King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery To Memphis is a 1970 American documentary film biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., presented in the form of newsreel footage and segments of recordings by Dr. King, framed by celebrity narrators, including Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ruby Dee, James Earl Jones, Clarence Williams III, Burt Lancaster, Ben Gazzara, Charlton Heston, Harry Belafonte, The movie was produced by Richard Kaplan and Ely Landau.
When first released, it was shown in theaters as a "one-time-only" event on March 24, 1970. The documentary, which ran an unprecedented 3 hours and 5 minutes, had an equally large admission price of $5 (equal to $28 in 2007). All proceeds were donated to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Special Fund. It was later shown on commercial television (unedited and with limited interruption), and finally released onto home video on the Pacific Arts label, where the celebrity narrations (save for Harry Belafonte's introduction) were removed, and ran for 1 hour and 43 minutes.
In 2011, the unedited film was released as a commemorative edition 2-disc DVD set by A Filmed Record, Inc., a non-profit company founded in 2008 by the film's associate producer Richard Kaplan. The set includes the short film Legacy of a Dream.
It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Features. In 1999, the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
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“Again and again, I struggled though the storm. Once I fainted—and it wasn’t in the script. I was hauled to the studio on a sled, thawed out with hot tea, and then brought back to the blizzard, where the others were waiting. We filmed all day and all night, stopping only to eat standing near a bonfire. We never went inside.... The blizzard never slackened.”
—Lillian Gish (1896–1993)
“Yesterday the Electoral Commission decided not to go behind the papers filed with the Vice-President in the case of Florida.... I read the arguments in the Congressional Record and can’t see how lawyers can differ on the question. But the decision is by a strictly party vote—eight Republicans against seven Democrats! It shows the strength of party ties.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The fates are not quite obdurate;
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—Roselle Mercier Montgomery (1874–1933)