Few would believe that a film directed by Otto Preminger and full to the brim of top-class stars could be as awful as Hurry Sundown. But the evidence is here for all to see. Taken from a K.B. Gilden novel, Hurry Sundown is a hysterically over-ripe melodrama set in the Deep South in 1945. The film was made in Louisiana, and legend goes that many of the white locals were Ku Klux Klan members. They were so furious when they learned that black actors were working on a film in their neighbourhood that they sent threatening notes to the film crew and deliberately slashed the tyres on their cars, resulting in a permanent armed guard being stationed at the hotel where the cast and crew were staying. One can only marvel how ironic it is that this behind-the-scenes drama is infinitely more fascinating than the film itself!
Ambitious young land prospector Henry Warren (Michael Caine) is bent on buying up land in 1940s Georgia for real estate. His plans are hampered when he comes across two pockets of land that he can't get hold of. One is owned by a poor black family, the other by a poor white family. Warren sends his wife Julie Ann (Jane Fonda) to persuade the black family to sell up, believing that her childhood relationship with the mother of the clan, Rose Scott (Beah Richards), will count for a lot. But the plan backfires, and Rose is so stressed at the threat of losing her family home that she suffers a fatal heart attack. Her son Reeve (Robert Hooks) takes control of the family land and also refuses to sell, resulting in a long and bitter court battle which ultimately goes in favour of the black family. Later, Warren focuses his attention on the other piece of land, owned by his cousin Rad McDowell (John Philip Law). Rad is equally unwilling to sell up, so Warren resorts to desperate measures in order to force them off the land. His plan is to sabotage a nearby dam, thus flooding and destroying the homes of those who won't sell. But his despicable scheme results in a tragic accident, and out of the ruin the families that Warren hoped to intimidate emerge even stronger and more determined than ever to stand firm against him.
Preminger is light years away from the form of his masterpieces - Laura (1944) and Anatomy Of A Murder (1959) - with this piece of overlong trash. His approach to the characters is so patronising and vulgar that one can only look on in disbelief. Even more extraordinary is the fact that some exceptional actors agreed to play these preposterous characters. What was Burgess Meredith thinking when he signed up to portray the bigoted Judge Purcell? How could George Kennedy go from an Oscar-winning performance in Cool Hand Luke and a box-office gem like The Dirty Dozen, and then choose this for his next project? And what on earth possessed Michael Caine to think he could pull off a Southern accent as the conniving land prospector? At nearly two-and-a-half hours, this isn't even brief junk it actually requires a good bit of your time to sit through, and few will be charitable enough to give it the time or attention that it requires. Just about the only positive that can be said of the film is that it is handsomely photographed, but that counts for little when the story and events on screen are so staggeringly awful. In various biographies and interviews, Caine has always stated that the worst film he ever made was Ashanti: Land Of No Mercy . but once you've experienced Hurry Sundown, you might just be ready to disagree with him!
Ambitious young land prospector Henry Warren (Michael Caine) is bent on buying up land in 1940s Georgia for real estate. His plans are hampered when he comes across two pockets of land that he can't get hold of. One is owned by a poor black family, the other by a poor white family. Warren sends his wife Julie Ann (Jane Fonda) to persuade the black family to sell up, believing that her childhood relationship with the mother of the clan, Rose Scott (Beah Richards), will count for a lot. But the plan backfires, and Rose is so stressed at the threat of losing her family home that she suffers a fatal heart attack. Her son Reeve (Robert Hooks) takes control of the family land and also refuses to sell, resulting in a long and bitter court battle which ultimately goes in favour of the black family. Later, Warren focuses his attention on the other piece of land, owned by his cousin Rad McDowell (John Philip Law). Rad is equally unwilling to sell up, so Warren resorts to desperate measures in order to force them off the land. His plan is to sabotage a nearby dam, thus flooding and destroying the homes of those who won't sell. But his despicable scheme results in a tragic accident, and out of the ruin the families that Warren hoped to intimidate emerge even stronger and more determined than ever to stand firm against him.
Preminger is light years away from the form of his masterpieces - Laura (1944) and Anatomy Of A Murder (1959) - with this piece of overlong trash. His approach to the characters is so patronising and vulgar that one can only look on in disbelief. Even more extraordinary is the fact that some exceptional actors agreed to play these preposterous characters. What was Burgess Meredith thinking when he signed up to portray the bigoted Judge Purcell? How could George Kennedy go from an Oscar-winning performance in Cool Hand Luke and a box-office gem like The Dirty Dozen, and then choose this for his next project? And what on earth possessed Michael Caine to think he could pull off a Southern accent as the conniving land prospector? At nearly two-and-a-half hours, this isn't even brief junk it actually requires a good bit of your time to sit through, and few will be charitable enough to give it the time or attention that it requires. Just about the only positive that can be said of the film is that it is handsomely photographed, but that counts for little when the story and events on screen are so staggeringly awful. In various biographies and interviews, Caine has always stated that the worst film he ever made was Ashanti: Land Of No Mercy . but once you've experienced Hurry Sundown, you might just be ready to disagree with him!