Tall Story
Encyclopedia
Tall Story is a 1960
American sports comedy film
directed by Joshua Logan
and starring Anthony Perkins
and Jane Fonda
. Future star Robert Redford
made his big-screen debut as a basketball player.IMDB
The film was the first screen role for Fonda and she portrays a character who is the complete opposite of the independent liberated woman she later personified.
It is based on the 1957 novel "The Homecoming Game" by Howard Nemerov
which was turned into a successful 1959 Broadway play by the distinguished writing team of Howard Lindsay
and Russel Crouse
.
This film was a considerable departure from Logan's previous two, the drama Sayonara
, which won multiple Academy Awards
, and the blockbuster musical South Pacific
.
Tall Story is a farcical
social satire
of American campus life. It satirizes the way college life can become a marriage market for some students.
and to find a husband.
The students and faculty are scandalized by her unashamed pursuit of Blent. She joins the cheerleader troupe and attends all the classes taken by Blent to ensure she has maximum contact with him. Everyone is aware of her designs on the sexually naive Blent except for him. She succeeds in convincing him that she has an intelligent, inquiring mind that he admires, although this is all done through deception.
Ryder eventually gets Blent to fall for her and propose marriage. However, they need several thousand dollars to set up home.
Blent is secretly propositioned, via a radio message, by a gambling syndicate to lose a key game with a visiting Russian team. He refuses to do this but is unable to return the money as he does not know who is behind the bribe.
Rather than deliberately throw a game, he decides to deliberately fail an ethics exam, which automatically disqualifies him from playing. He is the best student in class and the only way he can fail is by copying Ryder's paper. Too late he realizes that his not playing is tantamount to ensuring his team will lose and he has given the gamblers exactly what they want.
Meanwhile, his ethics professor, Leo Sullivan, is coming under extreme student and faculty pressure to reverse the failure and give Blent a passing mark. He refuses to do this on principle.
The film climaxes with the professor giving Blent an oral retest while the game is in progress. Blent passes and plays for the last few minutes, achieving a one-point victory for his school.
The original play has a much more complex and interesting plot, actually bringing the racketeers on stage for several scenes, along with the FBI, who are investigating a series of similar attempts at "fixing" college sports. In that version, the Russian basketball team aren't even mentioned.
, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles
, California
, USA.
Marc Connelly
, who co-stars as a Custer professor, was better known as a Pulitzer Prize
-winning playwright and a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table
. This was his last acting role in a Hollywood film.
Cast member Tom Laughlin
was all but absent from motion-picture screens after this until late in the decade, when he created and starred as the popular film hero Billy Jack
.
1960 in film
The year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.-Events:* April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I...
American sports comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Joshua Logan
Joshua Logan
Joshua Lockwood Logan III was an American stage and film director and writer.-Early years:Logan was born in Texarkana, Texas, the son of Susan and Joshua Lockwood Logan. When he was three years old his father committed suicide...
and starring Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
and Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
. Future star Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
made his big-screen debut as a basketball player.IMDB
The film was the first screen role for Fonda and she portrays a character who is the complete opposite of the independent liberated woman she later personified.
It is based on the 1957 novel "The Homecoming Game" by Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov was an American poet. He was twice appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964, and again from 1988 to 1990. He received the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov...
which was turned into a successful 1959 Broadway play by the distinguished writing team of Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay was an American theatrical producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor. He is best known for his writing work as part of the collaboration of Lindsay and Crouse, and for his performance, with his wife Dorothy Stickney, in the long-running play Life with...
and Russel Crouse
Russel Crouse
Russel Crouse was an American playwright and librettist, best known for his work in the Broadway writing partnership of Lindsay and Crouse.-Life and career:...
.
This film was a considerable departure from Logan's previous two, the drama Sayonara
Sayonara
Sayonara is a 1957 color American film starring Marlon Brando. It tells the story of an American Air Force flier who was an "ace" fighter pilot during the Korean War....
, which won multiple Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
, and the blockbuster musical South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
.
Tall Story is a farcical
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
social satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of American campus life. It satirizes the way college life can become a marriage market for some students.
Plot summary
The story takes place at the fictional Custer University. Ray Blent is an honor student and college basketball star. June Ryder has come to the university to study home economicsHome Economics
Home economics is the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community...
and to find a husband.
The students and faculty are scandalized by her unashamed pursuit of Blent. She joins the cheerleader troupe and attends all the classes taken by Blent to ensure she has maximum contact with him. Everyone is aware of her designs on the sexually naive Blent except for him. She succeeds in convincing him that she has an intelligent, inquiring mind that he admires, although this is all done through deception.
Ryder eventually gets Blent to fall for her and propose marriage. However, they need several thousand dollars to set up home.
Blent is secretly propositioned, via a radio message, by a gambling syndicate to lose a key game with a visiting Russian team. He refuses to do this but is unable to return the money as he does not know who is behind the bribe.
Rather than deliberately throw a game, he decides to deliberately fail an ethics exam, which automatically disqualifies him from playing. He is the best student in class and the only way he can fail is by copying Ryder's paper. Too late he realizes that his not playing is tantamount to ensuring his team will lose and he has given the gamblers exactly what they want.
Meanwhile, his ethics professor, Leo Sullivan, is coming under extreme student and faculty pressure to reverse the failure and give Blent a passing mark. He refuses to do this on principle.
The film climaxes with the professor giving Blent an oral retest while the game is in progress. Blent passes and plays for the last few minutes, achieving a one-point victory for his school.
The original play has a much more complex and interesting plot, actually bringing the racketeers on stage for several scenes, along with the FBI, who are investigating a series of similar attempts at "fixing" college sports. In that version, the Russian basketball team aren't even mentioned.
Production
Campus scenes were filmed at Occidental CollegeOccidental College
Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, USA.
Marc Connelly
Marc Connelly
Marcus Cook Connelly was an American playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist. He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930.-Biography:...
, who co-stars as a Custer professor, was better known as a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning playwright and a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table
Algonquin Round Table
The Algonquin Round Table was a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics, actors and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of "The Vicious Circle", as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until roughly 1929...
. This was his last acting role in a Hollywood film.
Cast member Tom Laughlin
Tom Laughlin
Tom Laughlin is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, educator and political activist. Laughlin is best known for his series of Billy Jack films. He has been married to Delores Taylor since 1954. Taylor has also co-produced and acted in all four of the Billy Jack films...
was all but absent from motion-picture screens after this until late in the decade, when he created and starred as the popular film hero Billy Jack
Billy Jack
Billy Jack is a 1971 action film. It is the second, and highest grossing, in a series of motion pictures centering on a character of the same name, played by Tom Laughlin who also directed and co-wrote the script. Filming began in Prescott, Arizona, in fall 1969, but the movie was not completed...
.
Cast
- Anthony PerkinsAnthony PerkinsAnthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
– Ray Blent - Jane FondaJane FondaJane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
– June Ryder - Ray WalstonRay WalstonRay Walston was an American stage, television and film actor best known as the title character on the 1960s situation comedy My Favorite Martian. In addition, he is also remembered for his roles as Luther Billis in South Pacific , Mr. Applegate in Damn Yankees , J.J...
– Professor Leo Sullivan - Marc ConnellyMarc ConnellyMarcus Cook Connelly was an American playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist. He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930.-Biography:...
– Professor Charles Osman - Anne JacksonAnne JacksonAnne Jackson is an American actress of television, stage, and screen.-Life and career:Jackson, the youngest of three sisters, was born in Millvale, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Stella Germaine and John Ivan Jackson, a barber who ran a beauty parlor...
– Myra Sullivan - Murray HamiltonMurray HamiltonMurray Hamilton was an American stage, screen, and television actor who appeared in such memorable films as The Hustler, The Graduate and Jaws.-Early life:...
– Coach Sandy Hardy - Bob Wright – President Harmon Nagel
- Bart Burns – District Attorney Davis
- Karl Lukas – 1st Detective
- Elizabeth PattersonElizabeth Patterson (actress)Elizabeth Patterson was an American film and television character actress remembered for her portrayal of elderly neighbor Matilda Trumbull on I Love Lucy.-Career:...
– Connie - Tom LaughlinTom LaughlinTom Laughlin is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, educator and political activist. Laughlin is best known for his series of Billy Jack films. He has been married to Delores Taylor since 1954. Taylor has also co-produced and acted in all four of the Billy Jack films...
– Fred Jensen - Barbara Darrow – Frieda Jensen
- Joe E. RossJoe E. RossJoe E. Ross was an American actor known for his trademark "Ooh! Ooh!" exclamation, which he used in many of his roles. He starred in such TV sitcoms as The Phil Silvers Show and Car 54, Where Are You?.-Career:...
– Mike, Restaurant owner