The Boys (1991) on Netflix
Artie Margulies smokes three packs a day. His writing partner of twenty years, Walter Farmer, never smoked. Then Walter is diagnosed with lung cancer.
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- Netflix2.9/5
- IMDb5.8/10153 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Walter Farmer and Artie Margulies have written scripts for movies and television for twenty years, a partnership close enough to pass for a marriage. Artie smokes three packs of cigarettes a day. Walter has never smoked, and his lifestyle is squeaky clean. Then Walter is diagnosed with lung cancer, and the doctors give him six months to live. He has to tell Artie, his chain-smoking writing partner. Walter sets about putting his affairs in order. He teaches writing to prison inmates. He talks with his son and his ex-wife. And he tries to get Artie to quit smoking.
Cast
- Rosanna Huffmanas Carolyn
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Boys (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Boys was inspired by writer William Link's life with his long-time writing partner Richard Levinson, and by Levinson's death. But the story's key plot point never happened in reality: it was Levinson, not his partner, who smoked.
- James Woods asked his agent to close his eyes and imagine the best actor for his partner Artie, and both came up with Mickey Rooney, who was unavailable. The filmmakers then tried Andy Rooney and Andy Garcia before casting John Lithgow, who was then doing The Last Elephant.
- John Lithgow was on location in Africa, with no way to make or receive phone calls, when the script reached him: "somehow or other a faxed script arrived on my bed one night by a carrier caribou."
- William Link wrote the script as a form of private therapy to get over Richard Levinson's death, and used to say his relationship with his writing partner was like a marriage without the sex, according to the Los Angeles Times.
- The Boys was the first TV movie to deal directly with the issue of secondary smoke, though both leading actors insisted it was not a network disease-of-the-week movie.
