''Rhinoceros'' is a 1974 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

based on the play '' Rhinocéros'' by

Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco inst ...

. The film was produced by Ely Landau for the

American Film Theatre From 1973 to 1975, using approximately 500 movie theaters across the US, The American Film Theatre presented two seasons of film adaptations of well-known plays. Each film was shown only four times at each theatre. By design, these were not films ...

, which presented thirteen film adaptations of plays in the United States from 1973 to 1975.

Plot

The residents of a large town are inexplicably turning into

rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct specie ...

es. Stanley (

Gene Wilder Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He is known mainly for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in ''Willy Won ...

), a mild-mannered office clerk, watches the bizarre transformations from a bemused distance. But soon the strange occurrences invade his personal space, as his neighbor and best friend John (

Zero Mostel Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in ''Fiddler on the Roof'', Pseudolus on stage and on ...

) and his girlfriend Daisy ( Karen Black) become part of the human-into-rhinoceros metamorphosis that is taking place. Eventually, Stanley realizes he will be the only human left. Not willing to give in and transform, he instead climbs atop his apartment building and shouts down in defiance.

Cast

as John *

as Stanley * Karen Black as Daisy * Joe Silver as Norman * Robert Weil as Carl *

Marilyn Chris Marilyn Chris (born May 19, 1938) is an American actress, possibly best known as Wanda Webb Wolek on the ABC soap opera, ''One Life to Live''. Education Born in Brooklyn, New York, Chris attended the High School of Performing Arts and City Coll ...

as Mrs. Bingham *

Percy Rodrigues Percy Rodriguez (born Percy Rodrigues; June 13, 1918 – September 6, 2007) was a Canadian actor who appeared in many television shows and films from the 1950s to the 1980s. He was of Afro-Portuguese heritage and was born in the Saint-Henri nei ...

as Mr. Nicholson *

Robert Fields Robert Samuel Fields (born 10 July 1934) is an American actor who has appeared in film and television. A life member of The Actors Studio, Fields is known for his role as Daniel in the 1987 drama film '' Anna''. Early life and education Fields w ...

as Young Man * Melody Santangello as Young Woman *

Don Calfa Donald George Calfa (December 3, 1939 – December 1, 2016) was an American film and television character actor whose credits spanned over 40 years, playing both comedic and dramatic roles. Although Calfa appeared in many high-profile films and ...

as Waiter *

Lou Cutell Lou Cutell (October 6, 1930 – November 21, 2021) was an American actor, who was perhaps best known for his appearance as Amazing Larry in the 1985 film '' Pee-wee's Big Adventure''. Life and career Cutell was born in New York City to Sicil ...

as Cashier * Howard Morton as Doctor * Manuel Aviles as Busboy *

Anne Ramsey Angelina Anne Ramsey-Mobley (March 27, 1929 – August 11, 1988) was an American actress. She is best known for her film roles as Mama Fratelli in ''The Goonies'' (1985) and as Mrs. Lift in ''Throw Momma from the Train'' (1987), the latter of wh ...

as Lady with Cat *

Lorna Thayer Lorna Thayer (born Lorna Patricia Casey; August 16, 1919 – June 4, 2005) was an American character actress. Biography Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Thayer was the daughter of silent screen actress Louise Gibney. She appeared often in theatre ...

as Restaurant Owner

Production

In adapting Ionesco’s play, several changes were made to the original text. The setting was switched from France to a contemporary United States, complete with a photograph of President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

that was comically venerated and the lead characters Bérenger and Jean were renamed Stanley and John. A new music score by

Galt MacDermot Arthur Terence Galt MacDermot (December 18, 1928 – December 17, 2018) was a Canadian-American composer, pianist and writer of musical theater. He won a Grammy Award for the song "African Waltz" in 1960. His most-successful musicals were '' Ha ...

was created for the film and a dream sequence was added to the story.

Tom O'Horgan Tom O'Horgan (May 3, 1924 – January 11, 2009) was an American theatre and film director, composer, actor and musician. He is best known for his Broadway work as director of the hit musicals '' Hair'' and ''Jesus Christ Superstar''. During his ...

, a theater director best known for his staging of the original Broadway production of the musical ''

Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fi ...

'', directed ''Rhinoceros''. Zero Mostel, who starred in the 1961 Broadway production of the play, recreated his role as the man who turns into a Rhinoceros. Mostel created a minor brouhaha during the production when he refused to smash any props during the rehearsal of his transformation scene – the actor claimed he had an aversion to destroying property. Although O'Horgan considered using a live animal to dramatize the transformation, no rhinoceros is ever seen on camera during the film – shadows and POV camera angles are used to suggest the presence of the animals. Mostel and Wilder had appeared together in '' The Producers'' (1968).

Reception

''Rhinoceros'' was poorly received when it had its theatrical release as part of the American Film Theatre series.

Jay Cocks John C. "Jay" Cocks Jr. (born January 12, 1944) is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is a graduate of Kenyon College.Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' magazine, faulted it for its "upbeat, frantic vulgarization" of the Ionesco text, arguing that O’Horgan "removed not only the politics but the resonance as well. What remains is a squeaky sermon on the virtues of nonconformity".

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

, writing in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', dismissed the film as "an unreliable mouthpiece in an unreliable metaphor so grossly overdirected by Tom O'Horgan that you might get the idea Mr. O'Horgan thought he was making a movie for an audience made up entirely of rhinoceroses instead of people".

References

External links