The Arrangement (1969 film)
- Kirk Douglas: Eddie Anderson
- Faye Dunaway: Gwen
- Deborah Kerr: Florence Anderson
- Richard Boone: Sam
- Hume Cronyn: Arthur
- Michael Higgins: Michael
- John Randolph Jones: Charles
- Carol Rossen: Gloria
- Charles Drake: Finnegan
The package is the title of an American film drama from the year 1969. Served as a literary model of the eponymous novel by Elia Kazan. It is a Technicolor film in Panavision.
Action
The creative director of an advertising agency, Eddie Anderson, lives with his wife Florence and his adopted daughter, a luxury villa. He is in the profession very successful and can afford such a carefree life. All the more inexplicable it is that he throws himself in a car accident in front of a passing truck is. He is admitted to a hospital, where he suddenly loses even the language in the following period. It can happen in mind his past life Revue, remembers his standing in society and to the people he has met. But he can not find a stage in life where he was truly happy. Almost none, because while his former hot affair with Gwen, he had the good fortune found ... and lost again, because he had then got scruples and stayed with his wife. This is all the negative balance of a man who wishes to make certain weaknesses of his life undone.
He is physically healthy again and can leave the hospital. But his previous attitude towards his life and his principles has changed. He has become clear that he has wasted his powers for incidentals for years. He breaks all the bridges behind him and moves in with his seriously ill father to New York. He sees Gwen again, which now has a child and a friend living together without loving him. Because Eddie she can not forget. There is a row with the family that wants his money. Florence appears together with a lawyer and a psychiatrist at Eddie. But her call for a return to her, he has resolutely. In his marriage with her he felt hemmed and do not want to relive that. His mental condition worsens, he is admitted to a mental hospital. Only after the death of his father he is released again. Gwen is waiting for him and goes with him to the funeral.
Background
- Originally Marlon Brando was considered for the role of Eddie Anderson. The murder of Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968 caused him to refrain. He wanted to be involved only in such films, advocating the rights of oppressed people.
- Kazan had a budget of six million dollars.
- Despite the attractive cast, the film had no great success in the U.S., including also because too many flashbacks occurred. The critics in Europe, the film was, however, a positive response.
Reviews
- " A heavy hand of staged drama ... Despite the talent of the cast never really lifting, a flop. " ( Lothar R. Just: Heyne Filmlexikon 1999)
- "In ' The Arrangement ' manifests Kazan deeper doubts about the American affluent society. Personal experiences are reflected in the anti-hero Eddie resist that the social and moral pressure can not withstand in its struggle for self -realization and begins to revolt against the establishment. " ( Thomas Koebner, film directors, Reclam 1999)
- Kazan's film adaptation of a bestselling novel portrays own, autobiographical influences, problems of second generation immigrants in the United States. The story is rather superficial, melodramatic staging, the cast good and expensive. ( Encyclopedia of the international film )