New York State Writers Institute - Classic Film Series

A Thousand Clowns

A
THOUSAND
CLOWNS

January 31, 2003 (Friday) at 7:30 p.m.
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue
(Free and Open to the Public)

(American, 1965, 118 minutes, b&w, 16mm)

Directed by Fred Coe
Starring Jason Robards, Barbara Harris, Martin Balsam, Gene Saks

This perpetual arthouse favorite tells the story of a writer who drops out of the corporate world to lead a life of perfect freedom. Jason Robards plays the nonconformist Murray Burns, guardian of a 12-year-old nephew, Nick. Murray raises his nephew to embrace his free-spirited values but runs into trouble with the Child Welfare Bureau. Adapted from Herb Gardner's successful Broadway play, A THOUSAND CLOWNS anticipated the American counterculture of the late 1960s.