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Picnic Overview:

Picnic (1955) was a Drama - Romance Film directed by Joshua Logan and produced by Fred Kohlmar.

Academy Awards 1955 --- Ceremony Number 28 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Supporting ActorArthur O'ConnellNominated
Best Art DirectionArt Direction: William Flannery, Jo Mielziner; Set Decoration: Robert PriestleyWon
Best DirectorJoshua LoganNominated
Best Film EditingCharles Nelson, William A. LyonWon
Best Music - ScoringGeorge DuningNominated
Best PictureFred Kohlmar, ProducerNominated
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Picnic BlogHub Articles:

Picnic and Written on the Wind

By Rick29 on Aug 12, 2024 From Classic Film & TV Cafe

Kim Novak and William Holden.Picnic (1955). Joshua Logan, who directed the stage version William Inge's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, also directed this screen adaptation. Set in a small Kansas town, the story revolves around Hal Carter (William Holden), a charming drifter who arrives in town seeking... Read full article

William Holden romances Kim Novak in “Picnic”

By Stephen Reginald on Sep 12, 2023 From Classic Movie Man

William Holden romances Kim Novak in “Picnic” Picnic (1955) is an American drama film directed by Joshua Logan and starring William Holden, Kim Novak, and Rosalind Russell. The film is based on the Broadway play of the same name by William Inge. The movie features Susan Strasberg, C... Read full article

“Ain’t she sweet?” Kim Novak in Picnic (Joshua Logan, 1955)

By Virginie Pronovost on Feb 27, 2022 From The Wonderful World of Cinema

We sometimes forget that Kim Novak is one of those classic actresses still with us today. I’m not sure why that is, except maybe that she’s not so much in the public eye anymore. Et pourtant… She was pretty much an icon of her time, maybe not like Marilyn Monroe or Grace Kelly were... Read full article

COMEDY GOLD #18: The picnic from To Catch a Thief (1955)

By Carol Martinheira on Aug 16, 2019 From The Old Hollywood Garden

COMEDY GOLD #18: The picnic from To Catch a Thief (1955) On August 16, 2019August 16, 2019 By CarolIn Uncategorized To Catch a Thief (1955, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) boasts not only two of the most beautiful people who have ever lived as its leads, but also some of the mo... Read full article

Picnic (1956, Joshua Logan)

By Andrew Wickliffe on Jun 4, 2019 From The Stop Button

Picnic is all about sex. It can never talk about being all about sex because it’s from 1956 and it’s set in small-town Kansas anyway and no one in small-town Kansas was going to be talking about sex. Not when schoolteachers like Rosalind Russell are trying to ban books for even hinting at sex. B... Read full article

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Picnic Quotes:

Howard Bevans: You went for that Owens girl, didn't you?
Rosemary Sidney: Look at that sunset, Howard!
Howard Bevans: A sunset's a beautiful thing, all right.
Rosemary Sidney: It's like the daytime didn't want to end, isn't it? It's like the daytime was gonna put up a big scrap, set the world on fire to keep the night from creeping on.
Rosemary Sidney: [Giddily to her schoolteacher friends just prior to eloping] So long, girls! You know what you can tell the principal for me!
Hal Carter: I gotta get somewhere in this world. I just gotta.
Howard Bevans: [to Rosemary] If a woman's going to ask me to marry her, the least she could do is say "Please."
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Picnic Facts
William Holden had to shave his chest for this role, so that he appeared much younger than his true 37 years.
Filming began in Salina, Kansas, May 16, 1955. Night-time crowds watched along the Smoky Hill River near an old mill dam as William Holden whipped a "borrowed" convertible with Kim Novak in the passenger seat to a stop along the river. Director Logan, a perfectionist, filmed the scene over and over. A number of spectatoring small boys often got in the way of the filming. A production member was designated assistant-in-charge-of-chasing-small-boys-out-of-camera-range. Other scenes filmed were Holden being chased by police around the mill and between railroad box cars. Suddenly, the loud-speaker blared: "There's a small boy underneath the box car! Get him out of there!" When the big Holden/Novak love scene was filmed, most of the crowd had gone home. "Those who stayed said it was a dilly of a romance." Filming wrapped shortly after five in the morning. By week's end, filming moved to Hutchinson.
Columbia Pictures wanted to promote Rosalind Russell for an Academy Award nomination, but the actress refused to be placed in the best supporting category. Many felt she would have won had she only cooperated.
Shirley Knight's film debut.
Finnish censorship certificate # 044220.
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