Smile

Extremely smart little satire that uses a state beauty pageant as a microcosm for a stinging look at American values, with hypocrisy rampant and greed triumphant. Writer Jerry Belson delineates his characters very carefully, so that we know whom to side with and whom to despise, and the nearly no-name cast portrays them brilliantly. Talented Joan Prather is the contestant we most identify with, decent, but slowly being corrupted as the urge to win overtakes her, and Michael Kidd is the semi-big-time choreographer who at first seems callous and unlikable but turns out to be merely seeing, and telling, it like it is. There's some too-easy comedy as we view the contestants' terrible talent competition entries, but at the end we've seen a remarkably thorough put-down of American values circa 1975. (Maybe it didn't get more attention because its utter honesty and accuracy about the American way of winning, a pet theme of the director's, made people uncomfortable.) The final scene, in the police car, is just a perfect wrap-up.

A wickedly humorous send-up of small town boosterism, in which the junior chamber of commerce talks into mechanical dogs for food, turns on artificial birds for the sounds of nature, and substitutes a relentless smile for genuine feeling. Where also: just thinking you're having fun is more important than the real thing, and upbeat cliché becomes a way of life. Suddenly, into this hothouse arrives a tacky version of that crown jewel of artificiality, the beauty pageant, an event sure to drive everything into warp speed, which it does, but with surprisingly low-key results. The film avoids outright cynicism by humanizing the teen-age contestants, who are, after all, also products of small town America. Nevertheless, the script makes the disconnect clear: ritualized behavior has benumbed genuine emotion. The boosters have lost their inner selves, as will the girls if they continue on the contestant path. Amidst a uniformly fine cast stands Nicholas Pryor, whose portrayal of a desperate drunk looks so authentic, it shakes up the entire movie. A holdout from the deadening groupthink, he simply can't cope with the surroundings. Yet it is his emotional depth, from hangdog expression to slumping carriage, by which the rest of the community is measured. There's an undercurrent of the rebellious 60's running through this film, and I suspect it sank quickly because popular tastes were turning away from ironical characters named "Freelander". Nonetheless, a revival of this neglected gem is long overdue, not only for its often surprisingly subtle humor, but for the continuing relevancy of the message. However, don't look for it at your nearest chamber of commerce meeting.

All the beauty contestants have to "Smile" in this 1975 film written by Jerry Belson and directed by Michael Ritchie. It's a take-off on pageants and American values in the '70s. It stars Barbara Feldon, Bruce Dern, Michael Kidd, and Nicholas Pryor, while featuring some familiar young faces as contestants: Melanie Griffith, Colleen Camp, and Annette O'Toole.

Feldon is the ever-chipper but icy "Young American Miss" who has no use for her drunken husband (Pryor) and devotes herself to the pageant; she's terrific, as is Bruce Dern as a used car salesman, the main judge of the pageant who has an enterprising son with a Polaroid camera. Best of all is Michael Kidd as the choreographer. Kidd started out as a ballet dancer, moved to Broadway, and finally Hollywood where he danced, acted, and choreographed, later adding directing to his list of talents. Here, he gives a wonderful performance as a choreographer whose cynicism and toughness hides a heart of gold.

There are too many vignettes among the contestants to describe - the talent competition that consists of packing a suitcase, the flaming baton; the rehearsals with the orchestra are hilarious, as is the contestant looking for her butter churn.

The film hits just the right note between satire/comedy and drama. Beauty contestants haven't changed much; they all want to help people, and being brought up without a father is a distinct advantage. Boys are still horny. And never has any of this been presented in a more of a light, amusing way than in "Smile."

As with all the great episodic ensemble films (If..., Fame, Nashville, M*A*S*H)it's the little touches that makes this film quite so deliriously wonderful e.g.: The wide-eyed girl's nervousness of the orchestra; the cop's recapture of Little Bob's two accomplices; Maria's expression as the winners of the pageant are being announced; "...and that girl had a wooden foot"; and so on.

All of the cast are uniformly excellent, not one of them, major or minor, misses a beat.

This is one film that invites repeated viewings, until it almost feels like an old friend. I think that we should start a campaign to get this film the recognition it deserves.

This wonderful comedy-drama has much the same tone as "Nashville." It's a satirical view of a place and time centering around a specific event, in this case a teenage beauty pageant. It has a couple of things "Nashville" doesn't have, however--a heart, and a great deal of affection for its flawed characters. Bruce Dern has never been sufficiently appreciated--often typed as a psycho--but he has never been better than he is here as a used-car salesman with a lot of inner torment. And Michael Kidd, the great choreographer, shows what an adept actor he can be in a supporting performance which in a perfect world would have won an Oscar, and in this imperfect one was not even nominated. Michael Ritchie, one of the most erratic of directors, here hits his career peak.