The Last Picture Show ***** (1971, Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, Ben Johnson, Sam Bottoms, Eileen Brennan, Randy Quaid, Clu Gulager) – Classic Movie Review 2,284

Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 movie triumph The Last Picture Show is an outstanding adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenager (Timothy Bottoms)’s coming of age in the 1950s.

Director Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 movie triumph The Last Picture Show is an outstanding adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s semi-autobiographical 1966 novel about sensitive teenager Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms)’s rites of passage, as a group of 1950s American high schoolers come of age in the small north Texas town of Anarene between November 1951 and October 1952.

Naturally, the coming of age is a bumpy ride for the teens, and the loss of innocence is symbolised in film terms by the closure of the town’s cinema. 

The Last Picture Show was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Ben Johnson and Jeff Bridges for Best Supporting Actor, and Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman for Best Supporting Actress, with Johnson and Leachman both winning Oscars.

Columbia Pictures released it on 22 October 1971, and it was a major critical and commercial success, grossing $29.1 million on a $1.3 million budget. It has gone on to classic, one of the all-time great movies status.

Bogdanovich has coaxed the most wonderful of performances from Jeff Bridges as Duane Jackson, Timothy Bottoms and Sam Bottoms as Sonny Crawford and Billy Crawford among the young generation, plus beloved vintage star character actors Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson, who won Oscars as Best Supporting Actress and Actor as Ruth Popper and Sam the Lion.

Ben Johnson, though not keen on the part because of the wordiness of the script, gives a haunting old-style performance and a most memorable Cloris Leachman is heartbreaking in one of cinema’s greatest support performances. Bogdanovich told Johnson: ‘You, in this role, are going to get an Academy Award’ and finally Johnson accepted: ‘All right, I’ll do the damn thing’.

Robert Surtees’s Oscar-nominated black-and-white cinematography, Polly Platt’s period designs and the 1950s recordings are major factors in the film’s success. But the main triumph is the detail and feeling in the screenplay by McMurtry and the director Bogdanovich’s confidence and power to conjure up a time and a place long gone, and characters that seem so real that you could just reach out and touch them.

Also starring in the special vintage Seventies cast are Cybill Shepherd as Jacy Farrow, Ellen Burstyn as Lois Farrow, Eileen Brennan as the café waitress Genevieve, Randy Quaid as Lester Marlow, Clu Gulager as Abilene, John Hillerman as the English teacher, Gary Brockette as Bobby Sheen, and Noble Willingham as Chester.

It also features Sharon Ullrick [Taggart] as Charlene Duggs, Joe Heathcock as the town’s sheriff, Bill Thurman as Coach Popper, Barc Doyle as the preacher’s son Joe Bob Blanton, Robert Glenn as Gene Farrow, Frank Marshall as Tommy Logan, and Jessie Lee Fulton as Miss Mosey, the popcorn lady who inherits the cinema.

Also in the cast are Helena Humann, Lloyd Catlett, Robert Glenn, Jance E O’Malley, Floyd Mahaney, Kimberly Hyde, Marjorie Jay, Joye Hash, Pamela Keller, Gordon Hurst, Mike Hosford, Faye Jordan, Charles Seybert, Grover Lewis, Rebecca Ulrick and Merrill Shepherd.

The Last Picture Show is one of those rare, magic movies to see over and over again. This was one of Bogdanovich’s trio of five-star classic movies from his golden era that also include What’s Up, Doc? and Paper Moon.

Sequel: Texasville, the 1990 sequel to The Last Picture Show, based on McMurtry’s 1987 novel, is also directed by Bogdanovich, and reunites Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms, Cloris Leachman, Eileen Brennan, Randy Quaid, Sharon Ullrick (née Taggart) and Barc Doyle.

Bogdanovich re-edited the film in 1992 as the director’s cut, restoring seven minutes of footage that he cut from the 1971 release because Columbia imposed a 119-minute time limit.

There were just the two Oscar wins, but six other nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Jeff Bridges and Best Supporting Actor for Ellen Burstyn. The Last Picture Show is Bridges’s first Oscar nomination, followed by Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), Starman (1984), The Contender (2000) and True Grit (2010). He won Best Actor for Crazy Heart (2009).

Bogdanovich cast Jeff Bridges as Duane Jackson because he thought his naturally fun personality would give the character extra depth and warmth and make him less disagreeable. Bogdanovich liked Timothy Bottoms for his sad eyes and recalled he cast him after his agent said he had been given the lead in Johnny Got His Gun (1971).

Timothy Bottoms’s younger brother Sam came to stay with his brother for a few days, as rehearsals started in Archer City. Bogdanovich saw him sitting on some stairs and asked him if he could act. Sam, who had appeared in the Santa Barbara Youth Theater since he was 10, shrugged, and Bogdanovich signed him up.

Cybill Shepherd was a model whom Bogdanovich spotted on the cover of Glamour magazine. ‘There was something about her expression that was very piquant,’ he said.

Randy Quaid studied acting at the University of Houston and his teacher sent him to audition for Peter Bogdanovich, who cast him in what became his debut film, later appearing in Bogdanovich’s What’s Up, Doc? and Paper Moon.

In 1973, largely because of its skinny-dipping party scene, the film was briefly banned in Phoenix, Arizona, before the drive-in theatre filed suit to overturn the decision.

Cloris Leachman died in her sleep from natural causes, at her home in Encinitas, California, at the age of 94 on 27 January 2021. She was a very special favourite actress, whose career spanned more than seven decades. She won eight Primetime Emmy Awards from 22 nominations, an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Daytime Emmy Award. Peter Bogdanovich recalled directing her on The Last Picture Show: ‘Cut, print, you just won an Oscar’.

Peter Bogdanovich died from natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, on 6 January 2022, aged 82.

Clu Gulager (November 16, 1928 – August 5, 2022).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,284

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