Otto Preminger’s film about a heartless southern real estate developer (Michael Caine) trying to evict two poor families – one white, one black – was the first to be shot in the south with African-American leads. With a screenplay by Horton Foote, based on the best-selling novel by K. B. Gilden, this film also features performances by Faye Dunaway (the same year as her breakthrough performance in Bonnie and Clyde) and Jane Fonda, playing the developer’s wife. During location production in Louisiana, the film’s crew endured threats from the KKK and some vandalism, but state troopers prevented any further confrontations.
In pre-production for Hurry Sundown, Michael Caine met Vivien Leigh and asked her how she, a fellow English citizen, had managed to do a convincing southern accent for Gone With the Wind (1939). She told him to practice saying Four door Ford’ all day long.’
production details
USA | Paramount | 146 minutes | 1967
Producer and Director: Otto Preminger
Director of Photography: Loyal Griggs, Milton Krasner
Editors: Louis R. Loeffler, James D. Wells
Music: Hugo Montenegro
Script: Horton Foote, Thomas C. Ryan
Art Direction: Gene Callahan
cast
Jane Fonda as Julie Ann Warren
George Kennedy as Sheriff Coombs
Michael Caine as Henry Warren
Faye Dunaway as Lou McDowell
Robert Reed as Lars Finchley
Beah Richards as Rose Scott
Loring Smith as Thomas Elwell
John Phillip Law as Rad McDowell
Diahann Carroll as Vivian Thurlow
Robert Hooks as Reeve Scott
Burgess Meredith as Judge Purcell
Luke Askew as Dolph Higginson
Doro Merande as Ada Hemmings
Madeleine Sherwood as Eula Purcell
Jim Backus as Carter Sillens
Frank Converse as Rev. De Lavery
Donna Danton as Sukie Purcell
Steve Sanders as Charles McDowell
Robert C. Bloodwell as Ozzie
William Elder as Bishop
John Mark as Colie Warren
Dawn Barcelona as Ruby McDowell
Rex Ingram as Prof. Thurlow