Otto Preminger....one year before Skidoo (which you HAVE to see if you haven't seen it. he even uses some of the same cast in Sundown... John Law, Burgess Meredith). The weirdest part of this whole thing is star Michael Caine trying to do a southern accent. Some fun names in this one.. Jim Backus, George Kennedy, Robert Reed, Jane Fonda. It's post WW II, and the land developers are buying up all the land for a housing development. Of course, there are two holdouts, and one of them is African American. And this town is dealing with serious racial tensions. Pretty much everyone has to choose a side. The married couple, the Warrens, (Fonda and Caine) are battling over trying to convince the black family to sell their property, where Mrs. Warren's mammy still lives. This one is very different from some of Preminger's other wacky films; a pretty serious drama, tackling some serious issues of the time. especially in the south, where this takes place. The story is pretty uneven, and everyone's performance is over the top. One bright spot was the singing they were doing in Reeve's house. of course, the it sounded like a lot more voices than the few that were in the room, but it was quite pretty. If you haven't seen this, its worth it to see all those big names in 1967. It IS available on DVD from Olive Films, but I have not seen this one on Turner Classics.
Review of Hurry Sundown
