From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cold Turkey
1971 movie poster
Directed by	Norman Lear
Produced by	Norman Lear
Written by	Norman Lear William Price Fox Jr.
Starring	Dick Van Dyke Bob Newhart Paul Benedict Bob Elliott Ray Goulding Vincent Gardenia Edward Everett Horton Barnard Hughes Graham Jarvis Harvey Jason Judith Lowry Tom Poston Pippa Scott Jean Stapleton M. Emmet Walsh
Music by	Randy Newman
Cinematography	Charles F. Wheeler
Editing by	John C. Horger
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	February 19, 1971
Running time	99 min
Country	USA
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Cold Turkey is a satirical comedy film released in 1971. It stars a long list of comedic actors, several of whom are well-known to North American television audiences. The film was directed, co-produced and co-written by Norman Lear and is based on the novel I'm Giving Them Up for Good by Margaret and Neil Rau.

Cold Turkey features original music by Randy Newman including "He Gives Us All His Love", a sparsely-arranged ballad with gospel influence that serves as the film's theme song.

As part of a public relations and marketing strategy, a large tobacco company offers $25,000,000 to any town that can stop smoking for thirty days.

Rev. Clayton Brooks (Dick Van Dyke), a kindly minister, leads his community (population 4,006) to accept the challenge and strives to help them find the strength to succeed.

Wanting to see the townspeople fail, the tobacco company sends flunky Merwin Wren (Bob Newhart) to undermine their efforts by targeting the weaker-willed members of the community such as alcoholic Edgar Stopworth (Tom Poston), elderly Dr. Proctor (Barnard Hughes) and anxiety-ridden Mrs. Wappler (Jean Stapleton).

The attention of newscasters (Bob and Ray) turns the community's efforts into a matter of highly-publicized failure or success.

Most of the film's action takes place in the fictional community of Eagle Rock, Iowa. Much of the film was actually filmed in the small town of Greenfield, Iowa and many local people were used as extras. This gives the setting a certain authenticity which might be different had it been filmed in a Hollywood soundstage.

Cold Turkey is a light-hearted and comedic exploration of serious themes germane to American society including addiction, the power of advertising and the mass media, right wing and left wing politics, personal liberty versus loyalty to one's community, and the relative value of material gain versus personal honor and interpersonal relationships.

• Odie Turman: I'll tell that to a Communist when he H-bombs me! Before you H-bomb me, you go over to that man with a gun and get captured! (immediately followed in the uncensored version by:) You're a bullshit, Amos Bush!
• Edgar Stopworth: The booze bone is connected to the smoke bone...
• Merwin Wren: Big clocks are never wrong!

• Veteran actor Edward Everett Horton, whose career began in 1906, played tobacco company president Hiram C. "Mr. Tobacco' Grayson in a wheelchair. This was Horton's last role as he died before the film was released.
• Director Norman Lear has a 3 second cameo approximately 2/3 of the way into the film. He is shown as one of the townspeople sitting down and crying because he is unable to get a cigarette fix.
• Maureen McCormick, best known for her role as Marcia Brady on television's The Brady Bunch, provided the voice of a talking doll in the film.
• The characters played by Bob and Ray are parodies of real-life news personalities: "Walter Chronic" (Walter Cronkite), "Hugh Upson" (Hugh Downs), "David Chetley" (Chet Huntley/David Brinkley), "Arthur Lordly" (Arthur Godfrey), "Paul Hardly" (Paul Harvey). The trailer features different newscasters, "Hardly Reasonable" (Harry Reasoner) and "Mike Walrus" (Mike Wallace), one of whom is played by Paul Dooley (who does not appear in the final film).

• Cold Turkey (film) at the Internet Movie Database
• Cold Turkey (film) at All Movie Guide
• Cold Turkey (film) at the TCM Movie Database