A Thousand Clowns (1965)

This has been my stock answer to the question, "What is your favorite movie?' since the 1980s. It takes place in the New York of my youth, about a nonconformist and his smart aleck kid. When I was in film school developing the short film that was to be the graduate thesis for me and my colleagues, I answered that question with that answer, and we watched it together and analyzed it. The predicament/conflict was clear within the first 10 minutes. That was important since our film had to be under 30 minutes! Unfortunately A Thousand Clowns is not available on DVD, nor is my thesis.