Picnic: A Socio-Sexual Examination. Part 2 (Or, "Don't hate the player, hate the game")

"Picnic". Columbia Pictures, 1955. Directed by Joshua Logan, based on the play by William Inge. Starring William Holden, Kim Novak, Rosalind Russell, Susan Strasberg & Cliff Robertson.

This is the second installment of my "slightly tongue-in-cheek yet I'm not entirely making this up" review.

Recap: Sexy drifter Hal Carter, a man with a checkered past and an apparent "Spanish fly" effect on women, arrives in a small Kansas town on Labour Day.

Cut to the beach for a little pre-picnic swim. Show-off Hal makes quite a splash (groan!) at the lake, drawing much attention from the female swimmers. Millie becomes the envy of them all as she boasts that Hal's her date for the picnic. Score one for the nerdy girl!

It seems this whole swimming scene was included for one purpose alone: the changing room sequence. Wet bathing suits are peeled off & hit the floor. The camera pulls back to reveal a cut view of the men's and women's changing room, separated by only a joint wall. Being 1955 and for modesty, the camera is strategically placed most of the time but the effect is we see our characters standing around chatting in the nip. At one point, Millie tries to sneak a peek through to the men's side and can't help but join in on Hal & Alan's conversation. It's a cute scene, but again, it's purpose does seem only to add to the titillation.

Back at Mrs. Owens' rooming house they're packing their picnic baskets. Rosemary Sydney, resident cougar, awaits her boring beau, novelty salesman (read:purveyor of fake dog doo) Howard Bevans...all the while hoping she'll get a better offer. She claims there's a mystery man she met at a dance who wants to marry her and he could arrive any minute to whisk her away. But then, she also claims that she was as beautiful as Madge in her younger days -- another dubious claim. Rosemary Sydney is a boiling pot of repression and sexual frustration. While she's quick to keep up the appearance of propriety and wear the label of "old maid school teacher", she's desperately horny. She's desperate for a man, desperate for an escape from the other old maids at the school and the rooming house. It's Labour Day and the school year's about to start again -- she's got to get her hooks into a man. Today. Enter Hobo Hal, arriving at the house to pick up Millie for their date. The ladies are charmed by Hal, and Hal is quick to oblige them -- taking off his jacket to reveal his muscular build. Rosemary Sydney has a hallelujah moment.

Too bad for Rosemary: boring Howard is her date not buff Hal, and she's pretty pissed about it. She becomes increasingly cranky and prissy. In an odd scene that's vaguely suggestive of oral sex, Howard produces a bottle of whiskey in the car and coaxes prudish Rosemary to have a tipple. So now we have Rosemary: bitter, desperate, horny and just drunk enough to shed a few inhibitions. Yeah, this is going to end well.

Gathered together at the picnic, the gang from the Owens' rooming house see more of Hal in action. He swaggers about, climbing trees, doing push-ups -- anything to draw attention to his physical prowess. Relaxed, he lets his guard down a bit, dropping hints about his troubled past: particularly abuse he suffered from an alcoholic father. Again we see the dichotomy between Hal the show-off and Hal the vulnerable. On the one hand he flaunts his body, brags about his sexploits and appears to be the typical "big man on campus" jock. At the same time we see Hal's child-like naivete and his fractured past. It seems like most of Hal's problems have stemmed from the way others have treated him. Could it be Hal is simply a victim of his own simple-mindedness and the deviousness of others? Or, maybe his sexy pheromones are clouding my opinion too! One thing's for sure -- Rosemary Sydney can't take her eyes off Hal's pants....



The picnic itself is a bizarre spectacle. The townsfolk amuse themselves with a variety of physical competitions. Sure, there's the standard 3-legged race and pie eating contest. But then there's also a game called "trained seals" where the men are tied-up in submissive positions and gagged with a stick in their mouths as the women toss rings at them. (Not surprisingly Rosemary Sydney is particularly fond of that game.) As night falls they have a group hymn sing. What a sea of bored faces! As I look across the glassy-eyed crowd I can't help but wonder if this is what Jonestown looked like. The evening is capped by the crowning of the "Queen of Neewollah" (that's Halloween spelled backwards. Slightly demonic, wouldn't you say?). Naturally, Madge is a shoe-in as Queen. The Queen floats down the river in a swan-shaped boat in a seemingly dark pagan ritual. The citizens take on a creepy, cult-like demeanor, bowing and chanting in unison "Nee-woll-ah".

It's amazing they don't don hooded robes and chuck Millie on an altar as a virgin sacrifice! At any rate, let's just interpret this as comment on the drone-like conformity found in small-town America. Despite the apparent festivities of the day we get the impression this could be a very closed society... not at all the type of place welcoming to free spirits.

Now that their Queen has been crowned, they celebrate with a dance.

Next: The Climax... coming in Part 3