Murphy's Romance - Production

Production

Sally Field and director Martin Ritt had to fight Columbia Pictures in order to cast Garner, who was viewed at that point as primarily a television actor despite having enjoyed a flourishing film career in the 1960s (and more recently having co-starred in the box office hit Victor/Victoria opposite Julie Andrews two years earlier).

Columbia didn't want to make the picture at all, because it had no "sex or violence" in it. But because of the success of Norma Rae (1979), with the same star (Field), director, and screenplay writing team (Harriet Frank, Jr. and Irving Ravetch), and with Field's new production company (Fogwood Films) producing, Columbia agreed. But, Columbia then wanted Marlon Brando, or someone with "greater box-office allure," to play the part of Murphy, so Field and Ritt had to insist on Garner.

When Ritt gave the Max Schott story to Harriet Frank, Jr. and Irving Ravetch, the same married screenplay team that also worked on Hud (1963) with Ritt and Paul Newman, they wanted Newman to be in Murphy's Romance. Field had worked very successfully with Newman in 1981's Absence of Malice, but Newman declined the project and Garner was the only other actor that Ritt and Field asked.

Part of the deal from the studio, which at that time was owned by The Coca-Cola Company, included an eight line sequence of Field and Garner saying the word "Coke," and also having Coke signs appear prominently in the film.

On the A&E television program Biography of Garner, "James Garner: Hollywood Maverick," Field reported that her on-screen kiss with Garner was the best cinematic kiss she had ever experienced.

Filming took place on location in Florence, Arizona and the town's preserved Main Street appears throughout the movie.

The film was originally scheduled for general release during the 1985 Christmas Day weekend, but Columbia moved it, to the weekends of January 17 and January 31, 1986, when they saw the holiday lineup of films. They did a limited, selected, release December 25, 1985.