The Landlord
{{short description|1970 film by Hal Ashby}}
{{about|the 1970 film|other uses|Landlord (disambiguation)}}
{{redirect|The Landlord (film)|the 2007 short film starring Will Ferrell|The Landlord (2007 film)|the 1940 German film directed by Heinz Helbig|Der Herr im Haus}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2015}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Landlord
| image = landlord movie poster.jpg
| caption = promotional poster
| director = Hal Ashby
| producer = Norman Jewison
| screenplay = Bill Gunn
| based_on = {{based on|The Landlord
1966 novel|Kristin Hunter}}
| starring = Beau Bridges
Lee Grant
Diana Sands
Pearl Bailey
| music = Al Kooper
| cinematography = Gordon Willis
| editing = William A. Sawyer
Edward Warschilka
| studio = Mirisch Company
Cartier Productions
| distributor = United Artists
| released = {{Film date|1970|05|20}}
| runtime = 113 minutes
| language = English
| budget = $1.95 million[https://books.google.com/books?id=DSCfnVzRUGYC&dq=shampoo+1975+budget&pg=PA176 "The Films of Hal Ashby".] Beach, Christopher (2009). Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, p. 175, {{ISBN|978-0-8143-3415-7}}.
| gross =
}}
The Landlord is a 1970 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby, adapted by Bill Gunn from the 1966 novel by Kristin Hunter. The film stars Beau Bridges in the lead role of a privileged and ignorant white man who selfishly becomes the landlord of an inner-city tenement, unaware that the people he is responsible for are low-income, streetwise residents. Also in the cast are Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey, and Louis Gossett Jr. The film was Ashby's directorial debut.
Plot
Elgar Enders, who lives off an allowance from his wealthy parents, buys an inner-city tenement in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which is undergoing gentrification, planning to evict the occupants and construct a luxury home for himself. However, once he ventures into the tenement, he grows fond of the low-income black residents. Enders decides to remain the landlord and help fix the building. He rebels against his WASP upbringing and, to his parents' dismay, romances two black women.
The first is Lanie, a mixed-race dancer at a local black club. Lanie has light skin and features due to her having a mother of Irish descent and a father of African descent, and has experienced colorism. Their relationship is strained, as Elgar has an affair with one of his tenants, Fanny, and gets her pregnant. Her boyfriend, Copee, a black activist with an identity crisis, is enraged when he finds out about the pregnancy, and tries to kill Elgar with an axe but stops. He is taken away in a straitjacket.
In recovery at the hospital, Fanny tells Elgar she can't raise the child herself with Copee returning home. Elgar balks at being a single father, so Fanny suggests they give the child up for adoption, but only to a white family to start a new life. The story ends with Elgar taking custody of the child, mending his relationship with Lanie, and moving in with her.
Cast
| class="wikitable"
! Actor !! Role | |
| Beau Bridges | Elgar Winthrop Julius Enders |
| Lee Grant | Joyce Enders |
| Diana Sands | Francine "Fanny" Johnson |
| Pearl Bailey | Marge |
| Walter Brooke | William Enders |
| Louis Gossett Jr. | Copee Johnson (as Lou Gossett) |
| Marki Bey | Lanie |
| Melvin Stewart | Professor Duboise |
| Florynce Kennedy | Enid, the Realtor |
| Susan Anspach | Susan Enders |
| Robert Klein | Peter Coots |
| Will Mackenzie | William Enders Jr. |
Charlie Murphy, older brother of Eddie Murphy, lived in the neighborhood where the film was shot, and he appears in a brief scene as a boy stealing Elgar's hubcaps.
Reception and legacy
The film was a commercial disappointment. Arthur Krim of United Artists later did an assessment of the film as part of an evaluation of the company's inventory:
What was expected to be provocative material to the new modern film audience of 1968-1969 in depicting black and white relationships in an urban setting, emerged as a film which we felt would be of limited interest to the audience of 1970 - an audience more and more sated with films of this genre. This is still a type of film we intend to continue to make but at one-quarter the cost. Unfortunately, at the time this film was programmed, unrealistic optimism about the potential audience for this type of film prevailed.quoted in Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company that Changed the Film Industry, Wisconsin Press, 1987 p 314
=Critical reaction=
The film garnered mostly positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has received a 93% overall approval rating from 14 critics.{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/landlord/|title=The Landlord|publisher=Rottentomatoes.com|access-date=13 January 2015|archive-date=28 November 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241128191006/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/landlord|url-status=live}} Upon its release, New York Times film critic Howard Thompson, called the film "a wondrously wise, sad and hilarious comedy."{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/movies/19land.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=The%20Landlord&st=cse|title=Before Gentrification Was Cool, It Was a Movie|work=The New York Times|date=19 September 2007|access-date=13 January 2015|last1=Hale|first1=Mike|archive-date=7 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907221501/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/movies/19land.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=The%20Landlord&st=cse|url-status=live}} On September 19, 2007, journalist Mike Hale discussed the film in a New York Times article called "Before Gentrification Was Cool, It Was a Movie". Hale praised the film for tackling the racial tension that arose in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and wrote in surprise how the film "would disappear after its 1970 release – rarely shown and just as rarely discussed."
=Awards and nominations=
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Sieving, Christopher J. Soul Searching: Black-Themed Cinema from the March on Washington to the Rise of Blaxploitation, Wesleyan University Press (2011). 280pp. https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Searching-Black-Themed-Washington-Blaxploitation/dp/0819571334
External links
- {{AFI film|22493|The Landlord}}
- {{IMDb title|id=0065963|title=The Landlord}}
- {{TCMDb title|id=22826}}
- {{rotten-tomatoes|id=landlord|title=The Landlord}}
{{Hal Ashby}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Landlord, The}}
Category:1970 comedy-drama films
Category:1970 directorial debut films
Category:1970s English-language films
Category:1970s romantic comedy-drama films
Category:1970s satirical films
Category:American romantic comedy-drama films
Category:American satirical films
Category:English-language romantic comedy-drama films
Category:Films about interracial romance
Category:Films about landlords
Category:Films about race and ethnicity
Category:Films based on American novels
Category:Films directed by Hal Ashby
Category:Films produced by Norman Jewison
Category:Films set in Brooklyn