About The Movie
The movie is about Holly Golightly, a young woman always on the run from herself. Lacking a stable childhood, she marries at the age of fourteen, has the marriage annulled, moves to Hollywood to start a film career, leaves Hollywood for New York (where she earns money by dating rich men and by unknowingly carrying coded messages for an incarcerated mafia boss), and plans to leave New York for Brazil to marry one of the world's richest men.
The main plot of the movie is Holly's relationship with neighbor Paul Varjak, who has confidence problems of his own. The story explores the relationship between Holly and Paul, Holly and her other paramours, and the resolution that occurs within Holly's own mind and between Holly and Paul. The film includes Audrey Hepburn singing the original performance of "Moon River" and the famous closing sequence that shows Paul's "lecture" to Holly and Holly's self-discovery of who she really is and who makes her truly happy. The film ends with a famous scene in the rain.
It has been rumored that the film's on-location opening sequence, in which Holly gazes into a Tiffany's display window, was extremely difficult for director Blake Edwards to film. Although it was simple in concept, crowd control, Hepburn's dislike for pastries, and an accident that nearly resulted in the electrocution of a crew member are all said to have made capturing the scene a challenge. However, Edwards, in an interview given for the 45th anniversary DVD, said that the sequence was captured rather quickly due to the good fortune of an unexpected traffic lull despite the location in the heart of Manhattan.
Audrey Hepburn introduced the film's signature song, "Moon River", by Henry Mancini, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Sung by Hepburn herself, it was written to her singing range (although she had performed vocal solos in 1957's Funny Face). However, her definitive version of the song was not released on an album until after her death. Instead, "Moon River" became a major hit for Andy Williams, who made it his theme song. Soul singer Jerry Butler also charted with it. According to Mancini and Edwards, a studio executive hated the song and demanded it be cut from the film; Hepburn, who was present when this proclamation was made, responded to the suggestion by standing up and saying, "over my dead body."
Wisp-thin Audrey Hepburn as Holly, carrying a cigarette holder, is considered one of the iconic images of 20th century American cinema. The film rejuvenated the career of 1930s movie song-and-dance man Buddy Ebsen, who had a small but effective role in this film as Doc Golightly, Holly's ex-husband. His success here led directly to his best-known role as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies.
Some critics consider the film's sole blunder to be caucasian Mickey Rooney's "yellowfaced" performance as Holly's bucktoothed Japanese neighbor. In the 45th anniversary edition DVD release, producer Richard Shepherd repeatedly apologizes for this; Edwards does not. Edwards does, however, indicate that he would not have cast George Peppard in the lead male role of the film if he were to do it over again.
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