A THOUSAND CLOWNS (1965) B/W widescreen 117m dir: Fred Coe

w/Jason Robards, Barbara Harris, Martin Balsam, Barry Gordon, Gene Saks, William Daniels

From Variety's review of the film: "A Thousand Clowns depicts a happy-go-lucky nonconformist who attains some maturity when a child welfare board threatens to take away his young resident nephew.

"Key personnel of the long-running 1962-3 Broadway legiter have followed through with the pic. They include playwright-adapter Herb Gardner, producer-director Coe, and Jason Robards as the ex-vidscripter living it up in a littered NY pad while trying to prevent nephew Barry Gordon (also encoring) from becoming one of the 'dead people,' meaning conformists.

"Terrif dialog to match Robards's scenery-chewing create a sock impact as he lectures the 12-year-old (a hip juve, wiser than unk), ignores the pleas of brother-agent Martin Balsam to return to work, and pierces the outstanding social worker bureaucratic shell of Barbara Harris and original cast member William Daniels, who've arrived to check the kid's home life.

"All performances present three-dimensional, identifiable characters underneath the yocks."

Martin Balsam won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Screenplay Adaptation, and Adapted Music Score.