SYNOPSIS: For his electrifying follow-up to the smash success Five Easy Pieces, Bob Rafelson dug even deeper into the crushed dreams of wayward America. Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern play estranged siblings David and Jason, the former a depressive late-night-radio talk show host, the latter an extroverted con man; when Jason drags his younger brother to a dreary Atlantic City and into a real-estate scam, events spiral toward tragedy. The King of Marvin Gardens, also starring a brilliant Ellen Burstyn as Jason’s bitter aging beauty-queen squeeze, is one of the most devastating character studies of the seventies.
| David Staebler | Jack Nicholson |
| Jason Staebler | Bruce Dern |
| Sally | Ellen Burstyn |
| Jessica | Julia Anne Robinson |
| Lewis | Benjamin “Scatman” Crothers |
| Grandfather | Charles LaVine |
| Frank | Josh Mostel |
| Director | Bob Rafelson |
| Screenplay | Jacob Brackman |
| Story | Bob Rafelson and Jacob Brackman |
| Executive producer | Steve Blauner |
| Producer | Bob Rafelson |
| Associate producer | Harold Schneider |
| Director of photography | Lázló Kovács |
| Editing | John F. Link II |
| Casting | Marion Dougherty Associates |
| Art director | Toby Carr Rafelson |
By November 28, 2010
“What we need are good old American—and that’s not to be confused with European—Art Films.” So declared the then twenty-nine-year-old beatnik Method actor Dennis Hopper in an unpublished 1965 manifesto . . . Read more »
By November 27, 2010
The New Jersey resort town of Atlantic City provides the backdrop for two distinctive films made at opposite ends of the seventies: Bob Rafelson’s 1972 The King of Marvin Gardens and Louis Malle’s . . . Read more »
HeadBob Rafelson
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