They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

REVIEW
Few films in the 1960s were able to capture such raw power and unrelenting emotional tension as this devastating adaptation of Horace McCoy's novel of Depression-era America. With a dance marathon serving as metaphor for a crippled nation, the story centers on a disparate group of unemployed hopefuls who come together to win the "big" jackpot. No one's prepared for the gruelling, exhaustive, deadly competition that follows -- all for the enjoyment of a few paying spectators. Fonda gives an extraordinary performance as a woman at road's end; it signaled her arrival as her generation's premiere actress. Young won an Oscar as the unscrupulous M.C.; York is mesmerizing as a fragile contestant; and Buttons is exemplary as the marathon's oldest participant. The dance sequences as staged by Pollack are riveting.