Category Archives: Dabney Coleman

1982 Films, Bill Murray, Charles Durning, Christine Ebersole, Comedy, Dabney Coleman, Doris Belack, Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, George Gaynes, Jessica Lange, Lynne Thigpen, Romantic Comedy, Satire, Sydney Pollack, Teri Garr

Tootsie-1982

Leave a comment

Tootsie-1982

Director Sydney Pollack

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr

Scott’s Review #1,449

Reviewed November 2, 2024

Grade: A

Dustin Hoffman is perfectly cast in the romantic comedy Tootsie (1982), a blockbuster hit from 1982 with much going on within its cinematic walls and a progressive-leaning slant.

Sydney Pollack directs and also has a supporting role in the film.

In addition to Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, and Charles Durning give all-star performances.

Tootsie is genuinely funny and a treat for anyone who has ever auditioned or been interested in the acting or theater professions. The popular soap opera or daytime drama genre features directors, producers, and actors intertwining.

Romance, drag, wacky setups, insecurities, and social commentary on gender inequality are analyzed making Tootsie more relevant than most romantic comedies and an unforgettable experience.

Hoffman plays New York actor Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman), a talented yet opinionated perfectionist unable to find work. His flustered agent (Pollack) sends him on a soap opera audition that goes poorly.

Michael decides to reinvent himself as actress Dorothy Michaels and wins the part. What was supposed to be a short-lived role turns into a long-term contract, but when Michael falls for his castmate Julie (Jessica Lange), complications develop.

Hoffman flawlessly merges with Dorothy, a feminist,  to make her a character the audience loves and champions. This is a risky assignment and could easily make the character a goof or not be taken seriously.

Not only does Hoffman look convincing in a dress, wig, heels, and a feminine southern accent, but he makes us forget he’s a man.

The hilarity of other characters not knowing Dorothy is Michael is there when a romantic quadrangle develops. Neurotic Sandy Lester (Garr) is in love with Michael while he is in love with Julie who thinks Michael is Dorothy. Finally, Julie’s father, Les (Durning) falls for Dorothy.

The New York setting works wonderfully as struggling actors, greedy agents, and temperamental directors co-exist on tense sets, over dinners, and at many schmoozy parties. This presents the grit of New York show business in the 1980s when the city was crime-infested and dangerous.

The hustle and bustle perfectly showcases the time.

Pollack and screenwriters, Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal, add satire to the soap opera, or as mentioned in the film, the politically correct, daytime drama, world.

The horny and inept longtime cast member, John Van Horn (George Gaynes) needs a teleprompter while the sexy ingenue April (Geena Davis) prances around in underwear. Hurried script rewrites and pages of dialogue to memorize makes the cast frazzled and rushed.

Tootsie takes an important though lighthearted approach to sexism but at least it’s recognized. Dorothy scolds her boss and director Ron (Coleman) for calling her demeaning nicknames like ‘Tootsie’ and treating Julie, who he’s casually dating, poorly.

Michael begins to realize that he doesn’t treat Sandy well either so he learns from his experience as a woman and being judged on beauty rather than anything else.

It forces the audience to realize this too. Tootsie was released in the early 1980s when women’s liberation was strong and more women were in the workplace so the message was timely.

The producer of the fictional soap opera is female which enhances the gender message brought across.

Still, the comedy takes center stage and the film isn’t a message movie. The funny moments feel fresh as the characters work their magic. Julie first assumes Dorothy is a lesbian when they nearly kiss and Sandy thinks Michael is having an affair with Dorothy which means he is having an affair with himself.

The antics go on and on and resemble the classic Some Like It Hot (1959) especially tender moments between Les and Dorothy.

Tootsie (1982) holds up well decades after release. Smart dialogue, witty sequences, and strong characters make it a timeless treasure to revisit often.

Oscar Nominations: 1 win-Best Picture, Best Director-Sydney Pollack, Best Actor-Dustin Hoffman, Best Supporting Actress-Jessica Lange (won), Teri Garr, Best Screenplay-Written Directly for the Screen, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Song-“It Might Be You”, Best Sound

1981 Films, Dabney Coleman, Drama, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Katharine Hepburn

On Golden Pond-1981

Leave a comment

On Golden Pond-1981

Director Mark Rydell

Starring Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Fonda

Scott’s Review #1,297

Reviewed September 8, 2022

Grade: A

A beautiful and quiet family drama, On Golden Pond (1981) is a brilliantly acted and written story about life specifically aging and dying. It tells one lovely story arc after another, involving the relationships between its principal characters.

With heavyweights like Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and Jane Fonda signed on to star how could the film not be a success? It was not only a blockbuster in the summer of 1981 but accumulated ten Academy Award nominations and tons of other awards showing that sometimes subdued stories about human relationships win big.

The anticipation of legendary stars Fonda and Hepburn, golden icons of Hollywood, finally appearing opposite each other in a film must have made film lovers salivate back in 1981.

Norman Thayer (Fonda) is a grumpy old man trying to enjoy his golden years. He and his nurturing wife, Ethel (Hepburn), spend summers at their New England vacation home on the shores of idyllic Golden Pond.

Norman is experiencing memory problems and frets about dying while Ethel makes the most of it and enjoys the beautiful loons on the water and chats with the local mailman.

One year, their adult daughter, Chelsea (Jane Fonda), visits with her new fiancée (Dabney Coleman) and his teenage son, Billy (Doug McKeon) on their way to Europe. After leaving Billy behind to bond with Norman, Chelsea returns, attempting to repair the long-strained relationship with her aging father before it’s too late.

The greatest part of On Golden Pond is that it is believable. The tender love that Norman and Ethel share, the tensions between Norman and Chelsea, and the burgeoning friendship between Norman and Billy Jr. feel so very real and poignant.

Beautiful scenes emerge between the old man and a young man when Norman turns Billy Jr. on to literary classics like A Tale of Two Cities and Treasure Island. The viewers can easily see themselves in real-life situations like this or when Ethel and Chelsea discuss a strained relationship.

Years and years of memories and situations between the characters spring to life making the dialogue rich with flavor. Moving sequences like when Norman suffers a heart attack and is involved in a boating accident are teary and sentimental but fresh with emotion.

They do not feel manipulated.

As if the richly acted scenes are not enough, screenwriter, Ernest Thompson, who wrote the film based on his play provides credibility. He felt the passion the story would bring to the big screen and he was right.

As I grow older I appreciate the characters of Norman and Ethel. They stick together through thick and thin, sometimes quarrel, but love each other with a bond that can never be severed.

We all know and love couples like them.

The cinematography bristles with sweet nature. From the loons to the other sounds of summer, the camerawork elicits the light of late summertime. I constantly had to remind myself that I wasn’t really in the countryside but was in my living room.

A tearjerker that carefully combines heavy drama with comical moments that lighten the load, On Golden Pond (1981) is a truthful and emotional extravaganza about death that never feels sad or downtrodden. It’s much too clever for that and instead is an uproarious crowd-pleaser.

Oscar Nominations: 3 wins-Best Picture, Best Director-Mark Rydell, Best Actor-Henry Fonda (won), Best Actress-Katharine Hepburn (won), Best Supporting Actress-Jane Fonda, Best Screenplay-Based on Material from Another Medium (won), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound

1974 Films, Adventure, Dabney Coleman, Disaster, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, O.J. Simpson, Paul Newman, Robert Vaughn, Scott's Top 100 Films, Steve McQueen, Susan Blakely, William Holden

The Towering Inferno-1974

Leave a comment

The Towering Inferno-1974

Director John Guillermin

Starring Paul Newman, Steve McQueen

Top 100 Films #43

Scott’s Review #194

1059232

Reviewed November 15, 2014

Grade: A

The Towering Inferno (1974) epitomizes the disaster film craze heaped on audiences throughout the 1970s (Airport, Airport ‘75 and ‘77, The Poseidon Adventure (1972), and Earthquake (1974) to name a few).

I am (guilt-free) a huge fan of this 1970s movie genre, though some certainly look down on it, I am not one of them and feel The Towering Inferno is one of the greatest.

The film is enormous and has such a sense of adventure and danger.

The grand film tells of the trials and tribulations of an enormous cast of characters trapped inside an inferno-flamed skyscraper – led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen (fun fact- the two actors reportedly despised each other).

An incredible skyscraper is erected in San Francisco, at one hundred and thirty-eight floors it is professed to be the tallest building in the world and incredibly state-of-the-art. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, an elaborate party is held atop the building overlooking the gorgeous Pacific Ocean.

Due to faulty electrical wiring, the building catches fire and the cast of characters faces one challenge after another to escape the grips of death.

The stellar cast features stars like William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Robert Wagner, Jennifer Jones, and O.J. Simpson in addition to Newman and McQueen.

The film is quite a soap opera style- numerous characters are introduced, many having affairs with each other or suffering some sort of conflict.

Wagner having a torrid office romance with his secretary played by then up-and-coming star Susan Flannery is deliciously sexy and I yearned to know more about both characters.

Holden’s son-in-law is responsible for the faulty electrical system yet blames his father-in-law for cutting budgets.

Another subplot involves Astaire’s character attempting to swindle Jones’s character but then falling in love with her. The plots are so melodramatic that, given the period of the film, it has a definite primetime television soap opera style to it- think Dallas or Dynasty in a state of peril.

I enjoyed the enormous cast and trying to guess who will be killed off next and in what elaborate way the film will burn them to death is a joy to watch- several victims fall or jump to their deaths, which eerily (and sadly) bring back morbid images of jumpers from the World Trade towers on 9/11.

The beginning of the film shows a dedication to firemen everywhere and the film has a definite moral and heroical quality to the firemen sent to rescue the people in the building. They are portrayed as heroes and intended not to be forgotten amid all the drama encompassing the story. This is admirable.

The special effects are elaborate and quite impressive- the glass elevator rescue scene is amazing! The beautiful set designs are a treat to watch as each lobby, apartment, or lounge in the skyscraper is exquisitely designed at the height of the 1970s style.

Every sofa or carpet featured is plush, colorful, and sophisticated. The skyscraper, made of glass, is an amazing element of the film, and the aerial views of the building, especially while ablaze are impressive, to say the least- remember- 1974 was long before CGI. I am assuming small replicas of the building were used, but what an achievement from a visual perspective.

The effects certainly champion the syrupy story elements.

My only small gripe with The Towering Inferno is, assumed to be 138 stories high, the action taking place at the top of the tower- the rooftop as well as the party scenes on the top floor- do not feel that high- The scenic outlook overlooking the water and some land feel about twenty-five stories high, not one hundred and thirty-eight.

Some find The Towering Inferno (1974) to be nothing more than schmaltzy drama- I say schmaltz was never done better.

Enjoy this feast of a big film.

Oscar Nominations: 3 wins-Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor-Fred Astaire, Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Song-“We May Never Love Like This Again” (won), Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography (won), Best Film Editing (won)