Mark Harris - Scenes from a revolution: the birth of the new Hollywood

The actors

Warren Beatty (Clyde Barrow)

Faye Dunaway (Bonnie Parker)

Michael J. Pollard (C. W. Moss)

Gene Hackman (Buck Barrow)

Estelle Parsons (Blanche Barrow)

Denver Pyle (Frank Hamer)

Evans Evans (Velma)

Gene Wilder (Eugene)

Behind the scenes

Warren Beatty, producer

Arthur Penn, director

Robert Benton, screenwriter

David Newman, screenwriter

Robert Towne, special consultant (rewriter)

Burnett Guffey, cinematographer

Dean Tavoularis, art director

Theadora Van Runkle, costume designer

Dede Allen, editor

Robert Jiras, makeup designer

Elaine Michea, assistant to Beatty

Morgan Fairchild, driving double for Faye Dunaway

Elinor Jones and Norton Wright, producers (196364)

Franois Truffaut

Jean-Luc Godard

Jack Warner, head of Warner Brothers

Walter MacEwen, head of production at Warner Brothers

Benjamin Kalmenson, head of distribution for

Warner Brothers

Richard Lederer, head of advertising and publicity for Warner Brothers

Robert Solo, assistant to Walter MacEwen

Eliot Hyman, head of Seven Arts

The actors

Rex Harrison (Dolittle)

Samantha Eggar (Emma Fairfax)

Anthony Newley (Matthew Mugg)

Richard Attenborough (Albert Blossom)

Peter Bull (Bellowes)

William Dix (Tommy Stubbins)

Geoffrey Holder (William Shakespeare X)

Behind the scenes

Arthur P. Jacobs, producer

Richard Fleischer, director

Mort Abrahams, associate producer

Leslie Bricusse, composer/lyricist/screenwriter

Robert Surtees, cinematographer

Ray Aghayan, costume designer

Herbert Ross, choreographer

Lionel Newman, conductor/orchestrator, head of 20th Century Foxs music department

Richard Zanuck, head of production at 20th Century Fox, son of Darryl F. Zanuck

David Brown, New York-based 20th Century Fox executive

Josephine Lofting, widow of author Hugh Lofting

Christopher Lofting, son of Hugh and Josephine Lofting

Bernard Silbert, Josephine Loftings lawyer

Helen Winston, would-be producer of the film

Larry Watkin, author of an unused screenplay for the film

Alan Jay Lerner, Arthur Jacobss original choice to write the screenplay

Rachel Roberts, Rex Harrisons wife

Joan Collins, Anthony Newleys wife

Natalie Trundy, Arthur P. Jacobss girlfriend (later wife)

The actors

Dustin Hoffman (Benjamin Braddock)

Anne Bancroft (Mrs. Robinson)

Katharine Ross (Elaine Robinson)

William Daniels (Mr. Braddock)

Elizabeth Wilson (Mrs. Braddock)

Murray Hamilton (Mr. Robinson)

Behind the scenes

Lawrence Turman, producer

Mike Nichols, director

Buck Henry, screenwriter

Calder Willingham, screenwriter

Charles Webb, author of the novel

Robert Surtees, cinematographer

Sam OSteen, editor

Richard Sylbert, production designer

Joel Schiller, assistant production designer

Meta Rebner, script supervisor

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, composers

Joseph E. Levine, head of Embassy Pictures

William Hanley, author of an unused screenplay

Peter Nelson, author of an unused screenplay

Anne Byrne, Dustin Hoffmans girlfriend (later wife)

Mel Brooks, Anne Bancrofts husband

Leonard Hirshan, Anne Bancrofts agent

The actors

Spencer Tracy (Matt Drayton)

Sidney Poitier (John Prentice)

Katharine Hepburn (Christina Drayton)

Katharine Houghton (Joey Drayton)

Cecil Kellaway (Monsignor Ryan)

Beah Richards (Mrs. Prentice)

Roy Glenn (Mr. Prentice)

Isabel Sanford (Tillie)

Behind the scenes

Stanley Kramer, producer/director

William Rose, screenwriter

Sam Leavitt, cinematographer

Ray Gosnell, assistant director

George Glass, associate producer

Robert C. Jones, editor

Robert Clatworthy, production designer

Marshall Schlom, script supervisor

Karen Kramer, Stanley Kramers wife

Louise Tracy, Spencer Tracys wife

The actors

Rod Steiger (Bill Gillespie)

Sidney Poitier (Virgil Tibbs)

Warren Oates (Sam Wood)

Lee Grant (Mrs. Colbert)

Larry Gates (Endicott)

William Schallert (Mayor)

Beah Richards (Mama Caleba)

Scott Wilson (Harvey Oberst)

Quentin Dean (Delores Purdy)

Anthony James (Ralph)

Jester Hairston (Endicotts butler)

Behind the scenes

Walter Mirisch, producer

Norman Jewison, director

Stirling Silliphant, screenwriter

John Ball, author of the novel

Hal Ashby, editor and Norman Jewisons right-hand man

Haskell Wexler, cinematographer

Quincy Jones, composer

Lynn Stalmaster, casting

Meta Rebner, script supervisor

Terry Morse, first assistant director

Martin Baum, Sidney Poitiers agent

Claire Bloom, Rod Steigers wife

Juanita Hardy Poitier, Sidney Poitiers wife

The critics

Bosley Crowther, film critic for the New York Times

Roger Ebert, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times

Penelope Gilliatt, film critic for the New Yorker

Pauline Kael, film critic for the New Yorker

Joseph Morgenstern, film critic for Newsweek

Andrew Sarris, film critic for the Village Voice

Richard Schickel, film critic for Life

The industry

Louis Nizer, chief counsel to the Motion Picture

Association of America

Gregory Peck, president of the Academy of

Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Geoffrey Shurlock, head of the Production Code Authority

Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture

Association of America

When you talk about films, nobody agrees with anybody.
Guys get mad at each other and the air is full of screaming.

David Newman and Robert Benton,
The Movies Will Save Themselves, 1968

A few dozen reporters, wire-service men, studio publicity department employees, gossip columnists, and personal managers were gathered on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood outside the locked headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It was the morning of February 20, 1968. At 10:00 a.m., the doors opened and the group was led inside and escorted to the Academy library, where each person was handed an unsealed, oversize manila envelope containing the names of the 1967 Oscar nominees.

The five films vying for Best Picture that year were Bonnie and Clyde, Doctor Dolittle, The Graduate, Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, and In theHeat of the Night. Some Academy Awards competitions offer an almost irresistible temptation to imagine that the Best Picture nominees represent a collective statementa five-snapshot collage of the American psyche as reflected in its popular culture. But that morning, all that was illuminated by the list of contenders was the movie industrys anxiety and bewilderment at a paroxysmal point in its own history. Bonnie and Clyde and TheGraduate were game changers, movies that had originated far from Hollywood and had grown into critics darlings and major popular phenomena; In the Heat of the Night, a drama about race, and Guess Whos Comingto Dinner, a comedy about race, were middle-of-the-road hits that had, with varying degrees of success, extended a long tradition by addressing a significant social issue within the context of their chosen genres; and