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| Picnic | 
 enlarge | Director: Joshua Logan
Actors: William Holden, Kim Novak, Betty Field, Susan Strasberg, Cliff Robertson
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.94
Buy New: $12.07
You Save: $7.87 (39%)
New (39) Used (11) Collectible (1) from $10.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  115 reviews
Sales Rank: 7711
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Chinese (Subtitled), Thai (Subtitled), Portuguese (Dubbed)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 115
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 2
Picture Format: Array
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: COLD82879D
ISBN: 0767827791
UPC: 043396828797
EAN: 9780767827799
ASIN: 0767827791
Theatrical Release Date: January 1, 1955
Release Date: April 18, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Five Star Seller!!! New, factory sealed US Region 1 DVD. Item is 100% guaranteed not to be a bootleg or import. Item is shipped directly from our warehouse. Easy exchange if item defective or damaged in shipped.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Desire under the elms May 16, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Years after become famous for his role in the film version GOLDEN BOY, William Holden was still working against being typecast in "hunk" roles, none odder than the drifter Hal in this this beautifully photographed film version of William Inge's famous drama of loneliness in small-town Kansas.There were so many younger fine actors who could have played the part--Brando, Newman, Ralph Meeker (the latter two who played Hal on Broadway)--that it's a bit astonishing to wonder what the studio saw in Holden: he's certainly got the torso for the part, but he's fifteen years older than his love interest in the film (Kim Novak) and seven years older than Cliff Robertson, who plays his college classmate--and he looks it, too. And the role of the boisterous braggart Hal is almost exactly wrong for the ruminative Holden's talents. But he's still fine enough an actor to be moving, and he and Novak have an incredibly memorable slow erotic dance to the tune of "Moonglow" at the Labor Day festivities of the film's title for which alone it is worth seeing the entire movie.
Novak is herself ideally cast as the insecure passive beauty queen Madge Owens, and she has solid support from Verna Felton as the sensible Mrs. Potts and Arthur O'Connell as the bewildered Howard Bevans. As the loud and awesomely lonely schoolteacher Rosemary Sidney, Rosalind Russell is also very well cast, although she tends to overplay her hand too much (as she always did in her later years); Susan Strasberg tries hard as Madge's intellectual sister Millie but is far too beautiful to be taken seriously as a teenage "goon." The screenplay is a bit too worked out and stagey, but the gorgeous James Wong Howe cinematography beautifully displays that midwestern American Gothic territory so peculiar to the work of William Inge--that odd and fascinating combination of wide open landscapes and claustrophobically repressed emotional space.
OK but Overrated May 13, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Given that this film was nominated for numerous Academy Awards, I was expecting something a bit better. Were it not for William Holden's acting and an innovatively shot final scene, the film would be quite forgettable.
"Picnic" is a fairly simple tale of a young lady named Madge (played by Novak) having to choose between her good-looking, stable, wealthy fiance, named Alan (played by Cliff Robertson) and a ruggedly handsome but poor new-guy-in-town, named Hal (Holdan's character). You can predict right from the start who is going to get the girl in the end.
Hal can't seem to keep a job, and so he moves to a small Kansas town seeking employment from Alan, his old college roommate, whose father owns a large agribusiness. He gets the job but then falls for Alan's fiancee, Madge (Novak), and she falls for him too. His pursuit of Madge destroys his friendship with Alan and costs him his job, but you can be sure that the film's ending is ultimately a happy one: He gets the girl.
I say the film's ending is "ultimately a happy one," but I suspect that, in real life, most women would rather have the rich guy over the poor one. Holden's character is the kind of guy a "bad girl" might have an affair with, but Robertson's character is the type that most long to marry. Films like "Picnic" push the socially damaging "Lady and the Tramp" idea that unemployed, vagrant "bad boys" make desirable husbands. If they would have made a realistic sequel to "Picnic," it should have shown Holden's character sleeping around, laying around the house drunk, sponging off Madge, and beating her because she isn't quick enough with his dinner.
 Still Pretty Tense January 16, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
One of my all-time favorite movies, "Picnic" embodies what a 1950s director like Joshua Logan could do with the limitations put on him not only by the watchdogs of the film industry but also by the social contexts of the times. The setting of Midwestern Kansas smalltown is a perfect metaphor for the clash between the superficial, outwardly values of the times and the raw, below-the-surface desires and passions that must be kept in check. The clash between age and repression--beautifully depicted by Rosalind Russell--and youth and possibility--seen in the characters of Kim Novak and Susan Strasberg--is another refreshing insight subtly created by the script and the director.
The 1950s shown in the film may have been repressive, but were they not a far gentler,more humanly meaningful times when the tensions of life were the sources of creativity and larger possibilities.
Fans of fifties' movies are still enamored of Kim Novak... January 11, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Kim Novak made a tremendous impression as the heroine of "Picnic". Looking cool, lush and marvelous in lilac as she walked through her films expressing polite interest and a terror of emotional reactions toward the situations which arose...
"Picnic" follows a brawny wanderer who causes sexual havoc one summer in a small American town...
Holden was the charming drifter who arrives, on one hot Labor Day, to a small Kansas town, to look up an old schoolmate, Alan (Robertson), who is the town rich-man's son and from whom he hopes to obtain work...Alan is kind at first--until Madge, Alan's fiancee falls for Hal...
"Picnic" was quite compulsive despite some overacting...
Betty Field was excellent as Madge's warm and protective mother who fears for her daughter's happiness if she passes up her rich fiancee... Madge's teenaged sister (Strasberg) longed for beauty and sympathy... Her good-hearted neighbor, Verna Felton, was gently compassionate...
Robertson was handsome but presumptuous and arrogant... O'Connell was delightful as the confused and unsure cigar-chomping salesman... Rosalind Russell was the easily frustrated and inconsistent spinster who loses her self-control while drunk and practically accosts Hal on the dance floor, destroying his shirt... When Hal rebuffs her, she storms off in anger; later she begs her shy boyfriend to marry her...
Beautifully photographed, "Picnic" will remain always a loved romantic film, largely for the high chemistry of its two stars, Holden and Novak...
 5 stars for the film, 1 for this DVD release January 8, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I've waited for years to get this wonderful classic on DVD and was so disappointed to discover it's only available in a full-screen format. For those who don't know the difference, this classic was originally filmed in a widescreen format, so to make it fit the traditional square television, they had to crop out a lot of the picture. What's more, this "restored" version contains no documentaries--only trailers and cast lists. I e-mailed Sony about a possible widescreen release and was told there are no plans for another release at this time. What a shame! The film was released on VHS in a widescreen format and deserved to be handled with the same respect in the DVD release. If you want to get the full impact of the theatrical release, don't buy this chopped-up version. Save your money and watch the VHS or widescreen airings on Turner Classic Movies. Eventually someone will do right by this film and release a better DVD.
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