Alice's Restaurant

by Arlo Guthrie

Alice's Restaurant is a 1969 American comedy film co-written and directed by Arthur Penn. It is an adaptation of the 1967 folk song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree," originally written and sung by Arlo Guthrie. The film stars Guthrie as himself, with Pat Quinn as Alice Brock and James Broderick as Ray Brock. Contrary to popular belief, while Arlo Guthrie wrote the lyrics and music for the narrative song "Alice’s Restaurant Massacree," he neither wrote nor co-wrote the screenplay for the film Alice’s Restaurant, which was instead co-written by Venable Herndon and Arthur Penn.[3]

Genres: Music, Memoir, Poetry

Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[Velvetink]

Read it years and years ago. Need to read it again.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book I read is the Illustrated Story. 2018. I bought it in a store in Mass. that, when you exit the back door, you are at the door of Alice’s Restaurant. Here in the suburbs of Philly we listen to the great local DJ Pierre Robert (pronounced so it rhymes) every Thanksgiving morning. He plays Alice’s Restaurant, the son not the book or movie, as well as other great timely local homecoming songs. It’s a family tradition to listen to Pierre and sing along with the chorus.

[behsforensics]

Cutting is for Alice’s Restaurant
By Arlo Guthrie

[Denise L Jenne · Rating 5 out of 5]

To quote Arlo, "How do you make a 90 minute movie out of an 18 minute song?" The answer is You make things up -- which is what the script writers did with the Alice and Ray characters. But the movie, and this little book, do show some of the absurdities, ironies and craziness of the era, all with an eye to the humor, as is found in the song (in all its incarnations).