FILM · 1967 · USA
Cool Hand Luke
- Directed by
- Stuart Rosenberg
- Runtime
- 127 min
- Studio
- Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, Jalem Productions
22 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the…
Summary: TMDB
All facts (22)
- #001
Morgan Woodward stayed in character during breaks. Between scenes he would sit in his chair wearing mirrored sunglasses and speak to no one.
- #002
Two hundred hard-boiled eggs were provided for one of the film's most famous scenes. Thanks to clever editing, Paul Newman ate only about eight in total. The rest were consumed by the cast and crew, which led to numerous cases of excessive gas the next day.
- #003
Stuart Rosenberg wanted the cast to internalize life in a chain gang and banned wives from the set.
- #004
The scene in which Luke plays "Plastic Jesus" as a tribute to his mother was originally scheduled for the start of shooting, but after Paul Newman insisted on learning the instrument, director Stuart Rosenberg postponed it by several weeks. When they tried it and the playing was not satisfactory, it was pushed back to the production's next-to-last day. When Newman still could not get it, an argument broke out between Newman and Rosenberg. Newman tried again in what George Kennedy remembered as a "tense, electrically charged, quiet" moment. When he finished, Rosenberg called "Print." Newman insisted he could do better. "Nobody could do it better," Rosenberg replied.
- #005
A San Joaquin County building inspector passing by the prisoner camp set thought it was a recently built migrant worker complex and posted "condemned" notices on the buildings for failing to meet code.
- #006
Joy Harmon (The Girl) said she nearly turned down her now-famous role in the car-washing scene, not because she was uncomfortable with the scene's sexual nature, but because the filmmakers wanted her to smoke marijuana before filming, apparently believing it would put her in the right mindset. Since she had never smoked marijuana and did not want to try it, she refused and threatened to quit, so the producers dropped the request and she did the scene "unstoned."
- #007
Harry Dean Stanton (listed only as "Dean Stanton" in this film's opening title sequence) taught Paul Newman how to play "Plastic Jesus."
- #008
According to Jack Lemmon's son Chris Lemmon in an Icons Radio interview, Jack was originally cast to play Luke, but after reading the script he saw that Paul Newman would be better. So he decided to produce it instead.
- #009
Pearce, a prisoner nicknamed "Sailor," wrote the novel the film is based on after spending two years in a chain gang for safe-cracking.
- #010
A Southern prison camp was built just north of Stockton, California, for this film. A dozen buildings were constructed, including barracks, a mess hall, a guard room, a sentry box and dog kennels.
- #011
The scene in which Luke's mother visits had to be shot in a single day. Given that the scene ran eight dialogue-filled pages, this was a difficult task. However, since the actors involved, Paul Newman and Jo Van Fleet, were trained professionals, it went off without any disruption.
- #012
One of Paul Newman's instructions to writers Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson was that they should not tailor the script to him. He wanted a role that would not merely showcase his strengths but genuinely develop him.
- #013
On the single day she shot, Jo Van Fleet sat on a tree stump two hundred meters away from everyone, looking over her lines. Harry Dean Stanton remembered that before the shoot she asked him to sing to her, and that it made her cry.
- #014
The fight scene between Dragline and Luke took three days to shoot. George Kennedy said both of them were completely worn out from fighting and, in Paul Newman's case, from falling onto the hard ground for three full days.
- #015
After hearing about the project, Paul Newman wanted to play the lead. To develop his character he went to West Virginia, where he recorded local accents and studied how people behaved.
- #016
At Dennis Hopper's invitation, avant-garde filmmaker Bruce Conner shot some footage of the cast clearing roadside brush under the scorching sun. The resulting film, Luke (2005), shot on 8 mm and edited entirely in-camera, is an unforgettable slow-motion study of how a film is made, with electronic music by Patrick Gleeson.
- #017
The scene in which Luke is chased by bloodhounds and other exteriors were shot at the Callahan Road Prison in Jacksonville, Florida. Luke was played by a stuntman using dogs from the Florida Department of Corrections.
- #018
Truckloads of Spanish moss were shipped from Louisiana to the California set to be hung on the trees around the prison.
- #019
Jack Lemmon owned Jalem Productions, which co-produced this film along with many of his other films.
- #020
It was the first of four collaborations between director Stuart Rosenberg and Paul Newman.
- #021
After her manager contacted the producers, blonde Joy Harmon was cast in the scene in which she taunts the prisoners while they wash her car. She auditioned in front of Stuart Rosenberg and Paul Newman by wearing a bikini and not speaking.
- #022
Stuart Rosenberg saw the character of Luke as an avatar of Jesus Christ. As a result, the film is filled with Christian imagery.
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