They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Horace McCoy’s existential Great Depression novel (published in 1935) is the basis for a brutally compelling movie, and the first performance where Jane Fonda could show her chops (ironically she’s playing a failed actress). The setting is a dance marathon presided over by emcee Rocky (Gig Young). Keep moving for a potential $1,500 cash prize. As the hours turn into days Rocky stirs the point, introducing a series of grueling derbies in which the exhausted dancers (among them, Red Buttons, Susannah York and Bonnie Bedelia) must compete.

It was a germinal moment… It was the first time a director asked me for input on how I saw the character and the story. And this was the first time in my life as an actor that I was working on a film about larger societal issues, and instead of my professional work feeling peripheral to life, it felt relevant.

Jane Fonda

Sydney Pollack’s dance-marathon movie has probably aged better than any American film of its time.

Entertainment Weekly (1996)