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Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	László Benedek
Screenplay by	Stanley Roberts
Based on	Death of a Salesman; by Arthur Miller
Produced by	Stanley Kramer
Starring	Fredric March; Mildred Dunnock; Kevin McCarthy; Cameron Mitchell; Howard Smith;
Cinematography	Franz Planer
Edited by	Harry Gerstad; William A. Lyon;
Music by	Alex North
Production; company	Columbia Pictures
Release date	December 20, 1951;
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1.2 million (US rental)

Death of a Salesman is a 1951 American drama film adapted from the 1949 play of the same name by Arthur Miller. It was directed by László Benedek and written for the screen by Stanley Roberts. The film received many honors, including four Golden Globe Awards, the Volpi Cup and five Oscar nominations. Alex North, who wrote the music for the Broadway production, was one of the five Academy Award nominees for the film's musical score.^[4]

Plot

Traveling salesman Willy Loman has led a life consisting of 60 years of failure. Loman's wife supports him, but he soon begins to lose his grip on reality and slips between the past and the present, frantically trying to find where he went wrong.^[2] Finally exhausted between the emotional rift between him and his son Biff, and the emotional toll from being burnt out with his job, Willy starts his car in the garage and takes his own life. An insurance policy is paid out to the rest of the Loman family, as Willy felt he was worth more dead than alive.

Cast

Fredric March as Willy Loman
Mildred Dunnock as Linda Loman
Kevin McCarthy as Biff Loman
Cameron Mitchell as Happy Loman
Howard Smith as Charley
Royal Beal as Ben
Don Keefer as Bernard
Jesse White as Stanley
Claire Carleton as Miss Francis
David Alpert as Howard Wagner

Career of a Salesman

Just before the film was about to be released, Arthur Miller threatened to sue Columbia Studios over the short that was to appear before Death of a Salesman.^[5] This short film, Career of a Salesman, showed what the producers believed was a more typical American salesman, and was an attempt to defuse possible accusations that Death of a Salesman was an anti-American film.^[5] Eventually, Columbia agreed to remove the 10-minute short from the film's theatrical run.^[5]

Miller saw Career of a Salesman as an attack upon his work, proclaiming: "Why the hell did you make the picture if you're so ashamed of it? Why should anybody not get up and walk out of the theater if Death of a Salesman is so outmoded and pointless?"^[5] He argued against the portrayal of the salesman profession as "a wonderful profession, that people thrived on it, and there were no problems at all."^[6] Eventually, the very attitude that led Columbia to commission the intro film led to the failure of Death of a Salesman: Businessmen and other people in the political climate of the 1950s tried to distance themselves from a film depicting American failure.^[2]^[5]

Production

Benedek took great care in making the film a close transcription of the play.^[1] In many places, the film uses Miller's lines verbatim, sometimes leaving out only small lines of dialogue.^[1] However, the playwright claimed that the movie was ruined by the truncation of key scenes.^[7] In fact, the playwright had no involvement with or control over the film.^[6] Benedek also stressed the dreary, middle class setting of the film, using small rooms and gray shots.^[1]

The cast consisted principally of the Broadway cast, with the addition of Kevin McCarthy from the original London cast. However, Fredric March replaced Broadway actor Lee J. Cobb after concerns arose over Cobb's alleged past with leftist politics.^[2]

Reception

Though the film won over many film critics and received nominations for many awards, it was a box-office failure. The subject matter, the failure of the American dream, did not appeal to many of the era's moviegoers.^[2] Miller hated the adaptation of his play.^[5] He also claimed that, although he wrote the play cinematically, Benedek managed to "chop off almost every climax of the play as though with a lawnmower" and portray Loman as a lunatic rather than a victim.^[5]^[6]

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
Academy Awards	Best Actor	Fredric March	Nominated	^[8]
	Best Supporting Actor	Kevin McCarthy	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Mildred Dunnock	Nominated
	Best Cinematography – Black-and-White	Franz Planer	Nominated
	Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture	Alex North	Nominated
British Academy Film Awards	Best Film		Nominated	^[9]
British Academy Film Awards	Best Foreign Actor	Fredric March	Nominated	^[9]
Directors Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures	László Benedek	Nominated	^[10]
Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama	Fredric March	Won	^[11]
	Best Director – Motion Picture	László Benedek	Won
	Best Cinematography – Black and White	Franz Planer	Won
	New Star of the Year – Actor	Kevin McCarthy	Won
National Board of Review Awards	Top Ten Films		4th Place	^[12]
Venice Film Festival	Golden Lion	László Benedek	Nominated
Venice Film Festival	Best Actor	Fredric March	Won
Writers Guild of America Awards	Best Written Drama	Stanley Roberts	Nominated	^[13]
Writers Guild of America Awards	Best Written Film Concerning American Scene	Stanley Roberts	Nominated	^[13]

New York Times Critics' Pick

Top 1,000

Restoration and home media

Death of a Salesman has been released on DVD format by Movies Unlimited.^[14] It has also been made available on various streaming platforms, such as Amazon Prime Video.^[15]

In 2013, a digital restoration of the film was undertaken by Sony. The digital pictures were digitally restored, frame by frame, at Prasad Corporation to remove dirt, tears, scratches and other artifacts. The restoration was part of the Stanley Kramer 100-year celebration (Kramer would have been 100 years old on September 29, 2013).^[16]