So much average

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is my favorite movie of this time period and I watch it every time it comes on. I'm a boomer and this movie brings not only the heat and repressed and not so repressed sexuality many reviewers comment on but more importantly, it juxtaposes it with the innocence and naivete that were a part of America, especially small town America through the end of the 70's. Everything from the opening shots of this Midwestern small town, to the house, and especially the Labor day picnic take you back into this time of innocence. The opening sequences are so powerful in evoking that time period that I can smell the marigolds in the garden and feel the warmth of the sun beating down on William Holden's bare chest as he sees Madge for the first time. Even The look on Helen, the elderly neighbors, face when she sees also sees him reminds me that the sense of romance in life, the knight on the white horse that all girls grew up with, is lost in this technological age. Every woman in this movie hungers for romance, with the underlying sexual tension not nearly as important. The sense of wonder and discovery we had then with our first romantic kiss becomes palpable as Madge and he dance. Their bodies barely touching, but like the characters, you can imagine what it will feel like when they finally do touch. I think this is the thing Inge brings to all his works, never more evident than in this movie and in Splendor in the Grass, this sense of innocence and naivete, romance and our yearning for it, head to head with the realities of what happens to the innocence if romance leads unbridled. But Inge always leaves us unafraid of the romance, even if it leads to the worst, you would never trade one moment of that feeling, even if you knew what was ahead. Watch this movie, it does not disappoint.

Where is MST3K when you need it? "Picnic" had me resurrecting this late 80s fad: Conflicted belle shirks marrying for money for a deeper passion - NOT! Irrestible 20-something drops out of college and out of his boxcar into the roiling undercurrents of a... picnic - NOT! Gracefully aging spinster displays resilience and inner strength grappling with the gender roles of her day - TRIPLE NOT! Holden's bluster and swagger had me wanting a film noir ending of some sort. He looks ruggedly hot as usual, but nowhere near the age he's supposed to be. Bogie could have been cast to similar effect.Novak expressionlessly drones about being tired of being looked at, only to throw over the local nice guy for a booty call with a sexy dancer she has known for all of six hours - the sort of charmer with lines like "you asked for it".She's egged on in her non-mutual romance by her social-climbing mother, who in countering Novak's objection that she is only nineteen, displays a knack for non-linear mathematics: "Next year you'll be 20, then 21, and then...40!"The movie never succeeds in making us care for the main characters. There is an attempt at exploring Holden's inner conflict, but in the balance of things, he's more creepy than compelling, while Novak wins the Oscar for "Best Blank Expression" in most scenes. But Russell's "spinster school marm" performance is the nadir of the whole affair. Acting with all the poise of a tipsy Old West bar maid, she literally rips Holden's shirt off in public then (also literally) throws herself at a long-time boyfriend the next morning. And when, implausibly, he goes through with the ceremony, she sticks her tongue out at the school on the way by.The only likable character is the ditched boyfriend. What is so repellent to Novak's character? He's cute, nice, rich and until the picnic, has even settled for kissing when they park. More to the point, he is going out with her against his father's wishes and stands up to the old man about it.At least I came away with some ideas for my next picnic, like the octogenarian balloon blowing contest. I'll have to watch that scene again, it was an emotional high point.

A former college football star drifts into a small town on Labor Day, disrupting the lives of the locals. Director Logan came from a stage background and he never adapted to the film medium. He did not understand that film acting requires more subtlety than stage acting. Holden is certainly not known for overplaying, but Logan pushes him in that direction. He's not helped by some of his lines, particularly his repeatedly calling Novak "Baby." Yes, Inge's play won the Pulitzer Prize, but it is overly dramatic and contains some really corny lines. Russell is quite energetic. Novak, on the other hand, seems to be on a sedative. O'Connell and Strasberg come off best.

Corny, old-fashioned, silly, heavy-handed moral messages, obvious…yet it's still masterful. It is one of those pieces that is somehow separate from the sum of its parts. Does it even make sense that something this dated is still this great? Actually, it does. Despite a few very glaring flaws, the film is able to triumph over these setbacks and be great. Let us start with the cinematography, it is only second to perfection. Each scene has just the right amount of touch, just the right amount of editing, and just immaculate framing of shots. It is not some pretend to be great cinematography with amazing exotic landscapes or special effects or anything like that. It is technical diligence where whichever shot is required, be it wide shot, medium shot, two-shot or whatever, it is delivered. Each and every time. This is a film somehow directed to perfection (san the river bank scene, haha). I could continue on about the movie, how things are not preach, but thorough and purposeful, or how it doesn't have to try hard to be stylish, but succeeds in drawing you to its own world,or through all its unlikeliness offers very effective storytelling… but I'd like to keep this review in the same light as the movie…Trite, but true. So, if you are looking for an underrated and overlooked classic, skip "Night of the Hunter" and watch this. 9/10