December 27, 2018/The Longest Yard

Hello, thanks for staying up late with us on TCM, I’m Ben Mankiewicz. Tonight, we are paying tribute to Burt Reynolds, who died on September at 82 in Jupiter, Florida, not far from where he was a high school football star in Riviera Beach. Reynolds’ talent earned him a scholarship to play football at Florida State University, he was good, too. Although injuries including losing his spleen in a car accident derailed his football career, Reynolds returned to football for one of his best movies. From 1974, this is a TCM premiere, *The Longest Yard*. Reynolds stars as Paul Crewe, “Wrecking” Crewe, a former pro football player who’s been kicked out of the league for cheating. In a fit of frustration, recklessness or both, Paul Crewe lands in state prison after wrecking his girlfriend’s car and attacking a cop. The warden, played by Eddie Albert, happens to have a semi-pro football team made up of prison guards, and he insists that Paul organize the inmates to play against his team. Knowing Paul’s unethical history, the warden also wants Paul to make sure the inmates lose. The movie effectively blends comedy, tragedy, prison food and the power sweep. Variety described it as combining the brutish excitement of football competition with the brutalities of contemporary prison life. Reynolds and director Robert Aldrich wanted his character to be a combination of Joe Namath and Bobby Lane. Namath was the flashy New York Jets quarterback. Lane, he did the impossible, won three NFL Championships as the quarterback for the Detroit Lions. To maintain competitive realism throughout the game, which is a big part of the movie, the teams were not allowed to socialize off-screen. Reynolds said on some takes, he called plays the other team didn’t know and those plays typically ended up in the movie because they looked so real. The movie was shot at a maximum-security prison in Reedsville, Georgia and Aldrich gave several prisoners bit parts. He also cast a few former pro players including Joe Kapp of the Minnesota Vikings. When the movie wrapped, Aldrich left the stadium for the inmates. From 1974, also with a terrific character actor and a big TCM fan, the late Ed Lauter as well as James Hampton and Bernadette Peters, *The Longest Yard*.

**Outro**

If you’re a football fan, you may have noticed that some of the plays Burt Reynolds called in *The Longest Yard* could not be actual plays based on his wording. Reynolds explained in a Sports Illustrated interview that split left on two is not a play, but he and director Robert Aldrich felt that calling the whole play 32 X Y east tight end hook wide Z split, or whatever, would take too much time and they’d lose the audience. *The Longest Yard* was a big hit, received mostly favorable reviews, except for a few that were critical of Reynolds’ performance. Aldrich thought the complaints about Reynolds, specifically from Pauline Kael and Vincent Canby, were undeserved. And in hindsight, Aldrich was right. He and Reynolds worked well together and quickly collaborated again on a detective movie, *Hustle*, from 1975, co-starring Catherine Deneuve and a stellar supporting cast that also included Eddie Albert, who played the warden in *The Longest Yard*. Up next, Reynolds and director Hal Needham collaborate on an action comedy tribute to their former profession, stunt work.