A Thousand Clowns (film)
| A Thousand Clowns | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Fred Coe |
| Produced by | Fred Coe Herb Gardner Ralph Rosenblum |
| Screenplay by | Herb Gardner |
| Based on |
A Thousand Clowns by Herb Gardner |
| Starring |
Jason Robards Barbara Harris Martin Balsam |
| Music by |
Gerry Mulligan Don Walker |
| Cinematography | Arthur Ornitz |
| Edited by | Ralph Rosenblum |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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116 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2.4 million (Rentals) |
A Thousand Clowns is a 1965 film adaptation from a 1962 play by Herb Gardner, and directed by Fred Coe. It tells the story of an eccentric comedy writer who is forced to conform to society to retain legal custody of his nephew.
Jason Robards starred in both the original Broadway version on stage and in the film. Martin Balsam won an Academy Award for his supporting performance in the movie.
Unemployed television writer Murray Burns (Jason Robards) lives in a cluttered New York City studio apartment with his 12-year-old nephew, Nick (Barry Gordon). Murray has been unemployed for five months after quitting his previous job: writing jokes for a children's television show called Chuckles the Chipmunk. Nick, the illegitimate son of Murray's sister, was left with Murray seven years earlier.
When Nick writes a school essay on the benefits of unemployment insurance, his school requests that New York State send social workers to investigate his living conditions. Investigators for the Child Welfare Board, Sandra Markowitz (Barbara Harris), and her superior and boyfriend Albert Amundson (William Daniels), threaten Murray with removal of the child from his custody unless he can prove he is a capable guardian.
Murray charms and seduces Sandra. He convinces her to join him in his delusional charade, in which seeking work is a kind of joke used to keep the conventional, conformist, and inhumane state from his doorstep. Sandra rationalizes her growing relationship with Murray as encouragement for his attempts to seek employment. Although Murray tries to avoid actually getting a job, he finds himself in a dilemma: if he wishes to keep his nephew, he must swallow his pride and go back to work.
Murray also feels that he can't let go of Nick until the boy has shown some "backbone". In a confrontation with his brother and agent Arnold (Martin Balsam), Murray expounds his nonconformist worldview: that a person must fight at all costs to retain a sense of identity and aliveness, and avoid being absorbed by the homogeneous masses. Arnold retorts that by conforming to the dictates of society, he has become "the best possible Arnold Burns".
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