Word: hollywoodized
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Perhaps the reason Kramer was eating up the questioners' semi-condescending 'artistic appreciation' was its novelty. For years, Kramer was Hollywood's only liberal "socially-conscious" producer-director (with the occasional exception of New York outsiders like Kazan). He stayed in Hollywood for studio money and soundstages, and his films were among the few made there that dealt, on a large scale, with important contemporary subject matter: racial strife, American "success", the misfit problems of war veterans and motorcycle gangs. To make them, Kramer had to fight--and then compromise. He hoped to film the T.V. play, Judgment at Nuremberg...
...film has become almost a loss leader just to get the customer to the popcorn stand. Martin Newman, executive vice president of New York's Century Theaters, figures that "concessions can mean the difference between life and death." At last week's NATO conclave, where the Hollywood moviemakers were practically invisible, there was a whole midway of barking concessionaires trying to sell the exhibitors the latest House o' Weenies rotisseries, Pronto-Burger rigs and even microwave ovens for veal Parmesan. After all, the average drive-in patron, according to one study, pops for 49? worth of refreshments...
...future but he doesn't really live in the present either. He exists in a total narcissistic haze, boozing on Leona's money and returning sexual compensations. Two homosexuals enter, an Amos and Andy combination: a gawky farm boy from Iowa who is bicycling to Mexico and a Hollywood dandy with gestures reminiscent of the Oceanic roll. We also meet an alcoholic doctor who's lost his license but still practices clandestinely; Violet, a lachrymose bar girl whose only way to approach people is with her hands under the table; and a forty-seven year old short-order cook named...
...down sawdust bar will warm the hearts of inveterate bargoers. The acting is very fine. Hope Schlorholtz gives a powerful portrayal of the burnt-out hussy Leona. She conveys the ambiguity of tender nature turned corrosive through failed aspirations. Tom Wells looks like he learned his part of the Hollywood faggot while listening to a James Brown record. He and John Rudman, the Iowa corn boy, produce some very comic visual effects flirting at their table. Terry Steiner deserves credit for salvaging the deficient role of Violet with alternating expressions of despondency and wide-eyed lechery...
...tries to force the conversation to include herself. She gossips about the neighbors, laments the marriage of the parish priest, tells of her failed attempt to break into the movies, in desperation reveals the details of two previous nervous breakdowns. She then goes through her old dance routine ("Hollywood and Vine" is the name of the song) to her husband's embarrassed outrage ("If you can't act civilized, go somewhere else"). The curtain falls as Celia so bs silently and the two men ignore her in talk of Mickey Mantle's bleeding legs...