Lovin' Molly

Lovin' Molly (1974)

Molly Taylor: In love with love… and who knew didn't matter.

Spanning nearly 40 years from 1925 to 1964, two Texas farm boys; straight-arrow Gid and laid-back Johnny fight over the affections of the beautiful and headstrong Molly Taylor, who consistently refuses to marry either of them.

Date of release
1974-04-14
TMDB
4.9 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 38m
Genres
Romance, Drama
Director
Sidney Lumet

Casting

Interesting facts

Lovin' Molly is a 1974 American drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Anthony Perkins, Beau Bridges, Blythe Danner in the title role, Ed Binns, and Susan Sarandon. The film is based on Larry McMurtry's second novel, Leaving Cheyenne (1963). Prior to release, the film was also known as Molly, Gid, and Johnny and The Wild and The Sweet.

Production

Larry McMurtry's first novel, Horseman, Pass By had been turned into a successful 1963 film, Hud. In March 1966 The Los Angeles Times reported the film rights to Leaving Cheyenne, McMurtry's second novel, were purchased by Warner Bros for producer William Conrad, with Larry Marcus to write the script. McMurtry later says Warners wanted to call the film Gid, after the lead character Gideon, to cash in on the success of the movie Hud.

In June 1969 it was announced Don Siegel would produce a version of the book in Oklahoma, with filming to start in October of that year. However this did not proceed.

Film rights were eventually obtained by Stephen J. Friedman, a lawyer who had moved into producing with the 1971 film version of McMurtry's The Last Picture Show. (Friedman appears to have bought them off Universal Studios, who got them from Warner Bros.) Friedman was an admirer of Leaving Cheyenne calling it "full of extraordinary insights into people". He particularly appreciated how "the men have to adapt to the women in the story.

Friedman had not been involved in the writing or casting of Last Picture Show. He decided to adapt Leaving Cheyenne into a screenplay himself. He said that despite the success of Last Picture Show at the box office he had as much trouble raising finance for Leaving Cheyenne as he did for Picture Show.

Friedman said the title was changed from Leaving Cheyenne after "we took a survey and found that most people expected it to be a Western. It's about people and we didn't want to attract people that wanted a simple action movie and got a sensitive drama."

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