Hurry Sundown

It's difficult to concisely describe the plot of Hurry Sundown; it's a film about the racial divide, family squabbles, class distinction, and corporate takeover of land. Among the subplots are marital difficulties, Southern life, parenthood, a developmentally challenged child, questionable honor of the legal system, and coming-of-age dilemmas.

Michael Caine is married to Jane Fonda, and while they're a well-to-do Southern couple on the outside, beneath the surface lies infidelity and parenting issues. Michael's poor cousin, John Phillip Law, is married to Faye Dunaway, and he also has trouble with his children. Robert Hooks and his mother Beah Richards live on land that used to belong to Jane's family, back when they owned slaves. As a gift, they gave the land to Beah, but when Michael Caine's company wants to build on it, racial tensions lead to unforeseen consequences that affect all three families.

Even though I have a soft spot in my heart for Michael Caine and refuse to ever really see him as a bad guy, he's known for his meaner roles. In Hurry Sundown, he's just about as mean as it gets. He gives a fantastically chilling performance, and his Southern accent is nearly flawless. Faye Dunaway also stands out in her smaller role, since it's unlike the cold, calculating, classy roles she usually takes. Be on the lookout for Diahann Carroll, Burgess Meredith, and George Kennedy as the adorable but incompetent sheriff.

This is a very well-acted film that fits in with other hot-blooded films of its time, like In the Heat of the Night and The Long, Hot Summer. It's one of the steamiest films made in the 1960s, and it sheds light on a number of important issues. Director Otto Preminger, king of films that push the envelope, creates another masterpiece that makes you feel like you need a good scrubbing after watching it.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to racial language, sexual situations, and violence involving children, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

I won't argue with someone who says, "I hated this film". Clearly many people (including film critics) did. But, I disagree with those who say the acting performances were bad-----they were spot on. I disagree with those who say the "trashy" racist characters were over-the-top caricatures-----you haven't met some of my relatives. And, I disagree with those who say that real people never act like these characters do-----pick up a newspaper sometime, either 1950 or 2011. Yes, parts of the movie made me squirm and want to look away-----because the scenes were TOO real and heartbreaking. I, for one, do NOT want racism, past or present, swept under the rug. Show its ugliness. Make people squirm. Hollywood would never make "Hurry Sundown" today, because it is "politically incorrect". The film says our parents, children, neighbors, law enforcement officers, and politicians could be capable of violent racism. Really! No! Surely only in the movies!

I'm really not understanding why folks are so down on this film. Hurry Sundown is far from the masterpiece of Otto Preminger's career. But he did assemble a good cast who as an ensemble do quite well in their roles.

Michael Caine and John Philip Law are cousins. Caine used to work on a shrimp boat but married into southern gentry when he wed Jane Fonda. He's now trying to be a big shot businessman putting together parcels of land. Only two won't sell out Law and black neighbor Robert Hooks.

Law has just returned from World War 2 to wife Faye Dunaway and their kids. The war has taken him away from the south and given him an itch to wonder. He might sell, but Caine relies too much on the blood connection and approaches him all wrong.

Law does the unheard of thing in the post World War 2 south, he partners with Hooks and they dig some needed irrigation ditches using explosives.

That sets off all that follows because law and with some trepidation goes into a partnership with a black man. Something that just wasn't done in Georgia of 1946.

Both Fonda and Dunaway are ravishing and both are coming into their own as name players. Caine follows in the tradition of British actors playing southerners that seems to have started with Leslie Howard and Gone With The Wind. Law is the key character in this drama, it's his decisions are what turn the plot and he runs a good range of emotions doing it.

Hurry Sundown is not a bad picture of the south just before the civil rights revolution. Believe me pay no attentions to the bad reviews.

You know, if the South ever does rise up and crush the North, they could use this movie as a perfect reason to do so.

"Hurry Sundown" is without a doubt the worst, most reprehensible treatment of human beings (of all race, creeds and colors) ever perpetrated by a "name" director (or any director, for that matter). Even the fact that it was co-written by Horton Foote lends little to nothing to a story that spends all of its lengthy running time creating living, breathing stereotypes.

Caine plays a good ol' Southern boy (yeah, right) who plans to buy up all the land in the South including two parcels owned by a poor hard-working colored family led by Robert Hooks and a poor hard-working white trash family led by John Philip Law...no matter what.

All kinds of Simon Lagree-type antics ensue from courtroom hysterics, lynch mobs, floods and Burgess Meredith in one of his most overblown performances ever as a bigoted judge who snarls out every third word or so.

There's a monumental cast at work here (Carroll, Dunaway, Kennedy, etc.) and you even get to see Jane Fonda work Caine's saxophone, but why did it have to gather for THIS story? The treatment of black people here is right out of a minstrel show and is beneath contempt, even for Hollywood. And the sexual hijinks within will make you cringe, no matter how much you think you can take.

What else can I say? Critics of the day lambasted this loser left and right, the National Catholic Office condemned it and its box office hardly covered the film stock it was printed on. If nothing else, "Hurry Sundown" will make all races unite - to track down Otto Preminger.

Not one single, solitary star for this claptrap. Avoid "Hurry Sundown" at all costs; do your part for civil rights.

If Otto Preminger's "Hurry Sundown" is guilty of anything, it's biting off more than it can chew. With a 146 minute running time, a clutter of stars and characters, and what seems like a jumble of conflicting themes, "Hurry Sundown" has been seen by many critics as opportunistic rabble-rousing, overtly melodramatic and clunky. But if you look past Preminger's drive to get attention and Michael Caine's questionable southern accent, you may find a wholly entertaining film or failing that, a period piece that encapsulates the feelings of its maker/s at a time when such issues as racism ran rampant.

When a cannery looks to buy large plots of uncultivated farmland, local big cheese Henry Warren (Michael Caine) enthusiastically becomes partners to the plan selling his wife Julie's (Jane Fonda) family's land at a profit. However, to make the deal he must convince his cousin Rad (John Phillip Law) and his wife's old mammy Rose (Beah Richards) to sell their plots as well. When Rose dies of a heart attack, her son Reeve (Robert Hooks) becomes landowner but is then sued for ownership by Henry. Reeve and Rad must then work together to fight battles both real and legal to keep their homes from being destroyed.

The lack of tact in this film is stupefyingly brilliant. With the bluntness of TNT, "Hurry Sundown" creates not characters but caricatures. George Kennedy makes an appearance as a bumbling Sheriff, Burgess Meredith as a bigoted judge and Madeleine Sherwood as the saintly teacher who eggs Reeves on. All you need is a snooty butler and a buxom blonde bimbo and you got yourself a stock character Christmas. Still it's in their simplicity that you find the true virtue of the film. Their is no nuance in racism, nor is their any when you're exploiting friends and family like Henry does. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, their is no in-between and for better or worse, Preminger seems to feel very strongly about that fact.

Racism is the primary theme and focus of "Hurry Sundown" but it is by no means the only theme, nor the only controversy during release. sexuality and fidelity have their time in the sun as well. Rad and his wife Lou (Faye Dunaway) enjoy a healthy sex life while Henry and Julie sexually frustrate each other to the point of violence. Preminger really does seem to take delight in toying with the emotions of his characters (as well as taking suggestive camera shots), as shown when Fonda attempts to seduce Henry with his own saxophone. In addition, family relationships, greed, corruption, religion are also expanded on, creating a solid if hyperbolic worldview. Like a splatter painting its messy yet colorful.

All in all, "Hurry Sundown" has the pulpy sensationalism you can expect from an Otto Preminger production. His passion for the material shines through even when the story strays into melodrama. While filming in Louisiana, locals attempted to sabotage filming to the point of sniping a convoy of cast and crew members. It reminds me of an adage I once heard; "If they're shooting at you, you're doing something right."

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