Word: kotter
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...says Joey, who once taught emotionally disturbed children in Englewood, N.J. With $5,000 from John, 24, Joey headed for Hollywood, where he turned down a part in a TV pilot because the role was too much like his brother's in Welcome Back, Kotter. But he managed to sign a movie contract. Joey has also cut his first single. The title: I Don't Want to Go. Where, Joey, where...
First, you are astonished. Off the tube, in the rarefied, unsparing light of the large screen, this long-lashed poster boy from Welcome Back, Kotter with the hundred-watt blue eyes and the scimitar smile that promises even more than it insinuates, ought to flounder. Instead, Travolta fills up all that space and pushes at the boundaries...
...immune to this mythmaking process. Like autograph hounds, it comes with the territory, and the quiet kid from Englewood, N.J., is already getting typed as a kind of Steiff Toy hoodlum. This has something to do, of course, with the parts that have brought him fame: Vinnie Barbarino in Kotter, Tony in Saturday Night Fever, even Danny Zuko, the cuddly tough guy in Grease, all rough-and-ready proles with a hint of self-mockery and a double dose of wistfulness. Travolta's low profile will be his best chance of holding onto his privacy and whatever portion of himself...
Things looked up after that; how could they not? Johnny landed the Barbarino role in Kotter and started his steep, fast climb. He was passed over for a role he badly wanted in The Last Detail but won a prime supporting part in Director Brian DePalma's nightmare fairy tale, Carrie. He had already broken up with Marilu, but while working on Carrie he had become the hottest hood on TV since The Fonz. Four-color posters were being printed, and record contracts were in negotiation...
Travolta is funny throughout the movie, in the tough yet naive way he has perfected in his role as Vinnie Barbarino on T.V.'s "Welcome Back, Kotter." He turns in a creditable performance, even if his range of emotions is somewhat limited. As for Gorney--well, she is best when dancing and not saying much, so she never rises above her phony pretensions or her background, as Tony finally does. The rest of the cast is routine, but for the most part they play their parts adequately...