Having seen both versions of this first misfire from Steven Spielberg (saw the original version opening day and even owned a 16mm anamorphic print for a while) I find this one a bit more cohesive and actually better paced once it gets rolling. I will give the director props for attempting something out of his comfort zone (although I am not sure if there was anyone back then being able to handle such a sprawling production with any assurance) but after it is all over you are really left with nothing but a movie made of set-pieces and a plot that reminds me of Stan Laurel describing the first feature he and Oliver Hardy made-PARDON US-as "a 3-story movie on a 1-story base," although you would have to change that to 13 stories here. The main story involves Bobby DiCicco and Dianne Kay, his wanting to win a dance contest and possibly a movie contract through that, and a LOT of complications that surround them-that is pretty much it when you think about it-the others are just characters whom they meet along the way or her case, her family. A really good comedy has a good enough basic story that you can hang gags from that work well enough that you still care about the characters in the story. Well, from the "Making Of" doc that accompanies the film on the Blu-Ray, it sounds like neither the director, the producer or the writers remembered that and just kept on piling stuff on because they had the money and they just kept brainstorming stuff.
Which is too bad because watching the film again last night I found myself enjoying the little tangents less and less as they went on and wanting to stick more with the boy and girl and how that would resolve itself. When you think about it, almost the whole section with Matheson and Allen could be taken out without really missing it, which would also reduce a lot of Stack's great performance as Stilwell and eliminate Oates and even some of Belushi. Also, the section with the Japanese sailors/3 Stooges homage is cute, but the timing is way off and the resolution is just OK. The interplay between Mifune and Lee is interesting, but the latter is perhaps the whiniest Nazi in movie history (and we never do find out how he ends up in the final shot along with Pickens, who when he leaves would have been miles from Santa Monica) and I actually could not wait for his exit. I also love Stander's droll delivery-his gesture to Gary to move back a bit is priceless-and Hamilton and Deezen's section on the ferris wheel is still fun, although Hamilton actually makes those scenes with his exasperation and looks of terror (a little Deezen goes a long way). I had the opportunity to ask Bob Gale about the continuity flub where Hamilton and Deezen manage to switch places on the wheel at one point with no explanation-he told me that it was a simple mistake and that they could not come up with a gag in time to fix it long after discovering it. I told him that they should have had Deezen rock the car as a goof so much that it spun around and they switched that way-he paused for a second and asked "Where were you when we needed you?" with a laugh.
As for the "money shots," the crash landing of Belushi's plane is quite awe inspiring, as is the destruction of the amusement park (that rolling ferris wheel is still mighty cool) and Beatty's house sliding off the cliff (Ackroyd's remark "Oh, hey-that's great" pretty well sums it up) is still one of my favorite gags, but the whole paint factory crash just looks like a reason to spill paint and have an explosion of color-evidently DOP Bill Fraker's favorite bit was that section-go figure. The whole USO dance/riot is still beautifully choreographed and shot, although Spielberg's comments about wishing he would have made the film as a musical makes me wonder how he would have set a musical number on the sub or the Barstow scenes. Williams' score is still one of my favorites-I have had pretty much every incarnation of it since the Arista LP and treasure the LaLaLand 2-CD set I own-and it really fits the film well, with the underscore for Belushi's entrance and the dogfight over Hollywood being the standouts for me along with "Swing, Swing, Swing."
The film is still a glorious, gorgeously photographed mess (the Blu-Ray from the Universal box set is gorgeous, although the added scenes definitely appear one generation removed photographically, with one shot during the shooting down of the ferris wheel really looking murky), and I'm glad Spielberg and so many who made it now look back on it with fondness-I remember the reviews just shredding the film and Universal had so little faith in both this and THE JERK that they mastered both for laserdisc even before they were released in case they had to do a quick release in January of 1980 to do any recouping of costs, but since the Steve Martin film was a huge hit they breathed a sigh of relief but barely broke even on 1941. I remember a friend who used to attend exhibitor screenings in the Cleveland area attending the one for this film-the exhibitors brought their families and even friends expecting another monster hit from Spielberg. According to him, by the time it was over he could hear them nervously saying to each other "How long do you have this for?" "I got for 8 weeks-how big of a bath are we gonna take??!!"
Well, I still enjoy it despite its problems and I can only imagine Stanley Kramer and Blake Edwards commiserating during production and wondering if they should give the wunderkind any advice and deciding "Nah-he needs to learn on his own."
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