''Breezy'' is a 1973 American
romantic drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
film directed by
Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...
, produced by
Robert Daley
Robert Daley (born 1930 in New York City), is an American writer of novels and non-fiction. He is the author of 31 books, six of which have been adapted for film, and a hundred or so magazine articles and stories.
Daley graduated from Fordham ...
, and written by
Jo Heims
Joyce Heims (January 15, 1930 – April 22, 1978) was an American screenwriter best known for her collaborations with actor-director Clint Eastwood. Born in Philadelphia, Heims moved out to the US west coast in early adulthood. She worked variou ...
. The film stars
William Holden
William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ''Stalag 17'' (1953) ...
and
Kay Lenz
Kay Ann Lenz (born March 4, 1953) is an American actress. She is the recipient of a Daytime Emmy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a Saturn Award.
Lenz is best known for her title role in the f ...
, with
Roger C. Carmel,
Marj Dusay
Marjorie Ellen Mahoney Dusay (; née Mahoney; February 20, 1936 – January 28, 2020) was an American actress known for her roles on American soap operas. She was especially known for her role as Alexandra Spaulding on ''Guiding Light'', a role s ...
, and
Joan Hotchkis
Joan Hotchkis (September 21, 1927 – September 27, 2022) was an American stage, screen and television actress, writer and performance artist. A lifetime member of the Actors Studio and the Dramatists Guild, Hotchkis was best known for playing ...
in supporting roles. It is the third film directed by Eastwood and the first without him starring in it.
Distributed by
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
, ''Breezy'' was theatrically released in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
on November 16, 1973 and in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on November 18, 1973. The film earned 3 nominations at the
31st Golden Globe Awards, including
Most Promising Newcomer – Female for Lenz.
The film was not a commercial success.
Plot
A young couple awakens in bed after a one-night stand. Edith Alice "Breezy" Breezerman hops out of bed, gets dressed, and steps into the daylight. Breezy lost her parents years before in a car accident; she lived with her aunt until she graduated from high school. A year later, she left for California, where she is a homeless, free-spirited, carefree
hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
spending her nights couch surfing.
That same morning, Frank Harmon is bidding farewell to his overnight guest, a blonde who is attracted to him, but he only humors her as she leaves. Middle-aged, divorced and wealthy from his work in real estate, Frank lacks for nothing material, but has no joy in his life. He is still somewhat bitter about his divorce.
After escaping a bad hitchhiking experience with an unstable stranger, Breezy loiters near Frank's luxurious post-modern house, the setting for much of the movie. When he leaves for work, she invites herself into his car and happily insists that he give her a ride to her destination, annoying him. She returns to his house that evening to retrieve her guitar that she left in his car earlier in the day. She persuades him to let her shower, after the shower she tries to get him to invite her to stay the night, but he doesn't go for it. She leaves even though it's raining. The next night he's awakened by police at the door. They found Breezy wandering around and she told them that Frank was her uncle and they had argued earlier. After being chastised by the police they leave and he offers her something to eat. She begs for him to take her to the ocean and he does. When they return from the Pacific he carries her in to the guest room as she feigns sleep. Before going to bed himself they have a heart-to-heart where she tells him that she loves him. When he wakes he's surprised and disappointed to discover that she left without saying goodbye. The next day when he comes home from work she's waiting for him by his door. He invites her in but tells her he has to make an appearance at a friends wedding reception and drop off the papers for the house they just bought from him. He tells her she could stay and they make plans for his return. He's much later than anticipated and he's disappointed that she doesn't appear to be there. He gets ready for bed and when he's in his room, he sees her in his bed and they make love. In the morning he's very upbeat and seems very happy. At the breakfast table they get to know each other. They spend the day together and he buys her some new clothes, then they go to dinner and run into his ex-wife. She has some snarky things to say but they don't let it ruin their evening. Another night they go see a movie and run into Frank's friend Bob who seems to always talk about wanting to cheat on his wife. Frank is embarrassed and self conscious to be seen wih Breezy.
He is conflicted about his feelings for longtime, close friend Betty Tobin. Finally, when he does awkwardly start to make them known to her, it is too late; Betty gently explains she is marrying a man she very much loves.
Frank's friend and workout buddy Bob Henderson is grappling with his own
mid-life crisis
A midlife crisis is a transition of identity and self-confidence that can occur in middle-aged individuals, typically 40 to 60 years old. The phenomenon is described as a psychological crisis brought about by events that highlight a person's grow ...
. He is restless, but afraid to end his now-loveless marriage and face loneliness. Frank takes this into consideration, while still growing closer to Breezy. Bob talks to Frank about Breezy in a sauna after some tennis. Bob reveals that there is no way he himself could embark on such a relationship, as he might feel like a "child molester". He has no intention of being insulting, and is in fact admiring Frank's defiance of society's disapproval, but Frank is not immune to the pressure. All of his shared joys with Breezy, such as their adopted stray dog and "us against the world" mentality, are not enough to enable him to cope with the age difference. He breaks up with her by telling her that they amount to a dirty joke. She's the zing in his life and he's the best score she's probably ever made. She starts crying but keeps her composure as she gets ready to leave. Tells him to keep the dog as she doesn't have enough money to feed him.
When Betty is injured and her new husband killed in a car accident, Frank visits her in the hospital and has a change of heart. He drives to Marcy's house to learn where Breezy is. Marcy tells him and he goes to the park to reconcile with her. He reunites with Breezy he tells her maybe they can last a year and they walk off together with the dog, Sir Love-a-lot.
Cast
*
William Holden
William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ''Stalag 17'' (1953) ...
as Frank Harmon
*
Kay Lenz
Kay Ann Lenz (born March 4, 1953) is an American actress. She is the recipient of a Daytime Emmy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a Saturn Award.
Lenz is best known for her title role in the f ...
as Edith Alice 'Breezy' Breezerman
*
Roger C. Carmel as Bob Henderson
*
Marj Dusay
Marjorie Ellen Mahoney Dusay (; née Mahoney; February 20, 1936 – January 28, 2020) was an American actress known for her roles on American soap operas. She was especially known for her role as Alexandra Spaulding on ''Guiding Light'', a role s ...
as Betty Tobin
*
Joan Hotchkis
Joan Hotchkis (September 21, 1927 – September 27, 2022) was an American stage, screen and television actress, writer and performance artist. A lifetime member of the Actors Studio and the Dramatists Guild, Hotchkis was best known for playing ...
as Paula Harmon
*
Lynn Borden
Lynn Marie Freyse (March 24, 1937 – March 3, 2015) was an American film and television actress. She was known for playing Barbara Baxter in the final season of the American sitcom television series '' Hazel''.
Life and career
Borden was bor ...
as Harmon's Overnight Date
*
Shelley Morrison
Shelley Morrison (born Rachel Mitrani; October 26, 1936 – December 1, 2019) was an American actress. Morrison was known for her role as maid Rosario Salazar in the NBC comedy ''Will & Grace'', which she played from 1999 to 2006. She was also ...
as Nancy Henderson
*Eugene Peterson as Charlie
*
Richard Bull as Doctor
*
Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...
as Man in Crowd on Pier (uncredited cameo)
Production
Eastwood has described the film as a "big risk at the time" and that Universal Studios let him make the film as a favor. Eastwood "liked the whole comment on the rejuvenation of a cynic" who finds out about life through a seventeen-year-old girl, with her teaching him more about life than he does for her.
Eastwood said at the time that he didn't believe the film would "make a dime" but that he was making the movie because he wanted the challenge, and because the material was different than what he was used to. Holden had not made a major film since ''
The Wild Bunch
''The Wild Bunch'' is a 1969 American epic Revisionist Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates. The plot concerns an aging outlaw gang on th ...
'' in 1969, and he was so happy to be approached that he agreed to appear in the film for no salary, receiving instead a percentage of the profits. When the film generated no profits, the Screen Actors Guild told Eastwood that he would have to pay Holden the union minimum of $4000.
Jo Heims
Joyce Heims (January 15, 1930 – April 22, 1978) was an American screenwriter best known for her collaborations with actor-director Clint Eastwood. Born in Philadelphia, Heims moved out to the US west coast in early adulthood. She worked variou ...
wrote the script about a love blossoming between a middle-aged man and a teenage girl. Heims had originally intended Eastwood to play the starring role of the realtor Frank Harmon, a bitter divorced man who falls in love with the young Breezy. Although Eastwood confessed to "understanding the Frank Harmon character" he believed he was too young at that stage to play Harmon.
[McGilligan (1999), p.229] That part would go to
William Holden
William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ''Stalag 17'' (1953) ...
, 12 years Eastwood's senior, and Eastwood then decided to direct the picture. Eastwood initially wanted to cast
Jo Ann Harris
Jo Ann Harris (born Jo Ann Marcovitch; May 27, 1949) is an American actress known for her many film and television roles beginning in 1967. In the 1971 film '' The Beguiled'' she portrayed a 17-year-old who seduced Clint Eastwood's character. ...
, whom he had worked with in ''
The Beguiled''.
[Hughes, p.106] Eastwood described Holden as "very astute as an actor" and that he "understood the role completely, so it was easy for him to play." After he signed for the part, Holden said to Eastwood, "You know, I've been that guy," and Eastwood responded, "Yeah, I thought so."
Casting the role of Breezy was difficult because the role was young, seventeen according to the script, and nude scenes were required. Screen tests were performed with ten actresses, all with Holden. Eastwood later remarked that it was unusual that Holden was in the screen tests with all the actresses, and that "most guys would say, 'get me some kid.' "
The role of Breezy went to a young dark-haired actress named
Kay Lenz
Kay Ann Lenz (born March 4, 1953) is an American actress. She is the recipient of a Daytime Emmy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a Saturn Award.
Lenz is best known for her title role in the f ...
, chosen because of her chemistry with Holden,
who Eastwood described as "very very gentle with her, even during the screen test."
According to friends of Eastwood, he became infatuated with Lenz during this period.
[McGilligan (1999), p.230] Lenz had limited experience but approached her role energetically. Eastwood gave her veto power over nude scenes. Unless she approved them, he would not include them in the final cut.
Filming for ''Breezy'' began in November 1972 in Los Angeles and finished five weeks later.
With
Bruce Surtees, Eastwood's regular cinematographer, occupied elsewhere,
Frank Stanley was brought in to shoot the picture, the first of four films he would shoot for Malpaso.
The film was shot very quickly and efficiently and in the end went $1 million under budget and finished three days before schedule.
Holden's son Scott Holden plays a small role as a veterinarian, in his final attempt at an acting career.
Reception
Howard Thompson of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote, "A cloyingly naive resolution mars 'Breezy,' which opened yesterday, an otherwise engrossing drama of an aging man's infatuation with a tender-hearted 17-year-old girl derelict."
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...
of the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote, "Screenwriter Jo Heims has fashioned a formula May–September love affair into a surprisingly tender and frequently witty romance in which an older man is realistically transformed by a much younger woman ... 'Breezy' frequently threatens to collapse into a stereotypical characterization, but Holden's refreshing honesty invariably revitalizes the action. In the title role, newcomer Kay Lenz is sincere, often believable, and rarely maudlin." Arthur D. Murphy of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called it "an okay contemporary drama" with "perhaps too much ironic, wry or broad humor for solid impact."
Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' wrote of Eastwood that ''Breezy'' was "a deeply felt, fully realized film that is entirely his own. It's an offbeat love story told with rare delicacy and perception that affords William Holden his most fully dimensioned role in years and introduces a smashing newcomer named Kay Lenz."
The film opened at the Columbia II theater in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on November 18, 1973, but flopped, grossing only $16,099 in four weeks and 5 days.
Early unfavorable reviews and the poor performance caused the studio to shelve the film. It then underwent some minor re-editing and was test released in
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
in 39 theaters on July 3, 1974 on a
four wall distribution In the film industry, four wall distribution (also known as four-walling) is a process through which a studio or distributor rents movie theaters for a period of time and receives all of the box office revenue. The four walls of a movie theater giv ...
basis for two weeks.
[ The results were positive, so Universal expanded the four wall distribution policy to the ]Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
and Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
areas. During 1974, ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' tracked it grossing $140,289 in 20-24 key cities in the United States and Canada, placing it 301st on the list of their films tracked for the year, which with its gross from New York in 1973, gave it a gross of at least $156,388. Eastwood thought Universal had decided the film was going to fail long before it was released. He said "the public stayed away from it because it wasn't promoted enough, and it was sold in an uninteresting fashion". Some critics, including Eastwood's biographer Richard Schickel, believed that the sexual content of the film and love scenes were too soft to be memorable for such a potentially scandalous relationship between Harmon and Breezy, commenting that, "it is not a sexy movie. Once again, Eastwood was too polite in his eroticism." However, Schickel added that ''Breezy'' managed to recoup its low budget.[McGilligan (1999), p.231]
Home media release
''Breezy'' did not reach home video until 1998. Universal Pictures released the film to DVD in 2004 with a running time of 106 minutes (NTSC
The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...
). A Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
was released in 2014 by the British branch of Universal, which was issuing all their Clint Eastwood catalogue on HD. The film is in widescreen and Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for what has now become a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Formerly named Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, the audio compression is lossy ...
2.0 Mono. In the US, it was released on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber
Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, ...
in August 2020.
Influences
Lenz and ''Breezy'' figure into the storyline of Philip K. Dick's novel ''VALIS
''Valis'' (stylized as ''VALIS'') is a 1981 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, intended to be the first book of a three-part series. The title is an acronym for ''Vast Active Living Intelligence System'', Dick's gnostic vis ...
'', where the narrator Phil mentions he had a crush on her after the movie and tried approaching Lenz, only for her agent to stop him.
Excerpts from the film are used on the music track "Breezy" (sometimes titled "My Name's Breezy") by French house/alternative group Make the Girl Dance
Make or MAKE may refer to:
*Make (magazine), a tech DIY periodical
*Make (software), a software build tool
*Make, Botswana, in the Kalahari Desert
*Make Architects
Make Architects is an international architecture practice headquartered in London ...
, featured on their 2011 album ''Everything is Gonna be OK in the End''.
On 24 June 2022 he released the Album titled "Breezy".
In the Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. He made his feature-film debut with ''Hard Eight (film), Hard Eight'' (1996). He found critical and commercial success with ''Boogie Nights'' ( ...
movie ''Licorice Pizza
''Licorice Pizza'' is a 2021 American comedy drama, comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It stars Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman in their film debuts, alongside an ensemble supporting cast including Sean Penn, Tom Wait ...
'' (2021), a brief subplot has Alana Haim
Alana Mychal Haim (born December 15, 1991) is an American musician and actress. She is best known as a member of the pop rock band Haim, along with her two older sisters Este and Danielle, where she performs piano, guitar and vocals. In 2020, ...
's character auditioning for a movie called "Rainbow" that's a stand-in for ''Breezy,'' with Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008).
Penn began his acting career in televisi ...
playing the William Holden character. Some dialogue from ''Breezy'' was directly copied in ''Licorice Pizza''.
See also
* List of American films of 1973
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Clint Eastwood
1973 films
1973 romantic drama films
1970s English-language films
American romantic drama films
Films directed by Clint Eastwood
Films scored by Michel Legrand
Films set in California
Films with screenplays by Jo Heims
Malpaso Productions films
Universal Pictures films
1970s American films