Word: dreyfuss
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...word..." Here are a few of the most precious moments in horror history: Ernest Thesiger plying Boris Karloff's Frankenstein monster with brandy and cigars; Carrie telekinetically crucifying her Jesus freak mother; Roy Scheider spooning fish entrails into the sea, prissily calling out to Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss "Why don't you guys shovel some of this shit?" and as he hits the last word, noticing this big shark a few feet from his face; Vincent Price, dressed as Richard III, leaning over a butt of marmsy wine in which he has just drowned a lush theater critic, sighing...
...Real Big in the Last Five Years"--Ron Howard (excellent as always at doing the same goddamned thing), Cindy Williams (magnificent; the best performance in the film. I actually thought at the time that she had a promising career ahead of her as an actress. What a shame...), Richard Dreyfuss (a shallow, hammy, wise-ass punk of an actor, but he was less offensive back then, and is used marvelously here), Harrison Ford (amusing), MacKenzie Phillips (see Harrison Ford), Candy Clark and--for a few seconds, Suzanne Somers. Paul LeMat is very fine, too. A poignant ending--not the moronic...
...portrayed by Richard Dreyfuss, Moses Wine is a character of rare vintage. Indeed, it's not too much to say that he is the best, most entertaining figure anyone has managed to invent for an American movie this year. Moses not only is an amusing variant on the classic lonely guy, private-eye character, but Screenwriter Simon, adapting his own novel, also employs him for purposes of wry and rueful social observation. The well-plotted mystery tale quite compassionately reveals how a lot of '60s radicals have signed on with the System that was once thought...
...such is the charm of Moses Wine, and the curiosity of those he encounters in his search, that one does not feel like complaining too heartily about this matter, especially when Dreyfuss and the rest of the cast play so well, and Director Kagan finds so much that is pungent and fresh in that most overused of movie locations, Los Angeles...
Unfortunately, the director has been less successful with his leading man. Though Johnson and Bridges worked triumphantly together in The Last American Hero, the actor loses control here. He works so hard at being winsome that he inadvertently parodies Richard Dreyfuss's performance in The Goodbye Girl. Maybe Bridges is overacting to compensate for his co-star's nonacting, but, in this case, discretion clearly would have been the better part of valor...