THE FAN 1981 lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-fan-1981.html
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.” In 1981 Bacall was 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.
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 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
Michael Biehn as Douglas Breen
Maureen Stapleton as Belle Goldman
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James Garner as Jake Berman
Hector Elizondo as Inspector Raphael Andrews
Kurt Johnson as David Barnum
If musical theater geeks, Glee habituĂŠs, 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'ĂŞtre remained the prolonged persecution and victimization of a
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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 turned stark white by the movie's copious bloodshed and the artless, 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 didn’t quite know what to make of a movie set in the Sardi's and cigarettes world of the New York theater. An atmosphere totally devoid of comely, scantily-clad bimbos, and whose median character age hovered somewhere around the fifty-five mark. A wholly uninspired publicity campaign only added to the film’s troubles. Had The Fan been a play, it would have closed in Boston. Whisked off screens within weeks of its release, The Fan resurfaced with some regularity on 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 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 no undiscovered classic, The Fan does have its merits (most of them camp-related, I'm afraid) which 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 psychological subtheme of The Fan
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 out childhoods. And that's show biz, kid! - Fred Ebb No low-budget gore-fest populated by a cast of nondescript teens stalked by a masked phantom, The Fan was
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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 garnering '50s sexpot, Angie Dickinson, some of the best notices of her career. 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 youthcentric films like Jesus Christ Superstar , Saturday Night Fever, and Tommy; The Fan was Stigwood’s most expensive film to date and first stab (if you’ll pardon the pun) at cracking the adult market. To this end he amassed a distinguished cast of New York actors, pedigreed Broadway composers (Marvin Hamlisch and Tim Rice collaborated on two–fairly terrible–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 which 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 and Woman of the Year.
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 11 th-hour tinkering. 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 few people were interested in in the first place, began to look 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. This 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.
Strangers in the Night
The Fan did itself no favors by alienating the very audience most receptive to a film offering up ample doses musical theater, backstage drama, showtunes, 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 homosexual 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’d read The Fan back in i978, really getting a kick out of how the book used
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the thriller genre to comment on what I’ve always felt to be the odd love /hate relationship between stars and their adoring public. As a fan of Lauren Bacall from her movies with Bogart on The Late Show, the Broadway musical Applause (the 1973 TV broadcast, anyway), and Murder on the Orient Express; I was thrilled when I heard she had been cast. More exciting for me still 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 of Young & Rubicam. Commercials I had been 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 paramour, James Garner, was also on board, The Fan swiftly became one of the most eagerly-awaited films of the year...for me. I saw The Fan on opening day at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, and 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 a thriller capable of being enjoyed on so many levels at once. I saw it three times before it disappeared from theaters.
Shot on location, The Fan provides many great glimpses of of 80s-era New York. 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. Much is made of it being Sally Ross’ singing and dancing debut, and we don't doubt it for a minute. Bacall's foghorn baritone and reliance on chorus boys to lug and lift her about give the scenes a comic authenticity.
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Populated with recognized Broadway dancers, shot in actual NY rehearsal studios with a knowing attention to procedural detail; the show in question may look terrible, but these sequences are great fun. The '80s vibe is irresistible (all those short-shorts, spandex, legwarmers, and Arlene Philips' trademark Hot Gossip choreography), and the risible music ("No energy crisis, my professional advice is...") gets caught in your head like an earwig. Of course, it certainly doesn't hurt that I saw this film during my early days as a dancer and that in 1983, when I took my first trip to New York, I studied dance at Jo Jo's Dance Factory, the studio used in the film.
All the Boys Love Sally
Choreographer Arlene Phillips wouldn't actually choreograph for Broadway until 1987's Starlight Express
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Call Her Miss Ross 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 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. She looks marvelously lived-in, and her still-striking looks serve as a welcome change from the botoxed mannequins we've come to grow used to. Playing a role which can't be considered much of a stretch in some ways, she's awfully good. So good in fact, that I kept wishing the film would just allow for the natural character drama of this ageing star grappling with loneliness, self-doubt, and vulnerability, play itself out minus all the genre machinations.
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.
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A Remarkable Woman
Hearts, Not Diamonds
Disco Bacall - Has to be seen (and heard) to be believed
THE STUFF OF DREAMS 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. 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
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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"?
BONUS MATERIAL
"Deep Brewed Flavah!"
During the '80s Lauren Bacall's commercials for High Point instant coffee were the stuff of lampoon legend. In honor of The Fan, here's one of her most Sally Ross, "theatah"-themed ones. HERE
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Before "Be a Pepper!" became the company's slogan, Dr. Pepper was sold as "The Most Original Soft Drink Ever." Edward Bianchi directed this stylish and award-winning commercial from 1975. HERE Copyright Š Ken Anderson
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