Picnic (Widescreen) [VHS]
starring: William Holden, Kim Novak, Betty Field, Susan Strasberg, Cliff Robertson
directed by: Joshua Logan
directed by: Joshua Logan
![Picnic (Widescreen) [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MV3VHRQYL._SL160_.jpg)
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William Holden is the hunky drifter who rides the rails into a small Midwest town with dreams of landing a "respectable" job with his rich college buddy (Cliff Robertson). Kim Novak is the small-town beauty queen engaged to Robertson who falls for the cocky dreamer, as do repressed schoolmarm spinster Rosalind Russell and Novak's tomboyish kid sister Susan Strasberg. Their unleashed passions reach a crescendo at the Labor Day picnic.
Joshua Logan directed William Inge's play on Broadway and carried it to Hollywood, earning Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director in his screen-directing debut. Holden is years too old for the role but oozes sex appeal and makes a swoony stud when he takes his shirt off (or when, better yet, it's ripped from his back by a boozing Russell), and Novak is a lovely lost girl yearning for something she can't quite grasp. Arthur O'Connell earned an Oscar nomination as Russell's tippling boyfriend. The film was a huge popular and critical hit, but Logan's stiff and strident direction hasn't dated well. He makes his points in big capital letters--subtlety was never his strong point--and loses the natural beauty of the Kansas locations when he takes the climactic picnic scenes into an obviously artificial soundstage. Picnic remains a loved American classic, largely for Holden's tough-guy vulnerability and James Wong Howe's brilliant widescreen color photography. --Sean Axmaker
William Holden is the hunky drifter who rides the rails into a small Midwest town with dreams of landing a "respectable" job with his rich college buddy (Cliff Robertson). Kim Novak is the small-town beauty queen engaged to Robertson who falls for the cocky dreamer, as do repressed schoolmarm spinster Rosalind Russell and Novak's tomboyish kid sister Susan Strasberg. Their unleashed passions reach a crescendo at the Labor Day picnic.
Joshua Logan directed William Inge's play on Broadway and carried it to Hollywood, earning Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director in his screen-directing debut. Holden is years too old for the role but oozes sex appeal and makes a swoony stud when he takes his shirt off (or when, better yet, it's ripped from his back by a boozing Russell), and Novak is a lovely lost girl yearning for something she can't quite grasp. Arthur O'Connell earned an Oscar nomination as Russell's tippling boyfriend. The film was a huge popular and critical hit, but Logan's stiff and strident direction hasn't dated well. He makes his points in big capital letters--subtlety was never his strong point--and loses the natural beauty of the Kansas locations when he takes the climactic picnic scenes into an obviously artificial soundstage. Picnic remains a loved American classic, largely for Holden's tough-guy vulnerability and James Wong Howe's brilliant widescreen color photography. --Sean Axmaker
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- great fun in smaltown Kansas
picnic is one of my favorite films, ive watched this several times, and i think the array of characters from this little kansas town is wonderful, its underlying theme i suppose is repression and people trying to break free from the roles that society holds them in, madge the pretty one, millie too intelligent and talented for smalltown kansas, Hal who has just gotta be something in this world, strange when i first watched this film i didnt like it, but it seems like many films or music albums ive ... Read More
Rating: - Picnic
Loved seeing Picnic again. We saw the movie on TCM and my husband wanted me to order it for future viewing.
Rating: 
- A Dated Classic
I watched Picnic for the first time in decades this morning on TCM and was sad to see just how much this once favorite has dated.
On the plus side, you've got a gorgeous, sexy and still charismatic William Holden at his peak, as the gorgeous, sexy and still charismatic loser who falls in love with Kim Novak.
Novak is another reason why this movie was so popular back then in the mid-50s. And that slow dance they do--it's still dynamite.
Yet, the script and the ... Read More
Rating: - Erotic without the Sleeze
The dance scene played to moonglow must be the ultimate depiction of sexual attraction between a man and woman Hollywood every did.
The depiction of small town America in summer is priceless.
A classic in many ways......enjoy it.
Rating: 
- Not Widescreen!
Picnic is a fabulous movie, but do not buy this DVD version as it is in standard screen format - not the original widescreen (like the VHS tape version). The standard screen does not do justice to this movie at all. I don't understand why the VHS (which I have) is widescreen and the much newer DVD (which I bought from Amazon) is standard screen. I should have read the description more carefully.
- great fun in smaltown Kansaspicnic is one of my favorite films, ive watched this several times, and i think the array of characters from this little kansas town is wonderful, its underlying theme i suppose is repression and people trying to break free from the roles that society holds them in, madge the pretty one, millie too intelligent and talented for smalltown kansas, Hal who has just gotta be something in this world, strange when i first watched this film i didnt like it, but it seems like many films or music albums ive ... Read More
- PicnicLoved seeing Picnic again. We saw the movie on TCM and my husband wanted me to order it for future viewing.
- A Dated ClassicI watched Picnic for the first time in decades this morning on TCM and was sad to see just how much this once favorite has dated.
On the plus side, you've got a gorgeous, sexy and still charismatic William Holden at his peak, as the gorgeous, sexy and still charismatic loser who falls in love with Kim Novak.
Novak is another reason why this movie was so popular back then in the mid-50s. And that slow dance they do--it's still dynamite.
Yet, the script and the ... Read More
- Erotic without the SleezeThe dance scene played to moonglow must be the ultimate depiction of sexual attraction between a man and woman Hollywood every did.
The depiction of small town America in summer is priceless.
A classic in many ways......enjoy it.
- Not Widescreen!Picnic is a fabulous movie, but do not buy this DVD version as it is in standard screen format - not the original widescreen (like the VHS tape version). The standard screen does not do justice to this movie at all. I don't understand why the VHS (which I have) is widescreen and the much newer DVD (which I bought from Amazon) is standard screen. I should have read the description more carefully.
