Love Story (1970)
The plot of Love Story is basic: Two students get
married. She dies.
But people wept while standing in line to see Love Story,
Arthur Hiller's maudlin tale (taken from Erich Segal's tearful
best-seller) of a dislikeable preppie (Ryan O'Neal) who marries
his lower-class fellow student (Ali MacGraw) who is dying of
cancer.
This weepy of the decade was astonishingly popular worldwide,
which came as a pleasant surprise since Segal's screenplay had
been turned down by six major studios before Paramount picked it
up in 1969. Ryan O'Neal was also the sixth male star to be offered
the lead role in the movie - It was turned down by Beau Bridges,
Jon Voight, Michael Sarrazin, Michael York and Michael Douglas.
Love Story started shooting in January 1970, but two
directors (Larry Peerce and Anthony Harvey) left before it was
taken over by Arthur Hiller.
The novel was published on Valentine's Day 1970, and by the
time the movie was released in December, the book was the number
one best seller in both hard and paper back in America.
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