The movie that made Robert Duvall feel betrayed: “It ticked me off that much”

(Credit: Josh Jensen)
If you’ve somehow never heard of Robert Duvall then you’ve clearly never seen about a dozen of the greatest movies ever made. He made his big screen debut in the 1962 version of To Kill a Mockingbird as Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley, a minor character who proves to be pivotal to the plot. He followed this up with appearances in Apocalypse Now, M*A*S*H, Network, The Conversation, and a little film called The Godfather. You might have to look that one up. It’s fairly obscure.
Even though he’s now in his tenth decade on the planet, Duvall hasn’t announced his formal retirement from acting and was appearing in movies as recently as 2022. With such an insanely long career behind him, he’s spoilt for choice when it comes to his favourite roles, especially those in projects that were overlooked by the general public. According to an interview he did with Movieline, a lesser-known picture from 1972 is one of those projects.
He explained how, in the early 1970s, screenwriter Horton Foote secured the film rights to a William Faulkner short story called ‘Tomorrow’. Joseph Anthony directed Duvall and a small cast in the finished product, a product the star was less than thrilled with. “There’s a scene where I see my son when he grows up – and they cut it,” he revealed. “I wouldn’t see the movie for a year; it ticked me off that much.”
“I didn’t know,” he continued. “Horton Foote was my friend. I felt betrayed. Foote had adapted Harper Lee’s novel into the screenplay for To Kill a Mockingbird and was the one who recommended Duvall for the job. He also penned scripts for the Steve McQueen vehicle Baby the Rain Must Fall and Gary Sinise’s version of Of Mice and Men. It wasn’t just his old pal that Duvall had a problem with, as he also blamed the, “young actors who go into the editing room and take over, I don’t know how they can do that, but in a way, I don’t blame them. Back then, I should have known.”
Tomorrow follows the plight of Jackson Fentry (Duvall), a farmer living an isolated existence in Mississippi. His life changes when a pregnant woman (Olga Bellin) takes shelter on his property. It barely made a splash upon its initial release, but, according to Duvall, it fared better a decade later when French actor Gerard Depardieu took an interest in it. “Depardieu bought the rights and distributed it in France,” said the star, “He liked it so much.”
Despite feeling let down by his friend, Duvall’s career didn’t suffer at all as a result of this project. The Godfather came out the very same year and catapulted him to a new level of stardom. He reprised his role as Tom Hagen two years later for Coppola’s secret, but had the good sense not to come back for Part III.
Though he didn’t have the best relationship with it at the time, it’s nice that Duvall has turned a corner on Tomorrow and considers it one of his best performances, alongside his spot in the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove. He was also able to repair his relationship with Foote, who wrote the screenplay for the 1983 film Tender Mercies. That movie landed Foote an Oscar for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ and Duvall the prize for ‘Best Actor’, his only Academy Award.
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