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| Jerry Saravia... |
 Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:46 pm |
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NICKELODEON (1976)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Two stars
"Nickelodeon" looks and feels like a warmed-over nostalgia piece. It
is suffused with a sepia-toned glow and it reminds us of a different
time and place when movies were just mere entertainments you could
watch for a nickle. Peter Bogdanovich, a master craftsman, is the
right director for this type of film, but the spirit and joy are
missing.
Set in the 1910's, Ryan O'Neal is Leo Harrigan, an attorney who is
close to losing a case involving assault. He somehow stumbles into a
movie producer (Brian Keith) who urges him to write a film about a
Texas Ranger (how this happens is part of the fun of the movie's few
contrivances). After working in the film industry for many years,
O'Neal turns from writer to director. Over some unfortunate mishaps
(some of which are funny), O'Neal's luggage gets switched with a movie
stuntman and horse rider's luggage, Buck Greenway (Burt Reynolds), and
both men vie for the same breathless beauty, Kathleen Cooke (Jane
Hitchcock) who has one pratfall after another because she is
nearsighted. Meanwhile, slasptick ensues and we get a klansman on
stage that gets cheers from the audience (times have changed); a tough
little girl with a rattlesnake (Tatum O'Neal); more misplaced luggage
scenes; the premiere of D. W. Griffith's notorious "Birth of a
Nation"; actors putting on blackface; and not a heck of a lot more.
"Nickelodeon" is mostly aimless and inert, despite a game cast that
includes John Ritter and Stella Stevens. Burt Reynolds comes off best,
showing ample Southern charm that illustrates what a colorful
character actor he might have become. Ryan O'Neal is so transparent
that you could throw him through a sieve and he'd still be intact.
Tatum O'Neal mostly recedes in the background, occasionally yelling so
we know she is there. And Jane Hitchcock is radiant to look at but the
underwritten screenplay makes her dissolve before the end credits.
Bogdanovich has misdirected "Nickelodeon," shifting tone and rhythm
without any regards to the thin story involving patents, the first
"real war in movies." There is one clever long take where we see
several tents strung together with a different movie made in each one.
It is such a good scene that I'd almost recommend it, but it is hardly
enough.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/Jerry_at_the_Movies.html
BIO on the author of this page at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/index.html
Email me at Faust668 at (no spam) msn.com or at faustus_08520 at (no spam) yahoo.com |
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