80 Schritte bis zum Glück

I feel that there was excellent casting in this picture. Wayne Newton handled the lead quite well - he played it with heart, but resisted the temptation to make it overly sentimental. Not afraid of being upstaged by animals or children, he worked well with them to tell us a beautiful story. Brought to the foreground was how independent people with disabilities can really be. The music, too, was a definite plus!

Police chases after a speeding car which crashes. The car is stolen and one of two men gets killed. Mark Jonah Winters (Wayne Newton) is found in the driver seat, but he claims to be only a hitchhiking passenger. The police officers don't believe him. He crashes the ambulance and escapes. He finds himself in a camp for blind children who mistake him for their new handyman. Blind Tracy Rutledge (Diana Ewing) takes a liking to him.

Jonah is really dumb for rushing away from the gas station. There are a couple of issues with the story. Wayne Newton is doing some mumbling acting until he starts singing. He's trying to be Elvis. This is an odd mix of a kiddie movie, a melodramatic young romance, and a high stakes police fugitive hunt. Mostly, this fails as a Wayne Newton vehicle. He doesn't do well especially if he expects to be the next Elvis.

I watched this movie when I was so young that I can hardly remember what it is called. I went to my local video stores and they all had books and said that if it was not in their books it was not a movie. All the books you could look up the actors name. It said nothing about this movie when I looked under Wayne Newton. I just have to say I think a lot of people are missing out by not seeing this movie. I was very compelled when I saw it as a young boy and now hope to be compelled again. I just want to thank the people at IMDB.com for being so extensive in their movie selection.

I recently ran across a letter that I sent to my mom on 11MAY70 from Da Nang, Viet Nam. 80 Steps must of made some kind of impression for this young Marine to write home about altho 32 years later I have no recall about the movie. I wrote "that it was a real family type film and a tear jerker, but a lot of guys really liked it" so now I need to go find a copy on video and see what impressed me so.

This movie really DID exist. For the longest time, I thought this movie was synthesized from my collective unconscious. I remember seeing this movie on some impossibly late program about 25 years ago and being genuinely moved by it. Unashamedly sentimental, yet not too saccharine treatment of a man on the lam who finds refuge at a summer camp for blind children. A surprisingly well-casted movie with a decent soundtrack that would definitely appeal to the "Grab-a-hanky" set. Not a movie I would go out of my way to see - except for the purpose of reminiscing about the first (and only) time I saw it - but, I would definitely watch it if it appeared on my television while channel-surfing.