Trivia for
Barton Fink (1991) More at IMDbPro »

• John Turturro plays the title role. In Miller's Crossing (1990) (also directed by Joel Coen), Turturro played a character who met a man at an apartment building called "The Barton Arms".
  
  
• Written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen after a trip to see Baby Boom (1987) while suffering writer's block writing Miller's Crossing (1990).
  
  
• Is the Hotel Earle hell? - When Chet first appears he comes out of a door on the floor after it takes him a long while to reach the top, like if he was ascending from the underworld. - The word "six" is said three times in the elevator.
  
  
• The first film to win all three major awards (Palme D'or, Best Director, and Best Actor) at the Cannes Film Festival. Also, it was unanimously chosen for the Palme D'or.
  
  
• The wallpaper in Barton's room only peels when John Goodman's character is in or has just left Barton's room.
  
  
• Barton Fink was an avatar of the writer Clifford Odets.
  
  
• The Coen brothers cite as a major influence for Barton Fink the Roman Polanski film Le locataire (1976). (Watching The Tenant, according to one writer, will give you a lot better idea of what's in the mysterious kraft-paper-wrapped box in Barton Fink.)
  
  
• Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's first movie without cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld. Sonnenfeld appears in a cameo early in the movie - he is the page calling for Barton Fink in the restaurant.
  
  
• The nickname of the suspected killer in the film is "Madman Mundt". In Los Angeles in the 1940s and 1950s there was a flamboyant car dealer, known for his outrageous (for the time) TV commercials, named "Madman Muntz".
  
  
• The ending with the bird diving into the sea wasn't intentional. According to Ethan Coen and Joel Coen the bird got in the shot and they liked it so much, they decided to put it in. Birds also helped the Coens in Miller's Crossing (1990), and Fargo (1996).
  
  
• The name Karl Mundt comes from John le Carré's book, "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold", which was made into a film, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965).
  
  
• In his play, "Bare Ruined Choirs", Barton's characters are named Lil, Maury, and Dave. According to the original script, these are also the names of his parents and uncle, although in the film, his father's name is Sam.
  
  
• The last line of Bare Ruined Choirs - "We'll be hearing from that kid, and I don't mean a postcard" - is also the final line in Barton's screenplay, "The Burlyman", although when the detective reads the script, the line reads, "We'll be hearing from that crazy wrestler, and I don't mean a postcard."
  
  
• When Barton is watching dailies for "Devil on the Canvas", there is a brief but clear glimpse of a slate for "Barton Fink", with the names of Joel Coen and Roger Deakins.
  
  
• Karl Mundt (Charlie Meadows' murderous alter ego) is also the name of the vice chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), responsible for the Hollywood blacklist. In the forties, HUAC crushed the livelihood of screenwriters, actors, etc. who had alleged socialist leanings, as Barton Fink clearly did in the film.
  
  
• The parts played by John Turturro, John Goodman, Jon Polito and Steve Buscemi were all written with them in mind.
  
  
• The character of W.P. Mayhew is based on William Faulkner, whose first Hollywood contract was to write a wrestling movie for Wallace Beery.
  
  
• The first voice heard in the movie, an actor on the stage performing Barton's play, is John Turturro's.
  
  
• John Milius was offered the role of Jack Lipnick but turned it down.
  
  
• The title of Barton Fink's play Bare Ruined Choirs is from Shakespeare's Sonnet #73, the first 4 lines of which are "That time of year thou mayest in me behold, When yellow leaves or none or few do hang, Upon those boughs that shake against the cold, Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet bird sang".
  
  

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