The Landlord

 ( 1970 Comedy-drama Films ) 

The Landlord is a 1970 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby, adapted by Bill Gunn from the 1966 novel by Kristin Hunter. The film stars Beau Bridges in the lead role of privileged and ignorant white man Elgar Enders who becomes the landlord of an inner-city tenement, unaware that the people he is responsible for are low-income, streetwise residents. Also in the cast are Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey, Louis Gossett Jr., and Walter Brooke. The film was Ashby's directorial debut.

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Plot Elgar Enders, who lives off an allowance from his wealthy parents William and Joyce, buys an inner-city tenement in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which is undergoing gentrification, planning to evict the occupants and construct a luxury home for himself. However, once he ventures into the tenement, he grows fond of the low-income black residents. Elgar decides to remain the landlord and help fix the building. He rebels against his WASP upbringing and, to his parents' dismay, romances two black women.

The first is Lanie, a mixed-race dancer at a local black club. Lanie has light skin and features due to her having a mother of Irish descent and a father of African descent, and has experienced colorism. Their relationship is strained, as Elgar has an affair with one of his tenants, Fanny Johnson, and gets her pregnant. Her husband, Copee, a black activist with an identity crisis, is enraged when he finds out about the pregnancy, and tries to kill Elgar with an axe but stops. He is taken away in a straitjacket.

In recovery at the hospital, Fanny tells Elgar she can't raise the child herself with Copee returning home. Elgar balks at being a single father, so Fanny suggests they give the child up for adoption, but only to a white family to start a new life. The story ends with Elgar taking custody of the child, mending his relationship with Lanie, and moving in with her.

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Cast

Elgar Winthrop Julius Enders

Joyce Enders

Francine "Fanny" Johnson

Marge

William Enders

Copee Johnson

Lanie

Professor Duboise

Enid

Susan Enders

Peter Coots

William Enders Jr.

Charlie Murphy, older brother of Eddie Murphy, lived in the neighborhood where the film was shot, and he appears in a brief scene as a boy stealing Elgar's hubcaps.

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Reception and legacy The film was a commercial disappointment. Arthur Krim of United Artists later did an assessment of the film as part of an evaluation of the company's inventory:

What was expected to be provocative material to the new modern film audience of 1968-1969 in depicting black and white relationships in an urban setting, emerged as a film which we felt would be of limited interest to the audience of 1970 - an audience more and more sated with films of this genre. This is still a type of film we intend to continue to make but at one-quarter the cost. Unfortunately, at the time this film was programmed, unrealistic optimism about the potential audience for this type of film prevailed.quoted in Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company that Changed the Film Industry, Wisconsin Press, 1987 p 314

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Critical reaction The film garnered mostly positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has received a 93% overall approval rating from 14 critics. Upon its release, New York Times film critic Howard Thompson, called the film "a wondrously wise, sad and hilarious comedy." On September 19, 2007, journalist Mike Hale discussed the film in a New York Times article called "Before Gentrification Was Cool, It Was a Movie". Hale praised the film for tackling the racial tension that arose in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and wrote in surprise how the film "would disappear after its 1970 release – rarely shown and just as rarely discussed."

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Awards and nominations

Academy Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Lee Grant
British Academy Film Awards	United Nations Award	Hal Ashby
Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture	Lee Grant
Laurel Awards	Top Female Supporting Performance
	Top Female Star of Tomorrow	Diana Sands

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Further reading

• Sieving, Christopher J. Soul Searching: Black-Themed Cinema from the March on Washington to the Rise of Blaxploitation,

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External links

Categories: 1970 Comedy-drama Films, 1970 Directorial Debut Films, 1970 Films, 1970s American Films, 1970s English-language Films, 1970s Romantic Comedy-drama Films, 1970s Satirical Films, American Romantic Comedy-drama Films, American Satirical Films, English-language Romantic Comedy-drama Films, Films About Interracial Romance, Films About Landlords, Films About Race And Ethnicity, Films Based On American Novels, Films Directed By Hal Ashby, Films Produced By Norman Jewison, Films Set In Brooklyn, Films Set In New York City, United Artists Films

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