Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom comes home one day from his dead-end job to find his pregnant wife Janice asleep, splayed in front of the TV, highball glass in hand. After a moment's contemplation, he decides to leave. Taking his coat and car keys, he's off and running on a rambling, aimless journey.
Acting
James Caan's restless physicality—he runs, he avoids, he implodes.
Writing
Updike's internal monologue made external, messy and unromantic.
Direction
Smight lets scenes breathe in uncomfortable silence.
Director
Jack Smight
James Caan
Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom
Anjanette Comer
Ruth Leonard
Carrie Snodgress
Janice Angstrom
Jack Albertson
Marty Tothero
Arthur Hill
Jack Eccles
Melodie Johnson
Lucy Eccles
Henry Jones
Mr. Angstrom
Josephine Hutchinson
Mrs. Angstrom
Don Keefer
Mr. Springer
Carmen Mathews
Mrs. Springer
Nydia Westman
Mrs. Smith
Virginia Vincent
Margaret
Margot Stevenson
Mrs. Tothero
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
James Caan hated the character so much he threw the script across the room when he first read it.
This flopped so hard it killed Updike adaptations for decades—turns out Rabbit's toxic self-pity plays better on the page.
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