|
''The Long, Hot Summer'' is a 1958 film directed by Martin Ritt. The screenplay was written by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr., based in part on three works by William Faulkner: the 1931 novella "Spotted Horses", the 1939 short story "Barn Burning", and the 1940 novel ''The Hamlet.'' The title is taken from ''The Hamlet,'' as Book Three is called "The Long Summer". Some characters, as well as tone, were inspired by Tennessee Williams' 1955 play, ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,'' a film adaptation of which - also starring Paul Newman - was released five months after the release of ''The Long, Hot Summer''. The plot follows the conflicts of the Varner family after ambitious drifter Ben Quick (Newman) arrives in their small Mississippi town. Will Varner (Orson Welles), the family's patriarch and the owner of most of the town, has doubts about the abilities of his only son, Jody (Anthony Franciosa), and sees Ben as a better choice to inherit his position. Will therefore tries to push Ben and his daughter Clara (Joanne Woodward) into marriage. Clara is initially reluctant to court Ben, and Jody senses that Ben threatens his position. Filmed in Clinton, Louisiana, the film's cast was composed mostly of former Actors Studio students, whom Ritt met while he was an assistant teacher to Elia Kazan. For the leading role, Warner Brothers loaned Paul Newman to 20th Century Fox. The production was marked by conflicts between Welles and Ritt, which drew media attention. The music score was composed by Alex North, and the title song, "The Long Hot Summer", was performed by Jimmie Rodgers. The film was well received by critics but did not score significant results at the box office. Its critical success revitalized the career of Martin Ritt, who had been blacklisted during most of the 1950s, and also earned national fame for Paul Newman, who won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. ==Plot== Ben Quick is on trial, suspected of barn-burning, but when no solid evidence is found, the peace judge expels him from town. Ben then hitches a ride to Frenchman's Bend, Mississippi, with two young women in a convertible, Clara Varner and her sister-in-law Eula (Lee Remick). Clara's father, Will Varner, is the domineering owner of most of the town. Ben goes to the Varner plantation. Will is away, but Jody, Will's only son, agrees to let him become a sharecropper on a vacant farm. When Will returns from a stay in the hospital, he begins to see in Ben a younger version of himself and comes to admire his ruthlessness and ambition, qualities that Jody lacks. Will is also disappointed with the man that his 23-year-old daughter, Clara, has been seeing for five or six years: Alan Stewart (Richard Anderson), a genteel Southern "blue blood" and a mama's boy. Will therefore schemes to push his daughter and Ben together, to try to bring fresh, virile blood into the family. However, she is openly hostile to the crude, if magnetic, upstart. Will is determined to have his bloodline go on, so he offers Ben much wealth to marry Clara. Ben is interested, but eventually comes to see something more in Clara. Meanwhile, Minnie Littlejohn (Angela Lansbury), Will's long-time mistress, is dissatisfied with the arrangement and wants to marry him. Will, a widower, is strongly against the idea. Jody becomes increasingly alarmed and frustrated when he sees his position in the family undermined by Ben. After Ben manages to sell some wild horses, Will offers him the position of clerk in the general store, alongside Jody. Later, Will invites him to live in the family mansion. This is the final straw for Jody. When he finds Ben alone, he pulls a gun on him and threatens to kill him. Ben talks his way out by telling Jody about buried Civil War-era treasure he has supposedly found on a property that Will gave him, a down payment to seal their bargain over Clara. Ben and Jody head to the property, where they start digging. When the two men find a bag of coins, Jody is elated, thinking he might finally get free of his father's domination; he buys the land from Ben. Late that night, Will finds his son, still digging. After examining one of the coins, Will notices that it was minted in 1910. Jody is shattered. Meanwhile, Ben aggressively pursues Clara. She finally asks Alan his intentions, and does not like what she hears. The following day, a crushed and frustrated Jody finds his father alone in their barn. Jody bolts the entrance and sets the barn on fire, but he cannot go through with it and releases Will. The incident leads to a reconciliation between Jody and Will. Meanwhile, some of the men assume Ben is the culprit and start toward him. Clara persuades a defiant Ben to drive away in her car. Will later claims responsibility for accidentally starting the fire by dropping his cigar. The smell of fire brings back bad memories for Ben, who confesses to Clara that his father was a real barn-burner. He tells her how, at the age of ten, he had to warn a farmer that his father was about to set another fire. Ben's father got away, but Ben never saw him again. Grateful that she saved his life, he tells her he is leaving town. However, Clara makes it clear she has fallen in love with him, so he stays. An elated Will confides to Minnie that life is so good, he may have to live forever. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Long, Hot Summer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|