The Strange One (1957)

豆知識

• 撮影地：フロリダ州

The Strange One is a 1957 American film noir about students faced with an ethical dilemma in a military college in the Southern United States. It was directed by Jack Garfein, produced by Sam Spiegel, and was adapted from a novel and stage play by Calder Willingham called End as a Man. It marked the film debut of Ben Gazzara, George Peppard and Julie Wilson. Gazzara, Pat Hingle, Mark Richman and Arthur Storch reprised their roles after starring in the stage version. The film is noteworthy, due to the entire acting and technical staff being from the Actors Studio.

Production

According to director Jack Garfein, producer Sam Spiegel first approached Elia Kazan to direct the film adaptation of End as a Man. Kazan told him that the best director would be Garfein, who had directed the stage version, despite Spiegel regarding him as an inexperienced "kid".

According to Ben Gazzara, he later found out that James Dean was after his lead part, but Garfein chose to keep Gazzara along with the other cast members from the Actors Studio and the stage production. George Peppard was among the only new actors cast, along with Julie Wilson as Peonie, a new part created for the film.

Filming took place in Orlando, Florida. Spiegel was producing The Bridge on the River Kwai at the same time, and regularly flying between Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Florida to touch base on both films. Tensions developed between Garfein and Spiegel, and Gazzara claimed that Spiegel was told to leave the set during filming one day.

Garfein decided to include African American extras in the final train scene, after seeing black children sat on train floors in Florida, which reminded him of his own childhood in Nazi concentration camps. According to Garfein, Spiegel initially agreed to this, but Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, objected that the film would get no distribution in the Southern States if black people appeared onscreen (due to racial segregation).

As a result of these conflicts, Spiegel and Columbia effectively disowned the film, giving it very little promotion and distribution, according to Gazzara. Garfein's contract with Columbia was cancelled, and he blamed the fallout for his lack of success as a film director, but did not regret his decisions.

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