Reverend Brooks leads his small Iowa town in a contest to stop smoking for a month. But some tobacco executives don't want them to win, and try everything they can to make them smoke. If townspeople don't go nuts from wanting a cigarette, or kill each other from irritation and frustration, they will win a huge prize.
Writing
Norman Lear's razor-sharp satire before his TV reign
Acting
Dick Van Dyke against type as a stressed reverend
Practical Effects
Pre-CGI crowd chaos done with actual crowds
Director
Norman Lear
Dick Van Dyke
Rev. Clayton Brooks
Pippa Scott
Natalie Brooks
Tom Poston
Mr. Stopworth
Edward Everett Horton
Hiram C. Grayson
Bob Elliott
Hugh Upson / David Chetley / Sandy Van Andy
Vincent Gardenia
Mayor Wappler
Barnard Hughes
Dr. Proctor
Graham Jarvis
Amos Bush
Jean Stapleton
Mrs. Wappler
Paul Benedict
Zen Buddhist
Judith Lowry
Odie Turman
Bob Newhart
Merwin Wren
Hubert H. Humphrey
Self (archive footage)
Pat Nixon
Self (archive footage)
Richard Nixon
Self (archive footage)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Norman Lear's only theatrical feature as director before revolutionizing sitcoms. The studio buried it because they feared tobacco industry retaliation.
Released months before the first Surgeon General report on secondhand smoke, the film predicted how Big Tobacco would fight public health campaigns for decades.
US
