for original author Larry McMurtry than the previous adaptation of his work (Hud). I, for one, started reading his books in the 70s. I’ve already mentioned that it certainly launched the careers of most of the cast, but the same is true for director Peter Bogdanovich. It wasn’t Bogdanovich’s first movie, but it might as well have been. We all knew his name after The Last Picture Show.
The Digital Bits: How does the film compare to the source material?
Benson: I did read the novel many years ago and I seem to recall that the film was mostly faithful to it. The book was sexier, I think! McMurtry knew and lived in West Texas and was able to evoke the milieu in profound ways. As a native West Texan, I was always drawn to his books after I discovered them. McMurtry brought back some of the characters from The Last Picture Show—mostly Duane—in four subsequent novels, so the success of the film paved the way for those.
The Digital Bits: In what way was Peter Bogdanovich an ideal choice to direct, and where does the film rank among Bogdanovich’s body of work?
Benson: For me, this is Bogdanovich’s crown jewel. I don’t like to use the word “best” when describing art, so I’ll say it’s my “favorite” of his titles. For several years, I made it a point to see anything he did after The Last Picture Show, because of that movie’s strengths.
The Digital Bits: Which are the film’s standout scenes?
Benson: I love all the scenes on the main street—the lonely, deserted, windy, tumbleweed-dotted main street where the “picture show” stood. It really captured that ghost town feeling of those small hamlets in West Texas where I grew up. Those townsare in black-and-white! Other standout moments are, of course, the skinny-dipping pool party—how could it not be memorable? The final kitchen scene with Bottoms and Leachman is always a heart-clutcher. I was amazed that the diegetic music on the radio in the scene was both sides of It’s In the Book by Johnny Standley (the drunk “preacher” talking about Little Bo Peep losing her sheep, and singing about “Grandma’s Lye Soap”). I had grown up with that 45 single in the house, and I knew the comedy routine by heart. It added an oddly quirky counterpoint to the tragedy of the scene.
The Digital Bits: Any thoughts on the performances in the film?
Benson: Jeff Bridges and Ellen Burstyn obviously went on to greater glory and numerous Oscar nominations and a respective win down the road. Cloris Leachman did very well for herself after winning the Oscar for the movie. Ben Johnson showed us that he was more than a supporting player in a John Ford western. The protagonist, Timothy Bottoms, was effective enough, but the role was nothing flashy. I’ve always liked his work, and it’s too bad that he never reached the heights of success that his co-stars did.
The Digital Bits: Do you believe The Last Picture Show has been well represented on home video? Does it deserve lavish special-edition treatment like so many other movies have received?
Benson: The Criterion Collection’s edition of the film in its boxed set of the BBS Productions is magnificent. Most home video versions of the film are a few minutes longer than the theatrical cut, as Bogdanovich restored a couple of scenes and lengthened some. The BBS people (who were executive producers of the film)—Bert Schneider, Bob Rafelson, and Stephen Blauner—were Hollywood mavericks who played on the edge of the sandbox. I adore most of the titles in that boxed set, and Criterion dida “lavish special-edition treatment” of The Last Picture Show!
The Digital Bits: Any thoughts on the sequel, Texasville?
Benson: I’m afraid it’s not very memorable. I liked McMurtry’s book, though.
The Digital Bits: How would you describe The Last Picture Show to someone who has never seen it?
Benson: This is a drama about a small, dying town in West Texas during the 1950s. It’s a place where people have secrets that are impossible to keep, desires that are forbidden but irresistible, and where life exists in a bubble. With excellent performances from an ensemble cast, moody and insightful direction by Peter Bogdanovich, and a lovely melancholy that will stay with you long after viewing it, The Last Picture Show is one of my favorite movies.
The Digital Bits: What do you think is the legacy of The Last Picture Show?
Benson: Again, the actors and performances are its legacy. It’s difficult to think of another ensemble film from the period in which so many of the cast went on to bigger and better things (maybe American Graffiti?). For me, it’s also the quintessential Larry McMurtry film adaptation, even more so than the TV movie of his acknowledged masterpiece, Lonesome Dove.
The Digital Bits: Thank you, Raymond, for sharing your thoughts about The Last Picture Show on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.
IMAGES
Selected images copyright/courtesy BBS Productions, Columbia Pictures, Columbia TriStar Home Video, The Criterion Collection, Last Picture Show Productions, National Screen Service, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
SOURCES/REFERENCES
The primary references for this project were the motion picture The Last Picture Show(Columbia, 1971), regional newspaper coverage, trade reports published in Boxofficeand Variety, and an interview conducted by the author. All figures and data pertain to North America (i.e. United States and Canada) except where stated otherwise.
SPECIAL THANKS
David Ayers, Don Beelik, Raymond Benson, Diane Buckley (Virginia Beach Public Library), Lanham Bundy (Providence Public Library), Kevin Geisert (Norfolk Public Library), Isaac (Buffalo & Erie County Public Library), Allison Mason (Jacksonville Public Library), Stan Malone, W.R. Miller, Jennifer Pawlowski (Tulsa City-County Library).
IN MEMORIAM
Joe Heathcock (“The Sheriff”), 1914-1980
Jessie Lee Fulton (“Miss Mosey”), 1912-1983
Walter Scott Herndon (art director), 1927-1984
Robert Surtees (director of photography), 1906-1985
Richard Amsel (key art/promotional material illustrator), 1947-1985
Harold Schneider (associate producer), 1939-1994
Helena Humann (“Jimmie Sue”), 1942-1994
Bill Thurman (“Coach Popper”), 1920-1995
Grover Lewis (“Mr. Crawford”), 1934-1995
Charles Seybert (“Andy Fanner”), 1925-1995
Ben Johnson (“Sam the Lion”), 1918-1996
Stephen J. Friedman (producer), 1937-1996
Joye Hash (“Mrs. Jackson”), 1929-2003
Noble Willingham (“Chester”), 1931-2004
Sam Bottoms (“Billy”), 1955-2008
Floyd Mahaney (“Oklahoma Patrolman”), 1926-2009
Gary Brockette (“Bobby Sheen”), 1947-2010
Don Guest (unit production manager), 1934-2010
Bert Schneider (executive producer), 1933-2011
Polly Platt (design), 1939-2011
Eileen Brennan (“Genevieve”), 1932-2013
Jack Mueller (“Oil Pumper”), 1925-2014
Janice O’Malley (“Mrs. Clarg”), 1938-2016
John Hillerman (“Teacher”), 1932-2017
Robert Glenn (“Gene Farrow”), 1925-2018
Chloris Leachman (“Ruth Popper”), 1926-2021
Larry McMurtry (novel and screenplay co-writer), 1936-2021
Peter Bogdanovich (director and co-writer), 1939-2022
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