Sunday, October 2, 2011

Barbara Feldon & Bruce Dern in Smile (1975)

Obscurity factor: 7

Beauty pageants are the subject of this black comedy by director Michael Ritchie. Brenda (Feldon) is a former winner and the organizer of the Young American Miss pageant in Santa Rosa, California. She's having an extramarital affair with Big Bob (Dern) who sponsors the pageant. The film follows the fortunes of Brenda, Big Bob and the contestants as they compete to win the crown.
MoviePosterShop.com
This film is something of a forerunner of what was to come in film comedy in the 1970's, featuring a comedy style that foreshadows the mega-hit Animal House (1978) but with an ennui more reminiscent of an Altman film. Look for a young Melanie Griffith as one of the contestants.

There's something of a cult following for this film. It's available on DVD and can be found in part on YouTube. The trailer is above, uploaded by robatsea2009.

Obscurity factor: 7 (not well remembered by the general public, has cult following, on DVD)
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

8 comments:

  1. VanceManOctober 2, 2011 at 7:40 PM

    Love, love, love this movie. Despite being scripted, it's very much a spiritual mother to the Christopher Guest improvisational films like Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LeightonOctober 2, 2011 at 9:44 PM

    OK, Vance - that just sold it for me. I've had it on my Netflix streaming queue for weeks. I will definitely watch it now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. BenOctober 2, 2011 at 9:55 PM

    Yes, it definitely has that Guest quality to it, without being done in a documentary style - the characters don't consciously acknowledge the camera.

    ReplyDelete
  4. duaneOctober 2, 2011 at 10:05 PM

    Wasn't Barbara Feldon in Get Smart? I didn't know she did films, too. I will have to check this out. Sounds very good.

    Thanks again, Ben :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. LeightonOctober 2, 2011 at 10:21 PM

    I have always known about this film - just never bothered to watch it...

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousOctober 3, 2011 at 7:58 AM

    I have seen this movie a couple of times, but it was many years ago. It was extremely funny yet very sad at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
  7. DOctober 5, 2011 at 4:55 AM

    I love this movie and Michael Ritchie, its director looked as if he was going to have an edgy interesting career in films ( he had also directed The Candidate and Downhill Racer) but after this he went totally mainstream and lost his edge....

    ReplyDelete
  8. BenOctober 5, 2011 at 9:05 AM

    I'm particularly fond of The Candidate...

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)