Murphy's Romance
Encyclopedia
Murphy's Romance is a 1985 romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...

 adapted by Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch from a story by Max Schott
Max Schott
Max Schott is a writer of stories and essays. He was raised in Southern California. He received his Bachelor's in Animal Husbandry from University of California, Davis and his Master's in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara...

 and directed by Martin Ritt
Martin Ritt
Martin Ritt was an American director, actor, and playwright who worked in both film and theater. He was born in New York City.-Early career and influences:...

. The film stars Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...

 (also executive producer), James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...

, Brian Kerwin
Brian Kerwin
Brian Kerwin is an American actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kerwin won the Theatre World Award in 1988 for the off-Broadway play Emily. His Broadway theatre credits include the 1997 revival of The Little Foxes and the Elaine May comedy After the Night and the Music in 2005...

, and Corey Haim
Corey Haim
Corey Ian Haim was a Canadian actor, known for a 1980s Hollywood career as a teen idol. He starred in a number of films such as Lucas, Silver Bullet, Murphy's Romance, License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream...

.

The film's theme song, "Love for the Last Time," is performed by Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...

.

Plot synopsis

Emma Moriarty (Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...

) is a 33-year-old, divorced mother who moves to a rural Arizona town to make a living by training and boarding horses. She becomes friends with the town's druggist (pharmacist), Murphy Jones (James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...

), but a romance between them seems unlikely due to Murphy's age and because Emma allows her ex-husband, Bobby Jack Moriarty (Brian Kerwin
Brian Kerwin
Brian Kerwin is an American actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kerwin won the Theatre World Award in 1988 for the off-Broadway play Emily. His Broadway theatre credits include the 1997 revival of The Little Foxes and the Elaine May comedy After the Night and the Music in 2005...

), to move back in with her and their 12-year-old son, Jake (Corey Haim
Corey Haim
Corey Ian Haim was a Canadian actor, known for a 1980s Hollywood career as a teen idol. He starred in a number of films such as Lucas, Silver Bullet, Murphy's Romance, License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream...

).

Emma struggles to make ends meet, but is helped by Murphy, who (while refusing to help her outright with a financial loan) buys a horse and boards it with her and encourages others to do the same, and provides much-needed emotional support for both her and Jake. A rivalry begins to develop between Murphy and her ex-husband, until one day another woman shows up with Bobby Jack's twin baby boys. As her ex leaves town, Emma asks Murphy for advice on what to do with her life. It is then that Murphy reveals to her two things of importance: his true feelings and his age.
Murphy admits that he is in love for the last time in his life, while Emma says that she is in love for the first time.

Cast

  • Sally Field
    Sally Field
    Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...

     as Emma Moriarty
  • James Garner
    James Garner
    James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...

     as Murphy Jones
  • Brian Kerwin
    Brian Kerwin
    Brian Kerwin is an American actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kerwin won the Theatre World Award in 1988 for the off-Broadway play Emily. His Broadway theatre credits include the 1997 revival of The Little Foxes and the Elaine May comedy After the Night and the Music in 2005...

     as Bobby Jack Moriarty
  • Corey Haim
    Corey Haim
    Corey Ian Haim was a Canadian actor, known for a 1980s Hollywood career as a teen idol. He starred in a number of films such as Lucas, Silver Bullet, Murphy's Romance, License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream...

     as Jake Moriarty
  • Dennis Burkley
    Dennis Burkley
    Dennis Henry Burkley is an American character actor from Texas who has appeared in numerous films and television series since the 1970s.-Early life:...

     as Freeman Coverly
  • Georgann Johnson as Margaret
  • Dortha Duckworth as Bessie
  • Michael Prokopuk as Albert
  • Billy Ray Sharkey as Larry Le Beau
  • Michael Crabtree as Jim Forrest
  • Anna Levine
    Anna Levine
    Anna Kluger Levine is an American actress. She has also been credited as Anna Levine Thompson and Anna Thomson.-Filmography:* Desperately Seeking Susan as Crystal* Murphy's Romance as Wanda...

     as Wanda
  • Charles Lane
    Charles Lane (actor)
    Charles Gerstle Levison , better known as Charles Lane, was an American character actor seen in many movies and TV shows, and at the time of his death may have been the oldest living professional American actor. Lane appeared in many Frank Capra films, including You Can't Take It With You , Mr...

     as Amos Abbott
  • Bruce French
    Bruce French (actor)
    Bruce French is an American actor who has more than 30 years of acting credits to his name.French attended the University of Iowa and majored in speech and theatre...

     as Rex Boyd
  • John C. Becher
    John C. Becher
    John C. Becher was an American stage and television actor. He made his professional debut in 1946 at the McCarter Theatre.- Biography :...

     as Jesse Parker
  • Henry Slate as Fred Hite

Production

Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...

 and director Martin Ritt
Martin Ritt
Martin Ritt was an American director, actor, and playwright who worked in both film and theater. He was born in New York City.-Early career and influences:...

 had to fight Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 in order to cast Garner, who was viewed at that point as primarily a television actor despite having enjoyed a flourishing film career in the 1960s (and more recently having co-starred in the box office hit Victor/Victoria opposite Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...

 two years earlier).

Columbia didn't want to make the picture at all, because it had no "sex or violence" in it. But because of the success of Norma Rae
Norma Rae
Norma Rae is a 1979 American drama film that tells the story of a factory worker from a small town in North Carolina, who becomes involved in the labor union activities at the textile factory where she works...

(1979), with the same star (Field), director, and screenplay writing team (Harriet Frank, Jr. and Irving Ravetch), and with Field's new production company (Fogwood Films) producing, Columbia agreed. But, Columbia then wanted Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

, or someone with "greater box-office allure," to play the part of Murphy, so Field and Ritt had to insist on Garner.

When Ritt gave the Max Schott story to Harriet Frank, Jr. and Irving Ravetch, the same married screenplay team that also worked on Hud
Hud (film)
Hud is a 1963 western film whose title character is an embittered and selfish modern-day cowboy. With screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr., based on Larry McMurtry's 1961 novel Horseman, Pass By, it was directed by Martin Ritt and stars Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal and...

(1963) with Ritt and Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...

, they wanted Newman to be in Murphy's Romance. Field had worked very successfully with Newman in 1981's Absence of Malice
Absence of Malice
Absence of Malice is a 1981 American drama film starring Paul Newman, Sally Field, and Bob Balaban, directed by Sydney Pollack.-Plot:Miami liquor wholesaler Michael Gallagher is the son of a deceased criminal who awakes one day to find himself a front-page story in the local newspaper, indicating...

, but Newman declined the project and Garner was the only other actor that Ritt and Field asked.

Part of the deal from the studio, which at that time was owned by The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...

, included an eight line sequence of Field and Garner saying the word "Coke," and also having Coke signs appear prominently in the film.

On the A&E television program Biography
Biography (TV series)
Biography is a documentary television series. It was originally a half-hour filmed series produced for CBS by David Wolper from 1961 to 1964 and hosted by Mike Wallace. The A&E Network later re-ran it and has produced new episodes since 1987...

 of Garner, "James Garner: Hollywood Maverick," Field reported that her on-screen kiss with Garner was the best cinematic kiss she had ever experienced.

Filming took place on location in Florence, Arizona
Florence, Arizona
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 17,054 people, 2,226 households, and 1,540 families residing in the town. The population density was 2,056.2 people per square mile . There were 3,216 housing units at an average density of 387.7 per square mile...

 and the town's preserved Main Street appears throughout the movie.

The film was originally scheduled for general release during the 1985 Christmas Day weekend, but Columbia moved it, to the weekends of January 17 and January 31, 1986, when they saw the holiday lineup of films. They did a limited, selected, release December 25, 1985.

Reception

Reviews were generally favorable. Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

 gave the film 3 stars (out of 4) stating "Much depends on exactly what Emma and Murphy say to each other, and how they say it, and what they don't say. The movie gets it all right." The film holds an 86% on the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.

Divergence from the novella

The screenplay is very different from the Max Schott
Max Schott
Max Schott is a writer of stories and essays. He was raised in Southern California. He received his Bachelor's in Animal Husbandry from University of California, Davis and his Master's in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara...

 novella. In the Schott story, Murphy and Emma stay just platonic friends. Murphy marries someone else, and then tries to find Emma a suitable husband.

Awards

Murphy's Romance received Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

 nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

, (James Garner), in addition to Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...

.

External links

  • James Garner interview on the Charlie Rose Show
  • James Garner interview at the Archive of American Television
    Archive of American Television
    The Archive of American Television is a division of the non-profit Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation that films interviews with notable people from all aspects of the television industry....

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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