[5] Joshua Logan, director of the original Broadway stage production, directed the film version, which stars William Holden, Kim Novak, and Rosalind Russell, with Susan Strasberg and Cliff Robertson in supporting roles.

On the morning of Labor Day 1955, a freight train brings vagrant Hal Carter to a Kansas town to visit his fraternity friend Alan Benson.

While he stays with kind Helen Potts, he also meets Alan's girlfriend Madge Owens, her sister Millie, and their mother.

At the picnic, Hal divides his attention among Madge, Millie, and middle-aged schoolteacher Rosemary, who is accompanied by her friend Howard Bevans.

The next morning, Howard comes to the Owens house, intending to tell Rosemary he wants to wait, but at the sight of him she is overjoyed, thinking he has come to take her away.

Holden was "happy to finish his Columbia Pictures contract with such a prestigious project" despite the film paying him $30,000 instead of the $250,000 he would have otherwise earned.

Eileen Heckart played the school teacher on Broadway, but Harry Cohn wanted a bigger name, so Rosalind Russell was cast.

Paul Newman was under contract to Warner Bros and was unable to reprise his role as Alan, so Logan cast Cliff Robertson, who had been in a touring company of Mister Roberts.

Kim Stanley played the younger sister on stage, but Logan thought she was too old on film and cast Strasberg.

Verna Felton, a longtime radio and TV character actor who was well-known to audiences in the 1950s, had a strong supporting role as neighbor Helen Potts.

Bomber, the paperboy, was played by Nick Adams, an actor who dated Natalie Wood and was a friend of both James Dean and Elvis Presley.

While the storm spared the set, it devastated the nearby town of Udall, Kansas, and the film crew drove their trucks and equipment there to help clean up the damage.

[11]: 10 Heavy thunderstorms with tornado warnings repeatedly interrupted shooting of the scene on location, and it was completed on a backlot in Burbank, where Holden (according to some sources)[specify] was "dead drunk" to calm his nerves.

In a contemporary review, critic Mae Tinee of the Chicago Tribune wrote:It is a taut two hours of masterful movie making ...

"[15]Once the movie premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, film critic A. H. Weiler of The New York Times wrote:[I]t should be noted that William Inge's distinguished comedy-drama is slightly travelworn here and there.

The hearts and minds of the commonplace Kansas townsfolk that were so beautifully revealed on stage still leave a sharp, poignant and lasting impression on a moviegoer.

In returning to film making after a long absence, Joshua Logan, who has lived with the play from the beginning, has made its characters come alive again through his directorial artistry.

The first was in 1986, directed by Marshall W. Mason and starring Gregory Harrison, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Learned, Rue McClanahan and Dick Van Patten.

The second remake was in 2000, starring Josh Brolin, Gretchen Mol, Bonnie Bedelia, Jay O. Sanders and Mary Steenburgen.