Little Murders (1971) on Netflix
Patsy Newquist intervenes when street thugs attack a stranger, the photographer Alfred Chamberlain, and brings him home to meet her family in a New York City of blackouts and street crime.
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- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.8/104,195 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes71%
Trailer
Plot summary
Patsy Newquist, 27, works as an interior designer in a New York City troubled by street crime, blackouts, obscene phone calls and unsolved homicides. When she sees street thugs attacking a defenseless man, she intervenes, and he does not thank her. The man is Alfred Chamberlain, a photographer of excrement, emotionally vacant and willing to let muggers beat him. Patsy, used to molding men, brings him home to her parents and her brother Kenny, where he says almost nothing except that he does not care for families. Alfred also learns that Patsy had another brother, murdered for no known reason. She then announces that she and Alfred intend to marry.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Little Murders (1971)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Elliott Gould signed Jean-Luc Godard to direct Little Murders in 1969, with Robert Benton and David Newman writing the script for United Artists, but Gould disliked their script and Godard's interest waned.
- Jules Feiffer said there were "all sorts of problems" with director Alan Arkin on the film and that it "was by no means collaborative"; Arkin "really wanted nothing to do with me", though the two had worked together happily on the stage play.
- The 1967 Broadway production of Jules Feiffer's play ran for only seven performances; Feiffer called it an "atrocious production" though he admitted he was involved in all key creative decisions.
- Jules Feiffer first wrote Little Murders as a novel, worked on it for two years but was unhappy with it, then turned an outline into a play and wrote a first draft in three weeks.
- After the Broadway failure, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged the play in London under Christopher Morahan, where critics voted it best foreign play of the year; Feiffer said that production "saved my sanity".
- Dave Sim said the character of The Judge in his comic book Cerebus is based on Lou Jacobi's portrayal of Judge Stern in Little Murders.
