The Swimmer (1968) on Netflix
Ned Merrill walks out of the woods in swim trunks at a neighbor's pool party. Counting the valley's backyard pools, he decides they form a river home, and names it Lucinda's River.
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Trailer
Plot summary
Ned Merrill emerges from the woods in swim trunks at a pool party held by old friends in a well-off Connecticut suburb, where he is an advertising executive. He realizes that the backyard pools across the valley could carry him home, and names the route Lucinda's River, after his wife. He swims across the first pool and sets off. Twenty-year-old Julie Ann Hooper, who used to babysit his daughters, hears the plan and joins him. He tells people his daughters are at home playing tennis.
Cast
- Nancy Cushmanas Mrs. Halloran
- Bill Fioreas Howie Hunsacker
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Swimmer (1968)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Although Burt Lancaster was a trained athlete, he feared water and took swimming lessons from former Olympian and water polo coach Bob Horn to prepare for his role as Ned Merrill in The Swimmer.
- Director Frank Perry was fired by producer Sam Spiegel after principal photography ran from July to September 1966, and Spiegel brought in Sydney Pollack, a friend of star Burt Lancaster, and cinematographer Michael Nebbia to shoot January 1967 reshoots in California.
- When The Swimmer still needed an additional day of shooting, star Burt Lancaster paid the $10,000 cost out of his own pocket, according to Lancaster himself.
- Marvin Hamlisch, just 24 and a first-time film composer, landed the job of scoring The Swimmer after producer Spiegel hired him to play the piano at one of his parties.
- Comedian Joan Rivers made her film debut as an actress in The Swimmer, and her short scene took an unexpectedly long time to film, a delay she blamed on her co-star Lancaster.
- Producer Sam Spiegel, a three-time Academy Award winner for Best Picture, ultimately removed his name from The Swimmer, though his company Horizon Pictures remained credited.
