Harry Belafonte is still fine & dandy in his last starring role, playing underworld gambling czar on the Black side of town in 1930s Kansas City, backed by an anachronistic, if awfully good, mixed-race jazz band in his headquarters. But they’re the only parts to come off in this major misfire, a passion project for Robert Altman*, apparently still smarting from Dino De Laurentiis dumping him from the not too dissimilar RAGTIME/’81. Altman’s late career resurrection via THE PLAYER and SHORT CUTS, likely got this one financed (20 mill cost/1.6 mill gross), but watching floozy Jennifer Jason Leigh kidnap drug-addicted political wife Miranda Richardson in a desperate attempt to free her husband after a failed robbery (and on election day) proves confusing and uninvolving. (Regular readers will note we’ve dropped our usual JJL ban in light of Belafonte’s recent passing . . . if only Altman hadn’t.) Most of the cast look downright uncomfortable, as if their period costumes had just come out of the box, in a production as fresh-from-the-car-wash shiny as an over-polished DisneyLand pageant.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *With John Huston’s THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING/’75 as one notable exception, most long-delayed Passion Projects wind up critical and commercial disasters. Because the filmmaker has lost all perspective?; because the original impetus has flamed out?; or just because the times they are a’changing?
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Re-imagine RAGTIME with Altman calling the shots. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2023/01/ragtime-1981.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Play a drinking game during the credits: One shot for every Altman listed. (It’s four or five so measure your booze accordingly.)
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