Themes: Haunted By the Past, Suburban Dysfunction, Midlife Crises
Main Cast: Burt Lancaster, Janet Landgard, Janice Rule, Diana Van Der Vlis, Tony Bickley, Kim Hunter
Release Year: 1968
Country: US
Run Time: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
John Cheever's "misery in suburbia" short stories, brief and to the point, have always proven excellent TV fodder. Director Frank Perry's The Swimmer, adapted for the screen by Perry's wife Eleanor, is a rare, and for the most part successful, attempt at offering a Cheever story in feature-length form. Dressed only in swimming trunks throughout the film, Burt Lancaster plays a wealthy, middle-aged advertising man, embarked on a long and revelatory journey through suburban Connecticut. Lancaster slowly makes his way to his split-level home by travelling from house to house, and from swimming pool to swimming pool. At each stop, Lancaster comes face to face with an incident in his past. Informing Kim Hunter that he once harbored a secret love for her, Lancaster is mildly upset by Hunter's indifference. Elderly Cornelia Otis Skinner is incensed at Lancaster's intrusion in her backyard and orders him to leave. At the next home, Lancaster tries to seduce the nubile Janet Landgard, who'd once baby-sat for his daughters, but she runs away in horror. And so it goes: as each subsequent suburbanite peels off his self-protective veneer, Lancaster grows more and more disillusioned with what he thought was his ideal lifestyle. The more intensely painful episode is the confrontation between Lancaster and ex-mistress Janice Rule (this scene was directed, without credit, by Sydney Pollack). Thoroughly defeated, the all-but-naked Lancaster laboriously makes his way through the Connecticut woods in a blinding rainstorm, desperately seeking out his own home where he fully expects his "loving" wife and daughters to greet him. Not this time. Dismissed as too self-consciously "arty" at the time of its release, The Swimmer's reputation increased over the decades following its release thanks to constant late-night TV exposure. The film represents the first movie work of 22-year-old composer Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Burt Lancaster's imposing screen presence and lanky confidence were put to good use in this 1968 adaptation of John Cheever's allegorical short story. Lancaster plays Ned Merrill, a middle-aged man who decides one morning to swim every pool in his upper-class Connecticut neighborhood; with each new venue and its corresponding set of neighbors, Ned's personal history becomes clearer, and we begin to realize that he may not be as self-assuredly "okay" as he seems. Director Frank Perry retained Cheever's methodical structure and incisive wit, and Lancaster lent the role an eerie, somnambulant feel. An uncredited Sydney Pollack directed one of the most memorable sequences, in which Ned confronts his former mistress (Janice Rule). In an apparent attempt to appeal to audiences who had made Mike Nichols's The Graduate such a hit the previous year, Perry peppered the film with quick cuts, playful camera angles, and wry social satire; much of The Swimmer plays like an extended version of the opening party sequence in Nichols' film. Perry's efforts didn't resonate with audiences, however, as the film's box-office performance was lackluster. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Marge Champion - Forsburgh; Richard McMurray - Forsburgh; Nancy Cushman - Mrs. Halloran; House Jameson - Mr. Halloran; Charles Drake - Graham; Jimmy Joyce - Finney; Louise Troy - Grace Biswanger; Dolph Sweet - Henry Biswanger; David Garfield - Ticket Seller; Bernie Hamilton - Chauffeur; Michael Kearney - Gilmartin; Diana Muldaur - Cynthia; Keri Oleson - Vernon; Joan Rivers - Joan; Lisa Daniels - Matron at the Biswangers' Pool; Rose Gregorio - Sylvia Finney; Jan Miner - Lillian Hunsacker; Cornelia Otis Skinner - Mrs. Hammar; Bill Fiore - Howie Hunsacker; Ray Mason - Biswangers' Party Guest; John Gerstad - Guest at the Biswangers' Pool
Credit
Peter Dohanos - Art Director, Anna Hill Johnstone - Costume Designer, Elizabeth Stewart - Costume Designer, Michael Hertzberg - First Assistant Director, Frank Perry - Director, Carl Lerner - Editor, Sidney Katz - Editor, Pat Somerset - Editor, Marvin Hamlisch - Composer (Music Score), John Jiras - Makeup, John Kiras - Makeup, Michael Nebbia - Cinematographer, David Quaid - Cinematographer, Frank Perry - Producer, Roger Lewis - Producer, John Cheever - Screen Story, Eleanor Perry - Screenwriter
On a sunny late summer day in Connecticut Ned Merrill (Lancaster), a seemingly successful, appealing and popular middle-aged advertising executive, clad only in swimming trunks, walks out of the woods into the backyard of some old friends. After chatting with them he says he'll "swim" home across the county by dropping in on friends' swimming pools. At first Ned gets warm welcomes as he meets old friends. These are mostly upper middle-class, affluent people with homes in the outer, upstate suburbs. However, there are hints that Ned has been away for some time and Ned cheerfully brushes off questions about himself.
As the day wears on and Ned sees those who have been closer to him more recently, and the welcomes begin to sour. Ned's proud boasts about his wife, daughters and home are met with strong mixed feelings, jeers, suspicion and anger, especially from women. In one backyard, Ned meets a girl in her late teens who, years ago, had babysat his daughters. She leaves with him, at first thrilled to do so owing to an unspoken crush she had for him whilst in her early teens, but when Ned rather clumsily tries to woo and kiss her, she flees. He carries on with his "swim," dropping by the pools of sundry other friends as it slowly unfolds that his life has somehow gone quite wrong. He crashes a party at one pool and while he is put up with at first, Ned is thrown out when he has an outburst after spotting a hot dog wagon he had once bought for his daughters, but which has now been sold in a "white elephant" sale. He then shows up at the backyard pool of a stage actress he betrayed perhaps two years earlier. She is still feeling bitter and hurt. When he tries to rekindle things, this poolside meeting ends very badly for both of them.
As the day ends Ned winds up in a crowded public swimming pool where he meets and is shamed by local shopkeepers to whom he still owes money for unpaid grocery and restaurant tabs. As the sun goes down, a shivering Ned at last staggers up a rocky hill, shoves open a rusted gate and walks through an overgrown garden with an unkept tennis court. A thunderstorm begins as Ned knocks on the front door of a locked, dark and thoroughly empty house, whereupon he breaks down and weeps on the front stoop.
Production
The Swimmer was made in the US by Columbia Pictures, filmed largely on location in Westport, Connecticut during the summer of 1966, but not released until 1968. Sydney Pollack was brought in to finish the film after Perry left because of "creative differences".
The film was Janet Landgard's first featured cinematic role and there are cameos by Kim Hunter, Cornelia Otis Skinner and Joan Rivers, among others. The musical score by Marvin Hamlisch has dramatic passages for a small orchestra along with a highly generic mid-1960s pop sound.
