It is a southern town, where the main industries include grain and the shipping of grain. A handsome stranger strolls into town, with nothing but his ragged clothes on his back, and his daddy’s boots. This is Hal Carter (William Holden), the aging former-big-man-on-campus, now turned scoundrel and tramp. He has hopes of finding his fortune through the assistance of an old college friend (Cliff Robertson), because, as he grinds out, he’s gotta make it somewhere in life. The old friend can help, but can Carter resist not betraying his friend and his hopes by stealing his friend’s steady girl (Kim Novak)?
What do you bet?
Yes, Picnic is, above all things, a sweltering little summer melodrama that takes place, you guessed it, at the town picnic, as the mamas and the kids all sit and fan themselves, waiting for the fair beauty queen to be chosen. However, like many good American melodramas, beneath the simple and lovely exterior lies a seedier layer, in which every one is silently tearing at their own skin in frustration over how their life is unfolding before their eyes, almost without their control.
And, on this hot sultry night, Hal becomes the boiling point for the frustrations of the whole town. The beauty queen who just wants out, the rich boy who always wanted to be charming, the town smart-girl (the engaging Susan Strasberg) who just wants to be sexy for one night. The local school marm (brilliantly played by Rosalind Russell) who just wants one last taste of lust and freedom before her youth completely escapes her.
Picnic is packaged and marketed in a deceptively simple and light-hearted way (horrifyingly like a romance novel), but it is not the wisest bet for a cheerful night in. Sublimated violence, the objectification of beauty, sexual persecution, angers of all sorts… These are the things that lie under the surface in this movie, and in the town… And no doubt in a million towns just like it, then and now.
Quite unique in its way, the atmosphere of alienation and relativism is thick. Is it wrong to run away with a drifter? Is it right? Does it even matter at all?
Aside from its attractive set design and its beautiful cast, Picnic is an unusual film, but one which rewards discerning eyes who give it a go.
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