KANSAS CITY (1996)

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.)