the happening

The Happening is a 1967 comedy film starring Anthony Quinn, Michael Parks, Faye Dunaway, Robert Walker Jr. and released in March 1967 by Columbia Pictures. The film, produced by Jud Kinberg and directed by Elliott Silverstein, is about four hippies who kidnap a retired Mafia mob boss named Roc Delmonico (Quinn) and hold him for ransom. When none of his friends or family members will pay the ransom, Delmonico takes charge of his own kidnapping. Attempting to blackmail his relatives and associates, he raises his own ransom to three million dollars and demands that it be paid.

The movie is an anti-establishment film which questions the values of Middle America and the older generation. In this story, an important, influential, and rich man is stunned to learn no one will help him out of trouble, so his life is essentially worthless.

Only a minor success as a film, The Happening is most notable today both as Faye Dunaway's film debut and for its dixieland-influenced self-titled theme song. Recorded by The Supremes with Diana Ross on lead vocal, "The Happening" became a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when released as a single on the Motown label. "The Happening", produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier and written by Holland-Dozier-Holland and The Happening's musical director Frank DeVol, was the final Supremes single issued under that name. Between the release of "The Happening" and the next Supremes single, "Reflections", the group's billing would be changed to Diana Ross & the Supremes, and Florence Ballard would be replaced with Cindy Birdsong of Patti LaBelle & the Blue Belles.