The Arrangement (1969): Cast, Box Office & Plot

Eddie Anderson, Kirk Douglas is a successful, wealthy ad man whose life feels rigidly arranged. The film opens with a dramatic act: he tries to end his life by veering his sportscar beneath a tractor trailer. What follows are a series of fragmented memories and visions—some real, some distorted by pain—that reveal his growing contempt for the life he’s built and the expectations that come with it. At the center of these flashbacks is a fraught family history: a stormy relationship with his Greek father, Sam Arness, a once-proud importer who resents Eddie’s decision to Anglicize the family name, send him to college, and reject the family business. Sam’s voice remains a stubborn, deteriorating presence as his brain slowly succumbs to arteriosclerosis, a fact that compounds Eddie’s guilt and frustration.