Source:Stan Gunn– Kim Novak and William Holden in Picnic.
“William Holden & Kim Novak dance, from the movie “Picnic.”
I love this scene from the movie “Picnic” from director Josh Logan, released in 1955, based on the play by William Inge.
I’ve always identified, for whatever reason, with the character Hal Carter that Holden played in this film.
So many great lines in “Picnic.”
“You don’t love someone because they’re perfect, Mom.” Who hasn’t thought that at one time or another in their lives?
William Holden and Kim Novak were great in this, even though Holden thought he was too old to play the part of Hal. I heard he had to drink quite a bit to get up the nerve to do the “Moonglow” dancing scene in this clip.
So memorable. So perfect.
This clip appears courtesy of BFM Digital and IODA. The movie “Picnic” is owned and licensed by BFM Digital and IODA.”
From Stan Gunn
“I used to have favorite movies when I was a kid. When you haven’t lived that long, and haven’t therefore seen many films, it’s not that hard to choose favorites. When I was ten, my three favorite movies were John Wayne’s ‘The Alamo,’ ‘The Three Hundred Spartans,’ and ‘The Journey to the Center of the Earth’ with James Mason and Pat Boone. Later in life, when you have a goodly number of movies under your belt, say in your twenties, you stop having a top three or top five and start categorizing: five best westerns, my top three monster movies, and so on.”
Source:The Wheezer Society– Kim Novak and William Holden.
From The Wheezer Society
Bill Holden, because he was funny and Kim Novak because she’s so sexy, gorgeous and baby-face adorable, were all the reasons I needed to watch this movie.
This movie and scene reminds me a little of the movie Dirty Dancing with Patrick Swayze and Linda Gray, where the Jennifer Gray character’s family especially her father (played by the great Jerry Orbach) didn’t want his daughter involved at all with the Swayze character. And yet the young couple dances beautifully together in that great scene at the end of the movie where the Time of My Life video is shot. Which is a great song, by the way.
Picnic, is not a great movie and certainly not one of my favorite movies, but there’s a lot to like about the movie. And I think the best thing about this movie is how real, innocent and honest it is. You have this upper-middle class young woman in Kim Novak who seems to have it all going for her in life. And yet she’s not happy who meets the drifter (played by Bill Holden) who seems to be just passing through. He simply loves living and being alive and being free and not worried about pleasing anyone, or thinking he has to be anyone other than himself. And they meet each other in this small town.
The Daily Press 