Audrey Hepburn

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S

Paramount, 1961.  Directed by Blake Edwards.  Camera:  Franz Planer, Philip Lathrop.  With Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, John McGiver, Mickey Rooney.

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Holly Golightly lives in a brownstone on Manhattan's swank East Side.  Totally madcap, she has a partially furnished apartment, owns a cat with no name, gets rid of the "mean reds" by visiting Tiffany's, and is forever misplacing her door key, much to the dismay of her upstairs neighbor Mr. Yunioshi, a Japanese photographer.  Holly makes her living in two ways: she receives $50 from her gentlemen escorts whenever she needs powderroom money, and she is paid $100 for each weekly trip she makes to Sing Sing, where she visits Sally Tomato, an ex-mobster.

One day Paul Varjak, a young writer who is supported by an older woman nicknamed "2E," comes into Holly's life.  Following one of Holly's wild cocktail parties, Paul unexpectedly meets Doc Golightly, a gentle Texan whom Holly married when she was only 15 years old.  Holly explains to Paul that the marriage was annulled long ago, and he helps her send the heartbroken Doc away.

After a day on the town together, Paul realizes that he is in love with Holly and proposes to her; but she is determined to marry José, a South American millionaire.  However, when it is publicly revealed that Holly has been innocently carrying narcotics ring information from Sally Tomato to his New York associates, the stuffy José abandons her.

Furious at everything and everyone, Holly throws Cat into the rain and decides to leave town, but Paul lectures her and then goes out to find Cat.  Holly realizes how much she is giving up and races through the wet streets to a happy reunion with Paul and Cat.

American Film Institute Catalog

Additional photos courtesy of Rikke