Fade In

Just watched on Netflix this TV movie that's one of the earliest credited to one "Alan Smithee". That's the name that was used when the actual director-a Jud Taylor on this one-didn't want his name in the credits. Might be because of some scenes like that shot outside of a motel room but looking inside that room with the dialogue barely above a whisper as the score plays loudly. Despite scenes like that, this picture-about an assistant film editor (Barbara Loden) on location in Moab falling for a rancher (Burt Reynolds in his first starring role) who's hired as the film's driver-has quite a charming vibe concerning romance and what that entails concerning these two. It's also interesting to know that the filming depicted here was of an actual movie called Blue and to recognize one of the players as Ricardo Montalban. While Burt is something of a cowboy here, he's not quite the good 'ol boy he later developed in Smokey and the Bandit and others during his '70s heyday. So on that note, Fade-In is worth seeing.

The setting of this film is unusual. The story takes place during the real life filming of the movie "Blue" and we catch glimpses of the stars and crew at work on that picture. It begins brightly. Terence Stamp makes a star's entrance, in a sports car, roaring past lines of wannnabe extras that include Burt Reynolds who is trying to get a job as a driver. He's taken on and soon meets Barbara Loden who plays the part of an assistant editor. Their romance quickly blossoms but unfortunately, like the film itself, seems to have nowhere to go. There are signs of some ferocious editing with several abrupt changes of mood and music and the scene in which Loden shows Reynolds how to edit a film is presumably either unintended irony or a despairing editor's in-joke. I read somewhere that it was never given a theatrical release in the USA and the removal of the director's real name from the credits indicates conflict having arisen amongst its makers and backers. Even so, despite its shortcomings, it's not wholly without interest.

This was the first ever movie to use the DGA pseudonym Alan Smithee. After major re- cutting by Paramount without director Jud Taylor's involvement, Taylor demanded that his name be taken off the picture. It's not however the first movie to have Burt in a leading role. Operation CIA, Navajoe Joe both came before this with Reynolds receiving top billing in both.

Plot In A Paragraph: after arriving in Mexico to work as an editor on a movie, ("Blue", starring Terrance Stamp and Ricardo Montalbano) Jean (Barbara Loden) a young city woman finds herself falling in love with the handsome and charismatic ranch hand Rob (Burt Reynolds) who is working as a driver during the movie's location shoot.

I could only find one Reynolds quote about this movie and that is "It should have been called 'Fade Out'"

Paramount pictures was so convinced this movie was a turkey, they buried it in the studio morgue for six years, in which time Burt Reynolds tried to actually buy the movie himself. Eventually when Reynolds was more of a star Paramount sold the movie to CBS TV, who showed it is a late night TV movie.

The quality on my DVD was not the best, which may have impacted my enjoyment of it. As is often the case during the early part of his career Burt Reynolds is the best thing about this movie, and the only real reason to watch this. It's the first movie to fully showcase the charm and charisma that would be his trademark a decade later. There were hints of it in "Shark", but this is the first movie to put it to full effect. I'm surprised his career didn't include more romantic leads. However Burt had no chemistry whatsoever with his female lead Barbara Loden, though the blame does not fall on Burt, (he tries hard, but it's just not there) it is Loden who is awful throughout the picture.

Frequent Reynolds co star James Hampton (Gunsmoke, Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, Hustle, Mean Machine, W.W & The Dixie Dancekings, Evening Shade) is the only supporting member of the cat of note.

A charmingly old-fashioned, genuinely romantic 60s drama, playfully riffing on the familiar friction generated betwixt 'Simple Small Time Boy & Sophisticated Big City Girl', the boy in question being the muscular, charismatic Rob, brought to studly, manfully moist life by the frequently bare-chested Burt Reynolds, playing an almost fetishistically masculine cowboy who fatefully meets the no less appealing Barbara Loden who plays Jean, a pin-up pretty assistant editor currently busy cutting a violent Mexicali western, their sweetly written romance soon blooms headily beneath the steamy heat of the desert sun. Director Jud Taylor shoots some truly breathtakingly beautiful postcard glossy vistas, and the roustabout Terence Stamp-starring film-within-a-film adds additional cinematic spice to the increasingly amorous affair of boisterously Bronco bucking Bob and his delectable, flaxen-haired beau Jean. Attractively set in the rundown, tumbleweed whimsicality of Moab, Utah, the kind of dusty, darkly poetic locale Merle Haggard wrote beer-sweet ballads about being kicked out of. 'Fade in' is, perhaps, a relatively slight film, but it's durn purty to look at, and one Burt Reynolds fans are sure to appreciate since it casts such a favourable light on the brawny Box Office beefcake! With its spell-bindingly vast exterior views, and filigree character detail, Fade In's lustre is little dimmed, and any negative connotations inferred by the erroneous 'Alan Smithee' moniker are wholly undeserved. Cult western fans might be interested to know that the film featured in 'Fade In' is 'Blue', directed by Silvio Narizzano, starring Terence Stamp, Joanna Pettet, and Ricardo Montalbán. Apparently there are a great many who actively dislike 'Fade In', happily, I am not one of them! And for the sake of full disclosure, I have always had a predilection for cinema about film-making, no doubt this has strongly influenced my admittedly rose-tinted review! As cinematically courting couples go, body beautiful Bob, and juicy-looking Jean are really quite adorable!

Let us, for once on the imdb, get real. I'm looking at a handful of "reviews" by people who have only seen this on some bootleg DVD with a different title, yet they talk about the sweeping and breathtaking photography - from a bootleg DVD. So, yeah, we can take those reviews real seriously.

Here's the thing. I'm one of the eight people who actually endured this thing prior to Paramount's poor attempts to recut it - that version is what's on the DVD and what was shown once on the CBS Late Movie. I saw it at a sneak preview in Westwood, at the Plaza Theater, one of Westwood's small houses with about 700 seats. Back then, I was one of several so-called "preview" nuts who went to as many Major Studio Previews as I could. I saw great movies long before they came out, and I saw horrible movies that underwent new footage being shot and the film re-edited. At this same theater, I saw previews of Bonnie and Clyde and John Frankenheimer's Seconds, both of which I loved - but I knew Seconds would flop and that Bonnie and Clyde would be a monster hit.

Well, to the point. Fade In was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Dreadfully paced and written, lethargic, nicely photographed, but not so well directed by Jud Taylor, who was credited then. I haven't seen it since so I have no idea what the recut is like, other than to say they probably made it even worse, but we all know there are wacky people who "adopt" movies like this. Anyway, there were about 300 people there when it began. Halfway through, it was me and about six others who stuck it out to the bitter end. Of course, Paramount did the recut then shelved it until the TV sale. I don't believe it's ever had a legit VHS or DVD release, but it is shockingly coming on Blu-ray from a 4K scan of the negative, which I'm sure was in pristine condition, since there was not a single print struck from it other than the answer print we saw at the sneak preview.

There, some fun reality for you.