History Theatre / Picnic

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

-->'''Millie:''' When I graduate from college I'm going to New York, and write novels that'll shock people right out of their senses. I'm never gonna fall in love. Not me! I'm not gonna live in some jerkwater town and marry some ornery guy and raise some grimy kids. But just because ''I'm'' a dope doesn't mean ''you'' have to be.
-->'''Madge:''' Millie.
-->'''Millie:''' Go with him, Madge.
-->'''Madge:''' Millie?
-->'''Millie:''' For once in your life, do something right.

--> "Young? You been stomping around her in those boots like you owned the place, thinking every woman you saw as gonna fall madly in love. But here's one woman didn't pay you any mind. Aristocratic millionaire, my foot! You wouldn't know an aristocratic millionaire if he spit on you. Braggin' about your father, and I bet he wasn't any better'n you are. You think just 'cause you're a man, you can walk in here and make off with whatever you like. You think just 'cause you're young you can push other people aside and not pay them any mind. You think just cause you're strong you can show your muscles and nobody'll know what a pitiful specimen you are. But you won't stay young forever, didja ever thinka that? What'll become of you then? You'll end your life in the gutter and it'll serve you right, 'cause the gutter's where you came from and the gutter's where you belong."

--> "The ones we love are always pretty, but the ones who are pretty to begin with... everyone loves them."

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In their first scene, Millie is wearing overalls, smoking a cigarette, shooting a basketball, and reading a book. She is bothered by dripping water--from her gorgeous sister Millie upstairs, wringing out her long, luxuriant hair. The TomboyAndGirlyGirl dynamic is firmly established.

* DareToBeBadass: Millie at the end of the film gives Madge this speech, telling her that she must go and fight for Hal.

** In the film, Millie comes off like she might be a lesbian, what with the oversized glasses, the covert smoking, her comment about not wanting to get married and have babies, her comment about how she never dances with boys, and her insisting that she has to lead when she winds up dancing with Rosemary. Less true in the play, where Millie confesses a crush on Alan.

Hal, a handsome drifter, arrives in a small Kansas town on Labor Day weekend, seeking work. The town happens to be the home of his old college roommate Alan, scion of a wealthy family. Alan is romancing Madge Owens, the prettiest girl in town. Madge's widowed mother Flo is desperate to get her married off to Alan and is horrified by the romantic sparks that soon emerge between Madge and Hal. Madge's younger, bookish, plainer sister Millie is jealous of the attention that Madge gets for her beauty. Rosemary, the spinster schoolteacher who lives in the boardinghouse next door, is also attracted to Hal, despite the attentions of her suitor, Howard, an older man who owns a general store.

''Picnic'' is a 1953 play by William Inge, which was adapted into a [[TheFilmOfThePlay 1955 movie]] directed by Joshua Logan.

The original play featured an unknown Creator/PaulNewman in the part of Alan. It won the UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize. The film recast most of the roles with Hollywood stars, including [[DawsonCasting 37-year-old]] Creator/WilliamHolden as Hal, Creator/KimNovak (in her StarMakingRole) as Madge, Creator/RosalindRussell as Rosemary, and Creator/CliffRobertson as Alan.

!!Tropes:

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1955_picnic_05.jpg]]

Hal, a handsome drifter, arrives in a small Kansas town on Labor Day weekend, looking for work. The town happens to be the home of Hal's old college roommate Alan, scion of a wealthy family. Alan is romancing Madge Owens, the prettiest girl in town. Madge's mother Flo is desperate to get her married off to Alan and is horrified by the romantic sparks taking place between Madge and Hal. Madge's younger, bookish, plainer sister Millie is jealous of the attention that Madge gets for her beauty. Rosemary, the spinster schoolteacher who lives in the boardinghouse next door, is also attracted to Hal, despite the attentions of her suitor, Howard, an older man who owns a general store.