The Last Picture Show eye fell on an interesting title, "The Last Picture Show". The back of the book said it was about "kids growing up in Texas" and Bogdanovich decided that it did not interest him and put it back. A few weeks later, actor Sal Mineo handed Bogdanovich a copy of the book. "I always wanted to be in this," he said, "but I'm a little too old now" and recommended that Bogdanovich make it into a film. At the time, Bogdanovich was married to Polly Platt and he asked her to read it. Her response was, "I don't know how you
The Last Picture Show to his "Great Movies" list, writing that "the film is above all an evocation of mood. It is about a town with no reason to exist, and people with no reason to live there. The only hope is in transgression." Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" called it a "lovely film" that "rediscovers a time, a place, a film form—and a small but important part of the American experience." Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film four stars out of four and wrote, "Like few films in recent years, Peter Bogdanovich's 'The Last Picture Show' ends with