of his love for Stratten. Indeed, the theme of secret love surfacing is pervasive throughout. Even Russo's relationship with the taxi driver—possibly the least secretive and most above-board of all the couplings, so much so that Russo is brought to confess that he is aging and his sexual prowess is failing—takes place under a pseudonym (Russo calls Deborah "Sam" for obscure reasons). The theme of hidden desires is echoed in the soundtrack, which juxtaposes country music by Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Rodney Crowell—as well as by Camp—with visuals of the Manhattan skyline (the credits sequence follows a trek into Manhattan, notably focusing on the twin towers of the World Trade Center as Dorothy Stratten's credit appears) and songs recorded by Frank Sinatra, including the eponymous George and Ira Gerswhin song "They All Laughed". No traditional villains are seen in the film, with the only unpleasant character momentarily depicted in extremely brief appearances as an understandably frustrated husband whose wife (Stratten) cuckolds him with their next door neighbor. Release Bogdanovich says Frank Sinatra let him have the rights to several of his songs for a cheap price because Sinatra felt sorry for Bogdanovich after Stratten's murder. Before the film was released, Time shut down its filmmaking division. 20th Century Fox, which retained North American distribution rights, test-marketed the film in Providence, Rhode Island and Minneapolis, but was disappointed with the results and pulled the film's release. Bogdanovich decided to distribute the film himself. His manager later claimed the director spent $5 million, but it made less than $1 million in ticket sales. This contributed to the director declaring bankruptcy in 1985. Bogdanovich: It was a nightmare. Dorothy was murdered and I went crazy. I decided I would buy the film back from Fox and I lost my shirt distributing it myself which was insanity. Unfortunately, nobody stopped me. So it didn’t get great distribution because you can’t self-distribute. It's impossible. For example, we played 15 weeks at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills. It was a huge success. We got a great theatre in Westwood and it broke all the records, and they pulled it right out because Paramount wanted the theatre for Reds. Bogdanovich later wrote about the making of the film in the 1984 book The Killing of the Unicorn. Significance They All Laughed was the last theatrical film in which Hepburn played a lead role