Rhinoceros (1974) on Netflix
PG19741h 44mComedyDramaFantasyRomance
Stanley, a hungover office clerk, loves his co-worker Daisy. A rhinoceros charges through a restaurant, and his best friend John and the people around him begin turning into the animals.
- Netflix2.9/5
- IMDb5.7/101,448 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Stanley is a hungover office clerk who drinks more than he should and carries a torch for Daisy, a co-worker. He meets John, his pompous best friend, at a restaurant, where John criticizes Stanley's drinking and dishevelment. A rhinoceros charges through the street outside and then bursts into the restaurant itself, wrecking the place while the staff and diners look on. Stanley arrives late at the office, where his boss and the other workers are arguing over news reports about the animals. Daisy insists she saw a rhinoceros with her own eyes, and Stanley says the same. When a co-worker on the street below changes into one in front of them, the office can no longer treat the reports as a joke, and Stanley feels the pressure to conform.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Rhinoceros (1974)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Zero Mostel reportedly refused to smash any props while rehearsing his transformation scene on Rhinoceros, because he claimed an aversion to destroying property.
- Director Tom O'Horgan considered using a live animal for the transformation, but no rhinoceros appears on camera: shadows, point-of-view camera angles and stampede rumbles stand in for the animals.
- The adaptation of Eugène Ionesco's play moved the setting from France to a contemporary United States, added a comically venerated photograph of President Richard Nixon, and renamed Bérenger and Jean as Stanley and John.
