Editing Pull My Daisy

{{Short description|1959 film by Robert Frank}}
{{About|the short film|the poem of the same name|Pull My Daisy (poem)}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Pull My Daisy
| image = 
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| native_name = <!-- {{Infobox name module|language|title}} or {{Infobox name module|title}} -->
| director =  [[Robert Frank]]<br>[[Alfred Leslie]]
| producer = 
| writer = [[Jack Kerouac]]
| screenplay = 
| story = 
| based_on = <!-- {{Based on|title of the original work|creator of the original work|additional creator(s), if necessary}} -->
| starring = 
| narrator = Jack Kerouac
| music = 
| cinematography = 
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| studio = <!-- or: | production_companies = -->
| distributor = <!-- or: | distributors = -->
| released = {{Film date|1959}}
| runtime =
| country = [[United States]]
| language = English
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}}

'''''Pull My Daisy''''' is a 1959 American [[short film]] directed by [[Robert Frank]] and [[Alfred Leslie]], and adapted by [[Jack Kerouac]] from the third act of his play, ''[[Beat Generation (play)|Beat Generation]]''.<ref name="Allan">{{cite journal |last1=Allan |first1=Blaine |title=The Making (and Unmaking) of "Pull My Daisy" |journal=Film History |date=1988 |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=185–205 |issn=0892-2160|jstor=3815117 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/may/20/usa.books|title='Lost' Kerouac play resurfaces after 50 years|last=Glaister|first=Dan|date=2005-05-20|work=The Guardian|access-date=2018-01-04|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Kerouac also provided improvised [[narration]]. It features poets [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[Peter Orlovsky]] and [[Gregory Corso]], artists [[Larry Rivers]] and [[Alice Neel]], musician [[David Amram]], art dealer [[Richard Bellamy (art dealer)|Richard Bellamy]], [[Delphine Seyrig]], dancer<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.photoeye.com/magazine/reviews/2008/05_21_pull_my_daisy.cfm|title=Is Pull My Daisy Holy?|date=8 August 2008|access-date=2 January 2009|first=John|last=Cohen|work=Photo-eye}}</ref> [[Sally Gross (choreographer)|Sally Gross]], and Pablo Frank, Robert Frank's son.

==Plot==
{{no plot|date=January 2023}}

==Cast==
{{Empty section|date=April 2021}}

== Production ==
Based on an incident in the life of Beat icon [[Neal Cassady]] and his wife, the painter [[Carolyn Cassady|Carolyn]], the film tells the story of a railway brakeman whose wife invites a respected bishop over for dinner. However, the brakeman's [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] friends crash the party, with comic results.

Originally intended to be called ''The Beat Generation'', the title ''Pull My Daisy'' was taken from the [[Pull My Daisy (poem)|poem of the same name]] written by Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Cassady in the late 1940s. Part of the original poem was used as a lyric in Amram's jazz composition that opens the film.

The Beat philosophy emphasized spontaneity, and the film conveyed the quality of having been thrown together or even improvised. ''Pull My Daisy'' was accordingly praised for years as an improvisational masterpiece.  It was filmed in Alfred Leslie's loft at Fourth Ave. & 12th St. in Manhattan.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Pull My Daisy|last=Kerouac|first=Jack|publisher=Grove Press|year=1961|pages=17}}</ref>

Leslie and Frank discuss the film at length in [[Jack Sargeant (writer)|Jack Sargeant]]'s book ''[[Naked Lens: Beat Cinema]]''. An illustrated transcript of the film's narration was also published in 1961 by Grove Press.

==Reception==
''Pull My Daisy'' was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] in 1996, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

==See also==
* [[List of American films of 1959]]
* [[List of avant-garde films of the 1950s]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|id=0052100|title=Pull My Daisy}}
* ''Pull My Daisy'' [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_12rctV5Z84] on [[YouTube]]

{{Kerouac}}
{{Allen Ginsberg}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Films about the Beat Generation]]
[[Category:American avant-garde and experimental films]]
[[Category:1959 films]]
[[Category:United States National Film Registry films]]
[[Category:1950s avant-garde and experimental films]]
[[Category:American films based on plays]]
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]
[[Category:1950s American films]]
[[Category:Films based on works by Jack Kerouac]]