The Landlord
Director: Hal Ashby Run Time: 112 min. Format: 35mm Rating: R Release Year: 1970
Starring: Beau Bridges, Diana Sands, Lee Grant
Rich and approaching thirty, Elgar Enders escapes wealthy apathy by purchasing a building in a black ghetto to become The Landlord.
Hal Ashby’s uniquely hilarious film, The Landlord, shows just how much Brooklyn has changed in the past forty-something years. When Elgar Enders (Beau Bridges) seeks independence from his wealthy (and truly strange) family, he learns that the world is more complex, painful, and colorful than he’d ever imagined. Rarely are race and class relations treated humorously and with such regard for the cultural complexity that they imbue as The Landlord and this film does it with true style and wit.
Brooklyn Based: the building Elgar Enders purchases is located in Park Slope.
Part of Nitehawk’s THX BKLYN November series.