I loved this film as a kid. It still holds up alright. Well, mostly. Some dodgy humour. Alright, a lot (eg Chevy Chase with his hands on Donna Dixon's breasts).
Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd make an engaging team with distinct personals - cocky, lazy WASP and nerd. It has real scope with scenes shot in Morocco, etc. Some funny gags. Others miss. A sense of adventure.
Reading Joe Eszterhas' memoir made me think about Guy McElwaine when he was head of Columbia. He mentioned McElwaine only had one hit in that time, Jagged Edge.
1981 he becomes Columbia president - Price had been CEO since March 1979.
Feb 1983 Price decides to stay on when thought he'd be fired. Oct 1983 he takes over as CEO from Frank Price. Price missed out on some big successes - Ghostbusters and Karate Kid.
Dec 1983 he greenlights Out of Africa. Also overlooks recut of The Man Who Loved Women see here. And the bike film Yello Jersey.
The first film that started production under his reign at Columbia Studios was The New Kids. Columbia’s production increased during his reign with 14 films started in 1984 compared to 9 in 1983 but none of the 14 were hits when they were released. The biggest hit produced under his tenure was The Karate Kid Part II with a gross of $115 million.
June 1985 - rumours he would be fired but instead he was promoted to Chairman see here.
April 1986 - fired with 18 months left on contract. Replaced by David Puttnam in July.
Let's look at what they made around that time. (I pulled these from Wikipedia)
December 6, 1983 The Dresser
December 9, 1983 Christine
December 16, 1983 The Man Who Loved Women * (kind of)
March 2, 1984 Against All Odds
April 6, 1984 Moscow on the Hudson
May 4, 1984 Hardbodies
June 8, 1984 Ghostbusters (a Price movie)
June 22, 1984 The Karate Kid
August 17, 1984 Sheena *
September 14, 1984 A Soldier’s Story
October 19, 1984 The Razor’s Edge
October 26, 1984 Body Double
November 9, 1984 No Small Affair
December 14, 1984 Starman
December 21, 1984 Micki & Maude
January 18, 1985 The New Kids*
February 15, 1985 Fast Forward
March 15, 1985 Sylvester
March 29, 1985 The Slugger’s Wife
April 26, 1985 Just One of the Guys
June 7, 1985 Perfect*
June 14, 1985 D.A.R.Y.L. Distribution only
June 28, 1985 St. Elmo’s Fire*
July 10, 1985 Silverado
August 2, 1985 Fright Night
August 16, 1985 The Bride*
September 13, 1985 Agnes of God*
October 4, 1985 Jagged Edge*
November 22, 1985 White Nights*
December 13, 1985 A Chorus Line distribution only
December 25, 1985 Murphy’s Romance*
January 22, 1986 Desert Bloom
February 14, 1986 Quicksilver
March 14, 1986 Crossroads *
March 21, 1986 Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation Distribution only
April 11, 1986 Violets Are Blue
April 25, 1986 Crimewave distribution only
May 2, 1986 Saving Grace distribution only
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling
May 30, 1986 Big Trouble
June 20, 1986 The Karate Kid Part II
June 27, 1986 American Anthem Distribution only
July 25, 1986 Out of Bounds
August 8, 1986 Stand by Me * (bought it from Norman Lear)
A Fine Mess Distribution only
August 15, 1986 Armed and Dangerous
August 22, 1986 One More Saturday Night
August 1986 Stewardess School
October 10, 1986 That’s Life! Distribution only
December 12, 1986 Where Are The Children?
February 13, 1987 84 Charing Cross Road
May 15, 1987 Ishtar *
He also greenlit Rites of Summer, Roxanne and Ishtar - see here. Also developed a sequel to Jagged Edge which became Physical Evidence. La Bamba and The Big Town apparently came through McElwaine
Apparently the failure of Crossroads led to him being sacked see here.
Charles Brackett's first film after his breakup with Billy Wilder (he'd made some away from Wilder during their collaboration eg To Each His Own). He pulled in a bunch of collaborators from the Wilder days - Richard Breen and Walter Reisch as writers, Mitchell Leisen as director, John Lund as male lead. It does feel more Brackett than Wilder in that it's about class in America and concerns snooty society types.
It was made for Paramount but uses some 20th Century Fox talent - Gene Tierney and Thelma Ritter - and Brackett would soon go to Fox.
The plot has working class Ritter come to visit son John Lund, a rising exec, who has just married society gal Gene Tierney, whose mother Miriam Hopkins is a stuck up bitch. Both Ritter and Hopkins wind up living with the couple - only, the thing is, Ritter pretends to be just a cook. These sort of "parental deception" movie plots are always hard because you wind up hating the kid who goes along with it.
Tierney is very good, she suits this sort of part. Lund isn't bad - normally I don't like him but he just has to be a leading man here and he's handsome enough to score Tierney. Ritter is perfect as is Hopkins.
There are universal themes here - starting a marriage, different class backgrounds, worried about climbing the corporate ladder, worried about embarrassing family. Jan Sterling scores in a small role as Lund's secretary who has a crush on him. It's a well acted movie. Nice romanticism. Just has that central flaw I couldn't get over.
I feel guilty for writing these sort of reviews because some people are so militantly in love with this movie I feel bad going "oh yeah it's good it's fine" without being hard core about it.
The clever idea is strong and lovely, the photography is divine. Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine are beautifully cast and very cute together although she show is stolen by a superb Fred MacMurray as a complete see you next Tuesday boss.
Very adult, smart, yet also romantic. It goes for a long time, over two hours, but the resolution is satisfying. I enjoyed it more on this viewing than I have in the past. I still get frustrated by Lemmon taking so much abuse why not explaining himself.
Showy support cast: Jack Kruschen the doctor (who slaps Maclaine around post suicide - I guess this was standard at the time), MacMurray's secretary, Ray Walston, Larry Keating and the other sleazy execs.
Love the credits. The integration of Russian footage. The spookiness. Takes a while to get going - the story doesn't start til the last half hour. I have a lot of affection for this.
A skilfully constructed vehicle for Greta Garbo, even if it takes us 20 minutes to see her but the time is well spent, setting up the three comic commissars who arrive in Paris from Russia to get some jewels, stuff up, and so they send in Greta.
She's fine. I'm not a big Garbo fan but she is well cast. Melvyn Douglas is her co star, a part that really needs Cary Grant, but he's fine too. Lots of fun to see Bela Lugosi in one scene as Greta's boss. The wacky Russians are fine. Ina Claire is good.
I loved how every character has a strong motivation, and how Greta doesn't sell out Russia - she and Ina Claire have a terrific collision where Claire whines about having to given up her Russian home and Greta points out what pricks the aristocracy were. I love how upfront Greta is about being turned on by Melvyn Douglas from the get-go. She's a strong character.
There is a long, unfunny drunk sequence - maybe it's me but I don't think being drunk is as hilarious as Hollywood filmmakers in the 1930s did. I never got the final gag with one of the Russians wearing a sign outside.
I don't think this film is as amazing as others do but it is very good.
Have never seen the film. It had a bit of a splash at the time, with Sharon Stone and that terrible UB40 cover of an Elvis track and the then hot Phil Noyce and Joe Eszterhas - but no one particularly liked it.
The script is very good. Simple, with three juicy star parts (Eszterhas often did that) plus sex, mystery and violence. Again it's about someone falling in love with someone who could be a killer, and is... but apparently in the film they changed it which ruined the point.
I actually think the key problem was the casting of Sharon Stone. Reading this, for the story to fly it really needed the lead to be played by someone who comes across as sexual inexperienced, shy... so when she calls for Zeke (the Billy Baldwin character) it's like wham, and she doesn't know how to deal with it. Like the Geena Davis-Brad Pitt relationship in Thelma and Louise. Sharon Stone always looks like she's been around the block.
The script totally makes logical sense. I'm surprised they had to reshoot it.
