The Day of the Locust is a 1975 film directed by John Schlesinger and based on the novel of the same name by Nathanael West. The movie is set in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, in Hollywood where many people came to make their fortunes.
Tod Hackett (played by William Atherton) is an ambitious art director who dreams of getting a chance to paint his own masterpiece. He works for a movie studio and lives in an apartment complex where he meets Faye Greener (played by Karen Black), a beautiful woman who aspires to be an actress. Faye is a daughter of a former vaudeville performer and a failed actress named Harry Greener (played by Burgess Meredith). Faye is very attractive and knows how to use her charms to get attention from men, but she is also very self-centered, manipulative, and ruthless.
Tod becomes increasingly infatuated with Faye, even though she is already in a relationship with Homer Simpson (played by Donald Sutherland), a mild-mannered accountant who is hopelessly in love with her. Homer is a lonely man who longs for companionship and affection, and he sees Faye as his chance for happiness. He indulges her every whim, even though she treats him with contempt and uses him for her own purposes.
As Tod gets more and more drawn into Faye's world, he begins to see the darker side of Hollywood and the people who inhabit it. He witnesses the desperation, cruelty, and violence that lie just beneath the surface of the glamour and glitz. He also begins to realize the futility of his own ambitions and the impossibility of finding true artistic fulfillment in a town that values commercial success above all else.
The Day of the Locust is a powerful indictment of the American Dream and the price that people pay for their illusions of success. It portrays a world that is hollow, corrupt, and ultimately destructive, where people are caught in a vicious cycle of desire and disappointment. The movie is a masterpiece of filmmaking, with stunning performances by the cast and a haunting score by John Barry.