They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) on Netflix
Desperate couples pack a Depression-era dance marathon on the Santa Monica Pier for a $1,500 prize. Gloria, bitter and weary, gets a new partner, Robert, after her own is disqualified.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.8/1022,028 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Trailer
Plot summary
On the Santa Monica Pier in the Great Depression, a rundown ballroom fills with couples chasing a $1,500 prize and the hope that celebrities and talent scouts watching from the audience might spot them. Robert, a homeless man, drifts in as the marathon is about to start, and the promoter and emcee, Rocky Gravo, recruits him to partner Gloria Beatty, a bitter young woman whose previous partner was disqualified for bronchitis. Around them dance retired sailor Harry Kline, aspiring London actress Alice LeBlanc and her partner Joel Girard, and farmer James Bates with his pregnant wife Ruby. Rocky exploits the vulnerabilities of the stronger couples for the audience's amusement.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film took nine nominations at the 42nd Academy Awards, with Gig Young winning Best Supporting Actor, yet it was never nominated for Best Picture. That still stands as the record for the most Oscar nominations by a film shut out of the Best Picture race.
- A version of the story nearly appeared in the 1950s, with Norman Lloyd directing, Charlie Chaplin producing and Chaplin's son Sydney opposite newcomer Marilyn Monroe. It died when J. Edgar Hoover arranged for Chaplin's re-entry permit to be revoked while he was in London in 1952.
- Mia Farrow wanted the lead but her $500,000 fee was judged too steep, so the script went to Jane Fonda. Fonda was unimpressed at first and only reconsidered when her husband Roger Vadim pointed out how close the book was to the French existentialists.
- Susannah York almost left mid-production because she wanted a guarantee she could go on to make Country Dance. No guarantee came, Pollack lined up Sally Kellerman to replace her, and York backed down and stayed.
- Gig Young built the emcee Rocky on a real broadcaster, the bandleader and radio personality Ben Bernie, and borrowed Bernie's catchphrase "Yowzah! Yowzah! Yowzah!" for the part.
- The film pushed Horace McCoy's title into everyday American speech, according to Turner Classic Movies, and its echoes reached pop music: Chic's 1977 hit "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" was inspired by it.
