Breakfast at Tiffany's (2024)

Breakfast at Tiffany's - Movie Poster

Here is the American One-Sheet Movie Poster from Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), starring Audrey Hepburn. One-sheets measured 27x41 inches, and were the poster style most commonly used in theaters. This particular poster is one of the most iconic images of the early 1960s and is highly prized by collectors.

Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Essentials

Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Essentials

SYNOPSISHolly Golightly is a carefree New York party girl and Paul is a struggling writer who moves into her building. Holly is dead set on marrying for money and avoids romantic entanglements of any kind. The two quickly form a friendship though Paul soon finds himself falling in love with the devil-may-care Holly, despite the fact that he is being kept by a rich older woman. When Holly's ex-husband Doc (Buddy Ebsen) shows up unexpectedly, the truth about her mysterious past is revealed, complicating matters for the two would-be lovers. Director: Blake EdwardsProducers: Martin Jurow and Richard ShepherdScreenplay: George AxelrodBased on the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman CapoteCinematography: Franz PlanerEditing: Howard A. SmithArt Direction: Roland Anderson and Hal PereiraMusic: Henry ManciniCast: Audrey Hepburn (Holly Golightly), George Peppard (Paul Varjak), Patricia Neal (2-E), Buddy Ebsen (Doc Golighly), Martin Balsam (O.J. Berman), Mickey Rooney (Mr. Yunioshi), John McGiver (Tiffany's Clerk), Dorothy Whitney (Mag Wildwood), Stanley Adams (Rusty Trawler), Elvia Allman (Librarian), Alan Reed (Sally Tomato), Claude Stroud (Sid Arbuck), Vilallonga (Jose da Silva Periera), Beverly Hills (Stripper), Putney (Cat).C-114m.Why BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S is EssentialBefore Breakfast at Tiffany's became a movie, the character of Holly Golightly had already enchanted readers in Truman Capote's unforgettable novella of the same name. While the film version takes some significant liberties with Capote's work, audiences were still delighted by the way director Blake Edwards depicted this independent free spirit on the screen.While Audrey Hepburn may not have been Truman Capote's ideal choice to play Holly Golightly, audiences embraced her in the role, and Breakfast at Tiffany's is often the first film that springs to mind when the name Audrey Hepburn is mentioned.Accepting the role of Holly was a risk for Hepburn, who was associated with virtuous ingénue roles. At 32 years old, Hepburn was ready to take on more adult parts and break out of her established comfort zone. In addition to scoring an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, the role of Holly Golightly helped Hepburn win more challenging adult roles.Breakfast at Tiffany's is also a film synonymous with fashion and high style. From the first scene when Audrey Hepburn stands in front of Tiffany's wearing a gorgeous black evening gown draped in pearls with her hair piled high in a frosted beehive, the entire tone and look of the film is set. This is the movie responsible for bringing the "little black dress" into vogue, and Hepburn's simple yet elegant Givenchy-designed wardrobe helped established the actress as a style icon.Breakfast at Tiffany's was also the film that introduced the Oscar®-winning song "Moon River" to the world. The song, written by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, became a signature hit for Andy Williams, but it was Audrey Hepburn who sang it first. Sitting on her windowsill in the film and strumming a guitar, her simple, unadorned version of the tune is genuinely touching and evokes the melancholy yearning that was always present in Capote's original novella. by Andrea Passafiume

Pop Culture 101: BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

Pop Culture 101: BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

Singer Andy Williams' long standing association with "Moon River" began when he was asked to sing the song at the 1962 Academy Awards ceremony where it won the Oscar®. It soon became Williams' theme song, and his recording of it became the most famous version of "Moon River."Some other artists who have recorded "Moon River" include Danny Williams, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Paul Anka, Sarah Vaughan, Sarah Brightman, Billy Eckstine, Liz Callaway, The Afghan Whigs, Morrissey, R.E.M., Judy Garland, Patsy Ann Noble, Victoria Williams, Barbra Streisand, Bradley Joseph, and The Innocence Mission.An inlet near Savannah, Georgia--Johnny Mercer's hometown--was named "Moon River" in honor of this song, for which he wrote the lyrics. Andy Williams later named his production company and venue in Branson, Missouri after "Moon River."Jennifer Love Hewitt portrayed Audrey Hepburn in the 2000 television biopic The Audrey Hepburn Story and performed her own version of "Moon River."Sarah Brightman sings "Moon River" as a hidden track on her La Luna album.In 1995, the Texas band Deep Blue Something recorded the hit song "Breakfast at Tiffany's," referencing the film extensively. In 1966, David Merrick produced a Broadway musical version of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Mary Tyler Moore portrayed Holly Golightly in this version, which closed after just four previews.In 1987 Audrey Hepburn wrote the preface for a coffee table book celebrating the legendary jewelry store's 150th birthday.Breakfast at Tiffany's started the trend of the classic "little black dress," a fashion staple for women everywhere.The long black dress that Audrey Hepburn wore in the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's was auctioned off for charity on December 5, 2006 in London for over $900,000.Actress Natalie Portman wore Audrey Hepburn's original black dress from the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's on the cover of the November 2006 issue of Harper's Bazaar.by Andrea Passafiume

Trivia & Fun Facts About BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

Trivia & Fun Facts About BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

In an early version of the book, Truman Capote named Holly's character Connie Gustafson. Eventually it turned into Holiday Golightly, and then shortened to Holly Golightly.Breakfast at Tiffany's premiered at Radio City Music Hall on October 5, 1961 to enthusiastic reviews. It was a hit.Even though Breakfast at Tiffany's was a success and nominated for five Academy Awards, the one person who was not happy with the film was author Truman Capote. He was outspoken in his disapproval of what had been done with his book. He was unhappy with everything: the tone, the casting, the director. He felt betrayed by Paramount. "I had lots of offers for that book, from practically everybody," he said, "and I sold it to this group at Paramount because they promised things, they made a list of everything, and they didn't keep a single one." Capote was unhappy with the casting. "It was the most miscast film I've ever seen," he said. "Holly Golightly was real-a tough character, not an Audrey Hepburn type at all. The film became a mawkish valentine to New York City and Holly, and, as a result, was thin and pretty, whereas it should have been rich and ugly. It bore as much resemblance to my work as the Rockettes do to Ulanova."After the release of the film version of Breakfast at Tiffany's, author Truman Capote was very vocal about his disdain for the film, and especially the casting of Audrey Hepburn as Holly, a role that he hoped would go to his friend, Marilyn Monroe. Truman Capote later said that he considered actress Jodie Foster the perfect person to play Holly Golightly as he originally wrote her.Later both director Blake Edwards and actor Mickey Rooney expressed regret over Rooney's stereotypical portrayal of Japanese photographer Mr. Yunioshi. "Looking back," said Edwards, "I wish I'd never have done it." In his autobiography Life is Too Short, Mickey Rooney says, "I was downright ashamed of my role in Breakfast at Tiffany's...and I don't think the director, Blake Edwards, was very proud of it either."If you look closely in Holly's quirky apartment, you can tell that her "couch" is really a bathtub sawed in half.John Frankenheimer was originally slated to direct Breakfast at Tiffany's.Tiffany's opened its doors on a Sunday for the first time since the 19th century so that filming could take place inside the store.Although not visible on camera, hundreds of onlookers watched Hepburn's window-shopping scene at the start of the film, which made her nervous.Hepburn said the scene where she throws Cat out of the cab and into the rainy street was the most distasteful thing she ever had to do on film.The movie was shot only three months after the birth of Hepburn's first son, Sean Ferrer.Virginia Mayo read for the part of 2-E, but Patricia Neal was eventually cast in the role.There were at least 9 different cats used to play Cat.Famous Quotes from BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S"You know those days when you get the mean reds?...If I could find a real-life place that made me feel like Tiffany's, then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name." – Audrey Hepburn, as Holly Golightly."You can always tell what kind of a person a man really thinks you are by the earrings he gives you." – Audrey Hepburn, as Holly Golightly."If we're going to be friends, let's just get one thing straight right now. I hate snoops!" – Audrey Hepburn, as Holly Golightly to George Peppard's Paul Varjak."You musn't give your heart to a wild thing." – Audrey Hepburn, as Holly Golightly."Is that what you really think? That I'm no different from all your other rats and super rats?...If that's what you really think, there's something I want to give you-fifty dollars for the powder room." –George Peppard, as Paul Varjak."I'm not Holly. I'm not Lulamae either. I don't know who I am. I'm like Cat here. We're a couple of no name slobs. We belong to nobody, and nobody belongs to us. We don't even belong to each other." – Audrey Hepburn, as Holly Golightly."You know what's wrong with you, Miss whoever you are? You're chicken. You've got no guts. You stick out your chin and say, 'life's a fact. People do fall in love. People do belong to each other,' because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness. You call yourself a free spirit-a wild thing-and you're terrified somebody's going to stick you in a cage. Baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself." – George Peppard, as Paul Varjak to Hepburn's Holly."I'll tell you one thing, Fred, darling... I'd marry you for your money in a minute."-Audrey Hepburn, as Holly Golightly to Peppard's Paul Varjak."The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?"-- Audrey Hepburn to George Peppard.Compiled by Andrea Passafiume

The Big Idea

The Big Idea

Writer Truman Capote published his novella Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1958, and it became an instant literary sensation. It told the story of Holly Golightly, a carefree New York party girl with a mysterious past who befriends a struggling writer in her upper east side apartment building.Of all his characters, Truman Capote named Holly as his favorite and she became one of the more intriguing characters in modern American fiction. The Holly of Capote's book was somewhat hard and cynical, as was the overall tone of the book. While not exactly a call girl, Holly was described by Capote as the kind of girl who makes a career out of being arm candy for wealthy men. "The main reason I wrote about Holly, outside of the fact that I liked her so much," explained Capote, "was that she was such a symbol of all these girls who come to New York and spin in the sun for a moment like May flies and then disappear. I wanted to rescue one girl from that anonymity and preserve her for posterity."Women came out of the woodwork claiming to have been Capote's inspiration for the character of Holly. Capote often referred to this phenomenon as the "Holly Golightly Sweepstakes." The truth was that Holly was a combination of several women Capote knew. Carol Marcus (who later became the wife of Walter Matthau), Doris Lilly (a part-time actress and New York party girl), Phoebe Pierce (a high school friend of Capote's), Oona Chaplin (wife of Charlie Chaplin), socialite Gloria Vanderbilt, and Capote's own mother Nina all provided inspiration. There was also a trace of Capote's own background in Holly; he had risen from obscurity in the deep south to become a New York society fixture and international jet-setter.Capote had many offers from Hollywood to turn his book into a movie and he always envisioned his friend Marilyn Monroe in the role of Holly. "Holly had to have something touching about her...unfinished," he said. "Marilyn had that." Monroe wanted the part badly, and worked hard on the role with Capote's help.After Capote sold the rights to Paramount, Richard Shepherd and Martin Jurow were brought in as the producers and screenwriter George Axelrod was hired to adapt Capote's novella for the screen. Even though Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe to play Holly Golightly, Paramount had other plans. Audrey Hepburn, who was already a big star after such films as Roman Holiday (1953) and Funny Face (1957), was under contract to Paramount, and they wanted her for the role.At that time, Audrey Hepburn was looking to transition into more sophisticated adult roles. She was 32, married to actor Mel Ferrer, living quietly in Switzerland, and had just given birth to her first child Sean when she received an offer to star in Breakfast at Tiffany's. She wasn't convinced that she was right for the part, having heard about Capote's preference for Marilyn Monroe. However, she accepted, determined to test herself as an actress. "I was nothing like her (Holly)," said Hepburn, "but I felt I could act Holly. That was a revolutionary thought for me. After so many movies, I no longer felt like an amateur...I knew the part would be a challenge, but I wanted it anyway."With Audrey Hepburn securely on board, Paramount wanted John Frankenheimer to direct. However, Hepburn, who had a say in the matter, was unfamiliar with his work and the studio decided his style was too dark for the film. Director Blake Edwards, who loved the screenplay and was well known for his light comic touch, moved into the director's chair instead.Actor George Peppard was a relative newcomer to the silver screen with only a handful of credits to his name. He came from the Actors Studio, known for its intense "Method" approach to acting. Director Blake Edwards didn't want Peppard in the movie at all, but the producers did. "He just didn't have whatever it was that I wanted," said Edwards. "He wasn't my cup of tea." Edwards begged the producers not to cast Peppard in the role of Holly's neighbor Paul, but in the end he was outnumbered.One actor that Blake Edwards did put his support behind was Patricia Neal in the part of George Peppard's older married benefactress known only as "2-E." "I was with Patricia from the beginning," said Edwards. "As far as I was concerned she was the only actress." The timing was right for Patricia Neal, and it was her first Hollywood acting job offer in years. She had worked with George Peppard before at the Actors Studio when he was a struggling young performer, and she looked forward to seeing him again. There was one condition set for Patricia when she accepted the role: she was required to dye her hair red, so as not to clash with Audrey Hepburn's frosted brunette locks. She was grateful for the role after a long absence from the silver screen. "I had really come to believe I would never work in films again," Neal said in her 1988 autobiography As I Am.Rounding out the unconventional cast was Martin Balsam as a slick Hollywood agent and Mickey Rooney as Holly's Japanese neighbor Mr. Yunioshi. At the time, Rooney was middle-aged and no longer in demand, unlike his early days working for MGM. Though he would later come to regret doing the role because of its ethnic stereotyping, Breakfast at Tiffany's still gave him an opportunity to show his versatility as a character actor.by Andrea Passafiume

Behind the Camera

Behind the Camera

Budgeted at just over $2 million dollars, Breakfast at Tiffany's went into production in October 1960. Audrey Hepburn moved to New York from Switzerland for the location shoot with husband Mel Ferrer and new baby Sean in tow. The very first scene filmed was the opening shot of Audrey Hepburn munching on a pastry in front of Tiffany's in an evening gown. The scene took place in front of the actual Tiffany's on 5th Avenue in Manhattan early on a Sunday morning. Tiffany's was extremely cooperative during the filming and allowed the crew unprecedented access to film its interiors.While Audrey Hepburn was the ultimate professional during the making of Breakfast at Tiffany's, her insecurities about playing the role took their toll and the stress resulted in weight loss that she didn't need. It also didn't help that co-star George Peppard's intense "Method" approach to acting was totally opposite from Hepburn's own instinctive style. Peppard, she thought, overanalyzed every scene, which both annoyed and unnerved her.Not surprisingly considering his intensity, Peppard didn't make many friends on the set of Breakfast at Tiffany's. He and Blake Edwards locked horns many times throughout the filming, almost coming to blows on at least one occasion. No matter what kind of direction he was given, Peppard would end up playing the scene as he thought it should be played, which didn't endear him to anyone. Even Patricia Neal, with whom Peppard had been friendly in the past, noticed a change in the actor-and not for the better. Peppard, she felt, had been "spoiled." Peppard felt from the get-go that Neal's character was too dominant. "He wanted things as he wanted them," she later said of Peppard. "I dominated him a lot more in the script and he didn't want to be seen in that condition...His character was written with a battered vulnerability that was totally appealing, but it did not correspond to George's image of a leading man. He seemed to want to be an old-time movie hunk."Meanwhile, composer Henry Mancini set out to write a musical theme for the movie that captured its unique blend of humor and melancholy. Mancini found his greatest inspiration in the film's star herself. "It's unique for a composer to really be inspired by a person, a face or a personality, but Audrey certainly inspires me," said Mancini. "Normally, I have to see a completed film before I'll compose the music, but with Tiffany I knew what to write for Audrey just by reading the script."The song "Moon River" grew out of the music that Mancini had already written for the film with lyrics contributed by Johnny Mercer. "When I met Audrey the first time," said Mancini, "I knew the song would be something very, very special. I knew the exact quality of her voice and that she could sing 'Moon River' beautifully...'Moon River' was written to explain that Audrey/Holly was really a yearning country girl."For the famous scene in which Holly throws a wild party in her apartment, Blake Edwards wanted to capture the free-wheeling lifestyle of Holly and her New York friends, using an intricate series of visual gags. Edwards ordered up cases of real champagne and let the bubbly flow among the actors, allowing everyone to contribute ideas of outrageous behavior. It became one of the most memorable scenes in the film.For the costumes, Audrey's great friend Hubert de Givenchy was brought in to design the signature dresses for Hepburn's lithe figure. Givenchy had a long-standing relationship with the actress, having previously dressed her for Sabrina (1954), Funny Face (1957) and Love in the Afternoon (1957). Many considered Hepburn to be the designer's muse, and together they created her career-making look of simple, chic and elegant. "There's not a woman alive who doesn't dream of looking like Audrey Hepburn," Givenchy often said.The song "Moon River" almost didn't make it into the finished film. According to lyricist Johnny Mercer, during one of the previews of Breakfast at Tiffany's in San Francisco, the audience response wasn't terribly enthusiastic about the tune, so one of the producers announced, "Well, I don't know what you guys are going to do, but I'll tell you one thing-that damn song can go." Luckily Hepburn herself protested, saying "Over my dead body," and the song, of course, stayed. The song went on to win an Academy Award and became a classic.by Andrea Passafiume

The Critics Corner - The Critic's Corner: BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

The Critics Corner - The Critic's Corner: BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

"A completely unbelievable but wholly captivating flight into fancy...Above all, it has the overpowering attribute known as Audrey Hepburn." – The New York Times"As the nice guy, George Peppard...has that I-went-to-college-but-it-didn't-do-any-good look of the sort of Harvardman who couldn't even get a job in Washington...Audrey Hepburn, though she plays with fluent wit and gives the customers a spectacular fashion show, isn't really Holly." -- Time"No one is more opposed than I to the perverted twerperies in Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, but I must say they're presented in this film with cinematic style...It was Audrey Hepburn who got everybody going on all twelve cylinders. She is certainly lovelier than ever. Her recent pregnancy has put some much-needed flesh on her bones...Buddy Ebsen gives a performance which is worthy of an Academy Award." -- Films in Review"The wardrobes, supplied for Audrey Hepburn and Patricia Neal, are guaranteed to make any woman reach for her husband's checkbook...The film's major delight comes from the inspired, off-beat casting of Audrey Hepburn as Capote's amoral, vanilla-haired Holly Golightly...Blake Edwards and his talented crew have touched a tawdry romance with true glamour, and they held me unprotesting in that glamour world for two delightful hours." -- Saturday Review"For me the film's peak was reached with the co*cktail party in which a dossier of kooks ran through their tricks with a kind of inane glee, but not only was this sequence never topped, the whole picture thereafter slid higgedly-piggedly downhill into a puddle of lemon meringue." -- New York Herald Tribune"Whitewashed and solidified for the screen, Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's emerges an unconventional, but dynamic entertainment that will be talked about." -- Variety "If you've read the Truman Capote novella that the movie is based on (and even if you haven't) you may be dismayed to see things go soft and romantic. The film wanders, and Hepburn is forced to become too frail and too enchantingly raffish before it comes to its makeshift, fairy-tale end...Mickey Rooney does a wild bit of racial caricature as the Japanese photographer who lives in the apartment above Holly's: it's the most lowdown and daring thing in the movie." - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies."Film looks dated, but its once shocking sexual content is still fairly strong. Consider that Hepburn had been married at 14 to a much older man (Buddy Ebsen), she makes money by casually selling herself to men she doesn't care for, friends Hepburn and Peppard share a bed one night (which must have raised eyebrows in 1961), and Peppard is Neal's "kept man," taking money for services rendered. So the film is still not tame." - Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic."Breakfast at Tiffany's, despite being Edward's best-looking film, was nervous of Capote's original and now looks like one of the series of American films made of bitter chocolate but with soft centers." - David Thomson, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. "Impossibly cleaned up and asexual version of a light novel which tried to be the American I Am a Camera. Wild parties, amusing scenes and good cameos, but the pace is slow, the atmosphere is unconvincingly clean and luxurious, and the sentimentality kills it." - Halliwell's Film & Video Guide. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is a prime example of a film that often splits the audience from the critics. While it seems to spell magic for many, it is a movie that leaves itself open for professional vilification. Time is unfortunately not a healer in this case, as our two romantic leads smoke, litter, steal for fun and have questionable morals. And then of course there is Mickey Rooney made-up as a Japanese caricature that sledgehammers through even the most liberal political correctness. Added to that you have the usual complaints about the film not being as good as the book (the easiest comment to make about any movie). And that overall it's a sickly sweet mess of outdated nonsense. But...Both Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard display so many character flaws, that most people watching can start to feel quite good about themselves. Added to that, any logical reasons for disapproval melt away with Hepburn's wickedly kooky and intoxicating performance. She bridges a gap between female and male viewers, offering so much to like and plenty to sympathise with. And George Peppard perfectly captures some of the frustration that arises when perfect love is within your grasp but yet so unobtainable. Woven into this heady romance is chic Hollywood comedy at its finest, combined with evocative cinematography." - Almar Haflidason, bbc.co.ukAWARDS AND HONORSBreakfast at Tiffany's was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Actress, Best Original Song, Best Musical Score, Best Art Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay. It won two: one for Best Song "Moon River" and Best Musical Score.Blake Edwards was nominated for Best Director by the Directors Guild of America.Breakfast at Tiffany's was nominated for two Golden Globes: one for Best Motion Picture Comedy, and one for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy.Composer Henry Mancini won a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album/Musical Score for his Breakfast at Tiffany's music.The Writers Guild of America awarded George Axelrod the award for Best Written American Comedy for his screenplay.The American Film Institute voted "Moon River" the 4th greatest movie song of all time.The American Film Institute voted Breakfast at Tiffany's the 61st greatest love story of all time.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Breakfast at Tiffany's

It's hard to fathom the unanimous lack of faith that originally revolved around this now-beloved 1961 Blake Edwards-directed classic, but truth, as sages have often pointed out, is indeed stranger than fiction. Much of the initial hostility came from the picture's creator, writer Truman Capote, whose 1958 novella provided Breakfast at Tiffany's setting. He hated everything about the show, most prominently the casting of Audrey Hepburn. Talk about one extreme to the other; Capote insisted that he had only agreed to a screen version in the first place under the presumption that it be prepared for Marilyn Monroe! To the author's dying day, he hoped the work would be re-made correctly - updating his casting choice with Jodie Foster, whom he thought perfectly matched his original Lolita-esque conception. But there was equal static on the home front. After several Paramount executive screenings, the general consensus was that while Breakfast at Tiffany's, as a whole, was okay, that damned song "Moon River" had to go. This wasn't simply a wish held by thickheaded suits, including co-producer Martin Jurow, but by the tune's lyricist, the usually perceptive genius Johnny Mercer. Mercer, depressed about the then-current state of the music business, felt that rock and roll would soon bring about his own demise. Writing three separate sets of lyrics, he told composer Henry Mancini, "...(W)ho's going to record a waltz? We'll do it for the picture, but after that it hasn't any future commercially." For Mancini, who had a hit with TV's Peter Gunn theme, this would be his first time at bat attempting an original song for a big screen movie - his inspiration coming from it's charismatic star: "Normally, I have to see a completed film before I'll compose the music, but with Breakfast at Tiffany's I knew what to write for Audrey just by reading the script." It was the first of his many home runs. For the record, out of five nominations, Breakfast at Tiffany's won only for Best Song and Best Scoring for a Comedy or Dramatic Picture. Since 1961, "Moon River" has become not only a standard but one of the most recorded ditties of all time (Mancini figured that there were about 10,000 separate renditions - his favorite being the version sung in the movie by Hepburn on the fire escape). It also was listed high in a poll of the Greatest Songs of the Sixties, became Andy Williams signature tune, and, irony of irony, when Mercer's best selling biography was published, it was appropriately entitled Our Huckleberry Friend! Hepburn, who, for movie fans the world over, owns the part of Holly Golightly as much as she does Sabrina (1954) and the leads in Roman Holiday (1953) and Funny Face (1957), too had reservations about the movie and her portrayal in it. Early test previews did not fare well, and it was only after a final married print was unspooled for the actress did her expectations do a 360 degree turnaround. Enthusiastically, she penned the following note to Mancini: "I have just seen our picture - Breakfast at Tiffany's - this time with your score. A movie without music is a little bit like an aeroplane without fuel. However beautifully the job is done, we are still on the ground...Your music has lifted us all up and sent us soaring. Everything we cannot say with words or show with action you have expressed for us. You have done this with so much imagination, fun and beauty. You are the hippest of cats - and most sensitive of composers." How classy is that?Director: Blake EdwardsProducer: Martin Jurow, Richard ShepherdScreenwriter: George AxelrodCinematographer: Franz PlanerComposer: Henry ManciniEditor: Howard A. SmithProduction Designer: Roland Anderson, Hal PereiraSongwriter: Johnny MercerCostume Designer: Edith Head, Hubert de GivenchyCast: Audrey Hepburn (Holly Golightly), George Peppard (Paul Varjak), Patricia Neal (2-E), Buddy Ebsen (Doc Golightly), Martin Balsam (O.J. Berman), Mickey Rooney (Mr. Yunioshi), John McGiver (Tiffany's Clerk)C-115m. Letterboxed.by Mel Neuhaus

Breakfast at Tiffany's (Anniversary Edition) - Breakfast at Tiffany's - Anniversary Edition on DVD

Breakfast at Tiffany's (Anniversary Edition) - Breakfast at Tiffany's - Anniversary Edition on DVD

Audrey Hepburn enjoyed one of her greatest successes in the screen adaptation of Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. Hepburn plays Holly Golightly, a free-spirited woman who works as an "escort" with her own rather unique outlook: she believes that the only worthwhile men are the ones who give her fifty dollars to tip the powder room attendant –but if they do give her fifty, she ditches them and heads home. It is, in fact, one of these encounters (we learn later) that led to the film's unforgettable opening sequence, which has Holly getting dropped off by cab in the wee hours of the morning on the deserted street outside of Tiffany's. She enjoys a sweet roll as she browses the windows of the legendary jeweler before continuing home to her cheap walk-up apartment. Holly finds a new friend when the handsome Paul Varjak (George Peppard) moves into the apartment above hers. She learns very quickly that although Paul looks perfectly respectable, she has found something of a soul mate in him: he's being kept by interior designer Mrs. Failenson (Patricia Neal). Although the arrangement takes care of physical needs, it has apparently had some psychological effects: Paul is actually a writer who has had a book published, but he has not written anything for five years. When Paul explains to Holly that he's working on a novel and writes every day, she blithely points out that there is no ribbon in his typewriter.Paul also quickly learns just how unusual his new neighbor is. On their first meeting, on the day Paul moves in, he watches as she scrambles to get ready for her weekly visit to see one of her "clients": an inmate at Sing Sing named Sally Tomato (Alan Reed), for an hour of chatting every Thursday. The only thing she is asked to do by Tomato's associate is to ask him for the weather report each week. For this Tomato's associate pays her one hundred dollars a week. Holly sweeps Paul into her whirlwind life, and he goes along willingly as oberver and eventual participant. He finds there is very little that she won't do, including climbing through his window from the fire-escape in her bathrobe in the middle of the night when one of her latest clients, unhappy about being ditched, shows up at her door and starts threatening to break in. Paul is lying in bed naked, Mrs. Failenson just having left, and Paul is slightly taken aback when Holly decides to slide into bed with him and snuggle, which she considers perfectly all right because they are friends.She next invites Paul to come down for drinks, and when he arrives he finds himself in the middle of a very bohemian party, with a panoply of very different characters, all equally fascinating in one way or another. At the part Paul meets O.J. Berman (Martin Balsam), a Hollywood mover and shaker who greets Paul by asking if he thinks Holly is a phony. He spills the beans about the fact that Holly was from the backwoods somewhere in the midwest, and that he paid to rid her of her hick accent, but now he himself can't tell whether or not she's the "real thing," because she carries her persona off so well. It is during this party that Paul finds out about another of Holly's hobbies: when she is not with clients she is working at finding a millionaire to marry. To this end she has actually managed to get some wealthy talent to her party. First is Rusty Trawler, a slathering geek who only a mother could love; and secondly, Jose da Silva Pereira (Jose Villalonga), the suave and sophisticated future president of Brazil, to whom an alliance with Holly would mean scandal.Over the next few months Holly and Paul grow closer as she uses him as both sounding board and confidante. And knowing her seems to stimulate his creative juices, as he begins writing again. But there are barriers that are not to be broken. Holly wants to be free is afraid of emotional ties, t though marrying for money is perfectly acceptable. Of course, eventually the inevitable happens and Paul falls in love with her (and she with him, though she would be loath to admit it). The realization of this creates an instant rift It takes an arrest for drug trafficking and a very wet orange tabby to finally bring them together.Despite it's status as a bona fine film classic, Breakfast at Tiffany's is a very peculiar movie, mainly due to the casting of Hepburn (though her presence alone carries the film). Capote's Holly Golightly (he had envisioned Marilyn Monroe in the role) was a saltier woman, obviously pretending at sophistication, and there was no bones about the fact that she was a hooker. When Hepburn was offered and accepted the role, the powers that be startled to back-pedal on some of the racier aspects of the original character (especially her profession), and turn her into someone who has successfully become sophisticated. The rough edges are gone. But what she actually does for a living is hopelessly obscured, especially since she seems to leave most of her clients before the "date" is over. But there is no doubt that the film works as it is on sheer star power. Hepburn is simply delightful as screenwriter George Axelrod and Director Blake Edwards' re-vision of the character. She sparkles her way through the role, always looking gorgeous and always somehow believable. George Peppard makes a bland leading man, but paired with Hepburn there is probably very little he could do. Buddy Ebsen gives a heart-rending performance as Doc Golightly, Holly's backwoods husband who shows up to take her back home (unsuccessfully). The film's major flaw is the racist and thoroughly embarrassing performance by Mickey Rooney as building landlord Mr. Yunioshi. It hardly seems possible that this kind of ethnic slur was still considered funny in 1961. In the interviews included on the disc Edwards has the good grace to admit that he didn't know what he was thinking, and that he'd still like to go back and recast it today.Paramount's new anniversary edition DVD includes a splendid transfer, with beautifully realized colors and a new 5.1 surround mix of Henry Mancini's Oscar-winning score. Extras include the brief featurettes "The Making of a Classic," "It's so Audrey: a Style Icon," Brilliance in a Blue Box," "Audrey's Letter to Tiffany," and the original theatrical trailer. For more information about Breakfast at Tiffany's, visit Paramount Home Entertainment. To order Breakfast at Tiffany's, go toTCM Shopping.by Fred Hunter

George Axelrod, 1922-2003

George Axelrod, 1922-2003

George Axelrod, a writer whose sharp, cunning satires of the '50's and 60's influenced the more wry, pop-culture sensibility of modern filmmakers, died June 21 of heart failure at his Los Angeles home. He was 81. Born June 9, 1922, in New York City to the son of the silent film actress Betty Carpenter, he had an eventful childhood in New York where, despite little formal education, he became an avaricious reader who hung around Broadway theaters. During World War II he served in the Army Signal Corps, then returned to New York, where in the late 40's and early 50's he wrote for radio and television and published a critically praised novel, Beggar's Choice. He scored big on Broadway in 1952 with The Seven Year Itch. The comedy, about a frustrated, middle-aged man who takes advantage of his family's absence over a sweltering New York summer to have an affair with a sexy neighbor, won a Tony Award for its star, Tom Ewell, and was considered daring for its time as it teased current sexual mores and conventions. The play was adapted into a movie in 1955 by Billy Wilder, as a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe, with Ewell reprising his role. Unfortunately, the censors and studio executives would not allow the hero to actually consummate the affair; instead, Ewell was seen merely daydreaming a few romantic scenes, a situation that left the playwright far from happy. Nevertheless, the success of The Seven Year Itch, opened the door for Axelrod as a screenwriter. He did a fine adaptation of William Inge's play Bus Stop (1956) again starring Marilyn Monroe, and did a splendid job transferring Truman Capote's lovely Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). Although his relationship with the director Blake Edwards was rancorous at best, it did earn Axelrod his only Academy Award nomination. So frustrated with his work being so heavily revised by Hollywood, that Axelrod decided to move from New York to Los Angeles, where he could more closely monitor the treatment of his scripts. It was around this period that Axelrod developed some his best work since he began producing as well as writing: the incisive, scorchingly subversive cold war thriller The Manchurian Candidate (1962), based on Richard Condon's novel about an American POW (Laurence Harvey) who returns home and is brainwashed to kill a powerful politician; the urbane comedy Paris When it Sizzles (1964) that showed off its stars William Holden and Audrey Hepburn at their sophisticated best; his directorial debut with the remarkable (if somewhat undisciplined) satire Lord Love a Duck (1966) that skewers many sacred institutions of American culture (marriage, school, wealth, stardom) and has since become a cult favorite for midnight movie lovers; and finally (his only other directorial effort) a gentle comedy of wish fulfillment The Secret Life of an American Wife (1968) that gave Walter Matthau one of his most sympathetic roles. By the '70s, Axelrod retired quietly in Los Angeles. He returned to write one fine screenplay, John Mackenzie's slick political thriller The Fourth Protocol (1987) starring Michael Caine. He is survived by his sons Peter, Steven, and Jonathan; a daughter Nina; seven grandchildren; and a sister, Connie Burdick. by Michael T. Toole