Robert Benton screenplays

                                                            Part 3

This will wind up the series on the late, great Robert Benton. This column features the screenplays he wrote for movies he did not direct. You will find that almost all are good. Okay, all but one.

I’m leading off with a film that has become a classic. Bonnie And Clyde (1967) is used in film classes. The laid back outlaw couple seem like just folks until they start killing people along with robbing banks. The public considered them in the Robin Hood class for quite a while. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are spot on as the happy couple. This is about the first film to show what a shooting is really like as the Marshalls open up on the gang and there’s enough blood and gore for several movies. It’s done in slow motion and you probably haven’t forgotten it. 

There Was a Crooked Man (1970). In fact there are many in this, the only Western directed by Joseph Mankiewicz. Kirk Douglas is Paris Pittman, about as bad a guy as you’ll find in the old or new west. He robs people then kills his gang members so he won’t have to share the loot. Henry Fonda is Sheriff Lopeman, who spends most of the movie trying to catch Pittman. Pittman hides his take in a nest of rattlesnakes in the desert. Great idea, huh? Well, he gets bitten pulling the money out and when Lopeman finds him he’s already dead. Lopeman loads up Pittman and the money and heads back to town. But there’s another twist and you won’t find it here!

What’s Up Doc? (1972) lets Benton use his comedy chops for a nice change. Ryan O’Neal plays Music Professor Howard Bannister, Madeline Kahn is his tightly wound lady friend Eunice Burns and Barbra Streisand is the quirky Judy Maxwell. There are all kinds of hijinks involving four identical bags on the same floor of the same hotel. Of course they are picked up by the wrong people and chases ensue. Judy’s father Judge Maxwell attempts to sort this out without much luck. When Howard apologizes to Judy for his earlier actions, she says “Love means you never have to say you’re sorry” and he responds “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”.

Superman (1978) is the first of many films about the guy from Krypton. Christopher Reeve is in this one and the next three and most think of him when they think of Superman. This film even has Marlon Brando has the caped wonder’s father. Adopted by poor Kansas farmers, he becomes a reporter as Clark Kent, concealing his super abilities. He woos Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) who is rather slow to catch on to his dual identities. Remember that this film is way before computer special effects.

The Ice Harvest (2005) is maybe a film noir and maybe a dark comedy and maybe can’t seem to decide what it is. John Cusak stars as Charlie Angst, sometimes low grade criminal, and Billy Bob Thornton (always a hoot!) as thuggish Vic Cavanagh. The story is too complicated to summarize here; it is not Mr. Benton’s moment of glory.

All of the films in this article are available somewhere. All are for grown-ups except Superman, which is pretty much okay for all ages. I am well aware that Robert Benton had collaborators on most of these screenplays. They took up too much space.