The Arrangement (1969)
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17% of critics liked it
(6 reviews) -
64% of users liked it
(507 ratings)
Kirk Douglas has an extreme case of mid-life crisis in Elia Kazan's turgid melodrama (adapted from his best-selling novel). Douglas plays successful advertising executive Eddie Anderson, who cracks under the strain of the morning rush hour in Los Angeles and plows his sports car into a truck.… More Kirk Douglas has an extreme case of mid-life crisis in Elia Kazan's turgid melodrama (adapted from his best-selling novel). Douglas plays successful advertising executive Eddie Anderson, who cracks under the strain of the morning rush hour in Los Angeles and plows his sports car into a truck. Landing in a convalescent home, Eddie remains mute to everyone except his boss Finnegan (Charles Drake). In his recovery room, Eddie dreams about co-worker Gwen (Faye Dunaway), a sexy research assistant at his agency. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist Dr. Liebman (Harold Gould) talks to Eddie's wife, Florence (Deborah Kerr), who reveals that at one time Eddie and Gwen had an affair, but they broke it off. Unfortunately, after that escapade, Eddie's interest in sex vanished completely. Then after the interview with Dr. Liebman, following a terrible nightmare, Eddie breaks out of his self-imposed silence and declares to Florence that he is tired of his unfulfilling life of "arrangements." Eddie returns to work, but the return is marked by Eddie insulting a major client, alienating his co-workers, and then taking off in a private plane in which he flies madly over the skies of L.A. His lawyer Arthur (Hume Cronyn) keeps Eddie from being thrown in jail and also talks Eddie into giving Florence the power of attorney. Eddie proceeds to travel to New York, where he runs into Gwen, who now has a child. Eddie is in New York to visit his senile father, Sam (Richard Boone), but when his family attempts to put Sam in a nursing home, Eddie takes him away with him to their old family estate on Long Island. Eddie calls up Gwen, and she travels to Long Island to resume their affair. Meanwhile, Eddie's loved ones search for Sam, and they are closing in on Eddie's Long Island sanctuary. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Directed By
- Elia Kazan
- Written By
- Elia Kazan
- Genres
- Drama, Classics
- In Theaters
- Nov 18, 1969 Wide
- Studio
- Warner Home Video
Critic Reviews
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Vincent Canby, New York Times
Kazan seems to have turned his search for identity into a callous soap opera, unworthy of a man of Kazan's true talent.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
The movie finally pounds at our moral sense so much that our moral sense wearies and becomes defensive, and we are finally just grateful for Faye Dunaway's beauty, and the way she doesn't raise her voice.
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, TV Guide's Movie Guide
A real shame.
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Lori Hoffman, Atlantic City Weekly
Very minor Kazan
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Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
What anchors the film in place are the performances of Douglas, Deborah Kerr as his wife and most especially a positively glowing Faye Dunaway.
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Cast
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Kirk Douglas
as Eddie Anderson
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Faye Dunaway
as Gwen
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Deborah Kerr
as Florence Anderson
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Richard Boone
as Sam Anderson
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Hume Cronyn
as Arthur
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Michael Higgins
as Michael
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John Randolph Jones
as Charles
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Carol Eve Rossen
as Gloria
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Anne Hegira
as Thomna
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William Hansen
as Dr. Weeks
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Charles Drake
as Finnegan
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Harold Gould
as Dr. Liebman
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E.J. Andre
as Uncle Joe
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Michael Murphy
as Father Draddy
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Diane Hull
as Ellen
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Philip Bourneuf
as Judge Morris
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Ann Doran
as Nurse Costello
- Marilyn Jess
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Chet Stratton
as Charlie
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Barry Sullivan
as Chet Collier
- Elia Kazan
- Maureen McCormick


