You have to really be courageous about your instincts and your ideas. Otherwise you'll just knuckle under, and things that might have been memorable will be lost.

This was his UCLA thesis project that also received a theatrical release via Warner Bros. Coppola graduated from Hofstra university in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in Theatre Arts. Amongst Coppola's classmates at Hofstra were James Caan and Lainie Kazan.

Brooks to be honored three times for the same film. In 1970 Coppola won the Oscar for best original screenplay as co-writer with Edmund H.