At a time when most of her industry peers were retired, forgotten, or guesting on episodes of Fantasy Island and The Love Boat, 56-year-old Lauren Bacall was enjoying a career resurgence and public visibility rivaling that of her 1940s heyday when she was known as “The Look.” The year 1981 saw Bacall headlining in the Broadway musical Woman of the Year; topping the bestseller charts with the paperback release of her 1978 memoir By Myself; shilling everything from jewelry to cat food in TV and print ads; and, most remarkably in those pre-Meryl Streep/Helen Mirren years of elder-actress marketability, starring in a nine-million-dollar major motion picture release.
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| The Fame Game |
The Fan, a suspense thriller based on Bob Randall’s 1977 epistolary novel about an aging Broadway star stalked by an obsessive fan, gave Bacall arguably the biggest role of her career. Certainly, the first to require her to carry an entire film on her own.
Filmed on location in New York from March to July of 1980, The Fan was poised for release at the most opportune time to take marketing advantage of Bacall’s already-in-motion Broadway and bookshelf publicity. Unfortunately, as The Fan’s PR-friendly release date of March 15, 1981 neared, several real-life, obsessive fan-based tragedies occurred (targeting John Lennon and then-President Ronald Reagan), conspiring to make this fame-culture melodrama seem more an exercise in bad taste than a film of ripped-from-today's-headlines relevance.
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| Lauren Bacall as Sally Ross |
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| Michael Biehn as Douglas Breen |
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| Maureen Stapleton as Belle Goldman |
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| James Garner as Jake Berman |
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| Hector Elizondo as Inspector Raphael Andrews |
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| Kurt Johnson as David Barnum |
If musical theater geeks, Glee habitués, and folks capable of making it through an entire Tony Awards broadcast ever longed for an '80s slasher film to call their own, then The Fan more than fills the Playbill. This unappetizingly bloody, yet oh-so delectable/derisible blend of backstage musical, 1940s career-woman soap opera, slasher-flick, and woman-in-peril melodrama, is high-camp movie nirvana. An upscale cousin of the hagsploitation genre of the '60s, The Fan might have substituted seasoned glamour for the usual grotesquery, but in keeping with the requirements of the sub-genre, The Fan's raison d'être remained the prolonged persecution and victimization of a mature star from Hollywood's Golden Era.
When The Fan opened in theaters in the spring of 1981, the film...to borrow a line from one of the hooty Louis St. Louis (Grease 2) showtunes sung in the film..."Got no love” from either audiences or critics. Patrons old enough to be enticed by the film's elder cast risked having their blue rinses turn stark white at the sight of the movie's copious bloodshed and some of the blunt, Bogie-wouldn't-stand-for-this dialog: “Dearest bitch, see how accessible you are? How would you like to be fucked by a meat cleaver?” Similarly, the teen demographic ordinarily drawn to slasher films weren't quite sure of what to make of a movie set in the middle-aged, Sardi's and cigarettes world of New York legitimate theater. A wholly uninspired publicity campaign only added to the film’s troubles
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| The stark graphic design of the poster had a generic slasher film look that did nothing to sell the film to the public. |
Had The Fan been a play, it would probably have closed in Boston. Whisked off screens within weeks of its release, The Fan resurfaced with some regularity on cable TV venues like HBO and Showtime throughout the '80s before ultimately disappearing into relative obscurity. Obscurity so complete that Robert De Niro's unrelated but same-titled 1996 sports-themed film has totally eclipsed Bacall's The Fan in the public's memory.
Happily, The Fan's recent release on DVD has rekindled awareness of this very '80s curio. A glimpse back at a New York still atmospherically seedy. A vision of a world populated with record stores, typewriters, payphones, legwarmers, and heavy smokers. All with nary a Starbucks in sight. And while it's no undiscovered classic, The Fan does have its merits (most of them camp-related, I'm afraid) that make it a movie worthy of rediscovery. Not the least of them being Lauren Bacall, a smoking, drinking, tough-as-nails star of Broadway and the silver screen, playing a smoking, drinking, tough-as-nails star of Broadway and the silver screen. And convincingly, too!
The intersect of stardom and fandom
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"And the audience LOVES me! And I love them. And they love me for lovin' them and I love them for lovin' me. And we love each other. And that's 'cause none of us got enough love in our childhoods. And that's show biz, kid!" - Fred Ebb |
No low-budget, body-count slasher flick featuring nondescript teens stalked by a masked phantom, The Fan was conceived as a stylish, A-List, Hitchcockian thriller along the lines of Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) and Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill (1980). The latter, a sleeper hit that garnered '50s sexpot, Angie Dickinson, some of the best notices of her career.
At least that's how things started.
At least that's how things started.
Produced by movie/music mogul Robert Stigwood on the downturn side of a '70s winning streak that included youth-centric films like Jesus Christ Superstar, Saturday Night Fever, and Tommy; The Fan was Stigwood’s most expensive film to date and first stab at cracking the grown-up ticket-buying market. To this end, he amassed a distinguished cast of New York actors and pedigreed Broadway composers (Marvin Hamlisch and Tim Rice collaborated on two–fairly terrible but nonetheless irresistible–original songs). On the production end, he secured the talents of up-and-coming first-time director Edward Bianchi (from TV commercials and music videos) and choreographer Arlene Philips (Can’t Stop The Music, Annie).
If you've ever seen a Lauren Bacall musical, you know that her being lifted and carried about is a choreography requisite. I was surprised at the number of online reviews that questioned Bacall's "believability" portraying a Broadway musical star in The Fan. Reviews that later expressed surprise upon learning that she was indeed a musical theater star in real life. Bacall was the Best Actress Tony Award winner for both Applause - 1970 and Woman of the Year - 1981.
But as the saying goes, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and somewhere between screenplay to movie-house, The Fan transmogrified into a film beset by:
1) Bad decisions - Friday the 13 became a hit during The Fan's post-production, prompting Paramount to order reshoots to ratchet up the violence.
2) Bad timing and bad decisions - Three months before The Fan's release, John Lennon was killed by an obsessive fan outside NY’s Dakota apartments (as it happens, also the home of Lauren Bacall), after which it is said the film's original downbeat ending (if true to the novel) underwent some 11th-hour tinkering and reshoots.
3) Bad luck - Bacall's idea of promoting The Fan was to express to the press her disappointment in the finished product. Making matters worse, three weeks into The Fan's less-than-illustrious release, an attempt was made on President Reagan's life by a Jodie Foster-obsessed fan. Suddenly, a film very few people were interested in in the first place began to look to everyone like an exercise in exploitation and bad taste.
1) Bad decisions - Friday the 13 became a hit during The Fan's post-production, prompting Paramount to order reshoots to ratchet up the violence.
2) Bad timing and bad decisions - Three months before The Fan's release, John Lennon was killed by an obsessive fan outside NY’s Dakota apartments (as it happens, also the home of Lauren Bacall), after which it is said the film's original downbeat ending (if true to the novel) underwent some 11th-hour tinkering and reshoots.
3) Bad luck - Bacall's idea of promoting The Fan was to express to the press her disappointment in the finished product. Making matters worse, three weeks into The Fan's less-than-illustrious release, an attempt was made on President Reagan's life by a Jodie Foster-obsessed fan. Suddenly, a film very few people were interested in in the first place began to look to everyone like an exercise in exploitation and bad taste.
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| Bacall the Buzzkill Bacall: "The Fan is much more graphic and violent than when I read the script." Anna Maria Horsford (who appeared in Stigwood's Times Square in 1980) as detective Emily Stolz |
Stigwood severely scaled back his usual bombastic pre-release publicity for The Fan (STD results have been released with more fanfare), while Paramount added a disclaimer to its theatrical trailers claiming The Fan was in no way inspired by the tragic death of John Lennon. The latter decision prompting the outspoken Bacall to declare to People magazine: “I think it’s disgusting, revolting, and exploitive!”
In the end, it didn't really matter, for The Fan wound up being one of those rare films capable of offering audiences simultaneously contradictory experiences–none of them satisfactory. Stylishly shot, overflowing in chichi urban gloss, and embellished with a chilling Pino Donaggio score (Carrie, Don’t Look Now) The Fan ultimately failed to find an audience because it clearly didn't know who the hell that was. Classic movie fans familiar with Lauren Bacall thought the film was too classy to be so trashy; slasher fans thought the film wasn't trashy enough. Gays had their own problems with the film.
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| Strangers in the Night |
The Fan did itself no favors by alienating the very audience most receptive to a film offering up ample doses of musical theater, backstage drama, show tunes, tight male bodies in various states of undress, and Lauren Bacall in full Margo Channing mode. On the heels of Windows (1980), a stalker thriller about a lesbian psychopath, and Cruising (1980) a crime thriller about a gay psychopath; many members of the gay community felt The Fan's closeted theater-queen stalker was one gay psycho too many.
None of that applied to me, however. I was a presold audience in and of myself. I’d read The Fan back in 1978, intrigued by the way the book used the thriller genre to comment on the odd love/hate relationship between stars and their adoring public. I was also a longstanding fan of Lauren Bacall from her old movies with Bogart on The Late Show, Applause (the 1973 TV broadcast, anyway), and Murder on the Orient Express; so I was thrilled when I heard she'd been cast.
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| Dana Delany making her film debut |
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| Feiga Martinez as Elsa |
Adding to my anticipation was the fact that Edward Bianchi was hired to direct and Arlene Phillips was to do the choreography. Bianchi & Phillips had collaborated on a series of eye-popping Dr. Pepper commercials in the late '70s for the advertising agency Young & Rubicam. Commercials I had been inspired by and borrowed from for a couple of my film school projects. When I also learned that Broadway great Maureen Stapleton had joined the cast and that Bacall’s rumored real-life paramour, James Garner, was also on board, The Fan swiftly became one of the most eagerly-awaited films of the year...for me, anyway.
I saw The Fan on opening day at Grauman’s Chinese Theater where the smallish audience of young people in attendance (clearly in search of a good scare) was underwhelmed. I, on the other hand, felt as though I’d died and gone to camp film heaven. Not since Eyes of Laura Mars had I seen such a slick-looking thriller. One capable of being enjoyed on so many levels at once. I wound up seeing it a total of three times before it disappeared from theaters.
Here the famed Shubert Theater is the site for Sally Ross' opening night in Never Say Never; the fictional musical providing The Fan with so much of its camp appeal
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILM
What brings me back to The Fan time and time again are its many sequences depicting the behind-the-scenes creation of the fictional Broadway musical Never Say Never, which is to be star Sally Ross’ singing and dancing debut. What with its use of recognized Broadway dancers, NY locations, and knowing attention to procedural detail; the feel is very authentic, very 80s, and very stylishly evoked. I find these scenes a bit camp to be sure (what with all those legwarmers and Arlene Philips' trademark Hot Gossip choreography), but I have to say all of it contributes to giving us a refreshingly novel backdrop for a suspense thriller. Silly as they may be, they are also terrifically fun. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I saw this film during my early days as a dancer, or that in 1983, when I took my first trip to New York, I studied dance at Jo Jo's, the studio featured in the film.
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| That's Kurt Johnson providing literal backup to Lauren Bacall as she sings " A Remarkable Woman," one of two Marvin Hamlisch/Tim Rice compositions introduced in the film |
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| UK Choreographer Arlene Phillips wouldn't actually choreograph for Broadway until 1987's Starlight Express |
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| All The Boys Love Sally Broadway dancer Justin Ross (l.) appeared in the film version of A Chorus Line, and dancer Reed Jones (r.) originated the role of Skimbleshanks in the original Broadway production of Cats |
PERFORMANCES
If you’re going to make a film about the kind of old-school, glamorous, show-biz diva capable of inciting the flames of obsessive fandom, you couldn’t do much better than landing all-around class-act, Lauren Bacall. Her gravitas as a full-fledged movie star from the golden era gives The Fan a shot of instant legitimacy every time she appears. In one of the largest roles of her career, Bacall is not always filmed as flatteringly as you'd expect, but the effect is rather refreshing. Her face looks terrifically lived-in, and her still-striking looks serve as a welcome change from the botoxed mannequins we've grown used to. Playing a role that isn't perhaps much of a stretch, awfully good. So good in fact, that I kept wishing the film would just allow the story's natural character conflicts (an aging star grappling confronting loneliness, self-doubt, and vulnerability) play themselves out minus all the genre machinations.
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| Bacall's appearance on Garner's TV show The Rockford Files in 1979, followed by their re-appearance in Robert Altman's HealtH (1980) and yet again here in The Fan, really had gossip-columnist tongues wagging about a romance between the two |
THE STUFF OF FANTASY
The '80s come vividly alive in the film's Broadway musical sequences, which are sort of Solid Gold meets Can't Stop The Music. As would be the case with the Broadway musical numbers in 1983s Staying Alive, it's near-impossible to imagine just what kind of Broadway this could be, as the numbers look more appropriate to a Las Vegas revue. But they left me wanting more, not less. (I feel safe in saying I'm likely the only person who felt that way.)
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A Remarkable Woman 
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I've never considered The Fan to be as bad a film as its reputation has led people to believe. Its screenplay is clichéd to be sure (the stage doorman is actually named “Pop”) and the violence needlessly gruesome for such a visually distinguished and stylish film (Bianchi’s music video background is in full evidence), but with a provocative theme and talented cast, The Fan has quite a bit going for it even with its flaws.
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| Griffin Dunne a few years before his breakout role in Martin Scorsese's After Hours (1985) |
Celebrity and fan obsession is a compellingly intriguing topic for a thriller. The whole codependent, love/hate, need/resent, fear/envy aspect of the “relationship” between the famous and the adoring public is ripe fodder for film treatment. The connection between celebrity and fan is a "relationship," by design and necessity, doomed forever to be one-sided: the fan feels an intimate kinship with someone who doesn't know they exist. Perhaps because of this imaginary, essentially hungry, connection, it's no surprise then how quickly fawning fandom can change to bilious hate if the fan’s attentions are even marginally rebuffed.
I’m reminded of a scene in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (a marvelously dark black comedy about fan obsession that would make a great double-bill with The Fan) in which talk-show host Jerry Lewis is walking down the street. When asked by a fan at a public phone to say a few words to her friend on the line, he politely demurs, claiming that he's running late. At this point, the seconds-ago adoring fan flips to bile-spewing enemy, shouting “You should only get cancer! I hope you get cancer!” Yikes!
But such is the mercurial, frighteningly delicate line between love and hate that is fandom and celebrity obsession. Had The Fan set its sights on examining this already terrifying dynamic in the form of a strict psychological thriller, it had the potential for providing an insightful, genuinely chilling look at our increasingly celebrity-obsessed culture. In going the slasher/stalker route, The Fan cheapens and sensationalizes the material, making the events appear more remote and unlikely than in reality they are.  |
| "It's better than pot. It's better than booze. A shot of applause can stamp out the blues." Lyrics from the title song of Bacall's first Broadway musical "Applause" |
When it comes to The Fan, one might have wished for a little more finesse in the areas of motivation and character, but I seriously have a soft spot in my heart for this movie...mostly centered around the Broadway setting, the images of a still gritty and grimy New York, and reminders of my early years in dance. And, of course, it really is great to see late-career Bacall–with that amazing Gena Rowlands-like mane of hair–command the screen once more. Who was it that said, "Nostalgia ain't what it used to be"?
Clip of legwarmers in action in "The Fan" (1981)
Argyle reading. I like your direction here. (I apologize in advance for not being able to stick to one film. I figure there’s some method in not editing myself too much.) There really are some movies from the late 70's and early 80's that, despite flaws, were trying to do something. I couldn't remember if I'd actually seen "The Ritz" (so I didn't comment) but I definitely saw "The Fan" and I even think I read the book, can you imagine? And I should have been studying. I'm so glad you got something positive (the dancing, setting and staging) from this. I’m sure I got a kick out of those elements at the time, too, but for me this film and “Laura Mars” have such a strange, murky, bottled-up quality to them which was hard to watch at the time but was also weirdly compelling. I think I tend to project my own mood (at the time) onto films and also onto the events of the day. I guess everyone does. I happened to be in New York City when Lennon was shot, trying to decide if I could live there (no) and the Jodie Foster thing was also a strangely powerful event to me. I think it reinforced a sense that the world was dangerous and unpredictable. ( Duh, but it’s hard to figure this stuff out.) I could also extend the murky, bottled-up mood to “The Hotel New Hampshire” a few years later. I’m sorry I can’t effectively connect mood to content; you do that so well. In another direction, I have wondered if you would approach “The King of Comedy.” I remember it as being a difficult first watch, but then subsequently, over the years, it becomes epic. You can’t believe what it grapples onto film. And I’m not always with Scorsese but there’s nothing murky there. And Sandra Bernhard creating and destroying a career in one role and I say that with absolute respect and admiration. It’s like she condensed the entire arc of “Funny Girl” and Barbra Streisand’s career into one ultra-dense packet because it’s what she had to do. As I’ve said before: you ring all the bells.
ReplyDeleteBack to “The Fan”, I really liked Michael Biehn. I think he had a lot interior life going on that films (of any period) usually can’t effectively harness (particularly with men) but also can’t obscure. I remember the movie “In a Shallow Grave” several years later that really suited him. Thank you for your posts!
Hi Argyle
DeleteI follow you completely. Our reactions to some movies, especially "difficult" ones, are rarely as simplistic a like/don't like. As I've said, your response to film is so similar to mine, inasmuch as you relate to emotionally and in context with your life at the time and who you were as a person. To me that's experiencing a film, not just watching it. I think that's great!
I too read "The Fan" and I was very much looking forward to the film adaptation, especially when Bacall was cast, but I can't imagine how unpleasant the film must have seemed if I was living in New York at the time.
Genre films have a way of heightening and sometimes cheapening a dramatic tone, and the issues in "The Fan" are kind of in "Taxi Driver" territory and I wonder if audiences didn't resent having what might have been deemed a superficial light cast on such a then-painful subject.
I absolutely LOVE your description of Sandra Bernhard's career self-immolation in "The King of Comedy"! You could almost feel when people in the audience were behind her (the early sequences with DeNiro) and when she lost them (the nakedly improvisational scenes with Lewis). I'm a little on the fence about how I feel about that Scorsese film. As with you, it has grown on me over the years, but I can't say I really liked it when it first came out.
My fondness for "The Fan" is pretty personal, but it is a film of several good performances (Bacall and Biehn) just in need or a stronger, smarter script. I love the look of it and I will always be crazy about the whole theatrical side. It's the best.
I repeat myself, but I enjoy your comments that place your response to a movie in context with your life. I can't imagine reading a book any other way, nor can I imagine a better method for viewing films. Thanks again, Argyle!
Ken, I llloooooovvee this movie! I always picture it as a double feature with the decidedly inferior The Seduction, with pretty newscaster Morgan Fairchild being pursued by deranged Andrew Stevens. (Completing the trilogy might be Visiting Hours with feminist Lee Grant inviting the wrath of Michael Ironside. She even has a boyfriend with little to do in the way of aid - much like Garner - in William Shatner.)
ReplyDeleteOne thing I've always enjoyed about The Fan is the snappy repartee between Bacall and her assistant Maureen Stapleton. They really worked so well together and had a believable relationship. The scene with Michael Biehn in the YMCA swimming pool still gives me shudders and often comes to mind when I swim at my local (and similiarly older) Y. IIRC, the book had a FAR smaller body count than the movie. Like you say, it's a shame the makers didn't trust that the story could be compelling enough as is (yet another part of me adores the tawdry aspects of the finished product.) I think I must have been one of the select few people who fit the target audience because I was young enough to be thrilled by Halloween and Friday the 13th, yet interested enough in old Hollywood to know who Bacall, Garner and Stapleton were and be interested in them.
Thanks for another interesting post! (BTW, I did a little profile on this movie in the early days of The Underworld if you want to see what I had to say about it, though even I forget much of what I wrote now. LOL I'll have to go take a look.)
Hi Poseidon
ReplyDeleteI wanted to read your post on "The Fan" before I responded (http://neptsdepths.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-ever-happened-to-baby-bacall.html).
As usual, it's informative, observant,so well-written, and very, very funny! I especially liked the behind the scenes tid-bit about Bacall and Garner snorting coke! I'm glad you mentioned both "The Seduction" and "Visiting Hours", two similar-in-theme films I "enjoyed" on their release but haven't seen in ages. I too liked Maureen Stapleton a great deal(although the sans-underwear thing you mention in your post scared me more than this film) and loved the throaty drinker's voice duet of her dialog scenes with Bacall. That YMCA scene you mentioned is still difficult for me to watch, as is the subway scene.
You seem to like "The Fan" for many of the same things I enjoy about it, but honestly, I rewatched the film more than a week ago and still can't get the lyrics "No energy crisis, my professional advice is..." out of my head!
Thanks, for commenting,Poseidon. Oh, and should you feel nostalgic for Bacall's foghorn baritone on "Hearts, Not Diamonds", I've posted it on my Tumblr blog: http://guywoodhouse.tumblr.com/post/27405842984/hearts-not-diamonds-sung-by-lauren-bacall
Ken, no mention of the remake starring Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes? Or was it just a similarly-themed movie set in the world of baseball rather than theatre? At the time of writing, I haven't seen either version of "The Fan". Obviously, the makers of the film were attempting to capitalise on RDN's earlier success playing stalkers in films such as "Taxi Driver" and "Cape Fear". Interestingly, Tony Scott, director of the remake, also has a much-noted background in music videos and television commercials.
ReplyDeleteYou mention "The King of Comedy"--I saw it for the first time last year, in 35mm, no less, and I thought that it was absolutely brilliant! Sandra Bernhard is a riot!
According to my research, Ed Bianchi choreographed those great opening dance sequences to "The Cosby Show"! Now all we need to do is find out who knitted the sweaters!
Hi Mark
DeleteYes, the De Niro film is not a remake, just the most high-profile use of the title (In my book it's an absolutely terrible film, but that may be because of my dislike of sports films in toto).
Ed Bianchi's film career never took off (he still works extensively in TV), and along with those "Cosby Show" intros he also made the most AMAZING 70s Dr. Pepper commercials that I still recall. He used Arlene Philips to choreograph and they were visually dazzling mini-musicals. For a first film, I think "The Fan" is terrific, but like cinematographer Gordon Willis' directing debut with the ill-fated lesbian psycho film, "Windows", I suppose topic as well as execution can put a new director in the professional doghouse.
Hey Ken:
ReplyDeleteI share your affection for this odd movie and wrote about it a while back. I was going to email you a link but didn't know your email address so here goes:
http://blog.ctnews.com/meyers/2009/12/31/bad-movies-we-love-the-fan/
Keep up the great work!
Joe
I absolutely love the quote: "This unhinged show queen is straight?" and it stands as the HUGE unspoken question you keep wishing someone would say aloud in THE FAN. You post is terrific and indeed THE FAN is compelling for its Bacall-verite, the location shooting, and the kind of plot devices that are indeed plausible (gay porn star Jack Wrangler married to grandmotherly Margaret Whiting) but never seem so in a thriller context. Your webpage always confirms what I like about the arts, that one can be intelligent, erudite, and cultured, yet still harbor a taste for the delightfully bad. Thanks, Joe!
DeleteKen, I think I might've seen a bit of this movie on TV years ago. It doesn't seem to air these days, though. Every so often I'll see a listing for "The Fan" (and I've been curious to actually watch it start to finish), but it is always the '90s film with Robert De Niro. What you describe intrigues/puts me off at the same time. It does sound like something went sideways between page and screen. Lauren Bacall singing disco?!?
ReplyDeleteHi Lady Eve
DeleteEvery time I look at my cable listings and see "The Fan", I too always assume it might be this film, but it's ALWAYS the De Niro/Snipes movie. The wide-ranging dislike for this film has always intrigued me. Far worse films have been taken to the pop-culture bosom so to speak. Although I really like the film, I have to say that the constant shifts in tone (musical, slasher film, middle age crisis drama) don't help, nor does the unpleasantness of all the really likable and sympathetic characters meeting grisly demises. A deep film like "Taxi Driver" can make unpleasantness riveting. A softer film like this makes it feel, I'm afraid, exploitative. However, I've never understood anyone not wanting to hear Bacall sing disco!
Thanks for commenting and also, thanks for mentioning my blog on your site and even twittering (is that a word?) about my "Funny Girl" post. You are so generous!
The Lady Eve's Reel Life (terrific film blog) http://eves-reel-life.blogspot.com
Ken:
DeleteI just had to look this up on YouTube: do you mean the Dr. Pepper commercial with David Naughton dancing through the city saying how "I'm a pepper, he's a pepper, she's a pepper"? The 1970s were great times--none of the folks in the ad even got busted for jaywalking!
Hi Mark, No the David Naughton videos aren't Bianchi (that I know of). Ed Bianchi made a series of elaborate take offs of old Busby Berkeley-type musical numbers that had lots of dancing fast camera-work, and surprisingly elaborate sets. They look very much like the "Milkshake" number from "Can't Stop The Music."
Delete...and yes, those 70s "Peppers" could pretty much dance wherever they wanted. Traffic be damned!
I've never seen this movie! I have to give it a look-see. Funny that Bacall went right into the Broadway musical WOMAN OF THE YEAR shortly after finishing this.
ReplyDeleteYes, 1981 was a big year for Bacall. All of her industry peers (those still alive) were jealous and impressed that at age 56, she starring in a film (rare enough in youth-obsessed Hollywood) and opening in a play. The timing was such that she was more visible in 1981 than she had been in years. The musical a hit, the film a major flop.
DeleteR.I.P. Marvin ('Hearts, Not Diamonds') Hamlisch
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/sOEnahq_pmA
Thanks, Joe.
DeleteThat clip is a terrific addition to this post and a nice, not-very-well-known tribute to the famed composer. 68 sounds so young to me now.
The ending was altered after John Lennon's death. It was reshot. In the original Sally Ross (Bacall) allows Douglas Breen to kill her. This was changed to Sally killing Douglas. The change occurred when they are hugging and then a close up of the knife going into Breen's neck. There is a close up of Bacall's eyes closing pulled from earlier in the film. The screen goes white and dissolves to Douglas dead. The camera pulls back to reveal he is sitting down in the audience (Did Sally place him there the upright instead of letting him fall to the floor after being stabbed in the neck?) and then we see Sally's back to the camera. Bacall was not involved in the reshoot and a body double was used. You can tell this because you never see her face and it is obvious how the scene was shot. The hair covering her face and a slimmer body than Bacall's.
ReplyDeleteHi Ken,
ReplyDeleteI liked your insights into this film finding what little gold there is amongst much dross. I absolutely loved the book this was based on. I picked it up when it was originally released and simply couldn't put it down consuming it in one sitting. I talked it up to everyone I knew and the ones who read it all said the same thing. That was as you pointed out before the John Lennon and Rebecca Schaeffer stalking tragedies made the scenario all too real. So of course when I read that it was to be filmed, and with Betty Bacall to boot!, I couldn't wait.
Needless to say I was bitterly disappointed when I went to the theatre to see that they had turned a tight suspenseful book into a flatfooted, directionless and needlessly violent pseudo slasher flick. I love Lauren Bacall, but I'd say I admire her moxie in trying to sing rather than enjoy her actual croak speaking interpretations of songs. And oh the songs she's given to sing!! Good heavens. She and Garner were well matched enlivening their scenes, the best parts of the film. Maureen Stapleton is a bright spot as well but the film wastes them all. I'm also a fan of Michael Biehn, he looks good here not quite as incredible as he did in Aliens but very handsome, but his part has been turned into a plot device.
I hadn't watched this in years, I was too disenchanted with it versus the book, but I ran across it recently and from what I saw the costumes and dance numbers gave me a bit of a chuckle. I didn't stick with it though, the mess they made of it came back all too vividly in the brief segment I caught.
Hi Joel
Deleteyes, to a large extent this movie is a mass of missed opportunities and misguided choices. I'm a huge fan of films, but it astill surprises me when certain mvies display an evenness of tone. "The Fan" is a good example of two conflicting tones battling it out and resulting in a film that is neither satisfying slasher flick, nor satisfying suspense thriller. it falls somewhere in between.
I enjoyed reading your comments about Bacall's voice, the music, and things you found wanting in the transfer to the screen of a book you greatly enjoyed. I think you're especially correct about how sketchily the Michael Bien character is drawn and how, as a result, he becomes a plot device rather than a fleshed out person. Thanks for stopping by, Joel!
Does anyone know the name of that song played in the background, in the record store scene? From the beginning of the film, I guess around 15 or 20 minutes.
ReplyDeleteI think the song you mean is the 1979 punk song "Do the Dog" by The Specials. Here it is on YouTube:
Deletehttps://youtu.be/c8vltYVYVx8
No, it's not the song I'm referring to, Ken. It's a disco track.
DeleteSuch an odd movie. On one hand, I just can't accept Bacall as the object of anyone's obsession (a weird mix of Bacall's dreadful performance, the way her character's written, and the way she's directed I guess), then there's Biehn's pretty wacky obsessive, and then of course there's the hilarious musical you spend the whole movie waiting for. I got a real kick out of your freeze frame with the caption "Hot Love Baby Tonight". Every second of that musical is the ultimate guilty pleasure (her, ummm, singing is just a hoot), particularly those boys writhing around on the bed. Nice piece of writing.
ReplyDeleteSince posting this, I have read more about how the path to getting THE FAN on the screen was a bumpy one (rewrites, staff changes) perhaps explaining why it comes off as such an odd movie. It feels like the collaboration of several different people, none of whom shared the same vision of what they intended THE FAN to be.
DeleteThese days, with so much market research going into film content, loopy gems like this are becoming rarer and rarer.
As you say, the musical sequences are such a guilty pleasure, and indeed, so much of the film has become a timepiece of camp, retro NYC, and outre fashion, I can't believe it took so long for it to develop cult status. The gory slasher element always undermines the fun I have watching the film, but Bacall and that "singing" voice of hers always reminds me why this film remains a favorite. Looking back, it's so remarkable I thought "Hearts Not Diamonds" had a shot at an Oscar nomination!!!
Thank you for the kind words, visiting this site, and for taking the time to comment!
I love it that its 2022, and the comments on this page go all the way to 2012! Your site has staying power! I just finished watching The Fan streaming in HD after not seeing it since its VHS days. I was surprised this time how much I liked it, although I really cringed at the violent and bloody parts. This definitely could have been a better movie than it turned out to be. I thought the Broadway show scenes were well choreographed, but the god-awful songs made "I'll Plant My Own Tree" seem brilliant. Extra trivia about your caption on dancer Justin Ross. Yes, he was in the movie version of "A Chorus Line" (gag), but, even better, he was picked to be in the second Broadway cast, after most of the original cast went to start the tour on the West Coast.
ReplyDelete-Johnny g
Hello Johnny G - With big apologies for the late reply. I too, anm a bit surprised and gladdened by this movie having such prolonged interest. I think it was posted when it was hard to find a VHS copy. Now it's been given a Blu-ray release and available for streaming...an undiscovered "gem". It must be an eye opener seeing this again after so many years. I think what you point out tends to be most people's biggest gripe - the violence is kind of extreme for what the film sets itself up as. And thanks for the extra trivia info about dancer Jason Ross and his A Chorus Line history. Thank you for reading this ancient post and helping to keep the comments contemporary. I so appreciate it!
DeleteKen: An inside story: Robert Stigwood was slowly beginning to flail in stunned desperation after loudly crashing to earth after "Saturday Night Fever's" immense and phenomenal cultural and critical juggernaut, with the horrifically awful "Moment By Moment", the box office bonanza yet diminished "serious" critical acclaim not afforded to "Grease" (in the way that it was to "Fever" alongside its massive money-spinning) and the out and out '78 Bee Gees fiasco of "Sgt. Pepper" and the soon-to-bomb punk epic "Times Square". By 1980, when "The Fan" was rushed into production, he was aiming obsessive and deeply jealous glances towards his very close friend Alan Parker's stunning Oscar-winning success with "Fame", taking secret meetings with him to express wonder at how Parker managed to combine both a mainstream Broadway musical veneer over a very dark and effective study of youthfully naïve showbiz ambition and its ugly discontents of celebrity worship, superstardom, and real-life events based on a compelling "roman a clef" portrait of the 1977 Freddie Prinze tragedy. Parker wanted nothing to do with the project; Stigwood, as he was with Parker when he turned down Stigwood's offer to direct an early 1980 film version of "Evita" (which Parker eventually directed many years later with Madonna and Stigwood in 1996, obviously) then quickly turned around and hoped "The Fan" would do, in an equally powerful and successful "adult" way with similar themes, what "Fame" had done with both the box office and the critics. By that time, his inflamed envy of Parker's success with "Fame" clouded his decision-making and led to poor judgments which got the better of him, and even 1981's dramatic war film "Gallipoli" did nothing to stop his fall from Hollywood's grace, bolstered by the ignoble end of the disco era and the neo-conservative winds of the onrushing right-wing Reagan political blitzkrieg.
ReplyDeleteHi Barry -
DeleteThanks for contributing such an eye-opening (and entertaining) inside story that goes a long way toward explaining--at least in part--why so much of THE FAN has the feel of a film went that underwent a lot of eye-on-the-boxoffice tinkering.
I remember well how swiftly Stigwood's fortunes seemed to have reversed after such lofty "Top of the World" success. I suspect it's telling that little of what you relayed gives the impression that Stigwood actually had anything he hoped to say or achieve artistically/creatively with his work (I could be wrong) other than amass successes. Which would explain a lot.
Thanks so much for commenting. It's good to hear from someone who remembers the era so well. Lots of untold stories of a time and type of filmmaking that no longer exists.