Fortune and Men's Eyes
| Fortune and Men's Eyes | |
|---|---|
VHS cover for the film
|
|
| Directed by | Harvey Hart |
| Produced by |
Lester Persky Lewis M. Allen |
| Written by | John Herbert |
| Starring |
Wendell Burton Michael Greer Zooey Hall Danny Freedman Larry Perkins James Barron Hugh Webster Tom Harvey Jan Granik Kirk McColl Vance Davis Robert Goodier Lázaro Pérez |
| Music by | Galt MacDermot |
| Cinematography | Georges Dufaux |
| Edited by | Douglas Robertson |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
102 minutes |
| Country | Canada United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | CAD 1,109,000 |
Fortune and Men's Eyes is a 1967 play and 1971 film written by John Herbert about a young man's experience in prison, exploring themes of homosexuality and sexual slavery. The title comes from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 29, which begins with the line "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes". It has been translated into 40 languages and produced in over 100 countries. It is the most published Canadian play, and won the Dominion Drama Festival's Massey Award in 1968, which Herbert refused, and the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award in 1975.
The play was inspired in part by Herbert's own experience; he spent four months imprisoned in a youth reformatory after having been convicted of wearing drag in 1947. The character of Queenie in the play is an authorial self-insertion.
Herbert encountered difficulties in getting the play staged. After being rejected by several directors, Herbert, on the recommendation of Robertson Davies, who frequented the University Club at which Herbert worked as a waiter, sent the script to Douglas Campbell at the Stratford Festival. Campbell accepted the play for the festival's young actors workshop and assigned it to Bruno Gerussi to direct, but the Stratford Festival's board of directors forbade the production from being staged publicly.
Herbert sent a copy of the play to renowned Canadian theatre critic Nathan Cohen, who replied, "I hope you understand that there's not a chance in the world of this getting a professional production in Canada. I've taken the liberty of sending it to a producer of my acquaintance in New York and, of course, promise nothing." Cohen recommended the play to Broadway press agent David Rothenberg, who in turn recommended it to Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman workshopped the play at the New York Actors Studio in 1966, taking the role of Rocky, while Jon Voight played Smitty.
...
Wikipedia