madbandit20002000
Cigarette smoking, though legal, is looked upon as an ugly vice with ugly consequences (lung cancer, premature aging, second-hand smoke, etc.) To make a satire of it takes courage and adult sitcom savant Norman Lear ("All In The Family", its many spin-offs, "Sanford & Son", "One Day At A Time", "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman") did it in the form of the scatter shot, brilliantly cruel yet honest fable "Cold Turkey". If you know Mr. Lear's work, you know the battlefield. If not, hold on to your seat.P.R. man Mervin Wren (an underhanded Bob Newhart, a bit away from his first sitcom) convinces his mute, feeble, wheelchair-bound employer, Hiram C. Grayson (comic character actor Edward Everett Horton, his last role here), the head of the Valiant Tobacco Company, to do good things, despite being a producer of bad things, a la dynamite and Nobel Prize creator Alfred Nobel. The "capper", as Wren calls it, is to offer $25 million to any US town if its citizens can quit smoking for thirty days. This puts the company's board of directors in a ****-fit, but Wren calms them down with the fact that no group can go "cold turkey" and they approve of the deal.However, they didn't count on the 4,006 citizens of the dying Iowa hamlet, Eagle Rock, taking the challenge. Led by the religiously ambitious yet vain Rev. Clayton Brooks (Dick Van Dyke, miles away from his titular sitcom and "Mary Poppins"), the people go through withdrawal syndrome. The results? Let's say whoever makes straight-jackets will be richer than the tobacco companies.Based on "I'm Giving Them Up For Good", an unpublished novel by Margaret and Neil Rau, "Cold Turkey", like the animated sitcom "The Simpsons" (note the similarities, people), takes no prisoners in its narrative. Corporate greed; political, entertainment and news manipulation; the naiveté, self-exclusion and self-exploitation of small-town America and the military-industrial complex (a colonel promises the installation of a missile factory, after the town gets the money) are targets, and Mr. Lear, who wrote (shared story credit with William Price Fox Jr.) produced, directed this yarn, is an expert marksman (and a World War II vet to boot). With a misanthropic tone, it's understandable that United Artists, the film's distributor, shelved "Turkey" for two years, but it's a crime, due to Mr. Horton's passing.Lear has a nimble cast; some players would later show up in his sitcoms. Mr. Van Dyke (who starred in the Lear-penned "Divorce, American Style") is righteous to save his town but careless with his wife (Pippa Scott) who's silenced by his pomposity while Mr. Newhart performs his signature buttoned-down mind routine with sly dog confidence and doe-eyed dopeyness. Other players include Tom Poston (Mr. Newhart's second sitcom) as a rich, die-hard lush; Barnard Hughes ("The Lost Boys", a recurring role on the aforementioned "Family") as a nicotine-loving sawbones; Jean Stapleton (also of "Family") as the mayor's neurotic wife; Paul Benedict ("The Jeffersons") as an anti-smoking zen Buddhist; Graham Jarvis (the aforementioned "Hartman") as an anti-"Big Government" wing-nut and (my favorite) Judith Lowry (also of "Hartman") as a foul-mouthed, Commie-hating crone. Vintage radio comics Bob Elliot (real and sitcom dad of Chris Elliot of "Get A Life") and Ray Goulding show up as walking parodies of famous newsmen ("Walter Chronic" and "David Chetley" may confuse young viewers, but there's the Internet!!!). Lear himself has a cameo as a crying man, going without a smoke.On the technical side, there's d.p. Charles F. Wheeler, who captures the sweet rural look of Eagle Rock with some helicopter shots and wholesome, rural street shots (predating the opening sequences of Lear's sitcoms) while editor John C. Horger masterfully employs quick-cuts, like Lou Lombardo on "The Wild Bunch", when displaying the slapstick "withdrawl syndrome"gags (i.e. a husband slaps his wife while driving; a dog's kicked (!); a bowler throws himself onto a lane, crashing into some pins, etc). Award-winning composer Randy Newman (the ToyStory films, "Monk") makes his film debut here; the ironic tune that bookends the film, "He Gives Us All His Love" is dead-on funny, sweet and sad. Bottom line (to borrow a line from Mr. Wren): "Cold Turkey" is about how society can be so dumb. The only heroes are the town's youth; "Eagle Rock, where's your head?" one young man chants in a circle of protest as the town becomes a tourist trap and enjoys being one. Like most of society, its' head is in a hole that's rank. The youth are ignored, but, by the end, they have the last laugh. So will you.
mark.waltz
Its no wonder that so many sitcom stars of the 60's, 70's and 80's are in this Norman Lear farce with overtones of a 1947 Robert Riskin/William Wellman disappointment called "Magic Town". In that James Stewart/Jane Wyman film, a small community is thrust into the spotlight when it is named as the perfect All-American town which makes its residents cocky and brings on a tourist explosion that ruins the quaintness of it. "Cold Turkey" adds on the idea that if they can stop smoking for 30 days, they will get $25 million, enough to turn this dying community around. The people get greedy, fighting over how to spend the money EVEN before they have it, go bonkers from lack of a puff, over-eating (Jean Stapleton), having too much sex (Dick Van Dyke and Pippa Scott) or accusing everybody passing through of being communists (Judith Lowry). Sounds funny, right? Well, it isn't as funny as all that. Lowry, of course, was more famous than the Little Old Lady from Pasadena in the 70's, making cursing seniors a favorite gag. SHE is funny and adorable, the grandmother we'd all like to have. Over all, the movie is not, and to star such a gifted clown like Dick Van Dyke, that is a major disappointment.The problem is that most of these townspeople are not likable at all; I wouldn't want Barnard Hughes as my doctor, while Jean Stapleton simply coughing and sneezing all over husband Vincent Gardenia and Van Dyke really seems to have no point. I love all of the sitcoms these people have appeared in, a treasure trove of Lear and Carl Reiner classics that show what drivel we have on TV today. In addition to those I mention, there's Tom Poston (as the town drunk who simply decides to leave so he can continue his binge while everybody else suffers), Bob Newhart (as the evil cigarette company executive responsible for the contest) and Paul Benedict in a freaky performance as a Zen Buddhist. The strangest performance, though, is that lovable character actor Edward Everett Horton, looking as if he just swallowed an entire lemon whole, who doesn't say a word. Yes, there are some laughs and more minor TV actors whose faces you know and names you don't that you can shake a cigar at. This will never be a threat to the memory of all of the classic 70's comedies of Mel Brooks and Blake Edwards. The conclusion with political and environmental overtones comes out of left field and is just bizarre.
Sgt. Schultz
I can understand why Norman Lear went into TV -- in "Cold Turkey", he takes an amusing light premise, then stretches the life out of it to try to turn it into a feature-length film. Unfortunately, despite some droll social commentary here and there, he fails. The film just takes too long to tell the story, which would have been better down in a one-hour TV show.To make it worse, Dick Van Dyke is completely miscast as a priest -- you just can't take him seriously. Other familiar faces show up here and there, but basically this is one film that really has nothing to recommend about it.UPDATE: I just read DVD's autobiography, and he mentioned often thinking of joining the clergy. Since he didn't, maybe he knew he would be miscast too!
