Death of a Salesman (1951 film)
Encyclopedia
Death of a Salesman is a 1951 film adapted from the play of the same name
by Arthur Miller
. It was directed by László Benedek
and written for the screen by Stanley Roberts
. It received numerous nominations for awards, and won several of them, including four Golden Globe Award
s and the Volpi Cup
. Alex North
, the man who had written the music for the Broadway version of the play, composed the score for the film, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his music.
cast, with the addition of Kevin McCarthy from the original London Cast. However, Fredric March replaced Broadway actor Lee J. Cobb
after concerns with Cobb's alleged past left-wing political associations arose.
Miller saw Career of a Salesman as an attack upon his work, proclaiming "Why the hell did you make the picture if you're so ashamed of it? Why should anybody not get up and walk out of the theatre if Death of a Salesman is so outmoded and pointless?" He argued against the portrayal of the salesman profession as "a wonderful profession, that people thrived on it, and there were no problems at all". Eventually, the very attitude that led Columbia to commission the intro led to the failure of Death of a Salesman: people and businessmen in a 1950s
political climate tried to distance themselves from a film depicting American failure in the 1950s.
, did not appeal to many of the era's moviegoers. Miller himself denounced the adaptation of his play, claiming the actors all sounded like "Willy Loman with a diploma, fat with their success". He also claimed that, though he wrote the play cinematically, Benedek managed to "chop off almost every climax of the play as though with a lawnmower" and portray Loman as a lunatic, rather than a victim.
As of September 2011, the film has never been commercially released in any home-viewing format.
s
1952 Venice Film Festival
New York Times Critics' Pick
1952 Directors Guild of America Awards
1952 British Academy Film Awards
1952 Venice Film Festival
1952 Writers Guild of America Award
Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. It was the recipient of the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. Premiered at the Morosco Theatre in February 1949, the original production ran for a total of 742 performances.-Plot :Willy Loman...
by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
. It was directed by László Benedek
László Benedek
László Benedek, sometimes credited as Laslo Benedek , was a Hungarian-born film director.- Biography :Born in Budapest, he worked as a writer and editor in Hungarian cinema until World War II. Louis B...
and written for the screen by Stanley Roberts
Stanley Roberts
Stanley Corvet Roberts is a retired American professional basketball player, in the center position.-High school and college:...
. It received numerous nominations for awards, and won several of them, including four Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
s and the Volpi Cup
Volpi Cup
The Volpi Cups are the principal awards given to actors at the Venice Film Festival. Formal acting awards were introduced in the second festival . Initially they were called Great Gold Medals of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment. The name Volpi Cup was introduced the following year...
. Alex North
Alex North
Alex North was an American composer who wrote the first jazz-based film score and one of the first modernist scores written in Hollywood ....
, the man who had written the music for the Broadway version of the play, composed the score for the film, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his music.
Plot
Willy Loman has led a life consisting of sixty years of failure. Loman's wife supports him, but he soon begins to lose his grip on reality and slips between the past and the present, frantically trying to find where he went wrong.Cast
The cast consisted mainly of the BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
cast, with the addition of Kevin McCarthy from the original London Cast. However, Fredric March replaced Broadway actor Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb was an American actor. He is best known for his performance in 12 Angry Men his Academy Award-nominated performance in On the Waterfront and one of his last films, The Exorcist...
after concerns with Cobb's alleged past left-wing political associations arose.
| Actor/Actress | Role |
|---|---|
| Fredric March Fredric March Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr... |
Willy Loman |
| Mildred Dunnock Mildred Dunnock Mildred Dunnock was an American theater, film and television actress.- Early life :Born in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from Western Senior High School, Dunnock was a school teacher who did not start acting until she was in her early thirties... |
Linda Loman |
| Kevin McCarthy Kevin McCarthy (actor) Kevin McCarthy was an American stage, film, and television actor, who appeared in over two hundred television and film roles. For his role in the 1951 film version of Death of a Salesman, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won a Golden Globe Award for New Star of... |
Biff Loman |
| Cameron Mitchell Cameron Mitchell (actor) Cameron Mitchell was an American film, television and Broadway actor with close ties to one of Canada's most successful families, and considered, by Lee Strasberg, to be one of the founding members of The Actor's Studio in New York City.-Early life and career:Born Cameron MacDowell Mitzel in... |
Happy Loman |
| Howard Smith Howard Smith (actor) Howard Smith was an American actor. An imposing presence in films of the late '40s, as well as early television shows such as The Aldrich Family , New York stage actor Howard I. Smith actually made his screen debut as far back as 1918, in Young America... |
Charley |
| Royal Beal | Ben |
| Don Keefer Don Keefer Donald "Don" H. Keefer is a retired American actor known for the versatility of his roles. He was born in Highspire in Dauphin County near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Keefer's first role was as Bernard in the 1951 film, Death of a Salesman, based on the Arthur Miller play... |
Bernard |
| Jesse White Jesse White (actor) Jesse White was an American television, film, and stage character actor. He is best remembered for portraying the Maytag repairman in television commercials, a role he played from 1967 to 1988.-Life and career:... |
Stanley |
| Claire Carleton | Miss Francis |
| David Alpert | Howard Wagner |
Career of a Salesman
Just before the film was about to come out, Arthur Miller threatened to sue Columbia Studios over the short which was to appear before Death of a Salesman. This short film, Career of a Salesman, showed what the producers believed was a more typical American salesman, and was an attempt to defuse possible accusations that the Death of a Salesman was an anti-American film. Eventually, Columbia agreed to remove the ten minute intro from the main film's beginning.Miller saw Career of a Salesman as an attack upon his work, proclaiming "Why the hell did you make the picture if you're so ashamed of it? Why should anybody not get up and walk out of the theatre if Death of a Salesman is so outmoded and pointless?" He argued against the portrayal of the salesman profession as "a wonderful profession, that people thrived on it, and there were no problems at all". Eventually, the very attitude that led Columbia to commission the intro led to the failure of Death of a Salesman: people and businessmen in a 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
political climate tried to distance themselves from a film depicting American failure in the 1950s.
Production
Benedek took great care in making the film a close transcription of the play. In many places, the film uses Miller's lines verbatim, sometimes leaving out only small lines of dialogue. However, the playwright claimed the movie was ruined by the truncation of key scenes. In fact, the playwright had no involvement with or control over the movie. Benedek also stressed the dreary, middle class setting of the film, using small rooms and gray shots. The movie was filmed primarily in Brooklyn.Reception
Though the film won over many film critics and received nominations for many awards, it was a box office failure. The subject matter, the failure of the American dreamAmerican Dream
The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each...
, did not appeal to many of the era's moviegoers. Miller himself denounced the adaptation of his play, claiming the actors all sounded like "Willy Loman with a diploma, fat with their success". He also claimed that, though he wrote the play cinematically, Benedek managed to "chop off almost every climax of the play as though with a lawnmower" and portray Loman as a lunatic, rather than a victim.
As of September 2011, the film has never been commercially released in any home-viewing format.
Awards
1952 Golden Globe AwardGolden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
s
- Best Cinematography - Black and White
- Best Director - László Benedek
- Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama - Fredric MarchFredric MarchFredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...
- New Star of the Year - Actor - Kevin McCarthyKevin McCarthy (actor)Kevin McCarthy was an American stage, film, and television actor, who appeared in over two hundred television and film roles. For his role in the 1951 film version of Death of a Salesman, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won a Golden Globe Award for New Star of...
1952 Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
- Volpi CupVolpi CupThe Volpi Cups are the principal awards given to actors at the Venice Film Festival. Formal acting awards were introduced in the second festival . Initially they were called Great Gold Medals of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment. The name Volpi Cup was introduced the following year...
- Fredric MarchFredric MarchFredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...
New York Times Critics' Pick
- Top 1,000
Nominations
1952 Academy Awards- Best Actor in a Leading RoleAcademy Award for Best ActorPerformance 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...
- Fredric March - Best Actor in a Supporting RoleAcademy Award for Best Supporting ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Supporting 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. Since its inception, however, the...
- Kevin McCarthy - Best Actress in a Supporting RoleAcademy Award for Best Supporting ActressPerformance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
- Mildred DunnockMildred DunnockMildred Dunnock was an American theater, film and television actress.- Early life :Born in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from Western Senior High School, Dunnock was a school teacher who did not start acting until she was in her early thirties... - Best Cinematography - Black and WhiteAcademy Award for Best CinematographyThe Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
- Franz PlanerFranz PlanerFranz Planer, A.S.C. was a cinematographer born in Karlsbad, Austria-Hungary ,-Biography:... - Best Score - Adaptation or Treatment - Alex NorthAlex NorthAlex North was an American composer who wrote the first jazz-based film score and one of the first modernist scores written in Hollywood ....
1952 Directors Guild of America Awards
- Award for Outstanding Directing - Feature FilmDirectors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing - Feature FilmDirectors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures is one of the annual awards given by Directors Guild of America.-1940s:* 1948: Joseph L...
1952 British Academy Film Awards
6th British Academy Film Awards
The Sound Barrier won the award for Best Film.-Best Film: The Sound Barrier*The African Queen*Angels One Five*The Boy Kumasenu*Carrie*Casque d'or*Cry, The Beloved Country*Death of a Salesman*Limelight...
- BAFTA Award for Best Foreign FilmBAFTA Award for Best FilmThis page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language and Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for each year, in addition to the retired earlier versions of those awards...
- Best Foreign Actor - Fredric March
1952 Venice Film Festival
- Golden LionGolden LionIl Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
1952 Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
- Best Written American Drama
- Robert Meltzer Award