The Swimmer

Ned Merrill, a prosperous advertising man, arrives at a friend's house in an affluent Connecticut suburb on a hot summer afternoon. Surveying the neighborhood, he realizes that the private pools of his friends and acquaintances form a chain stretching across the valley to his own home. He decides to swim the whole distance, moving from one pool to the next in his swimming trunks, and sets off on a journey that takes him through the lives of the people he meets along the way.

Frank Perry directed the film, working from a screenplay by Eleanor Perry. Burt Lancaster plays Ned, with Janet Landgard as Julie Ann Hooper, Janice Rule as Shirley Abbott, Tony Bickley as Donald Westerhazy, Marge Champion as Peggy Forsburgh and Nancy Cushman as Mrs. Halloran among a credited cast of 35. The film runs 95 minutes and was produced by Columbia Pictures and Horizon Pictures in the United Kingdom and the United States. It was released in August 1968.

Ratings place the film well above average: on IMDb it holds 7.6 out of 10 from around 16,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 7.4 out of 10 from roughly 278 votes. The critics' rating stands at 7.9 out of 10 from 27 reviews, close to the audience scores.