Its been a long summer day lyrics trial#

Newman, who was under a contract with Warner Brothers, was loaned to 20th Century Fox for a fee of US$75,000. Newman met director Martin Ritt as a student at the Actors Studio, where Ritt was a teacher-assistant for Elia Kazan. Ben tells her he is leaving town, but Clara makes it clear she has fallen in love with him. Will defuses the situation by telling the lynch mob he accidentally started the fire.īen confesses to Clara that his father was a barn-burner, committing arson when offended, and that he has been falsely dogged by such accusations because of his father. Will is touched by Jody's change of heart and calls him his 'strong right arm.' A Men from town assume Ben is the culprit and intend to lynch him, but Clara rescues him from the mob and drives him back to the plantation. Jody bolts the entrance and sets the barn on fire, but he cannot go through with it and releases Will. A defeated Jody finds his father alone in their barn. Misinterpreting what Clara tells him, Will goes to congratulate Alan and his mother on the impending marriage, and is infuriated when he learns the truth. She finally asks Alan what his intentions are, and he replies that he only wants to 'help' her. Jody is shattered.īen aggressively pursues Clara. After examining a coin, Will notices that it was minted in 1910. Late that night, Will finds his son, still digging. He is elated, thinking he might finally be able to escape his father's domination he buys the land from Ben. Jody starts digging and finds a bag of coins. Ben talks his way out by telling Jody about buried Civil War-era treasure he has supposedly found on a property that Will gave him, a down payment to seal their bargain over Clara. Jody pulls a gun on Ben and threatens to kill him. Will even invites him to live in the family mansion. After Ben sells some worthless wild horses for Will, he is rewarded with the job of clerk in Will's general store, alongside Jody. Jody becomes increasingly frustrated, seeing his position being undermined, and his marriage falters. Meanwhile, Minnie Littlejohn, Will's longtime mistress, is dissatisfied with their arrangement and wants to get married. Will is determined to have his bloodline go on, so he offers to make Ben wealthy if he marries Clara. However, she is openly hostile to the crude upstart. Will therefore schemes to push his daughter and Ben together. Will is also disappointed that his 23-year-old daughter, Clara, has not married the man she has been seeing for five or six years: Alan Stewart, a genteel Southern 'blue blood' and a mama's boy. When Will returns from a stay in the hospital, he is furious at Jody for hiring a notorious 'barn burner', but soon begins to see in Ben a younger version of himself and comes to admire his ruthlessness and ambition, qualities that Jody lacks. Will is away, but his only son, Eula's husband Jody, agrees to let Ben become a sharecropper on a vacant farm. Clara's father, Will Varner, is the domineering owner of most of the town. Ben hitches a ride to Frenchman's Bend, Mississippi, with two young women in a convertible, Clara Varner and her sister-in-law Eula.

Its been a long summer day lyrics trial#

On the left is Agnes.īen Quick is on trial for barn-burning, but since there is no evidence the judge just orders him to leave town. Newman won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Its critical success revitalized Ritt's career, after his having been blacklisted during most of the 1950s. The film was well received by critics but did not score significant results at the box office. The music score was composed by Alex North and the title song, 'The Long Hot Summer', written by North and Sammy Cahn, was performed by Jimmie Rodgers.

The production was marked by conflicts between Welles and Ritt, which drew media attention. Will tries to push Ben and his daughter Clara (Woodward) into marriage.įilmed in Clinton, Louisiana, the cast was composed mostly of former Actors Studio students, whom Ritt met while he was an assistant teacher to Elia Kazan. Will Varner (Welles), the patriarch, has doubts about his son, Jody (Franciosa) and sees Ben as a better choice to inherit his position. The plot follows the conflicts of the Varner family after ambitious drifter Ben Quick (Newman) arrives in their small Mississippi town. Some characters, as well as tone, were inspired by Tennessee Williams' 1955 play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a film adaptation of which – also starring Newman – was released five months later. The title is taken from The Hamlet, as Book Three is called 'The Long Summer'.

It was directed by Martin Ritt, with a screenplay by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., based in part on three works by William Faulkner: the 1931 novella ' Spotted Horses', the 1939 short story ' Barn Burning' and the 1940 novel The Hamlet. The Long, Hot Summer is a 1958 American drama film starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, and Orson Welles.