Rarely Seen Behind the Scenes Photographs From the Making of “Cool Hand Luke” (1967)

Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance. Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp who refuses to submit to the system. Set in the early 1950s, it is based on Donn Pearce’s 1965 novel Cool Hand Luke.

Although the film is set in a Southern prison farm (implied to be in Florida), not a single scene was filmed there. The prison camp set, including barracks, a mess hall, and guard houses, was meticulously constructed on location in the San Joaquin River Delta region near Stockton, California. A crew was sent to the real Tavares Road Prison in Florida to take photographs and measurements to ensure the California set was an authentic replica. Spanish moss was even imported from Louisiana to enhance the Deep South atmosphere.

To perfect his character, Lucas “Luke” Jackson, a West Virginia native, Newman traveled to Huntington, West Virginia, where he spent a weekend studying the local dialect, customs, and mannerisms. He even recorded conversations to use as reference.

Newman insisted on playing the banjo himself for the poignant “Plastic Jesus” scene after Luke’s mother’s death. Since he didn’t know how to play, actor Harry Dean Stanton (who had a small role as the convict “Tramp”) taught him the song, which caused a brief production delay so Newman could practice.

Studio producers were reportedly obsessed with Newman’s famous blue eyes and, in some cases, insisted on re-shooting scenes to better capture their intensity. The famous scene where Luke eats 50 hard-boiled eggs was inspired by a real-life legend about a prisoner on the chain gang that author Donn Pearce served on.

The lengthy, brutal fight between Luke and Dragline (George Kennedy) took three days to film. Kennedy later recalled being exhausted from the fighting, while Newman was exhausted from the fighting and repeatedly falling onto the hard ground.

Cool Hand Luke was one of the early feature films directed by Rosenberg, who had previously worked mostly in television. The role of Luke’s mother, Arletta, was famously turned down by Bette Davis before going to Jo Van Fleet. Van Fleet was only 11 years older than Newman, despite playing his aging mother. Kennedy invested $5,000 in trade-paper advertisements urging Academy voters to consider his performance. He went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.