Alice's Restaurant (1969) on Netflix
Arlo Guthrie quits college in Montana and hitchhikes east to visit his father Woody in the hospital. He settles in with Ray and Alice Brock, who live in a deconsecrated church.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.3/104,987 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes63%
Trailer
Plot summary
A deconsecrated church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, is home to Ray and Alice Brock, who let bohemian friends stay. Arlo Guthrie arrives there after quitting college in Montana and hitchhiking east, having stopped in New York to see his father Woody. Shelly, an artist and former heroin addict, rides with a motorcycle racing club. Alice is starting a restaurant in nearby Stockbridge, and a jingle Arlo writes for it is played on a radio station, bringing the first customers. Alice leaves for New York, where Arlo and Roger are visiting Woody again. Ray comes to take her back, saying that friends are expected for Thanksgiving.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Alice's Restaurant (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The real Alice Brock and Ray Brock, whose lives inspired the film, finalized their divorce on the same day its hippie wedding scene was shot.
- Arlo Guthrie was given a limousine each morning during location filming while the other actors and Stockbridge extras found their own transport, and the star treatment strained his relations with his friends for years.
- Arlo Guthrie's real-life co-defendant Richard Robbins, embarrassed by the littering incident, refused to let his name be associated with it, so the character based on him was played by one of his own friends.
- Stockbridge police chief William Obanhein, the real-life Officer Obie, plays himself in the film; he told Newsweek that making himself look like a fool was preferable to somebody else doing it.
- M. Emmet Walsh's first credited film appearance was as the Group W sergeant; he had previously been only an uncredited extra in Midnight Cowboy, released three months earlier.
- Alice Brock, the real restaurant owner behind the film, appears in the Thanksgiving dinner and wedding scenes, but declined an offer to portray herself.
- In reality Guthrie was still enrolled at a Montana college during the littering incident and trial, and was in Stockbridge only for the long Thanksgiving weekend; he dropped out at the end of that semester.
