| Studs Lonigan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Irving Lerner |
| Written by | Philip Yordan |
| Produced by | Philip Yordan |
| Starring | Christopher Knight Frank Gorshin Jack Nicholson Venetia Stevenson |
| Cinematography | Haskell Wexler |
| Edited by | Verna Fields |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
Studs Lonigan is a novel trilogy by American authorJames T. Farrell:Young Lonigan (1932),The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (1934), andJudgment Day (1935). In 1998, theModern Library ranked the Studs Lonigan trilogy 29th on its list of the100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
The trilogy was adapted into a minor 1960 film and a 1979television miniseries, both of which were simply titledStuds Lonigan.
Farrell wrote these three novels at a time of national despair. During theGreat Depression, many of America's most gifted writers and artists aspired to create a single, powerful work of art that would fully expose the evils ofcapitalism and lead to a political and economic overhaul of the American system.[citation needed]
Farrell chose to use his own personal knowledge ofIrish-American life on theSouth Side ofChicago to create a portrait of an average American slowly destroyed by the "spiritual poverty" of his environment. Both Chicago and the Catholic Church of that era are described at length and faulted. Farrell describes Studs sympathetically as Studs slowly deteriorates, changing from a tough but fundamentally good-hearted, adventurous teenage boy to an embittered, physically shattered alcoholic.
Parts of Farrell's novels were made into aB movie in 1960, directed byIrving Lerner and starringChristopher Knight in the title role. Other cast members includedFrank Gorshin,Venetia Stevenson, andJack Nicholson (in one of his first movie roles).[1] The film was not widely reviewed.Pauline Kael wrote inThe New Yorker that "it’s an honorable low-budget effort by a group of people trying to break the Hollywood molds, and there are a few passages of daring editing that indicate what the film was aiming for. It’s an underfinanced American attempt atI Vitelloni.[2]
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In 1979Studs Lonigan was produced as atelevision miniseries starringHarry Hamlin,Colleen Dewhurst,Brad Dourif,Dan Shor, andCharles Durning. Production Designer Jan Scott won anEmmy Award for Outstanding Art Direction for a Limited Series or a Special.Reginald Rose wrote the adaptation of the trilogy. The miniseries preserves the novel's tragic ending but humanizes Studs Lonigan's family and friends to a very considerable degree.
The entire miniseries is housed at the University of Georgia's Peabody Collection. The University has made the series available online by using the keyword "Studs Lonigan" in the search box.[3]
According to William McCann: