FILM · 1969 · USA
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
43 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (43)
- #001
The film holds the record for the most Oscar nominations without a Best Picture nomination: 9.
- #002
According to an interview with star Michael Sarrazin, the film was shown to the public in Russia as a piece of anti-American propaganda about the evils of capitalism.
- #003
Sydney Pollack shot some of the frightening derby scenes himself and wore a pair of roller skates so he could get directly into the action with the actors moving frantically on their heels and toes.
- #004
Sydney Pollack rewrote James Poe's original screenplay to make the story more claustrophobic.
- #005
The film adaptation of Horace McCoy's Depression-era novel took about 35 years. At various points, Charles Chaplin, Joseph Losey and François Truffaut were interested in bringing it to the screen.
- #006
The film was shot in sequence.
- #007
Jane Fonda was the odds-on favorite to win the Best Actress Oscar® for her performance in this film, so her loss to Maggie Smith for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) came as a surprise. It was speculated that her recent arrest at the Fort Hood military reservation, along with rumors of drug use and adultery, cost her the award.
- #008
Everything was lit from above.
- #009
Screenwriter James Poe saw the film as a low-budget production without stars and planned to make it his directorial debut. He intended to use Shirley Knight as Gloria, Lionel Stander as Rocky, Allen Jenkins as Sailor and his own wife Barbara Steele in another role. The deal fell through, the film became much more expensive, Poe's screenplay was rewritten (and, by Poe's claim, softened), and stars took the lead roles, some of them former clients of former agent Martin Baum, who was involved in the production.
- #010
Among the spectators watching the marathon is a small tribute to director Mervyn LeRoy, who directed the dance-marathon film Hard to Handle (1933).
- #011
Sydney Pollack felt the arrangements of several songs in the film's rough cut were too flashy, so he simplified them.
- #012
Julie Christie and Barbra Streisand turned down the role of Gloria Beatty.
- #013
Gig Young was suffering from the flu when he took part in this film.
- #014
Warren Beatty and Robert Redford were considered for the role of Robert Syverton.
- #015
The film is set in 1932.
- #016
The film's posters mention or show many Hollywood stars of the era: Marion Davies, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford and Ramon Novarro.
- #017
Fifty years after the film's release, Jane Fonda recalled a piece of advice director Sydney Pollack gave her while preparing for the ending. "He kept saying, 'Just don't do anything.' And now, looking at him, I realized I shouldn't cry. Because when you want out, when you've hit bottom, I don't think there are any tears left."
- #018
Two of the couples are sponsored by Winkler's Travel Agency and Sills Collection Agency. The film's producers include Irwin Winkler and Theodore B. Sills.
- #019
According to Charles Chaplin's friend Norman Lloyd, the role of Gloria was designed for Marilyn Monroe, who was involved in Chaplin's project.
- #020
As part of their 1969 US tour, the Rolling Stones used the film's Burbank sound stage as a rehearsal space before a pair of shows at The Forum. Crosby Stills Nash & Young also used the set to rehearse before their spring 1970 tour.
- #021
Barbara Steele was screen-tested for the role played by Susannah York, and hairdresser Jay Sebring (who took a few acting roles on screen in the late '60s) was tested for the role of Robert Fields.
- #022
Mia Farrow wanted to play the lead, but her fee of $500,000 was considered too high. It was eventually decided to show the script to Jane Fonda, who was interested.
- #023
The film contains Susannah York's only Oscar-nominated performance.
- #024
The film's fictional "Pacific Ballroom" is based on real-life Santa Monica venues such as the Aragon Ballroom (on Lick Pier) and the La Monica Ballroom (on Santa Monica Pier). The ballroom set was built on a sound stage at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.
- #025
Costar Gig Young's frequently used expression "Yowza" is said by various sources to mean excitement, enthusiasm and/or approval. Its first use is said to date to 1932, the year in which the film is set. Young was noted for his in-depth description of Rocky: he shaped the character after bandleader and radio personality Ben Bernie and used Bernie's famous catchphrase "Yowzah! Yowzah! Yowzah!" for the character in the film.
- #026
Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and called it one of the best American films of the 1970s: "They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is, for audiences mostly unfamiliar with it, a masterful re-creation of the [dance] marathon era. Along with everything else it does, 'Horses' fascinates us because it tells us something we did not know about human nature and American society. Of course, it tells us a great deal more than that, because it also works on that basic level."
- #027
The film uses an unusual flash-forward technique. Passages foreshadowing Robert's fate appear throughout the film, immediately before the tragic ending.
- #028
Sondra Locke turned down the role of Ruby.
- #029
Bob Fosse was approached to direct the film, but the offer was reportedly declined.
- #030
Actress Jane Fonda and director Sydney Pollack later worked together on The Electric Horseman (1979).
- #031
Early on, Alice (Susannah York) demonstrates her acting ability by reading part of a monologue from George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan." Bree Daniel (Jane Fonda's character) auditioned to play St. Joan in Klute (1971).
- #032
The film's cast includes three Oscar winners: Jane Fonda, Gig Young and Red Buttons; and two Oscar nominees: Susannah York and Bruce Dern.
- #033
Barbara Parkins was offered a role in the film but turned it down.
- #034
Michael Sarrazin was borrowed from Universal to play the male lead.
- #035
In the early 1950s, Sydney Chaplin, Charles Chaplin's son, and newcomer Marilyn Monroe were planned for the lead roles.
- #036
The film received nine nominations at the 42nd Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Actress (for Jane Fonda), Best Supporting Actress (for Susannah York), Best Adapted Screenplay; Gig Young won Best Supporting Actor. As of 2024, it holds the record for the most Oscar nominations without a Best Picture nomination.
- #037
Jane Fonda and Bruce Dern later appeared in Coming Home (1978).
- #038
On a budget of $4.86 million, the film grossed $12.6 million in the US and Canada, making it the 16th highest-grossing film of 1969.
- #039
At one point, Jack Clayton was planned to direct the film.
- #040
After Mrs. Layton states that she was born in 1867, Jane Fonda's character calculates that she is now 65 years old and says she cannot imagine being that old. Fonda turned 65 in 2002.
- #041
The longest continuous dance marathon verified by a couple is 41 hours and 5 minutes, achieved by Alisha and Rubisha Shrestha in Kathmandu, Nepal, in May 2019.
- #042
It was the film debut of Beverlee McKinsey, who is not among the film's listed dancers.
- #043
The film depicts the global Great Depression from the perspective of the United States. The country was in recession from August 1929 to March 1933 and again from May 1937 to June 1938. In 1929 a banking panic in the United States led to the Wall Street crash and a collapse in the money supply, worsened by adherence to the international gold standard. Sweeping new tariffs and other factors contributed to an exceptionally deep depression, and the country's GDP, industrial production, employment and prices fell sharply. A small economic expansion began in 1933, when gold inflows expanded the money supply and improved expectations; that expansion would end in 1937. The final recovery, which emerged in 1940 with the start of the Second World War, has been attributed to monetary policy and monetary expansion.
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