Escape from New York
The Fox and the Hound
Arthur
Wolfen
Blow Out
Eye of the Needle
Escape to Victory
The Summer of ’81’s run of solid releases continued in July with another diverse lineup that included comedies, thrillers, an animated feature and a dystopian action film, though the month’s films didn’t match the box office success or the critical acclaim of June 1981’s releases. Comedy was king of the notable films for July 1981 with Arthur, starring Dudley Moore in the title role, raking in $95 million at the domestic box office, but the rest of the top five grossing films each didn’t crack $40 million. Disney’s animated classic The Fox and the Hound was #2 at the box office with almost $40 million domestic, followed by Endless Love ($31 million), Escape from New York ($25 million) and Under the Rainbow ($18 million).
Two films that didn’t make the month’s notable cut had over the top humor, disappointing box office and lukewarm to negative reviews in common. Hopes were likely high that Zorro the Gay Blade (July 17) starring George Hamilton could match the success of his 1979 comedy hit Love at First Bite which had earned over $40 million. But Zorro the Gay Blade ended up as July 1981’s biggest flop, earning only $5.1 million in North America against its $12 million budget. It probably didn’t help that it shared its opening weekend with the smash hit Arthur. The film has some witty dialogue despite it’s purposely over the top humor and overly flamboyant performances by Hamilton (in a dual role) and Ron Liebman, but it doesn’t age well forty years later and is grating by today’s standards and tolerance levels. Director Steve Rash’s comedy Under the Rainbow (July 31) starring Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher is loosely based on a Hollywood legend that the actors who portrayed the munchkins in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz trashed their hotel during the production (it’s been debunked by actor Jerry Maren who was in both The Wizard of Oz and Under the Rainbow). Under the Rainbow’s uneven story is filled with gags that rely too much on racial and cultural stereotypes and old fashioned short jokes (written by five credited screenwriters no less). While it does have a few funny lines, it has a weak main plot involving international intrigue with two spies from Germany (Billy Barty) and Japan (Mako) stopping at nothing to retrieve a map of the America’s defenses, and the subplots of the trashed hotel and the assassination attempts on a foreign dignitary barely string the film together. Lead actors Chase and Fisher are underutilized, though Chase’s performance as Secret Service Agent Bruce Thorpe shows some flashes of his future role as Fletch.
I was initially unsure as to whether Blake Edwards’ S.O.B. and Franco Zeffirelli’s Endless Love should be included in July 1981’s notable list. One one hand the reviews were lackluster, but on the other hand the production value and performances were much better than the month’s duds. S.O.B. was a solid movie with a great cast, but barely made a profit. Endless Love received mixed reviews but proved popular and earned over $30 million. While S.O.B. and Endless Love don’t make the notable cut, ultimately I think they’re each worth a second look.
After his successes with the Pink Panther franchise and 1979’s erotic comedy 10 starring Bo Derek and Dudley Moore, Blake Edwards’ S.O.B. (July 1) brings together a cast of old Hollywood favorites including Robert Preston, Robert Vaughn, Shelley Winters and the great William Holden for an over the top ensemble comedy about the “Standard Operational Bullshit” of making movies in Hollywood. Director Felix Farmer (Robert Mulligan) proves you’re only as successful as your last movie as his latest release Nightwind starring his wife Sally Miles (played by Julie Andrews) flops at the box office. Catatonically depressed, Felix snaps out of it with the realization Nightwind should be reshot to turn Sally’s pure cinematic reputation on its ear with a more sexed up version. With all of the characters and tangents that form out of Felix ‘s subsequent desire to reshoot and re-release the film (with his own money!), Edwards’s directing keeps it all glued together, even the scenes that run off the rails (which is most of them). Each member of the cast plays this to perfect effect even though the first half of the film stretches way too long. But Edwards picks up the pace with a chase scene, a shootout and caper. S.O.B. is fun watching if you’re a fan of movies about making movies, especially with its great old guard cast (and sadly the great William Holden’s final film before his death). So invite some fellow film fans over, pour a round of scotch and enjoy.
Endless Love by director Franco Zeffirelli is practically the anti-Romeo and Juliet. As I screened this film for the first time since the 80’s I was preparing myself for a dated cringe fest that would romanticize obsession. It was a relief to see this film holds up as it should: as an example of the perils of obsession and immature, misguided love. Martin Hewitt plays David, a bright high school student who is dating the younger Jade played by Brooke Shields. Martin spends as much time as he can away from his work obsessed parents and with Jade’s more liberal pot smoking family. But their relationship sends warning signals to Jade’s father Hugh Butterfield (Don Murray) when David and Jade get too close even for his more open minded comfort zone. They’re practically inseparable (David openly spends the night with Jade in her room) and their late nights affect Jade’s performance in school. The breaking point for Hugh comes when he catches Jade trying to sneak amphetamines to stay awake. David tries to abide by Hugh’s request to stay away from Jade for 30 days, but soon realizes that her brother Keith (James Spader) is trying to set Jade up with another boy. David’s desperate attempt to play the hero to get back into her life tragically backfires, with consequences that derail his promising educational path and the stability of the Butterfield family. Martin Hewitt didn’t have many mainstream leading man roles after his debut in this film, which is a shame because he held his own as the obsessed David to Brooke Shields’s Jade (though he did star in the cult favorite Yellowbeard alongside Graham Chapman and Madeline Kahn two years later). Watch for early performances by James Spader and Tom Cruise, and the talented older cast that includes Shirley Knight.
Disney’s The Fox and the Hound (July 10) was one of only two animated features released during the Summer of ’81. The film begins when a young fox loses its mother and a group of birds (Big Mama the owl voiced by Pearl Bailey, Dinky the finch, and Boomer the woodpecker) lead the Widow Tweed to find him. She takes the young fox in, names him Tod and raises him with the rest of her animals. While trying to keep out of trouble on the widow’s farm, Tod wanders to the property next door and meets a young hound dog named Copper, striking up a friendship. But Tod runs afoul of Copper’s owner, hunter Amos Slade, and Widow Tweed releases Tod into the woods for his protection. But as Tod and Copper become full grown and follow their natural course of instincts, their bond of friendship is tested when they face each other as hunter and prey. The Fox and the Hound was one of two children’s films released in the Summer of ’81 along with June’s The Great Mupper Caper. The film doesn’t have the humor or emotional power of earlier Disney films, but that may have been a product of production issues. Production of the film began in 1977 but its release delayed by a year due to the infighting among original director Wolfgang Reitherman and the younger team of animators, leading to the resignations of thirteen of them including Don Bluth (who would go on to direct The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail and The Land Before Time). The Fox and the Hound was also the end of an era as the last Disney animated film to have been worked on by any of the company’s Nine Old Men, a group of animators that had worked with the company since 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It shared its opening weekend with the dystopian thriller Escape From New York (talk about counter programming!) but ultimately won the box office vs. Snake Plissken with a $31 million return.
John Carpenter’s dystopian classic Escape from New York (July 10) starring Kurt Russell is one of the more memorable films of the Summer of ’81 and is still a go-to action thriller today (a full review was written on Fante’s Inferno back in 2014). The film takes place in an imagined 1997 with Russell as former war hero and now federal prison inmate Snake Plissken, drafted by government official Hauk (Lee van Cleef) to find and extract the President of the United States (played by Donald Pleasence) after Air Force One is hijacked and his escape pod lands in Manhattan, which is now a maximum security prison island. Plissken is given an offer he can’t refuse: get the President back within a specific time or an explosive implanted in his body will blow his head off. After silently making his way into the city, Plissken’s job becomes more difficult than he anticipated when finds an empty escape pod and has to take on the Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes) who is holding the President hostage. Snake Plissken is one of Kurt Russell’s most recognizable roles, bringing a calm cool to a situation that may literally get his head blown off. Ernest Borgnine, Adrienne Barbeau and Harry Dean Stanton round out an excellent cast, and Russell and Carpenter would team up with cinematographer Dean Cundey a year later in 1982’s classic horror film The Thing. Escape from New York earned $25 million against its $6 million budget (which looks like a lot more on the screen) and its sequel Escape from L.A. was released in 1996.
Arthur (July 17), written and directed by Steve Gordon, has become beloved comic actor Dudley Moore’s best known role after years on British television and on film with comedic partner Peter Cook. Two years removed from Blake Edwards’ classic erotic comedy 10 opposite Bo Derek, Moore plays Arthur Bach, a trust fund bon vivant who drinks his way through life with his expenses covered by his uber rich family, and his personal needs taken care of by his ultra professional and incredibly patient butler Hobson (John Gielgud in an Academy Award Winning role). His upcoming arranged marriage to Susan (Jill Eikenberry) and his eventual inheritance are thrown for a loop when Arthur meets and falls in love with the working class Linda (played by Liza Minelli). Arthur earned $95 million at the domestic box office, behind only Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, On Golden Pond, and Superman II which each earned over $100 million in 1981. Steve Gordon crafted a heartwarming comedy that was lightning in a bottle (no pun intended) from the perfect casting (it’s hard to think of Dudley Moore without thinking of his performance as Arthur) to its memorable theme song. Sadly his directorial debut with Arthur would be Gordon’s only film as a director. He died one year later at the age of 44. If only he and Moore could have followed up Arthur with a quality sequel.
Eye of the Needle (July 24) starring Kate Nelligan and Donald Sutherland is an underrated, throwback World War II spy thriller. The film was based on Ken Follett’s novel of the same title, with screenwriter Stanley Mann (Damien: Omen II, Firestarter) and director Richard Marquand (who would later direct a small film called Return of the Jedi) crafting Eye of the Needle in a style reminiscent of a classic 1940’s war era thriller to great effect. Sutherland plays Henry “The Needle” Faber, a stoic yet ruthless German spy who while in England obtains information on the allied invasion of Normandy. His effort to sneak back to Germany is thwarted when weather strands him on a small island with only a handful of inhabitants. While he waits to be picked up by a German U-Boat, he charms a neglected housewife played by Nelligan. But its only a matter of time before suspicions are raised about him, and Faber will stop at nothing to complete his mission. The direction, score and acting in Eye of the Needle add up to a film that at times borders on the melodramatic, but that ultimately lends to the charm and old school drama of the film (I envision Eye of the Needle as the type of story that could have been produced forty years earlier with Gregory Peck and Barbara Stanwyck in the lead roles). Despite its modest box office of $17 million domestic, Eye of the Needle is an engaging, exciting and enjoyable film with strong performances by Sutherland and Nelligan.
Blow Out (July 24) written and directed by Brian DePalma is a contemporary noir thriller set in Philadelphia starring John Travolta and Nancy Allen. Travolta plays Jack Terry, a sound editor for a low budget horror film who while recording audio on an empty stretch of road witnesses and records a car accident. Jack saves the woman in the passenger seat, but the driver is later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. While there, Jack realizes the driver was Governor (and potential presidential candidate) George McRyan and the woman he saved was an escort named Sally (Nancy Allen). Jack tries to piece together the events leading up to and through the accident with his audio recording and magazine photography, unraveling layers of intrigue that put both his life and Sally’s at stake. Blow Out was released at the height of Travolta’s career after Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Urban Cowboy, and was DePalma’s third film after Carrie and Dressed to Kill. While DePalma’s first two films earned critical praise and over $30 million each at the domestic box office, Blow Out didn’t break even, only earning $13 million against its $18 million budget in a crowded July 24th weekend that included two other thrillers in Wolfen and Eye of the Needle. But despite the disappointing box office Blow Out is one of the best thrillers of the year. Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography and Paul Hirsch’s editing perfectly complemented DePalma’s story and direction, capturing the dramatic weight of the performances of Travolta, Allen and an especially memorable role played by John Lithgow. Pair Blow Out with March 1981’s Diva and you have a great double feature.
Wolfen (July 24) directed by Michael Wadleigh (Woodstock) is a contemporary horror thriller set in the derelict, burned out city blocks of early 80’s New York City. The film begins with a beautiful shot of lower Manhattan (there are a few of those in this film) where a mysterious figure walks along the top of the Brooklyn Bridge and stalks a limousine headed to Manhattan. Millionaire Christopher Van der Veer and his wife make a late night stop in Battery Park to see the art installation he sponsored (and enjoy the effects of cocaine) while his bodyguard watches them from a distance. All three are quickly and savagely murdered by an unseen beast. Albert Finney plays Dewey Wilson, a former New York City Police Captain who is brought back on to the force to lead the murder investigation with the help of Rebecca Neff (Diane Venora), a criminal psychologist brought in to investigate potential terrorist links to the Van der Veer murders. Dewey tracks down Eddie Holt (Edward James Olmos), a Native American activist he arrested years earlier, working a construction job on the Manhattan Bridge. Dewey climbs to the top of the bridge (this sequence still amazes me 40 years later) and questions Eddie, who’s eerily calm demeanor fits his “confession” as a shape shifter. Dewey tails Eddie and later finds him under the influence of psychedelic drugs, taking on the mannerisms and persona of a wolf. A string of subsequent murders in the Bronx seem random, but coroner Whittington (played by Gregory Hines) and zoologist Ferguson (Tom Noonan) find similarities in the methods of the victims deaths and determine the non-human hairs found on the bodies belong to the wolf family. Dewey and Rebecca soon realize they’re dealing with forces more powerful than they can imagine. Wolfen is a solid, well cast werewolf thriller that uses shots of the very real derelict city blocks of the Bronx (you have to see them for yourself to realize how destroyed parts of New York City were in the 70s and early 80s) along with innovative photography used to create a heightened sense of suspense throughout the film. It’s a more subdued film than February 1981’s The Howling, putting it more in the vain of Cat People, with a great on screen team up of Finney and Hines.
Victory, aka Escape to Victory (July 31) is the guilty pleasure of the month as a sports themed World War II drama…or World War II themed sports drama (think The Great Escape meets The Longest Yard). There is a lot of talent associated with this film, especially Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Max von Sydow and director John Huston as well as the international footballers including Pele who make up the film’s German and Allied teams. Set in a German prisoner of war camp in 1941, Captain John Colby (Michael Caine) is a former professional football player tasked by Major von Steiner (Max von Sydow) to put together a team of Allied prisoners to play an exhibition match against a German team in France. While Colby is in it purely for the sport, his superiors want to use the match as an opportunity for an escape. Captain Robert Hatch (Sylvester Stallone), has his own personal (and hopefully permanent) escape plans thrown for a loop when he’s drafted into using his escape to contact the French Resistance, to plan the team’s escape, and then get re-captured and returned to the POW camp. Colby gets Hatch out of the cooler by making him the Allied team’s starting goalie, and the match is on. With dramatic overtones in a World War II setting, Victory also turns out to be a fun movie where even the somewhat fantastical elements of the story (namely the football match between the camp prisoners and the German team) can be enjoyed at face value. But the scenes are occasionally clumsy and the first two acts uneven, which make the script feel very first draft-ish. Regardless, I’ll still add this to the notable list for the talent involved (including the football stars), the fact it’s still very enjoyable despite its flaws and earning $25 million against its $10 million budget. I really would like to take a deep dive into what inspired the great John Huston (Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Man Who Would Be King) to make this film.
Next Up: Fante’s Inferno revisits the films of August 1981!
Fante's Inferno 