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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: $12.91
You Save: $7.03 (35%)
New (44) Used (8) Collectible (1) from $11.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  115 reviews
Sales Rank: 7596
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: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Nice Package With Disappointing Contents July 1, 2006
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
Rebecca: This is so bad it's almost good.
Enid: This is so bad it's gone past good and back to bad again.
"Picnic" is hardly the only example of Joshua Logan's limitations as a director. Logan's small body of directing work is highlighted by two of the worst screen adaptations of good Broadway musicals ever produced: "Paint Your Wagon"and "Camelot". His "South Pacific" was a happy exception. After doing some second unit directing on "Mister Roberts" he was turned loose to direct the sequel "Ensign Pulver"; a compare and contrast of the two films provides a nice illustration of Logan's talent limitations.
That said he was badly served by Daniel Taradash's adaptation of the William Inge novel. Inge's subtle nuanced story is turned into a something midway between "A Place In the Sun" and "State Fair". In the adaptation 19-year old small town beauty Marge (Kim Novak) is crowned Queen of Neewollah (Halloween spelled backward), the highlight of her town's annual Labor Day picnic.
Marge spends most of her time complaining about wanting more from a man than just being looked at because she is pretty. Enter Hal Carter (William Holden), a moronic but pretty drifter who comes through the town for one day. Marge takes some time off from complaining about being looked at to look at Hal because he is pretty. And when Hal is not busy being a moron or talking about himself he looks at Marge because she is pretty. Since this is all he does he must have made Marge rethink her need for anything more than a man who looks at her because she is pretty.
There are a few secondary story lines. Marge's sister Millie (Susan Strasberg) spends her time complaining because she's not pretty enough for men to look at her. Old-maid schoolteacher Rosemary (Rosalind Russell) spends her time complaining because she is no longer pretty enough for men to look at her. Alan (Cliff Robertson), one of the men who has been looking at Marge, spends his time complaining that Marge prefers being looked at by Hal. Howard (Arthur O'Connell) complains that he can't do anything more than look at Marge.
This is pretty much the whole story although there is also a documentary feature edited into the middle of the film that features tons of stuff you would find at a small town picnic; like pie- eating contests, sack races, concerts, jam and jelly judging, crying babies-laughing babies- frowning babies, and surreptitious drinking.
Ironically while "Picnic" is Holden's all-time worst acting performance, his propensity to take off all or part of his shirt is the main reason for the film's popularity with certain viewers who like that sort of thing. Holden could believably play anti-heros (see "Stalag 17" and "Sunset Blvd") but not dumb ones and Hal's most prominent character trait is stupidity.
Novak (as in all her straight dramatic roles) looks scared about having a camera pointed in her direction-she eventually learned to do comedy pretty well but in "Picnic" comedy is in short supply. Novak also does not benefit from having a lot of scenes with Strasberg, who was not just a real actress but was such a physical opposite that there is not even a hint of a sisterly dynamic.
Robertson is actually very good, managing to make most of his terribly lame dialogue work. And the TCM version is a restored wide-screen print which nicely showcases the film's strengths; editing and production design.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
 What happened to LETTERBOX format? May 27, 2006
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I love "Picnic" starring Kim Novak and William Holden but...the movie was not in letterbox format!! The entire movie with the exception of the very beginning and the very end of the movie was in WIDESCREEN format. You could not get the full effect of this timeless love story of a drifter who changed the lives of many in a 24-hour period. I recommend that this movie be put in letterbox format ONLY and burn the widescreen versions of this timeless classic forever.
 Baroque-Level Melodrama Portrays Lust in the Heartland With a Stellar Cast April 26, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Even though I agree this 1955 movie has moments of silly excess (just look at the DVD cover), I'm still surprised how there seems to be a backlash by contemporary critics against the film for being dated melodrama. That's exactly the reason why I find this film so entertaining, for the Baroque-level elements provide a dramatic resonance to the most mundane of settings, the Labor Day picnic in a small Kansas town during the Eisenhower era. Into this insulated cornbelt hamlet comes Hal Carter, a swaggering drifter looking to connect with his old college buddy Alan for a job. His natural, testosterone-fueled charisma attracts all the women, including Alan's girlfriend Madge Owens. Contrary to her repressed mother's nagging wishes to marry into Alan's wealthy family, Madge becomes drawn to Hal much to the disapproval of most of the town. Spinster schoolteacher Rosemary Sidney rents a room in the Owens house, but she is desperately aching for her reluctant suitor Howard Bevans to marry her. Madge's little sister Millie tires of living in her beautiful sister's shadow and solicits Hal's attention, and kindly neighbor Mrs. Potts is the only one who sees Hal as the positive life force he wants to be.
The movie begs for Douglas Sirk or Elia Kazan to commandeer it with individualistic style, but direction is left in the hands of Joshua Logan, who directed the stage version on Broadway. Logan has a tendency toward focusing on the obvious in his films ("Sayonara", "South Pacific"), but he certainly captures the latent passions that drive screenwriter Daniel Taradash's florid adaptation of William Inge's play. The rural look of the film feels right, and James Wong Howe's stellar cinematography has a lot to do with that. Another contributing factor to the film's success is George Duning's familiar, Bernstein-like music score with its soaring string arrangements. The acting is uniformly strong even if the casting is less than ideal in some cases. In a role that should have ideally gone to Brando at his prime, William Holden is at least a decade too old as Hal (the actor admitted as much afterward) and a bit too haggard-looking to be the subject of such swooning. However, he conveys the empty bravado of his character with conviction.
Even though she overacts during her drunken scene, Rosalind Russell is unafraid to show the deep-seeded loneliness and innate vulgarity in Rosemary. It's a masterful performance that repels at the same time. In her first leading role, a well-cast Kim Novak manages to show Madge's insecurity in a most affecting manner especially toward the end. Her mating dance with Holden to the strains of "Moonglow" under the Chinese lanterns is still one of the most sensual scenes in movies. In fact, their chemistry is key in overcoming the contrived hurdle of believing their characters would fall for each other over the course of one day. Effective in smaller roles are Arthur O'Connell as Howard (his heartbreaking scenes with Russell provide a sharp counterpoint to the blooming romance of the young lovers), Betty Field as Madge's mother Flo, a sympathetic Verna Felton as Mrs. Potts, a young Cliff Robertson as Alan, and an even younger Susan Strasberg as Millie. I have to admit the last ten minutes of the film always get to me for its overt romanticism. The 2000 DVD contains a decent print of the film and a gallery of stills from the film set to the music score.
 INCREDIBLE MOVIE !! April 10, 2006
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
One of the most incredible movies of all time. I remember watching this movie growing up, and the story has not diminished at all through time as I have gotten older.
William Holden and Kim Novack light up the screen with such sexual tension... and the BEST sensual scene ever on film is the Moonglow dance.....Nothing will ever top that!! How beautifully the scene was done, with no unnecessary skin or sexual scenes you see in today's films to take away from the simplicity of the scene. You can just about swoon from it all. I highly recommend Picnic to all the romantics out there!!
Dear Sony/Columbia Pictures: Why fullscreen, and no widescreen option? February 27, 2006
43 out of 44 found this review helpful
I wonder what's wrong with some of these corporations that release dvd's of classic American films. We aren't given a choice of widescreen or fullscreen most of the time. I'll take widescreen any day.
If a film came out after 1953, chances are that it was filmed in widescreen. Then, when it was eventually sold to play on TV, it was altered (shrunk or cropped down) to fit into the square shape of the TV screen, thus losing one third of the image.
I prefer the black bars because I know that the image I see between them is exactly what people saw in the movie theater when the film was originally shown to audiences ... a nice wide rectangle like we see on the silver screen.
This dvd of Picnic is "modified from its original version...it has been formatted to fit this screen", as the message flashes before the film begins. Yet, the Columbia torch bearer lady and the opening credits are in the original aspect ratio. And then we cut from William Holden to the home of Verna Felton (Mrs. Potts) and, POOF, we suddenly have a grainy, shrunken, pan-and-scan fullscreen image for the rest of the film. A big disappointment.
The aspect ratio is not 2.35:1 as advertised in the product description above.
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