The Arrangement (1969 film)
| The Arrangement | |
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| Directed by | Elia Kazan |
| Produced by | Elia Kazan |
| Written by |
Novel/Screenplay: Elia Kazan |
| Starring |
Kirk Douglas Faye Dunaway Deborah Kerr Richard Boone Hume Cronyn |
| Music by | David Amram |
| Cinematography | Robert Surtees |
| Edited by | Stefan Arnsten |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros.-Seven Arts |
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Release date
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Running time
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125 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $4 million (US/Canada rentals) |
The Arrangement is a 1969 film drama directed by Elia Kazan, based upon his 1967 novel of the same title.
It tells the story of a successful Los Angeles-area advertising executive of Greek-American extraction, Evangelos Arness, who goes by the professional name "Eddie Anderson." He is portrayed by Kirk Douglas.
Eddie is suicidal and slowly having a psychotic breakdown. He is miserable at home in his marriage to his WASPy wife, Florence, played by Deborah Kerr, and with his career. He is engaged in a torrid affair with his mistress and co-worker Gwen (Faye Dunaway), and is forced to re-evaluate his life and its priorities while dealing with his willful and aging father (Richard Boone).
Wealthy ad man Eddie Anderson makes a failed suicide attempt in his car. He is contemptuous of life and its "arrangements." His long marriage to Florence is now devoid of passion, and he has become the lover of Gwen, a research assistant at his Los Angeles advertising agency.
A psychiatrist, Dr. Leibman, listens to stories of Eddie's nightmares and general discontent with life. Eddie returns to work, where he insults a valued client. He pilots a small plane about L.A. and buzzes its skyscrapers recklessly, causing the police to be called.
Arthur, his lawyer, gives wife Florence power of attorney as Eddie travels to New York to visit Sam Arness, his ill father. The father is so sick that Eddie's brother and sister-in-law want him placed in an institution. Gwen is also in New York now, living with a man named Charles and telling Eddie of many other affairs that she has had. She has a baby that she claims is not Eddie's (but it's strongly implied she's lying).
A delusional Eddie begins to have conversations with his alter ego. Arthur brings papers for him to sign, turning over all of his community property to Florence, but she tells him not to sign them, and it turns out he signed someone else's name. Florence and Eddie have a long intense conversation, in which Eddie says he just wants to do nothing for a while—Florence simply can't understand this, and says he's insane. He sets fire to his father's house and comes to Gwen's apartment, where Charles shoots him—after this, Eddie is committed to a psychiatric hospital, but can release himself at any time, simply by proving he's got a job and a home to go to.
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