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Released by: Imprint
Released on: February 22nd, 2023.
Director: Otto Preminger
Cast: Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Faye Dunaway, Burgess Meredith, George Kennedy
Year: 1967
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Hurry Sundown – Movie Review:
By Chris Workman
Henry Warren is a smarmy draft dodger out to increase his wealth by expanding his business. But to do that, he needs two properties adjacent to his own: one owned by his cousin Rad, the other by an elderly black woman, Rose, who served as his wife's mammy when she was young. His wife, Julie Ann, is reluctant to ask Rose to sell, since the old woman has lived on the property all her life and now her son, Reeve, farms the land. Rad and Reeve join forces to resist Warren's offers, but when Rose dies, Julie Ann claims ownership of the land. To make matters worse for Reeve, a local judge wants the Warrens' endorsement for his daughter's impending wedding. Pressure mounts, and soon the Ku Klux Klan is involved. A court case ensues, and the KKK resorts to violence against Rad's family as punishment for his support of Reeve.
Hurry Sundown is far from director Otto Preminger's masterpiece, but neither is it as bad as reviews from the time suggest. Still, what went on behind the scenes was more interesting than anything on screen. Having read a galley proof of K.B. Gilden's novel, Preminger purchased the film rights before the book was even published. When the printed book sold far fewer copies than Preminger had envisioned, he was forced to scale back his production. Hoping to capture some of the same ambiance as the film adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), he hired Horton Foote to write the script for Hurry Sundown. Foote hated the novel and rewrote it heavily, prompting Preminger to sack him and start afresh (though Foote's name remained in the credits). His longtime reader, Thomas C. Ryan, was then given the job. The film went into production in the South at a time when racial tensions were high, with the result that the cast and crew were threatened and the shoot sabotaged.
Preminger had long been known for his abuse of his actors. Thomas Tryon credited his ill treatment at the hands of the director during the shoot for The Cardinal (1963) for his abandonment of acting for writing. On the set of Hurry Sundown, Preminger mistreated young newcomer Faye Dunaway, to whom he had signed a five-film contract. Not one to be pushed around, however, Dunaway sued to be released from her contract upon completion of filming. The case was settled out of court, leaving the young actress to pursue her career as she saw fit. But it was the beginning of the end for Preminger's long and distinguished career; over the next decade and a half, the director who had been responsible for such classics as Laura (1944), Carmen Jones (1954), The Man With the Golden Arm (1955), Anatomy of Murder (1959), and Advise & Consent (1962), among others, made only five more pictures, none of them particularly successful or much remembered today.
Hurry Sundown's performances range from excellent (Burgess Meredith) to middling (Jane Fonda and John Phillip Law) to “What were they thinking?” terrible (Michael Caine). Ryan's script shows little understanding of the way human beings speak or interact with one another, and the direction fails to elicit the necessary tension to make it all believable. Still, there are some striking set pieces, including a taut scene in a Southern courtroom, where the judge has presupposed the outcome of the case, not figuring on the determinedness of the forces of justice and equality. The sequence provides the film with its true climax, and had it ended there, it would no doubt be much better remembered than it is. Unfortunately, Preminger and Ryan opt for a final, drawn-out emotional resolution that misses its mark by a long shot.
Yet, the film does offer a window into the liberal political view of its makers, as well as into the social dynamics of both its setting (a post-World War II South) and the era in which it was made (a South in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement). Despite its lengthy running time, it's never boring. And Caine's amazingly bad performance has to be seen to be believed, especially considering how reliable he usually was.
Hurry Sundown – Blu-ray Review:
By Ian Jane
Imprint brings Hurry Sundown to Blu-ray framed at 2.35.1 widescreen and in AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer taken from “2k scan provided by Paramount Pictures.” Offered up on a dual layered 50GB disc, the picture quality looks similar to the Olive Films Blu-ray edition from 2014 in terms of color reproduction but it definitely features better compression. Detail levels, depth and texture also look very similar to the 2014 release and as this isn’t advertised as coming from a new scan, it is likely taken from the same source. Either way, it’s a decent enough high definition offering. Some more cleanup work could probably have done away with some of the minor print damage that appears here and some scenes look a tad soft, but overall this is perfectly watchable, just never reference quality.
The 24-bit LPCM 2.0 Mono track, in the film’s native English sounds fine. Optional subtitles are offered in English only. It sounds pretty solid. The track is clean, clear and nicely balanced and while limited in range, it does provide the score some depth.
The main extra on the disc is a commentary track with film historian Daniel Kremer featuring actor Robert Hooks. In a very relaxed tone, Kremer goes over the film with Hooks, who sounds like he's chiming in via a conference call, about what it was like to work with Preminger. They note that this was the first Hollywood movie to have two black actors credited above the movie, how Hooks came to star in the movie after doing some Broadway work, what Preminger was like to work with, thoughts on the script and shooting in the deep south of Baton Rouge, how happy he was to be able to work with such a great cast and lots more. Hooks isn't present for the entire track, there are stretches where Kremer goes solo and during these parts offers his thoughts on the movie and what works and what doesn't, biographical information about the different cast and crew members, details on the movie's troubled pre-production history, Preminger's treatment of actors and loads of other details about the film and the people who made it. It's a very interesting discussion that does a great job of covering the movie.
The Great Ecstasy Of Tree Climber Otto – Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Late Preminger is a thirteen minute video essay by Kremer. This is a pretty interesting look at how the director's later films compare to his better known earlier pictures, the director's earned nickname of 'Otto The Terrible,' his issues with censorship, his media savvy tactics, how the themes he started to explore in his later years differed from his earlier pictures and lots more. There's a load of pertinent clip from films and interviews to illustrate the different points that Kremer makes along the way. It's an interesting piece worth checking out.
Directed By Otto Preminger is an appreciation by filmmaker Peter Bogdonovich that runs for thirty-two minutes. Bogdonovich talks about Preminger's status as a European intellectual and how he got along with the man when he encountered him, how he never saw the "difficult Otto" in their time together, what he learned from Preminger when asking him about his movies, producer Daryl F. Zanuck's role in Preminger's career and the importance of Laura to the director's overall success, why he thinks Anatomy Of A Murder is Preminger's best film and the best film ever made about the American judicial system and his thoughts on Hurry Sundown and some of his other later films.
A theatrical trailer, menus and chapter selection options are also provided and this release comes packaged with some double-sided cover sleeve art and a limited edition slipcover.
Hurry Sundown - The Final Word:
Uneven but genuinely interesting, Hurry Sundown is worth seeing for the performances and for the opportunity to see Preminger attempt to tackle some admittedly tricky material. If it doesn’t always works, it is always watchable. The Blu-ray edition from Imprint offers up the film in a decent presentation and with some pretty strong extras to complement it, making for a nice package overall.
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Hurry Sundown Blu-ray screen caps!
