‘Midnight Cowboy’ was a masterpiece made of desperation

The director was an insecure task­master whose most recent movie had bombed. The producer was a lifelong depressive whose last film had also flopped. The screenwriter was a self-destructive alcoholic, the two lead actors relatively untested newcomers.

Collectively, they were to make a movie based on a bleak novel that had sold poorly and was mostly ignored by critics.