Little Murders is a 1971 American black comedy film directed by Alan Arkin, in his feature film directorial debut, and starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd. Based on the stage play of the same name by Jules Feiffer, it is the story of a woman, Patsy Newquist (Rodd), who brings home her boyfriend, Alfred Chamberlain (Gould), to meet her severely dysfunctional family amidst a series of random shootings, garbage strikes and electrical outages ravaging their New York City neighborhood.
Plot Patsy Newquist is a 27-year-old interior designer who lives in a New York City that is rife with street crime, noise, obscene phone calls, power blackouts and unsolved homicides. When she sees a defenseless man being attacked by street thugs, she intervenes, but is surprised when the passive victim doesn't even bother to thank her. She ends up attracted to the man, Alfred Chamberlain, a photographer of excrement, but finds that he is emotionally vacant, barely able to feel pain or pleasure. He permits muggers to beat him up until they get tired and go away.
Patsy is accustomed to "molding" men. Alfred is different. When she brings him home to meet her parents Carol and Marjorie and her brother Kenny, he is almost non-verbal, except to tell her that he doesn't care for families. He learns that Patsy had another brother who was murdered for no known reason. Patsy's eccentric family is surprised when she announces their intention to wed, then amazed when their marriage ceremony conducted by the existential Rev. Henry Dupas turns into a mass fight. Determined to discover why her new husband is the way he is, Patsy sends Alfred to Chicago to visit his parents, who he left at 17 years of age, with a questionnaire about his childhood. He records the interview with his parents, in which they deny memory of his childhood.
Alfred ultimately agrees to try to become Patsy's kind of man, the kind willing to "fight back," professes he is able to feel emotions again, and that his first feeling is worship for Patsy. The instant that happens, a sniper's bullet kills Patsy, again for no apparent reason. A blood-splattered Alfred goes to her parents' apartment, New Yorkers barely noticing his state. He descends into a silent stupor, Carol even having to feed him. A ranting, disturbed police detective, Lt. Miles Practice, drops by, almost unable to function due to the number of unsolved murders in the city. After he leaves, Alfred goes for a walk in the park, where he starts to take photographs of a statue and some kids. He returns with a rifle, which he doesn't know how to load. Carol shows him how. Then the two of them, along with Kenny, take turns shooting people down on the street. Upon believing Alfred to have shot Lt. Practice, their mood brightens, and all three men giddily join Marjorie for dinner at the table.
Cast Elliott Gould as Alfred Chamberlain Marcia Rodd as Patsy Newquist Vincent Gardenia as Carol Newquist Elizabeth Wilson as Marjorie Newquist Jon Korkes as Kenny Newquist John Randolph as Mr. Chamberlain Doris Roberts as Mrs. Chamberlain Donald Sutherland as Reverend Henry Dupas Lou Jacobi as Judge Stern Alan Arkin as Lieutenant Miles Practice
On stage Development Jules Feiffer says he was inspired to write the story by the assassination of John F. Kennedy. "Which was odd because I wasn't a big fan of his; he was the first actor in the White House," he said. "And then when Oswald was shot, I thought there is a madness going on. And because of my politics, I saw that madness in Vietnam, too. So the motive of the play was the breakdown of all forms of authority—religion, family, the police. Urban violence was always the metaphor in my mind for something more serious in the country."
Feiffer originally wrote the story as a novel. "Having gone to theater a lot and read plays a lot since adolescence, I realized that if I ever wrote the sort of play I wanted to write, it would close in a week. I felt I'd already done my masochistic years at The Village Voice—eight years of cartoons without a penny. But I felt this grim sense of what was going on and I didn't feel the cartoons could express that fully. I also felt the cartoons were being too easily accepted."
Feiffer worked on the novel for two years but was unhappy with it.Our Age Of Violence: Feiffer: Our Age of Violence By JULES FEIFFER. New York Times 23 April 1967: 97. Then he discovered an original outline for the novel which he thought would make a good play. He wrote a first draft in three weeks. "And I realized that whatever the fate of the play, I was stuck as a playwright. I felt as at home with a play as with the cartoon."
1967 Broadway production The play was going to have its world premiere at the Yale School of Drama in October 1966.BROADWAY TO GET MUSICAL 'SUNDAY': 1967 Staging of Dassin Film Will Star Miss Mercouri By SAM ZOLOTOW. New York Times 18 May 1966: 41. However that ended when there was a chance it would be produced on Broadway. Alexander Cohen eventually got the rights.BIL BAIRD'S THEATER GETS A HEAD START New York Times 27 July 1966: 44. Stage rights were also optioned by the Aldwych Theatre in London.The balcony scene--as t'were Coleman, Terry. The Guardian 10 Jan 1967: 7.
The play was staged on Broadway in 1967 with a cast that included Elliott Gould, David Steinberg and Barbara Cook and a budget of $100,000. It was directed by George L. Sherman.
Reviews were mixed. Walter Kerr said "The comedy comes to a point where it can no longer keep a grin on its face, not even a twisted one. Mr. Feiffer gives over the business of suggesting serious comment from inside a lazy, lunatic stance, and like a too successfully reformed gag man, goes straight."Theater: Feiffer's 'Little Murders': Comedy by Cartoonist Opens at Broadhurst By WALTER KERR. New York Times 26 April 1967: 38.Feiffer Wit Sharp in 'Little Murders' Glover, William. Los Angeles Times 28 April 1967: e19.
Feiffer called it an "atrocious production" but admits he was involved in all key creative decisions.Feiffer: If at First You . . .: Jules Feiffer: If at First You . . . By TOM BURKE. New York Times 26 January 1969: D1. The play lasted only seven performances.'LITTLE MURDERS' TO CLOSE TONIGHT: Feiffer Play Is Ending After Seven Performances By LOUIS CALTA. New York Times 29 April 1967: 23. Walter Kerr, who had given the play a mixed review, wrote an article saying the play had promise and that it was a shame the piece could not have been further developed.They Might Have Made It: Two Plays That Might Have Made It By WALTER KERR. New York Times 4 June 1967: X1. The fate of the play was given as an example of the lack of critical and producer support given to new American plays on Broadway.
1967 London production This failure was followed by a successful London production by the Royal Shakespeare Company, directed by Christopher Morahan at the Aldwych Theatre. Reviews were better though not raves and the play was voted by critics as best foreign play of the year.A Strike For 'Murders' By MARTIN ESSLIN. New York Times 23 July 1967: 69. Feiffer said this production "saved my sanity."
1969 Off-Broadway production Theodore Mann had the idea of reviving the play off Broadway and hired Alan Arkin to direct. It was revived in 1969 by Circle in the Square in New York City, directed by Arkin with a cast that included Linda Lavin, Vincent Gardenia, Elizabeth Wilson and Fred Willard.Arkin Staging Feiffer Play New York Times 21 November 1968: 42. Feiffer had no creative involvement in the production. The New York Times called the production "fantastically funny."Drama: 'Little Murders' Refuses to Die: Off Broadway Revival Staged by Arkin By CLIVE BARNES. New York Times 6 January 1969: 38. That production ran for 400 performances, and won Feiffer an Obie Award. Lavin won the 1969 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Performance.
There was also a successful 1969 production in Los Angeles.DRAMA REVIEW: Feiffer's 'Murders' Offered Sullivan, Dan. Los Angeles Times 28 April 1969: g20.Feiffer Play in 3rd Month at Playhouse Los Angeles Times 30 June 1969: d18.
Arkin directed Feiffer's second play The White House Murder Case.
Film production Jean-Luc Godard In January 1969, Elliott Gould announced he had formed his own production company with Jack Brodsky and that they would make two films: The Assistant, from a novel by Bernard Malamud, and Little Murders. Gould said he signed Jean-Luc Godard to direct.Gould Striving for Super Status Haber, Joyce. Los Angeles Times (8 January 1969: k13. United Artists were going to finance and release it, and Robert Benton and David Newman would write the script.Godard to Direct 'Little Murders' Film By A. H. WEILER. New York Times 29 May 1969: 50. Gould was unhappy with Benton and Newman's script, and Godard's interest waned.
Alan Arkin Feiffer wrote the script. He added new scenes, including new characters such as Alfred Chamberlain's parents (played by John Randolph and Doris Roberts). Feiffer said "all I've done in the screenplay is change it from a theatre cliché to a movie cliché."Jules Feiffer: 'It's Reality That Closes Saturday Night' Sullivan, Dan. Los Angeles Times (1923-1995), 14 February 1971: r1.
Gould asked Arkin to direct (he had never directed a feature before but had directed two short films and had extensive experience as a theatre director). Arkin was reluctant to return to the material but was persuaded after a series of meetings with Feiffer; he was announced as the director in March 1970.Arkin on directing: 'It's magic, but I trust': Leashed tension Dual role Jules Feiffer Antididactic By Louise Sweeney. The Christian Science Monitor 11 July 1970: 4.'Go Ahead, Interview Me' By JOSH GREENFELD. New York Times 21 June 1970: 89. Arkin said the film was "about the human condition."The Serious and Secret Side of Alan Arkin: Art begins at home for this father, who happens to be a very talented man. Serious, Secret Arkin' Marks, J. Chicago Tribune 23 March 1971: a1.
Richard Zanuck, head of Fox, who had made M*A*S*H and Move with Gould, agreed to finance the film for $1.4 million. Gould's salary was $200,000, deferred until after the film made a profit.New Movie Financing Deal Seen New York Times 3 May 1970: 148.
Shooting Filming began in April 1970 and finished June 11, $100,000 under budget. "Frankly, I'm scared by what we did," said Arkin, "particularly the last 10 minutes." Feiffer later said "there were all sorts of problems" with Arkin on the film, "although we had worked together very happily on the play. And it was by no means collaborative. He really wanted nothing to do with me. I had very little input into how that movie came out, and some of it is good and some of it isn't." Feiffer said he was not pleased with the film. "I think that's not his fault, entirely, it's also mine. I made compromises on the screenplay that were not his idea, they were my own. I was inexperienced, and they were dumb ideas. But then there were things that were his fault. Some of his casting. The style of the film, which worked very well on stage, but wasn't appropriate for film, I don't think."
Release and reception Home media and rights Following its initial release, the film was made available on VHS and DVD, and in 2018, it was released on Blu-ray, with this release including new special features. In the 2000s, the film was also in rotation on the Fox Movie Channel, a channel dedicated to 20th Century Fox Films.https://web.archive.org/web/20030401202606/http://www.foxmoviechannel.com/scheddaily.asp In 2019, Rupert Murdoch sold most of 21st Century Fox's film and television assets to Disney, and Little Murders was one of the films included in the deal.Copyright notice on the Blu-Ray packaging for Little Murders, 2018. Since then, Disney have not made the film available on their streaming services or any other digital platforms.
Critical response