Main Cast: Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, Mickey Rooney
Release Year: 1961
Country: US
Run Time: 114 minutes
Plot
In an idealized New York City during the early '60s, Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) is a charming socialite with a youthful zest for life who lives alone in a nearly bare apartment. She has such a flippant lifestyle that she won't even give her cat a name, because that would be too much of a commitment to a relationship. Maintaining a childlike innocence yet wearing the most perfect of designer clothes and accessories from Givenchy, she spends her time on expensive dates and at high-class parties. She escorts various wealthy men, yet fails to return their affections after they have given her gifts and money. Holly's carefree independence is changed when she meets her neighbor, aspiring writer Paul (George Peppard), who is suffering from writer's block while being kept by a wealthy woman (Patricia Neal). Just when Holly and Paul are developing their sweet romance, Doc (Buddy Ebsen) appears on the scene and complicates matters, revealing the truth about Holly's past. Breakfast at Tiffany's was nominated for several Academy awards, winning Best Score for Henry Mancini and Best Song for Johnny Mercer's classic tune "Moon River". ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Review
Blake Edwards may have directed Breakfast at Tiffany's, and screenwriter George Axelrod certainly did a splendid job of adjusting Truman Capote's novel for the screen, but from the first moment Audrey Hepburn steps out of a cab with her coffee and danish and window shops at Tiffany's after a night on the town, this is her movie, and it's all but impossible to imagine another actress in the role. Beyond her tremendous charm and buoyant comic timing, Hepburn manages to make Holly Golightly at once resilient and fragile, a woman who knows her way around Manhattan but still hasn't figured out how not to be hurt by the world around her -- it would have been easy to make Holly seem flighty and annoying, but in Hepburn's capable hands she's an adorable, jaded innocent whose hipster façade and oft-stated desire to marry a wealthy man never quite disguises her need to be loved and to belong. As Paul Varjak, Holly's neighbor, friend, confidante, and eventual boyfriend, George Peppard is almost a bit too strong and solid -- he seems a mite stiff much of the time -- but he plays well off of Hepburn, and knows enough to stay out of her way; elsewhere, Patricia Neal is spot on as Paul's cheerfully cynical "sponsor," and Buddy Ebsen is superb in a brief turn as the former husband of the former Lula Mae Barnes (and could anyone blame him for wanting her back?). The film's only obvious casting mistake is Mickey Rooney, whose buck-toothed and over-the-top shtick as Mr. Yunioshi might be a shade less offensive if he were the least bit funny. However, between Edwards' frothy pacing, Franz F. Planer's lovely location camerawork, and Henry Mancini's memorable score, Breakfast at Tiffany's is a thoroughly charming and witty valentine to one special woman and the city she loves that still enchants more than 40 years after it first hit the screen. ~ Mark Deming ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
John McGiver - Tiffany's Clerk; Dorothy Whitney - Mag Wildwood; Stanley Adams - Rusty Trawler; Elvia Allman - Librarian; Alan Reed, Sr. - Sally Tomato; Beverly Hills - Stripper; Claude Stroud - Sid Arbuck; Dick Crockett - Taxi Driver; José-Luis de Villalonga - Jose da Silva Perriera; Kip King - Delivery Boy; James Lanphier - The Cousin; Joan Staley - Girl in Low-Cut Dress
Credit
Hubert de Givenchy - Costume Designer, Edith Head - Costume Designer, William McGarry - First Assistant Director, Blake Edwards - Director, Howard A. Smith - Editor, Henry Mancini - Composer (Music Score), Johnny Mercer - Songwriter, Wally Westmore - Makeup, Roland Anderson - Production Designer, Hal Pereira - Production Designer, Franz Planer - Cinematographer, Martin Jurow - Producer, Richard Shepherd - Producer, Ray Moyer - Set Designer, Sam Comer - Set Designer, John P. Fulton - Special Effects, Hugo Grenzbach - Sound/Sound Designer, John K. Wilkinson - Sound/Sound Designer, George Axelrod - Screenwriter, Mort Segal - Unit Publicist, Truman Capote - Book Author
