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Cool Hand Luke premieres in New York. Written by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson from Pearce’s 1965 novel, director Stuart Rosenberg’s first studio-financed theatrical feature, set in the early sixties, stars Paul Newman as a former war veteran doing time in a Florida chain-gang prison. An obdurate nonconformist with a streak of indefatigability that persists even after being severely punished for two failed escape attempts, his ongoing capricousness inevitably puts him on a fatal collision course with the prison’s authoritarian warden and his implacable head guard. Co-starring Strother Martin (who utters the film’s iconic “failure to communicate” line), Morgan Woodward, and George Kennedy, who wins the Academy Award for best supporting actor.
