It was 1975. Directors ruled in Hollywood. With studio movies tanking right and left, the producers decided to give artists that had been coming up with low budget hits like
Easy Rider and
The Graduate free reign. Another of those films was
The Last Picture Show, directed by Wunderkind Peter
Bogdanovich. It was a huge hit, and cemented the reputation of
Bogdanovich as a bankable director. Two more hits followed -
What's Up Doc (one of my personal favorites) and
Paper Moon. By the time
Daisy Miller had rolled around with a lukewarm reception by the public he was already up and running with this film. At the time, it was considered a disaster, though in retrospect, there's a lot that's quite charming about it. His concept for it was to produce a musical without prerecording the musical tracks - to record the performances of the actors on set. It went against the grain of Hollywood production tenants, and for good reason. When you're in production, time is, literally, money. So the less you have to worry about, the better off you are. Prerecorded tracks eliminate one variable factor - the musical performance, which can take time and attention to get right, freeing up the cast and crew to worry about the myriad other things that make up a scene. It was a daring choice, and it had mixed results.
The story follows two couples (Burt Reynolds and Madeline
Kahn and Cybill Shepherd and
Duilio Del
Prete) as they navigate the ins and outs of love. They warble Cole Porter tunes, and look ultra glamorous in sophisticated 30's clothes and settings, but, ultimately, the plot is not important. This is essentially an exercise in style, and at that, it's extremely successful. Look for delightful turns by Eileen Brennan as Ms. Shepherd's maid, John
Hillerman as Mr. Reynolds'
Chauffeur and the irrepressible Mildred Natwick as his mother.
This film has been hiding in a corner with its tail tucked between its legs for many years now. No commercial DVD of it exists (though you can find it over at iOffer.com) and I don't believe it was ever released on VHS. You can, however, watch it on YouTube, though the uploader has disabled embedding, so you'll have to click this link to see it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=394qokwYNpkObscurity factor: 5 (no DVD, available on YouTube & iOffer, legendary for its poor box office and critical reception)
This was released when I was in seventh grade, and I thought it was the height of sophistication. When I was in my 20s I saw some of it on TV, and it seemed OK, although as I recall the person I was watching it with thought it was awful. It would be interesting to see it again, after all these years.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a knee jerk reaction that people have to it because its different. I think it has a lot to offer if you can suspend some of your expectations when watching it.
ReplyDeleteLove this movie. Of course I am a big Cole Porter fan and John Hillerman & Eileen Brennan were wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI woke up to it on TV the other afternoon and decided I must find out the name of the movie. It's on NETFLIX, so I must watch it when I get time.
ReplyDeleteIt makes an impression!
ReplyDeleteIt coming out on Blu-ray DVD this Tuesday The original longer director;s cut which is suppose to improve the film a lot
ReplyDeleteNice! It would be fun to see that...
ReplyDelete