The Arrangement (1969) User Reviews (45)

THE ARRANGEMENT (Elia Kazan, 1969) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 1 April 2006]

Adapted by Kazan from his own novel, this ambitious if little-seen (at least in my neck of the woods) character drama emerges as an absorbing and highly personal adult piece, but one which is also pretty heavy-going and somewhat uneven in quality. Still, the director elicits excellent performances from his entire cast (with the star trio baring more than their souls in front of the cameras); Kirk Douglas is particularly impressive in one of his most interesting roles (certainly at this stage of his career, here playing the son of Richard Boone who, in real-life, is actually a year younger than Douglas!)...though Kazan, in his autobiography, seemed unhappy with having to make do with him over his first choice, Marlon Brando. It's strange that he hadn't thought of Douglas immediately to personify his alter ego on screen, since both had been immigrants and the actor would therefore have an instant connection with the character; actually, I feel that Brando's brooding intensity - as opposed to Douglas' dynamic hysterics - would have worn the film down even more than it already is...and, in any case, Marlon got to do his "mid-life crisis act" three years later in LAST TANGO IN Paris (1972)!

What is essentially an old-fashioned melodrama, particularly given the lack of young actors involved, it's brought up-to-date - and, one might say, to life - by a variety of cinematic tricks (which sometimes exasperate the spectator, as if Kazan had gone through one too many viewings of Richard Lester's strikingly similar PETULIA [1968]!): multiple flashbacks and fantasy sequences (Douglas has visions of mistress Faye Dunaway everywhere, and even has her morphing into wife Deborah Kerr during a love scene); we also get visualizations of his interior monologues in which the younger, successful Douglas straightens out his older, bitter self; and, at one point, there's even a fist-fight underscored by cartoon captions a' la the campy 1960s "Batman" TV series!! On the other hand, the film's production values - as is to be expected from a glossy studio product of its time - are tops.

Leonard Maltin strangely rates this one a BOMB in his "Movie Guide"; true, it may not be top-tier Kazan but it's nowhere near as bad as he seems to think it is. Curiously enough, I followed this viewing with the director's subsequent film, THE VISITORS (1972), also awarded the unenviable "bottom-of-the-barrel" accolade from the genial critic...though, in its case, it's a bit more understandable - as can be perceived from my own comments below!

an interesting film, but not one of kazan's best..

[bwam2mil · 6/10 · 28 April 2005]

A sort of precursor to American Beauty and other modern fillms about dissatisfaction, Kazan's The Arrangment is an interesting attempt to characterize a man's deconstruction. Kirk Douglas plays Eddie, an advertising executive coming to terms with his job, his family, and his life's direction. Kazan experiments with montage, split narrative, and time span as he tells the story of a man looking for something new in life. The result is a compelling and relevant story about modern happiness that is broken apart by bizarre construction and confusing shot arrangement. Kazan has some interesting ideas here, but not all of them work. His split-consciousness portrayal of Eddie is sometimes confusing and distracting, as is the switch between past and present. Douglas is good as the lead; I don't see why Kazan would have chosen Brando in retrospect as I don't think it would have made much of a difference. Overall, a film worth seeing if you're a Kazan-freak, but otherwise stick with Streetcar, Eden, or Waterfront..

"I guess what I don't like is the person I am."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 22 December 2021]

This film is over a half century old now, and it may be time for a revisionist review. Yes, it's messy and somewhat confusing, but considering it's about a dysfunctional man reviewing his dysfunctional life while living it, the film speaks for all those who go through life hating their job, hating their relationships, and hating the way they try to deal with it all. Eddie Anderson (Kirk Douglas) really does epitomize a guy on the brink, who's success as an advertising executive comes back to haunt him every time he hears or sees a commercial for Zephyr cigarettes. His convoluted life almost ends when he plays chicken with a couple of big rigs on a city highway, and by the film's end, he's awaiting the outcome of a mental hospital's board of review to determine his fate. Everything in between is a smorgasbord of failure and deceit, unable to cope with the cards he's dealt himself in life. Not a pretty picture, which describes both Eddie and the film.

A sense of peace in a world of chaos

[golightly00 · 27 February 2001]

Deborah Kerr reportedly stopped doing movies after 1969 (even though she took film roles much later in life) because she no longer felt comfortable with the direction that the movie industry was going. After seeing "The Arrangement", I no longer question her sensitivity to the turbulent themes, language, and cinematography that was coming of age in the late 60's. On the surface, the film epitomizes many of the psychedelic themes of the era, from rampant flash-backs to cartoonized exclamations, such as "Bam!" and "Kerbloom!" splashing across the screen in bright neon colors. Beneath this, however, is the intensely challenging story of a man who wakes up one morning to discover that he detests the person that he has become. Kirk Douglas's Eddie Anderson will send chills up your spine as you watch him evolve from a successful advertising executive with the perfect house, the perfect job, and the perfect arrangement of both a wife and several mistresses, into a tormented, weakened man who despises himself enough to attempt suicide but believes in life enough not to carry through completely. His metamorphosis belies the chaotic style of the film; even though the erratic cinematography attempts to reflect his inner turmoil, the sense of peace that settles onto his face as the film progresses reveals that the reality of Eddie's mind is less insane than the reality of the world outside. He begins to see beyond the pretentions and fears that engulf the world around him and that had once turned him into a heartless executive,willing to convince consumers that cigarettes are good for them rather than lose a multi-million dollar client. Everyone around him, with the exception of Faye Dunaway, worships the "almighty dollar," and Eddie's release from this self-made prison allows him to make peace with himself, even as he makes enemies all around himself. Faye Dunaway is stunning and provocative as the insolent "office slut" who restores Eddie's faith in himself, ironically, by pointing out his flaws. In fact, she delivers what is possibly the most believable performance in the entire film, because her character, the strong, opinionated woman who accepts no sympathy for her decisions and weaknesses, has survived this tumultuous period much better than the character of say, the 60's housewife who desires nothing more than a maid, a swimming pool, and a wealthy husband. Deborah Kerr fills the role of Eddie's uncomprehending wife to perfection, even though anyone who has seen her in more flattering roles, as in her performance as Karen Holmes in "From Here to Eternity", won't be able to watch her portrayal of Florence Anderson without crying inwardly for the lost beauty of her earlier roles. Kerr is certainly ravishing in this film, despite the fruity-peach lipstick and the fluffy-headed hairstyle inflicted on her by the makeup department, but the uncertainty and bitterness that she plays to perfection in "The Arrangement" contrast sharply with the delicate mixture of sincerity and self-confidence that she exhibits in most of her early work. If you have not yet seen this film, make sure to read the book first. Elia Kazan's unique and personal style will illuminate the his meaning much more than any stylized cinematography could hope to. After reading the book, however, make sure to see the film, if only to admire the fine performances of the actors and to identify with the characters on a more immediate level. And, of course, just to watch the ever beautiful Deborah Kerr work her magic...

gets pretty dark & heavy

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 21 September 2022]

Some pretty big names, right at, near, or just past their peaks... kazan, douglas, dunaway, kerr, cronyn. Ed anderson is an ad man. (the irony of the "clean" cigarette campaign.) he has a midlife crisis. And of course, we flash back to what brought him to this point. Everyone wants to know what really caused it... the doctors, the therapists, coworkers, his wife. At the center of all this is gwen, the office "assistant", who doesn't have any clear duties. And now eddie wants to take care of his father, who has dementia. It's a psychological-thinker film. Izzokay. Moves pretty slowly. And gets pretty heavy. Lots of yelling. It's all well done, but i can understand why people thought it was such a downer. And so long. Keep an eye out for harold gould.. he was "miles" on golden girls. Written and directed by elia kazan. According to the trivia section, this kind of became his swan song.

The Arrangement is a stout melodrama with fascinating, passionate performances all around.

[dfranzen70 · 7/10 · 12 March 2015]

At first blush, The Arrangement seems to be about a middle-aged man who's juggling two women in his life, a wife and a mistress. You know, they all have an "arrangement." But it's much more of an existential, mid-life-crisis movie. Kirk Douglas stars as ad exec Eddie Anderson who has an epiphany after wrecking his car in a New York City tunnel, leading him to reevaluate his priorities. Deborah Kerr stars as his wife, Florence, and Faye Dunaway is the iconoclastic girlfriend, Gwen.

Told from Eddie's point of view, the film moves back and forth between the present and various earlier moments in the man's life, including his childhood as the son of a Persian rug dealer (Richard Boone) and his earlier days at the ad agency, where he meets Gwen, a looker whose opinions are valued by the company's president. Eddie is, by the present day and according to him, locked into a strict course of by-the-book, humdrum listlessness. Although the movie doesn't use the specific phrase, Eddie wants to drop out of society - this during a time in real life when people were doing exactly that. (It was the late 1960s, after all.) A year prior to the release of The Arrangement, Douglas' best buddy Burt Lancaster appeared in a similar movie, called The Swimmer. That one was based on a John Cheever story; The Arrangement is based on director Elia Kazan's own best-selling novel, which was widely panned by critics. As was the movie adaptation - some thought that Douglas' performance was a little flat and superficial. I think that's nonsense. Douglas is terrific in a very meaty role. But even better than Kirk Douglas are his two leading ladies. Dunaway is unforgettable as the independent Gwen; this was about two years after her breakthrough role in Bonnie and Clyde, so it was a bit of a boon to get her on board. She knocks this role out of the park. And Kerr, who had been making movies for a couple of decades but looked every bit as lovely and elegant as an ingenue. Hers, like Dunaway's and Douglas's, is also a multilayered role.

Kirk Douglas plays a corporate executive suffering from a mid-life crisis

[jacobs-greenwood · 6/10 · 13 December 2016]

It's ironic that Kirk Douglas's frequent co-star Burt Lancaster starred in a similar drama about a corporate executive's mid-life crisis (the origins of this term now used frequently for such men?) one year earlier titled The Swimmer (1968). Both films are unusual, introspective and lack wide appeal, the latter being superior to this overlong melodrama that was based on the popular novel by Elia Kazan, who also produced and directed it; still, it contains a certain truth if one is patient enough to wait almost two hours for it.

The movie is rated R for several snippets of nudity, mostly at a distance and/or through sheer curtains except for a beach scene featuring Douglas with his character's mistress, second-billed Faye Dunaway, who each cover up the other's most private parts with their hands. It's interesting to note that frequent on screen "bad girl" Dunaway would earn her only Best Actress Oscar seven years later playing a similar role as network executive William Holden's muse- mistress in Network (1976).

Eddie Anderson (Douglas) is a rainmaker advertising executive that appears to have everything going for him including a beautiful loyal wife Florence (Deborah Kerr) who tolerates his extramarital indiscretions, though she realizes that her husband's relationship with Gwen (Dunaway) was something more than just a physical one. Gwen had helped Eddie realize that he'd sold his soul to the devil for his multimillion dollar client, a tobacco company whose cigarette advertisements play constantly on every radio and television station. So, not liking who'd he'd become, Eddie attempts suicide. He survives and then refuses to go back to work; his wife thinks it's all about Gwen, but at that point Eddie hadn't seen her for more than a year. His mistress had become too demanding, so Eddie had discarded her when she'd refused to be controlled by him.

The plot develops slowly and the story is told out of sequence at times, featuring odd and intentionally comical edits, but we eventually learn about Eddie's other demons. For instance, his immigrant father Sam (Richard Boone) had been a successful merchant that fought with Eddie's mother over her son's education. Sam had always wanted Eddie to assume the family business but his protective mother had sent him to become college educated instead.

But as Sam is dying, Eddie is the one that his father wants by his side. He's reunited with Gwen, who's living with a dependable man that protects her (though she gets her sex elsewhere) and her newborn child, which looks a little like Eddie. Additionally, the Anderson's lawyer Arthur (Hume Cronyn) manipulates Eddie during his vulnerable time to gain financial advantage for Florence, for whom the lawyer carries a secret torch. There are other characters, but most will recognize Harold Gould plays Florence's therapist Dr. Leibman and Michael Murphy as the "last rites" Father Draddy.

A master's worst...

[JasparLamarCrabb · 1/10 · 4 May 2013]

Two hours-plus of Kirk Douglas having a nervous breakdown. If that appeals to you then you're likely to enjoy Elia Kazan's idiotic adaption of his own novel. Presumably the book had some sort of deep meaning (at least to Kazan), but this film is a mess. Douglas is a highly regarded advertising exec will all the trappings of success: money; a beautiful home; 3 cars; Deborah Kerr as a wife. Playing 44(!) but actually closer to 54, Douglas is woefully miscast. His angst is never anything but comical and it manifests itself in the form of sexy Faye Dunaway (a free spirited girl who awakens in Douglas the need to find himself). Douglas grits his teeth a lot, Kerr is very under-utilized as his wife, Dunaway is never anything but angry and, as Douglas's father, Richard Boone comes across as if he were auditioning for the title role in a community theater production of "Zorba the Greek." Boone's casting is particularly baffling considering the fact that he's actually a year younger than Douglas! Despite offering up a lot of cinematic pyrotechnics like flashbacks, flash forwards, freeze frames and more, Kazan's film is silly rather than compelling. Hume Cronyn, Barry Sullivan and Michael Higgins are among the supporting cast. The high gloss cinematography is by Robert Surtees.

An admirable failure.

[nfaust1 · 8/10 · 3 August 2006]

Not classic Kazan, for sure, but not a total failure either. Was lucky enough to see the film in Paris a few years ago on the big screen. Was struck by Kazan's attempt to break free from the well made play structure he'd so successfully mined in the past. The linear story, though, won out, making the film uneven and stylistically self conscience. But even so, what a marvelous failure. Kirk Douglas, in Kazan's opinion may not have filled Brando's shoes, but, my god, he tried. Dramatically speaking, the film is exploring a state of mind; the character played my Douglas remains, for the most part, in a very static position throughout. Douglas never allows the stain of self pity to disfigure his action. Sitting still, thinking, we see in Douglas a man pulsating with anger, remorse, and the need to act. It's a valiant and satisfying performance even though, like the film itself, we're more aware of what it's reaching for than what it actually holds. The performance, though, that really struck me as being brave and bold is the one given by Deborah Kerr. She's the wife, and she has a lengthy scene late in the film where she and Douglas stray into the intimate area of their married life. Sexually frank and mature, the scene alone is worth the entire film. These two characters discuss intimacy, and then act on it, in a way I've never seen in a film. Kerr was one of the most adventurous actresses of her day; a truly great talent. She gives Kazan the raw, unguarded kind of performance one usually associates with Liv Ullman in her Bergman films.

Overblown

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 16 April 2023]

A series of great actors are thrown together in this one. I was in college when it was released but never saw it. As I watch it now I see a kind of emptiness of dramatic films of the time. Many of the best sellers of the time were used to ride on their popularity when it came to adaptations. But when the book wasn't that great, the movie generally follows suit. The controversial figure of Elia Kazan (one of our greatest directors and a mediocre novelist) was responsible. He peppers the show with people we know well. Kirk Douglas does well with the role but he is so unlikeable and has such a checkered past, it's hard to care for him. He is ruined from the beginning of the movie and it is just a matter of time. Fay Dunaway is ice cold and yet he sees her as his salvation. Hume Cronyn is his shady lawyer. Richard Boone plays the father, laboring under dementia. Ultimately, I thought it would never end and that many of the events were beyond the pale. But I can put it on my list now.

jumbled self-indulgent mess

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 8 September 2021]

Eddie Anderson (Kirk Douglas) is a successful ad-man who seems to have everything. He has his big home, his housekeeper, his well manicured garden, and his beautiful family. His latest ad is selling cigarettes. For some reason, he deliberately crashes into a truck and nearly dies. His marriage to Florence (Deborah Kerr) is passionless and he's having a workplace affair with Gwen (Faye Dunaway). His midlife crisis has turned into full-blown depression and psychological breakdown.

I like the start but I don't like the unnecessary flashbacks. This is written and directed by Hollywood legend Elia Kazan adapted from his book. Somebody should have gotten in there to give him a second opinion. I like the character study in its central premise but there is a jumbled mess all around it. The acting is overwrought. It's way too melodramatic in a bad way. The cast is top notch. I'm sure that Kazan has a stuffed rolodex. This would be better as a simpler story telling and character study. The opening is great and it actually explained his life without explaining anything. One already gets a sense of him. The movie only really needs Faye Dunaway to be introduced and their love affair. This is a jumbled mess.

The second half has fewer flashbacks and that helps. It's less of a mess but I still don't like it. Part of that is my dislike of Eddie. It would be more compelling if it's not about choosing between Gwen and Florence. I would like something deeper. It becomes a melodrama. It's a scenes from a marriage and I don't care about this marriage. The father suggests something different. The movie goes on for too long. This is a long, rambling grind.

A sorrowfully neglected cinematic achievement

[gts-3 · 9/10 · 18 March 2001]

In recent years I have come to reevaluate most of Elia Kazan´s films. "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) looks more and more the stagebound it is and belongs rather to its actors than to its director. "On the Waterfront" first of all is an elaborated excuse for informing (something Kazan had done some years earlier in front of the HUAC). "America, America" (1963) is the sort of tale immigrants who have made it tend to tell at family gatherings over and over again. On the other hand "Panic in the Streets" (1950) now emerges as a powerful thriller about paranoia. "The Visitors" (1972) - more or less a home movie - is a painfully depiction of America´s guilt with regard to the Vietnam War and as such much ahead of its time (most certainly much ahead of Brian De Palma´s "Casualties of War" (1988), that tells are rather similar story). The most astonishing film being "The Arrangement" (1969), a film that has been dismissed that often as a downright bomb that this verdict was taken for granted for a very long time. Well, it´s high time for a change.

"The Arrangement" deals with an advertising executive´s alienation from his job, his family, his world and even from himself. This Eddie Anderson is one of Kirk Douglas´s most touching and least mannered performances. He manages to keep the audience interested in a guy who is lost in almost every sense of the word. A gripping psychodrama, a film for adults and therefore out of place even at a time when traditional Hollywood was blown away by America´s very own New Wave. "The Arrangement" may at times annoy you, but it won´t insult your intelligence for even that long as a second. Cudos to the director, Kirk Douglas and both Richard Boone and Deborah Kerr who gave two performances to crown their already sterling careers. Faye Dunaway, by the way, has never before and never since been that erotic on screen.

His Own Worst Nightmare.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 25 May 2013]

This may be Kirk Douglas's finest dramatic performance. He's always had a tendency to hog the screen, sometimes effectively, as when, in a moment of epiphany, he silently lets his jaw drops and rolls his eyes heavenward. He does it when trapped in a cave in "The Juggler" and at the end of "Champion" when he stares at his broken hand. But he doesn't pull any tricks here. Maybe Elia Kazan talked to him about it. Kirk turns in a quiet, thoughtful performance of a man going mad because he never fulfilled his father's dreams -- I guess. It's a little confused.

At the opening, we're introduced to Douglas at a meeting of the ad agency he works for. They're marketing a cigarette, Zephyr. Douglas's self-confident presentation of the marketing campaign shows us a hollow man at his job, apparently good at his job and reveling in it. He gets up smiling in the morning, grooms himself wordlessly while his devoted wife, Deborah Kerr, chatters in the background. Then he drives to work and there follows a startling moment. We've all been on freeways in the middle lane, with deafening eighteen-wheelers roaring along indifferently on either side of us, at the same speed. And Douglas, still with a grin painted on his face, folds his arms across his chest and lets the car wander one way or another until, with a savage grimace, he yanks his convertible under one of the trucks.

I'm afraid that from there it's mostly downhill, except for some good performances and nice local color from photographer Robert Surtees.

I won't try to describe the plot. It has something to do with Douglas's self-destructive impulses, his being torn between two women, his conflict with his old-world father, Richard Boone. The film goes into considerable detail.

Kazan has always been an impressively innovative director. There is a scene near the beginning of "Panic in the Streets," involving a murder, that involves some exquisite camera choreography and lasts a long time, all captured in one take. And in "East of Eden" he places the camera almost on the ground, shoots from behind Timothy Carey's legs, as Carey fondles a black jack and tries to tempt James Dean to come a little closer.

The innovations were fresh and were always his own. Not here. They're distinctly derived from the styles and fads of the mid-60s, including some Batman-like ZLONKs and POWs! I suppose they're meant to amuse but they fall with a thud. There's a good deal of instant cutting, of flash forwards, of tableaux of family arguments remembered from childhood while the adult Douglas walks around and pleads with the participants. Woody Allen was doing the same thing.

On top of that, the movie doesn't really make much sense. I'm still not sure how it all winds up. A shame, really. A couple of outstanding performances in a film whose plot resembles the inside of a kaleidoscope or some kind of demonically spinning Archimides spiral. The fact that I can't make up my mind whether the plot resembles a kaleidoscope or a spiral is symptomatic of the damage it left in its path.

Ugh

[mls4182 · 2/10 · 9 September 2021]

This film is terrible. One of the top ten worst films I have seen. Faye Dunaway is even worse than this film.

Also, it wasn't necessary to deliberately photograph Deborah Kerr so unflatteringly.

Gadj goes nutzoid

[matt-201 · 19 March 1999]

Elia Kazan's 1969 midlife-crisis epic is an x-ray of American manhood gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Kirk Douglas, icon of tortured machismo, plays Eddie Anderson, son of a tyrannical Greek merchant (Richard Boone) turned Madison Avenue sell-out. He sleeps in childlike separate beds with his wife (Deborah Kerr), who looks and acts more like his mother. He's obsessed with the one woman (Faye Dunaway) who looks at his barbered, Lavoris'd self and sees the Man He Could've Been. The sixties satire of Organization Man is stock, the bombast beats thick and hard, and, as per usual, Kazan can't resist the Big Moments that are thoroughbred Hollywood hokum. But it's impossible to deny that this is as anguishedly personal as any of Kazan's movies--and the machete hacking through the brush that cleared the way for Cassavetes, Scorsese and Ferrara. With its mod, PETULIA-style sets, balletic editing and penchant for stylized tricks, it's also the most goofily cinematic of Kazan's pictures--a Sam Fuller whirligig turned into a slick, upscale thirty-second spot.

Good because of Kazan, I think

[realalexrice · 6/10 · 8 June 2021]

Unsurprisingly contains moments of typical Kazan greatness, absolutely inspired and crazy editing choices, and many great modern (at the time) camera techniques. Kazan never failed to make visually interesting and characteristically rich stories even when all of his presentation methods don't hit their intended marks.

A minor disappointment...not at the top of Kazan's "best of" list for sure

[nomoons11 · 6/10 · 17 June 2012]

The acting and directing in this was just fine. Typical Kazan effort but the main issue with this is...the story. It's just to jumbled up and leaves too much undone at the end.

The simplest synopsis I could give of this film is a guy decides to try and kill himself by driving under a semi truck...he fails. After this we go through his past life and figure out why he's had enough of his life. We find out a year before a pretty serious affair ended and this was part of the reason for the failed suicide. The other is a few things. He seems to have turned out just like his father...whom deep down...he despises. Also, he's just had enough of the life he leads. He wants a change or to just getaway from it all. I guess a mid life crisis.

Throughout all this you'll get to meet his father, who is dying, and we learn that he was miserable to his wife and kids and everyone is still afraid of him. We get to see a little of his father in himself and what his family life is like. He tries desperately to get back with the girl who had a previous affair with. He loves her but I think he gets more out of her telling him like it is whereas his wife just lets things be and keeps silent...like his mother did with his father. He appreciates her for this. The girlfriend in this is not exactly a saint in this one to say the least.

By the end you'll have a mixed bag of feelings on this one. The end leaves too many things left undone. All in all a good effort but needed more filler for the story. Kazan's book on this one may have been a hit but I don't think it translated well to the screen. I know that films don't all have to have answers or to have happy endings but this needed a closure to the circumstances of the many people involved. All we get is a funeral scene and a lot of assumptions. Maybe that was the intention. Maybe a mid life crisis and all involved is supposed to be....incomplete.

Kazan loses his touch in a big way.

[st-shot · 3/10 · 17 February 2009]

The personnel in The Arrangement reminds me of the LA Lakers basketball team ( around the time this film was made) when they had Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor on the same squad. There were great expectations for a team with three superstars but they never jelled as a unit and were a dismal failure overall. Such is the case with Elia Kazan's The Arrangement, a crashing, sloppy out of touch melodrama of marital infidelity and despair.

It would be hard to surpass the ten year run that Elia Kazan had a as film director from 1947-57. Just about everything he directed turned to gold and those that didn't then (Boomerang, Panic in the Streets, Face in the Crowd) have that respect today. In the early 60s he was still producing quality work (Splendor in the Grass, America,America) when he turned to writing a best seller (The Arrangement) eventually bringing it to the screen in the late sixties. Kazan, an actor's director if their ever was one and who translated the words and feelings of John Steinbeck and Tennessee Williams to film so well seemed to be at a loss with his own work and his ability to coax well measured performances out of his cast. Kirk Douglas, Deborah Kerr and Faye Dunaway are uniformly shrill from start to finish moping from one scene to another, making it hard to believe they could feel tenderness for anything. The scenes between Douglas and his mistress (Dunaway) lack intimacy and warmth, their passion forced. With his wife (Kerr) there is total detachment and not even a hint of why they got together in the first place. Kerr for her part seems like she's still in rehearsal. Lacking both sincerity and push she is badly miscast. Richard Boone as Eddie's overbearing old man adds to the disaster with complete over the top bombast, making a lot of noise and saying nothing that brings incite to the role.

Having failed at what he does best (directing actors) Kazan goes on to embarrass himself further by employing some of the latest techniques (including Batman pop art) to be au courant in this heady era of American film but in his hands he fumbles. Even the highly regarded cinematographer, John Surtees flounders with sloppy camera movement and uninspired compositions. It's as if everyone attached to the making of the Arrangement suffered from talent amnesia. Kazan had certainly lost his touch and The Arrangement in one full swoop symbolized that decline. As a film director he had nothing left in the tank.

Too brilliant and personal and meaningful to ignore

[secondtake · 9/10 · 25 April 2010]

The Arrangement (1969)

You might say this movie is about a very successful man coming to realize his success means nothing in the big picture and all he wants is time to be himself, to enjoy life simply.

Or you might say this is a movie about a man cheating on his wife with a younger woman and all the fallout that goes with that.

Or you might say this is a psychoanalytical dive inward to a man realizing he was ruined by his parents and trapped by his wife, and he descent into introspection makes him go almost mad, and then mad. And he likes it that way.

You might even say this is an exercise in narrative storytelling, with a virtuosic layering and intercutting of all these elements into a single highly complex tale.

Kirk Douglas is the lynchpin to all of this, and The Arrangement, a masterpiece if there ever was one, is the merging of art-house cinema with mainstream Hollywood. Except that there was no real art-house movie scene in 1969. This film pushes the boundaries as hard as they could be and still survive at all as a mainstream release. Director Elia Kazan is certainly one of the greats of the era (Scorsese agrees here) and he went out on a limb with editor Stefan Arnsten to make something utterly unique. There are foreshadowings of Woody Allen (though without humor) and Six Feet Under (in the kind of surrealism created by editing and the changing presence of people in a single scene).

The plot is also intensely personal. Kazan, born in Istanbul and brought to American when he was four, was the son of Greek immigrants and his father was actually a rug merchant. And Kazan was apparently having an affair at the time of the shooting (he remarried in 1969 and later had a child). The screenplay is Kazan's and it's based a 1967 novel, also by Kazan.

So if this is a deeply felt movie about a man having a mid-life crisis, it's understandable. Is it overwrought and self-indulgent? It has that potential for viewers who don't connect with the style or the characters, but for me it was too honest and well made to brush off. I got sucked in and was mesmerized by the swirling, teetering effects that never let you get confused or out of control.

Mostly Incomprehensible Film

[mrb1980 · 2/10 · 13 August 2018]

I guess "The Arrangement" has some merit-after all, it showcases late 1960s southern California quite well-but overall the movie is an all-star disaster due to its confusing structure and its incredibly muddled story.

Los Angeles advertising executive Eddie Anderson (Kirk Douglas) has a nervous breakdown and tries to commit suicide by driving his sports car under a semi. The rest of the film flashes back to Anderson's childhood, his relationship with his dying father (Richard Boone, who was actually YOUNGER than Douglas), his deteriorating marriage with his wife (Deborah Kerr), and his torrid affair with a co-worker (Faye Dunaway). Along the way the flashbacks were very difficult to track and even harder to understand. Boone's character doesn't do much besides lie in bed, and Deborah Kerr chews the scenery as the cheated wife.

I lost track of how many times the story flashed back, and I never did understand what the point of the movie was. The late 1960s time period touches were great, but otherwise I didn't really gain any understanding of the characters. Hume Cronyn, as Anderson's attorney, had about the only decent role in the whole film. If you decide to watch this mess of a film, be prepared for a lesson in confusion and expect to feel pretty empty afterward.

A Film Whose Time Has Come.

[thataw · 8/10 · 4 April 2007]

Panned and patronized at the time of it's initial release, Elia Kazan's adaptation of his best selling book THE ARRANGEMENT plays much better now than it did in 1969. Made after a 6 year hiatus from film-making at a time when movies were enjoying unheard of freedom due to the demise of the production code, THE ARRANGEMENT clearly shows that Kazan was still a director to be reckoned with. The basic premise was nothing new. A highly successful businessman (Kirk Douglas) suffers a mid-life crisis and attempts suicide. How he and the other characters deal with the aftermath make up the rest of the story. Kazan has always been an actor's director and the film provides a showcase for the young Faye Dunaway as Douglas' mistress who gets him to reexamine his life but wants out to be with someone else. Deborah Kerr in her last major film appearance is superb in the difficult role of the wife who tries to understand what Douglas is going through but doesn't want to give up the rich lifestyle she's become accustomed to. Strong support is given by Hume Cronyn as the family solicitor who has plans of his own and from Richard Boone in a rare non-Western role as Douglas' ailing father. His slide into dementia is both heartbreaking and terrifying. Marlon Brando had originally agreed to play the lead but bowed out allowing Kirk Douglas who really wanted to work with Kazan to step in. While not stage trained like the other principals, he acquits himself well in an emotionally as opposed to a physically demanding role. The combination of raw emotions, alternating points-of-view including black humor, and touches of surrealism was ambitious then and still is today (think American BEAUTY). The movie is not without its flaws. It runs too long and is occasionally sloppy in everything from editing to make-up but the powerful writing and intense performances make THE ARRANGEMENT provocative film-making nearly 40 years later. Called everything from a harrowing emotional ride to a self-indulgent mess, it is ultimately for the home viewer to decide (my rating indicates where I stand). Kazan will always be a controversial figure because of his HUAC testimony in the 1950's but his greatness as a director cannot be denied and remains captured on film for all to see.

The beginning of the end for Kazan

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 2/10 · 17 August 2014]

This is a film to savor, because it demonstrates just how bad a film can really be, even when on paper its casting and the director make it look like it will be memorable. Everyone makes mistakes. For an actor, or in this case a director, one big mistake can effectively end a distinguished career. This film was director Elia Kazan's big mistake. And although he lived another 33 years, he only made two more films, and only one of those was memorable. And that's not just my opinion. In the Wikipedia article about this film, it is stated that, "The critics were overwhelmingly negative when the film came out."

First off, Kazan tried to make the film look very 1970s-ish; and that only resulted in a film that today looks very, very dated.

The problem isn't the acting, which I felt was quite good. Kirk Douglas does fine as the man in the midst of a nervous breakdown. While I can't quite say that Douglas' performance is restrained (can we ever say that about Douglas?), it is not over the top, either.

I was never particularly impressed with Faye Dunaway, but this was a good as any of her performances that I recall, and frankly, I didn't remember her being that attractive (of course, she was only 28 here). Deborah Kerr's acting was fine here, although I wish she hadn't accepted the very non-flattering role. Richard Boone and Hume Cronyn turned in good performances, as well.

The problem with this film is where it came from -- the mind of Elia Kazan. I'll tell you definitively -- since this film and his book that it was based on has been considered semi-autobiographical, he's a man I wouldn't want to have known. It came from his mind -- a very dark, unattractive place, unwelcoming, sad, and filled with bitterness and disillusionment. No thank you.

One of the few films I've watched in a very long time that I wished I hadn't watched at all.

A baleful concoction...

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 30 March 2008]

Old-fashioned melodrama longing to be flashy and modern. Director Elia Kazan, adapting his own bestseller, has assembled a terrific cast in story of a 44-year-old married advertising executive with a mistress who attempts suicide. Cold and detached, the film wants us to sympathize with a lot of people we might normally recoil from: the rich and privileged who live in a well-heeled vacuum. As Kirk Douglas' other woman, Faye Dunaway, who was featured in a slew of pictures from 1967-1969, was perilously at risk of being overexposed. She's gorgeously coiffed and manicured here, but her impassive face and personality don't involve the audience--and all of Douglas' striding up and down over her seems like a wasting disease. Kazan wants us to see the unsavory nature of these people, the office sharks and their suffering wives at the mercy of their whims, but the bitter 'truth' behind his portrait is heightened--just as it was in pictures like "Peyton Place"--and after a while it all begins to seem like a rancid put-on. ** from ****

Arrange To See, The Arrangement

[angelsunchained · 10/10 · 7 January 2006]

Just resaw this movie after 36 years. All I could remember from the first time I saw this film at age 11 was the car crash. Anyhow, outstanding acting by all involved. However, the movie is stolen by the powerful and emotional performance of Faye Dunaway. Miss Dunaway is stunning, both physically and emotionally. She grits her teeth and gives one of her most intense and raw performances. The film however, has a sad and depressing flip to it; the American Dream turned into a nightmare. Made in the last 1960s, to most young viewers this Elia Kazan masterpiece probably seems a weird and strange ride. However, for children of the 60s, this movie captures the "Nature of the Beast" which was 1969.

The Arrangement is outstanding.

Thought-provoking but very unpleasant.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 6 September 2013]

Eddie Anderson (Kirk Douglas) is rich, successful and losing his mind. You can tell this because as he's driving to work in his fancy convertible, he deliberately smashes his car--nearly killing him. Following this, he's distant and uncommunicative--slipping deeper and deeper into a fantasy world. He's dreaming of his lover (Faye Dunaway)--a woman who left him a year and a half ago. In the meantime, his wife (Deborah Kerr) is beside herself--she has no idea what to do. Through the course of the film, you see a man on the edge of sanity--a man having perhaps the world's world mid-life crisis. Because he's reached this age and hates who he is and what he's become--that's why this crisis is so intense.

While I felt this was a painful and unpleasant film (much of it because you don't like ANYONE in the film--especially the leading man), this is not to say the picture is without merit or style. Director Elia Kazan (from his novel) creates a bizarre portrait of a man in crisis--and does it in very, very strange and creative ways. Very often through the course of the film, it becomes more and more difficult to determine what is real and what is not--and Douglas' character has conversations with himself (using a split screen), walking back in time to his childhood and examining his relationship with his parents and even runs around in the buff! It's all very artsy, surreal and strange--though not exactly something I enjoyed. It's also very adult and a film that most folks would find challenging at best, though the film would probably speak best to someone in mid-life--someone who is questioning who they are and what they are. Strange to say the least--and more like an Ingmar Bergman film than one you'd expect from Kazan. In fact, I liked the film's style much more than I liked the actual story. Worth seeing as a failed but intriguing experiment.

By the way, the clip of the father on the boat coming to America is from another Kazan film, "Amerika, Amerika" (1963).