The sport of croquet in movies has yet to have its “Tin Cup,” its “Longest Yard,” or even its “Rocky.” But he appears in the odd movie from time to time. Here is a list of the best-known movies that have croquet scenes:
Savages, 1972: Demand to be first. The plot actually features croquet prominently, as a group of primitive people who get lucky with a croquet ball rolling through their woods. They follow the source of the ball to a derelict English estate with a croquet lawn set up. There, they assume the roles of the aristocracy while pretending to be the inhabitants of the estate, going through the motions more or less after a bit of trial and error. This ends when they meet to finish the game of croquet, after which they drop all pretenses and return to their woods to be wild. It’s not fair if this is done to point out the wild nature of humanity or croquet.
North by Northwest, 1959: The most famous. A brief shot of one of the villains playing croquet by himself is glimpsed at the beginning of the film.
Heathers, 1989: The most elegant. Here, a ruling clique plays croquet for her status value in this teen black comedy. However, the movie quickly leaves croquet behind as all the principles start killing each other and themselves.
Alice in Wonderland, various remakes: Most whimsical. The croquet scene is played more or less as Lewis Carrol wrote it, most famously in the Disney version. Flamingo decks, hedgehog balls and card wickets!
Barry Lyndon, 1975: The least known. Stanley Kubrick had only just begun his career at this point, making this one of his lesser known works. The main character plays croquet on his way to the heights of European high society in the 18th century, even teaching it to his son at one point. It is speculated that the prominence of croquet in this film led Kubrick to replace the croquet mallet with an ax when he translated Stephen King’s novel “The Shining” into a film for his next project.
Nosferatu, 1922: Most historical. Two of the characters are engaged in a game of croquet, when they are interrupted by the arrival of a letter. A minor plot point, so much so that it’s cut from shorter versions. A room with a view, 1985; Howard’s End, 1991; What remains of the day, 1993: Very redundant. James Ivory has made croquet his main background activity in his movies, by which time you can be sure that if a movie shows cultured people in period costume hitting wooden balls, it’s probably a James Ivory movie on its way to an Oscar.
