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{{Short description|1951 film}}{{Use American English|date=October 2020}}{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2020}}

factoids

| producer = Stanley KramerFredric MarchMildred Dunnock>Kevin McCarthy (actor)>Cameron Mitchell (actor)>Howard Smith}}| music = Alex North| cinematography = Franz PlanerHarry W. Gerstad>William A. Lyon}}| studio = Columbia Pictures| distributor =195120|mf=y}}| runtime = 115 minutes| country = United States| language = English| budget =| gross = $1.2 million (US rental)’Top Box-Office Hits of 1952’, Variety, January 7, 1953}}Death of a Salesman is a 1951 American drama film adapted from the 1949 play of the same name by Arthur Miller. It was directed by László Benedek and written for the screen by Stanley Roberts. The film received many honors, including four Golden Globe Awards, the Volpi Cup and five Oscar nominations. Alex North, who wrote the music for the Broadway production, was one of the five Academy Award nominees for the film’s musical score.WEB, Alex North, a Film Composer, 80; Had 40-Year Hollywood Career, The New York Times, September 11, 2001,www.nytimes.com/1991/09/11/arts/alex-north-a-film-composer-80-had-40-year-hollywood-career.html, March 13, 2009,

Plot

Traveling salesman Willy Loman has led a life consisting of 60 years of failure. Loman’s wife supports him, but he soon begins to lose his grip on reality and slips between the past and the present, frantically trying to find where he went wrong.WEB, Eder, Bruce, Death of a Salesman, AllMovie,www.allmovie.com/work/death-of-a-salesman-89008, March 12, 2009, Finally exhausted between the emotional rift between him and his son Biff, and the emotional toll from being burnt out with his job, Willy starts his car in the garage and takes his own life. An insurance policy is paid out to the rest of the Loman family, as Willy felt he was worth more dead than alive.

Cast

• Fredric March as Willy Loman
• Mildred Dunnock as Linda Loman
• Kevin McCarthy as Biff Loman
• Cameron Mitchell as Happy Loman
• Howard Smith as Charley
• Royal Beal as Ben
• Don Keefer as Bernard
• Jesse White as Stanley
• Claire Carleton as Miss Francis
• David Alpert as Howard Wagner

Career of a Salesman“>

Career of a Salesman

Just before the film was about to be released, Arthur Miller threatened to sue Columbia Studios over the short that was to appear before Death of a Salesman.WEB, Kerrane, Kevin, Arthur Miller vs. Columbia Pictures: the strange case of Career of a Salesman, Journal of American Culture, Blackwell Publishing, 1 September 2004,www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-13301698_ITM, March 13, 2009, dead,www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-13301698_ITM," title="web.archive.org/web/20090614175152www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-13301698_ITM,">web.archive.org/web/20090614175152www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-13301698_ITM, 14 June 2009, This short film, Career of a Salesman, showed what the producers believed was a more typical American salesman, and was an attempt to defuse possible accusations that Death of a Salesman was an anti-American film. Eventually, Columbia agreed to remove the 10-minute short from the film’s theatrical run.Miller saw Career of a Salesman as an attack upon his work, proclaiming: “Why the hell did you make the picture if you’re so ashamed of it? Why should anybody not get up and walk out of the theater if Death of a Salesman is so outmoded and pointless?” He argued against the portrayal of the salesman profession as “a wonderful profession, that people thrived on it, and there were no problems at all.“WEB, Solman, Paul, AN AMERICAN CLASSIC (Interview with Arthur Miller), Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, 1999,www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june99/miller_2-10.html, March 13, 2009, January 22, 2014,www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june99/miller_2-10.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20140122001506www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june99/miller_2-10.html,">web.archive.org/web/20140122001506www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june99/miller_2-10.html, dead, Eventually, the very attitude that led Columbia to commission the intro film led to the failure of Death of a Salesman: Businessmen and other people in the political climate of the 1950s tried to distance themselves from a film depicting American failure.

Production

Benedek took great care in making the film a close transcription of the play.WEB, Crowther, Bosley, Bosley Crowther, The Angel with the Trumpet (1950): THE SCREEN: FOUR NEW MOVIES OPEN; ‘Death of a Salesman,’ With Fredric March and Mildred Dunnock, at Victoria, The New York Times, December 21, 1951,movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9403E1DA1E3DEF3BBC4951DFB467838A649EDE, March 12, 2009, In many places, the film uses Miller’s lines verbatim, sometimes leaving out only small lines of dialogue. However, the playwright claimed that the movie was ruined by the truncation of key scenes.WEB, Shewwy, Don, TV’S CUSTOM-TAILORED ‘SALESMAN’, The New York Times, September 15, 2008,www.nytimes.com/1985/09/15/arts/tv-s-custom-tailored-salesman.html, March 13, 2009, In fact, the playwright had no involvement with or control over the film. Benedek also stressed the dreary, middle class setting of the film, using small rooms and gray shots.The cast consisted principally of the Broadway cast, with the addition of Kevin McCarthy from the original London cast. However, Fredric March replaced Broadway actor Lee J. Cobb after concerns arose over Cobb’s alleged past with leftist politics.

Reception

Though the film won over many film critics and received nominations for many awards, it was a box-office failure. The subject matter, the failure of the American dream, did not appeal to many of the era’s moviegoers. Miller hated the adaptation of his play. He also claimed that, although he wrote the play cinematically, Benedek managed to “chop off almost every climax of the play as though with a lawnmower” and portray Loman as a lunatic rather than a victim.

Awards and nominations{| class“wikitable plainrowheaders”

! Award! Category! Nominee(s)! Result! Ref. Academy AwardsAcademy Award for Best Actor>Best Actor| Fredric March| {{nom}} HTTP://WWW.OSCARS.ORG/OSCARS/CEREMONIES/1952 >TITLE=THE 24TH ACADEMY AWARDS (1952) NOMINEES AND WINNERS ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES >ACCESS-DATE=AUGUST 19, 2011, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor>Best Supporting ActorKevin McCarthy (actor)>Kevin McCarthy| {{nom}}Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress>Best Supporting Actress| Mildred Dunnock| {{nom}}Academy Award for Best Cinematography>Best Cinematography – Black-and-White| Franz Planer| {{nom}}Academy Award for Best Original Score>Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture| Alex North| {{nom}} British Academy Film Awards Best Film| {{nom}} HTTP://AWARDS.BAFTA.ORG/AWARD/1952/FILM >TITLE=BAFTA AWARDS: FILM IN 1952 BAFTA >YEAR=1952 REF={{HARVID1952, }}BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role>Best Foreign Actor| Fredric March| {{nom}}4th Directors Guild of America Awards>Directors Guild of America AwardsDirectors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film>Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures| László Benedek| {{nom}} HTTPS://WWW.DGA.ORG/AWARDS/HISTORY/1950S/1951.ASPX?VALUE=1951 >TITLE=4TH DGA AWARDS DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA AWARDS >ACCESS-DATE=JULY 12, 2023, Golden Globe AwardsGolden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama>Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama| Fredric March| {{won}} HTTPS://WWW.GOLDENGLOBES.COM/FILM/DEATH-SALESMAN-1951 >TITLE=DEATH OF A SALESMAN – GOLDEN GLOBES GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS >ACCESS-DATE=JULY 12, 2023 HFPA, 1952, }}Golden Globe Award for Best Director>Best Director – Motion Picture| László Benedek| {{won}}| Best Cinematography – Black and White| Franz Planer| {{won}}Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor>New Star of the Year – Actor| Kevin McCarthy| {{won}}National Board of Review Awards 1951>National Board of Review Awards (National Board of Review: Top Ten Films|Top Ten Films)4th Place}} HTTPS://NATIONALBOARDOFREVIEW.ORG/AWARD-YEARS/1951/ >TITLE=1951 AWARD WINNERS NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW >ACCESS-DATE=JULY 12, 2023, Venice Film Festival| Golden Lion| László Benedek| {{nom}} Volpi Cup for Best Actor>Best Actor| Fredric March| {{won}} Writers Guild of America AwardsWriters Guild of America Award for Best Written Drama>Best Written Drama Stanley Roberts| {{nom}} HTTP://WWW.WGA.ORG/AWARDS/AWARDSSUB.ASPX?ID=1551 >TITLE = WGA AWARDS ARCHIVE-DATE=5 DECEMBER 2012, dead, Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Film Concerning American Scene>Best Written Film Concerning American Scene| {{nom}}New York Times Critics’ Pick

• Top 1,000

Restoration and home media

Death of a Salesman has been released on DVD format by Movies Unlimited.WEB,www.amazon.com/Death-Salesman-Fredric-March/dp/B0009PAQ96/ref=sr_1_8?crid=1FC363KTZ4AN1, www.amazon.com, Death of a Salesman, 2020-03-25, It has also been made available on various streaming platforms, such as Amazon Prime Video.WEB,www.amazon.com/Death-Salesman-Fredric-March/dp/B07BDQGY7M, Death of a Salesman (1951), www.amazon.com, 2020-03-25, In 2013, a digital restoration of the film was undertaken by Sony. The digital pictures were digitally restored, frame by frame, at Prasad Corporation to remove dirt, tears, scratches and other artifacts. The restoration was part of the Stanley Kramer 100-year celebration (Kramer would have been 100 years old on September 29, 2013).yahoo.com/news, Filmmaker Stanley Kramer’s Legacy to Be Remembered with Centennial Celebration, The Hollywood Reporter, by Bryn Elise Sandberg, August 8, 2013

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

• {{IMDb title|0043458|Death of a Salesman}}
• {{Rotten-tomatoes|10005017-death_of_a_salesman|title=Death of a Salesman}}
• {{Amg movie|89008|Death of a Salesman}}

{{László Benedek}}{{Death of a Salesman}}