The 25 Must-See Titles at the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival

Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in Barefoot in the Park. Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

Barefoot in the Park (1967)

Paul and Corrie (Robert Redford and Jane Fonda) are newlyweds forced to navigate a fifth-floor walkup in New York that acts as the setting for their clash of personalities.

Did marriage change in the thirty years after Cary and Irene said “I do” in The Awful Truth? Maybe Robert Redford and Jane Fonda will have better luck. Barefoot in the Park is one I’m hoping to see for the first time during the festival. Based on a popular play by Neil Simon, this was one of Robert Redford’s early film roles, reprising the character he played on Broadway. The marriage plot here sees opposites attract, and they couldn’t get anymore opposite – the free-spirited Fonda (before the Vietnam War backlash) and the dashing Redford.

You can never go wrong with a Robert Redford movie, particularly during his blonde, Great Gatsby phase. Fonda didn’t particularly care for her early work, but this and Sunday in New York both look at the way the late ‘60s affected women. The film also stars French actor Charles Boyer, alongside a host of problems that’ll keep you from ever wanting to purchase a house again. Also worth watching after Barefoot in the Park is another 1967 feature starring Robert Redford, Inside Daisy Clover.

Next: Black Narcissus