Breakfast at Tiffany's

1961 romantic comedy, directed by Blake Edwards and starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard based on Truman Capote's novella.

Hepburn plays Holly Golightly who at first appears to be little more than an airheaded, jet-setting socialite, but as the film progresses, we see more of the pain and loss that have led to her current lifestyle. She has low self-esteem and a sordid background, and she surrounds herself with bright, showy things to give herself comfort, like a magpie. She's a phony, but, in the words of a supporting character, she's a "real" phony.

George Peppard plays struggling author Paul Varjak, who Holly refers to, throughout the film, as "Fred" because he reminds her of her brother, who is in the army

The film opens with Holly as she window shops her way through Manhattan. Paul, an author with a bad case of writer's block, is the new tenant in her building. The two meet on the morning Paul moves in, when he drops by to use Holly's phone. Soon after, they become friends. She inspires him to start writing again. And, they spend one memorable day on the town together doing things that they have never done, such as shopping at Tiffany's (new for him) and checking out a book from a library (new for her).

Inevitably, things grow deeper than friendship, but, when Paul tells Holly he loves her, she pushes him away. She has decided to marry a rich South American, to support herself and her brother, whose tour of duty in the army is nearly over. But Paul doesn't give up.

Holly and Paul are both slightly shady characters. Holly takes a weekly payment of $100 to visit a mob boss in prison and carry a verbal message to his "lawyer", a kind of no-sex prostitution to finance her dilletante lifestyle. Paul is what is politely called a "kept man". His lover, a rich woman with a much older husband pays for his apartment and leaves gifts of money after her visits.

Despite the faults and hard edges of the characters, Breakfast at Tiffany's is primarily a fantasy. There is an unreal atmosphere that portrays a fictional world, where Mafia dons are nice people, disappointed suitors are graceful, and improbable lovers can live happily ever after against the odds. The dreaminess is perfectly reflected by Hepburn's wistful performance of Henry Mancini's Moon River.

One of the cleverest asides of the film is the way it shows time passing. In the first street scene we hear a piano playing scales badly through an open window. The same piano plays in every street scene thereafter, growing better all the time.

Sharper-edged than most romantic comedies, and much more upfront than most films of the early 60's (it pulls no punches about the fact that Paul's secondary career is as a gigolo), Breakfast at Tiffany's nonetheless has a fairytale ending to please any dyed-in-the-wool romantic.

The Motion Picture, Breakfast at Tiffany's was based on the 1958 Truman Capote novella of the same name. Truman Capote was incensed at the choice of Audrey Hepburn to play Holly Golightly in the movie; he had envisioned the role being played by Marilyn Monroe. Certainly the sex-kitten image of Monroe would have given the movie a completely different flavor; Holly's risque and edgy personality and lifestyle were largely overlooked due to the winsome Hepburn's charm and grace.

The novella takes place some fifteen years after Holly has left New York. An unnamed narrator that Holly calls "Fred" because of his resemblance to her brother and Joe Bell, the proprietor of a local bar sit and reminisce about the girl. The narrator lived upstairs from Holly and knew her as well as anyone else in the story. Both men have been infatuated with Holly, but begin to understand that she was truly a wild thing, like Bizet's Carmen, and what she hated above all was the idea of captivity. Holly has a cat that she refuses to name because she says he doesn't belong to anyone; Holly's relationship to the cat is somewhat representative of all her relationships; she resists the idea of belonging to anyone or staying tied down.

The Novella's title comes from the jewelry store Tiffany & Co., where Holly goes when she gets what she calls the "mean reds". For Holly, the mean reds is a state of anxiety and fear that something awful is going to happen. To remedy that Holly goes to Tiffany's, where she feels nothing really bad could happen to anyone.

Holly was essentially a prostitute, although she did not think of herself in that manner. In the novella, there was always a man passed out in her apartment, or banging on her door asking for another "appointment". The first real conversation Holly has with the narrator is at a late hour when she climbs the fire escape wearing only a robe and asks him if she could stay in his apartment until the man in hers passes out or leaves. Holly's essential attitude about her profession is summed up in the following statement, "I mean, you can't bang a guy and cash his checks and at least not try to believe you love him" .

The narration follows Holly's involvement with several wealthy lovers, including Rusty Trawler, a pudgy closeted homosexual and Jose Ybarra-Yaeger, a wealthy man from Brazil. Although initially smitten with Trawler (and his wealth), Holly ends up romantically involved with Jose. Holly and Jose begin living together and Holly is several weeks pregnant at the denouement of the novella.

Holly believes that Jose is her first "non-rat" relationship, and is happy with him. However, she is jilted by her beau when she gets arrested due to her prison visits to mafia narcotics king, Sally Tomato. Holly has been passing information between Tomato and his associates in the form of coded weather reports. Holly is arrested and loses her baby, and Jose flees the country, horrified at the prospect of scandal.

Holly still has a ticket to Brazil, and decides to leave New York anyway. She asks for a list of the wealthiest men in Brazil and leaves. Unlike the motion picture, the ending of Capote's novella is left open, the narrator and the reader are unsure of what happened to Holly and if she ever found someone she belonged to.

There was also a musical version of Breakfast at Tiffany's with music and lyrics by Bob Merrill.

The original production began its Broadway previews at the Majestic theatre in New York on December 12, 1966 and closed on December 14, 1966. The show never officially opened on Broadway.

The original cast included Mary Tyler Moore, Richard Chamberlain and Sally Kellerman.

Through its out of town tryouts, the show went through many changes, most notably the title (originally it was supposed to be called Holly Golightly) and its book.

The Philadelphia and Boston try-outs had a script by Abe Burrows. For reasons unknown, the script was completely re-written for its Broadway run by Edward Albee.

Legend has it that there is a bootleg recording of one of the infamous Broadway performances, but there was no official recording of the score until Original Cast Records made a studio recording of the entire score in 1995, starring Faith Prince, Hal Linden and Sally Kellerman (reprising her role from the Broadway cast).