moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (07/30/85)
Well, I may be the only one, but I enjoyed _The_Man_with_One_Red_Shoe quite
a bit, even though I saw _The_Tall_Blond_Man_with_One_Black_Shoe_ two years
ago, and enjoyed that. Obviously, though, it should be stated that
_Red_Shoe_ is not much of a deviation in plot from _Black_Shoe_, so there
will be few surprises in store for those who saw the original French film.
However, the original had a wonderfully funny script, and if _Red_Shoe_ uses
slapstick less frequently (who uses slapstick *more* than the French (yes, I
know, Jerry Lewis, which is why they worship him there...)), it's satirical
bite is funnier and sharper than it's European prototype. Now that I've
gotten the comparisons out of the way....
_The_Man_With_One_Red_Shoe is a remake of the French film,
_The_Tall_Blond_Man_With_One_Black_Shoe_ done with a repatory group of some
of America's best character actors. It would have been difficult to mess up
with the original's script, but the film's producers decided not to chance
it and hired good acting, filming and music talent. Tom Hanks is marginally
the star, playing the violin player who is intentionally marked as a spy by
the director of the CIA (Charles Durning) and his assistant (Edward
Herrmann), to draw out a renegade agent (Dabney Coleman). Hanks' main job
is to react to the bizarre and hilarious events occuring around him, which
he does very well -- it seems the type of roll he falls into most easily.
Meanwhile, Coleman mis-interperts every innocent action of Hanks' into a
undercover plot to overthrow him. The most fun is gotten out of the sendup
of Nixonian intelligence techniques, and Coleman, while he has played this
type of a role over and over again, is always able to add something fresh to
it (his exit performance is a scream). Jim Belushi shows that he can be
funny when given half a chance, Carrie Fisher doesn't need to worry anyway,
she's rich after Star Wars, and Lori Singer is comfortable as the spy who
falls in love with Hanks. PS note to trivia buffs: Singer looks awfully
familiar -- was she the same actress who played the blond in Hank's TV
effort _Bosom_Buddies_?
Also, the photgraphy is some of the most imaginative I've seen this summer,
and shows that interesting camera work can keep the audience engrossed just
as well as good acting and scripting can. And the musical score is
excellent, reminding me of the soundtrack to _Diva_ and some of the smaller
American comedies. An excellent $4 movie if you've never seen the original;
otherwise, a very good $2.50 film.
"Happily, I read English."
(Draws sword) "Then read it happily"
A man who has no business being
anyone's role model ---> Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
UUCP:
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ARPA:
fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPArender@uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA (08/01/85)
> ... PS note to trivia buffs: Singer looks awfully > familiar -- was she the same actress who played the blond in Hank's TV > effort _Bosom_Buddies_? The blond actress in _Bosom_Buddies_ was actress Donna Dixon, who was later in the movie _Doctor_Detroit_. She is now married to that movie's star, Dan Ackroyd. "Oh, that was a wonderfully baaad film!" Hal Render {pur-ee, ihnp4} ! uiucdcs ! render render@uiuc.csnet render@uiuc.arpa
allynh@ucbvax.ARPA (Allyn Hardyck) (08/01/85)
In article <862@vax2.fluke.UUCP> moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) writes: >Well, I may be the only one, but I enjoyed _The_Man_with_One_Red_Shoe quite >a bit I liked it *a lot*. Again, I have not seen the original (yet nearly everyone I know has - isn't this somewhat unusual for an unabashedly *furrin* film? Was it in general release in the U.S. or something?) >PS note to trivia buffs: Singer looks awfully familiar -- was she the same >actress who played the blond in Hank's TV effort _Bosom_Buddies_? No, that was Donna Dixon, who was in Dr. Detroit with Dan Aykroyd and is now his wife. Lori Singer played the cellist in Fame (in real life she was first cellist at the Juilliard Music School) and has also been in Footloose and The Falcon and the Snowman. Funny, I get her confused for Daryl Hannah... >Also, the photgraphy is some of the most imaginative I've seen this summer, >and shows that interesting camera work can keep the audience engrossed just >as well as good acting and scripting can. Did anybody else notice that all the interiors seemed to be devoid of artificial light? Did I miss something at the beginning of the movie about there being a blackout in Washington at the time? :-)
sint@ihlpl.UUCP (Marguerite Czajka) (08/02/85)
> > > ... PS note to trivia buffs: Singer looks awfully > > familiar -- was she the same actress who played the blond in Hank's TV > > effort _Bosom_Buddies_? > > The blond actress in _Bosom_Buddies_ was actress Donna Dixon, who was Singer was in the TV series "Fame" for a while.
ran@bentley.UUCP (RA Novo) (08/02/85)
>> ... PS note to trivia buffs: Singer looks awfully >> familiar -- was she the same actress who played the blond in Hank's TV >> effort _Bosom_Buddies_? > > The blond actress in _Bosom_Buddies_ was actress Donna Dixon, who was >later in the movie _Doctor_Detroit_. She is now married to that movie's >star, Dan Ackroyd. > > "Oh, that was a wonderfully baaad film!" > > Hal Render > > {pur-ee, ihnp4} ! uiucdcs ! render > render@uiuc.csnet render@uiuc.arpa She was also in _Twilight_Zone_, the movie. So was Dan Ackroyd come to think of it. Hmmm..... -- Robert A. Novo "Captain! They put creatures AT&T Bell Labs in our ears! They made us say Piscataway, NJ things that weren't true!" ...bentley!ran