Our mini William Holden Centennial celebration continues with Eric Blume...
Picnic, the 1955 film version of William Inge’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, came two years after William Holden won his Best Actor Oscar for Stalag 17 and one year after his dashing role in Sabrina. Holden was at the height of his stardom when this film released, and he’s smartly front and center through most of the picture...
Pulitzer aside, William Inge has never been held in as high regard as his contemporaries like Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, or Eugene O’Neill…and sixty years later, his writing creaks pretty painfully. The plot of Picnic, about a man named Hal Carter (Holden) who just wants to make a good life for himself, and the smalltown beauty he romances(Kim Novak) doesn’t have the elevated language of those three men, the ever resonant themes, nor the dramatic thrust and power. To say the movie hasn’t aged well is an understatement It’s paced in a turtle-like crawl, but to director Joshua Logan’s credit, there’s no hurry to crawl towards anything in particular. The characters are stock types, and they don’t feel like “real people” to us nowadays. As such it's a true time-capsule where idealized folks live only in the minds of Hollywood studio executives with their eyes on a “wholesome” audience… which is antithetical to what the piece is actually about.
The acting is a bit all over the place as well, with some of the actors still performing in studio style, and some playing to the rafters as if they’re doing the play. ...And then there’s William Holden.
Holden truly had screen magnetism: he's always connected to the camera, and he feels sweetly effortless in everything. He definitely understood when to stylize his Leading Man qualities but he also gives his character an interior life and keeps scenes simple and honest. In Picnic he has to play some second-rate “I could have been a contender” moments, but he rises above the clichés for the most part and calibrates his character's journey well. You always feel his self-doubt, and when the characters push him down, Holden plays it as if he deserved it. You see his secret thoughts and believe his urge for self-destruction. And it goes without saying that Picnic features Holden’s sexiest role: he spends a fair amount of the movie shirtless and/or sweaty, and that confident swagger still works over half a century later.
Picnic had an effective 2013 Broadway revival that featured Sebastian Stan in the Holden role, with support from Ellen Burstyn, Mare Winningham, and Elizabeth Marvel. The production worked well because they forcefully focused on the themes of wealth, youth, and beauty. When Stan had his shirt off, it sent everyone on stage into some stage of wetness, and his physical exposure had purposeful heat and threat. The creative team found a new way into the play that felt right for contemporary values and what we (sadly) hold dear. The film, wrapped in 1950s censorship and limitation, wasn’t able to bring out a punch to Inge’s themes. You want to feel these characters barreling towards oblivion in a world that values superficial qualities and denies people a second chance or new salvation. And Logan’s Picnic can’t get there.
But the film remains a stunning showcase for Holden. There’s no denying the whammy of his sex appeal and manly vulnerability. He’s nearly the whole show, and a sight to behold.