Picnic is a 1955 American romantic comedy-drama film adapted from William Inge's 1953 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. Joshua Logan, director of the original Broadway stage production, directed the film version, which stars William Holden, Kim Novak, and Rosalind Russell, with Betty Field, Susan Strasberg, and Cliff Robertson in supporting roles. It was adapted for the screen by Daniel Taradash. Picnic was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Arthur O'Connell), winning two.

Plot

On the morning of Labor Day 1955, a freight train brings vagrant Hal Carter to a Kansas town to visit his fraternity friend Alan Benson. While he stays with kind Helen Potts, Hal also meets Alan's girlfriend Madge Owens, her sister Millie, and their mother Flo. Alan is happy to see the "same old Hal" and shows him his family's sprawling grain-elevator operations. He promises Hal a steady job as a "wheat scooper" (though Hal would prefer to start off as an executive) and invites him to attend the town's Labor Day picnic. Later that day, Rosemary, a middle-aged schoolteacher, plans to accompany the picnic with her friend Howard Bevans.

Awards