Paddy Chayefsky Movies

A trenchant satire of "trash TV," Network seems to grow only more relevant with each passing year. Howard Beale (Peter Finch), the dean of newscasters at the United Broadcasting System, is put out to pasture because he "skews old." Network executive Max Schumacher (William Holden), Howard's best friend, is forced to deliver the bad news. Beale can't stomach the idea of losing his 25-year post as anchorman simply because of age, so in his next broadcast he announces to the viewers that he's going to commit suicide on his final program. Network head Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) is all for kicking Beale out then and there, but when it looks as though the UBS is going to have its greatest ratings ever on the night of Beale's self-destruction, ambitious programming exec Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) talks Hackett into treating that fateful final telecast as a special event. Naturally, Beale doesn't go through with it -- but he does begin rambling about the horrible state of the world in general and television in particular. He concludes his tirade by admonishing his viewers to "Go to the window and shout as loud as you can: 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!'" With that, Howard Beale becomes the hottest TV personality in America, and Diana becomes the network's fair-haired girl. She draws up plans to treat the nightly news broadcast as garish entertainment (complete with a psychic), all built around the rants of Beale, billed as "The Mad Prophet of the Airwaves." Network won Oscars for Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay as well as for three of four acting categories -- Dunaway for Best Actress, Peter Finch for Best Actor (in the only posthumous Oscar yet awarded), and Beatrice Straight for Best Supporting Actress, in one of the shortest-screen-time performances ever to win an Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After a debut on Broadway in 1951, Paramount spent an estimated 17 to 20 million dollars in production costs for this Lerner and Loewe musical. With Loewe's permission, Lerner wrote five additional tunes for the film with Andre Previn. Ben Rumson (Lee Marvin) is the grizzled prospector trying his luck panning for gold in California. Pardner (Clint Eastwood) is his companion. When Ben buys a woman from a Mormon, Elizabeth (Jean Seberg) expects equal rights for her gender and chooses to live with both men. Ben and Pardner tunnel under the boomtown to gather the fallen gold dust that has filtered through the cracks of the saloon and other places. The musical comedy features 13 songs, the most recognizable being "They Call The Wind Maria". The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band helps out on the song "Hand Me Down That Can O' Beans". Both Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin are given a chance to show their vocal ability (or lack of it) in several songs. The initial release fell far short of regaining the millions put into the production, and most critics dipped their pens in poison to pan the picture -- though the film plays better than the critics would lead anyone to believe. Many jumped on the Paint Your Wagon smear campaign after the film proved to be not nearly as successful as other musicals. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Scripter Paddy Chayevsky altered his successful stageplay for this routine cinematic version of Middle of the Night, emphasizing the self-centered interests of the relatives and friends who surround Jerry Kingsley (Fredric March). Jerry is a widower, a lonely but successful clothing manufacturer who falls in love with Betty Preisser (Kim Novak), one of his employees. The employee-boss relationship is one hurdle the erstwhile couple have to overcome, another is the thirty-year difference in their ages, and the last is the attitudes of the couples' relatives -- each close relative (mother, daughter, sister) feels marginated by the relationship, left out in the cold, forgotten. These attitudes do not bode well for any future walk up the aisle. Director Delbert Mann is best known for his 1955, award-winning Marty. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Like his earlier Marty, Paddy Chayefsky's The Bachelor Party began life as a TV play. The film version centers around the impending wedding of thirtyish Arnold (Philip Abbott). As they gather for the traditional "wild" bachelor party, Arnold's married pals begin reflecting on their own lives. Most of what develops is seen through the eyes of Charlie Samson (Don Murray), a staid bookkeeper who intends to cut loose at Arnold's premarital bacchanale. The unexpected pathetic figure in the proceedings is Walter (E. G. Marshall), a self-described "swinger" who after a few drinks bursts out in a uncontrolled fit of self-loathing. Though by necessity their characters are secondary, the women in The Bachelor Party--including Nancy Marchand, Patricia Smith, and Karen Norris - also reveal their true natures in ways both mundane and profound. Particularly memorable is Carolyn Jones in a brilliant, Oscar-nominated turn as a "good time girl" with whom Charlie Samson briefly dallies. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning slice-of-life drama originated as a live 1953 broadcast directed by Delbert Mann on The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse starring Rod Steiger and Nancy Marchand. The Hecht-Lancaster movie version, also directed by Mann, replaces the two leads with Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair (as well as featuring several soon-to-be-familiar faces, including Jerry Paris, Frank Sutton, and Karen Steele, plus Joe Mantell, Nehemiah Persoff, and Betsy Palmer from the TV version). But it remains otherwise intact, telling of 24 very important hours in the lives of two lonely people. Marty is a bittersweet, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, and always realistic comedy-drama about Marty Pilletti (Ernest Borgnine), a 34-year-old Bronx butcher. Approaching middle-age as a burly, somewhat overweight man who has no illusions about himself or his attractiveness to women, Marty looks forward to just one thing in life -- buying his boss's butcher shop and trying to make a success in business -- and he's even uncertain about that. A gentle, good-natured man, he lives with his mother (Esther Minciotti), a kind but emotionally smothering woman, in a too-large house and spends his time with a small circle of dead-end friends (Joe Mantell, Frank Sutton). One Friday night, Marty's mother convinces him to go to the Stardust Ballroom, where he meets a plain-looking schoolteacher named Clara (Betsy Blair), whose life appears to mirror his own -- she lives with her father, and is frightened about the one prospect she has for advancement in her job. Meeting her after witnessing a humiliating rejection by her blind date, Marty acts on his best impulses and asks Clara to dance, and soon they are actually enjoying each other's company. She is as drawn to him as he is to her, but both are so uncertain about putting themselves at risk emotionally, that the evening almost ends badly when he tries to kiss her -- but they agree to talk on the phone and go to a movie the next night. But whatever good feelings he has about Clara are soon threatened by his friends' put-downs of her, and his mother's hostility, driven by her sudden panic that if Marty marries, she'll be left living alone. Marty spends the next day alone and never does call Clara, seemingly having decided that it's best to leave well enough alone. That is, until he takes a good long look at his life, and a listen to his friends -- and he suddenly makes the decision to try for true happiness, wherever it leads. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Not the 1955 film, but a television version filmed two years earlier, Marty is the story of a lonely New York man (Rod Steiger) who finds solace with an equally introverted woman. ~ John Bush, Rovi

Ronald Colman won an Academy Award for his portrayal of an off-the-beam actor in A Double Life. A beloved stage star, Anthony John (Colman), has problems with his private life due to his unpredictable outbursts of temper. This trait has already cost him his wife, Brita (Signe Hasso), and threatens to sabotage his career. Nonetheless, Anthony makes his peace with Brita, and the two actors star in a new Broadway staging of Othello. The play is a hit, running over 300 performances, but the pressures of portraying a man moved to murder by jealousy takes its toll on Anthony. In a fit of delirium, he strangles his casual mistress, Pat (Shelley Winters), but retains no memory of the awful crime. Press agent Bill Friend (Edmond O'Brien), unaware that Anthony is the killer, uses Pat's murder as publicity for Othello. Anthony becomes enraged at this cheap ploy, and attacks Friend. At this point, Anthony realizes that he has been living "a double life" and is in fact Pat's murderer. A Double Life was written for the screen by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, who occasionally digress from the melodramatic plotline to include a few backstage inside jokes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi