Un petit mélo dans la tête

Young woman working for her low-rent showman father struggles to break out from his shadow and follow her heart as a singer-songwriter. Joseph Brooks, who composed, wrote, produced and directed the film, might have used some assistance. His picture has a drab, TV-movie look and feel, with an elongated emotional breakdown for our heroine which turns her from plucky imp to vulnerable girl victimized by too much love. Brooks stages a funny wedding rehearsal, and his placement of the Oscar-winning title tune (which he wrote, natch) in the recording studio gives it an emotional lift, but the final tag doesn't tell the whole story. Hasn't Brooks ever heard of the one-hit wonder? *1/2 from ****

After I watched the movie "You Light Up My Life," I sort of have mixed feelings about it. I can't decide if it's awful or terrible. I'm leaning more towards "awful," but there are parts of the movie that are "terrible" as well.

In "You Light Up My Life," Didi Conn plays Laurie Robinson, a young woman trying to make it in show business. She spends her days driving around Los Angeles in a 1960s convertible, acting in various odd TV commercials, and appearing in her father's TV show for kids. Her father, Sy Robinson (Joe Silver), is a Z-grade borscht-belt comedian who is totally clueless about the fact that he just isn't funny!

At the beginning of the movie, we see Laurie as a child, doing a stage act where she sits on a stool, holding a ventriloquist dummy, making unfunny jokes to a barely-laughing audience. (It's NOT a ventriloquist act - Laurie isn't "throwing her voice." She's just sitting there HOLDING the ventriloquist dummy, for some unexplained reason!)

As an adult, Laurie is STILL doing this lame comedy act, except now she's doing it before an audience of little kids, who only sit and stare at her in total confusion, not laughing at all! (These scenes are painful to watch!) Laurie tries to tell her father that the act isn't funny, but he refuses to listen to her, stupidly insisting, "It's all about timing."

One night at a bar, Laurie is almost literally "picked up" by Chris Nolan (Michael Zaslow), a curly-haired Lothario in a loud 1970's shirt with a wide collar. (He puts his arm around her and refuses to let her go while he's talking on a pay phone. If you know the history of the director, Joseph Brooks, you know how creepy this is.)

Chris takes her back to his apartment. The next morning, when he asks her to stay, she tells him she has to go to a wedding rehearsal.

"Whose wedding is it?" Chris asks.

"Mine," says Laurie.

Yes, Laurie just had a one-night stand, right before her own wedding! This is a shock not only to Chris, but to the audience as well. At this point, we're 20 minutes into the movie, and this is the first time that Laurie has even mentioned that she's engaged!

We meet her fiancé, Ken Rothenberg (Stephen Nathan), a self-absorbed tennis pro, who doesn't support Laurie's show business dreams, and peppers her with put-downs. It's never made clear why Laurie hooked up with this jerk, or why she is marrying him.

The wedding rehearsal scene is one of the few good scenes in the movie. At the wedding chapel, an idiotic wedding planner has two rows of bridesmaids and groom attendants pull a giant white clam shell on wheels down the aisle. The giant clam shell opens up - and Laurie and Ken emerge from inside it. Ken is humiliated by the whole thing, but Laurie's father, Sy Robinson, insists that everything at the wedding is going to be great!

I thought the wedding rehearsal scene was funny - but it didn't go far enough! If Laurie and Ken had gotten STUCK inside the giant clam shell, now THAT would have been HILARIOUS! ("Press the button, Ken! It opens the clam shell." "I AM pressing it, Laurie, but it's not working! Somebody get us out of here!")

Another funny scene worth mentioning is when Laurie and two other actresses are filming a commercial for frozen waffles, dressed in old-fashioned "farm housewife" outfits. The three actresses are placed in front of an American flag, and told by an oafish director how to sing the waffles jingle. "Sing it down on your knees, like Al Jolson." (I've heard actors like Morgan Freeman complain that they actually had to do silly commercials like this one when they were just starting out!)

A few days later, Laurie goes to audition for a musical film - and wouldn't you know it, her one-night stand Chris Nolan is the director! (A director named Chris Nolan? Yeah, right! Like that would ever happen!)

Laurie decides to sing him a song that she's written, "You Light Up My Life." As soon as she starts to "sing," you know right away that Didi Conn is just lip-synching the words, and her singing voice is being dubbed. Laurie's "highly-trained Broadway-caliber singing voice" does not match with Didi Conn's mousy, barely-audible, Brooklyn-accented speaking voice. (Ukrainian singer Kasey Cisyk did the dubbing, and sued Joseph Brooks when she wasn't credited in the movie.)

Throughout the movie, Laurie is so shy and soft-spoken and apologetic that even when she's being handed her "Golden Opportunity on a Silver Platter," she's still begging off! At the audition where she sings her song, when Chris is insisting that she sing, she keeps telling the orchestra conductor, "Oh, we don't have to do this now, if you don't want to!" (I was almost shouting at her, "Shut up and SING, you idiot!")

Laurie is such a major wimpette that you get the feeling a girl like this would never make it in cut-throat Hollywood! And if she did make it, she wouldn't be very happy. She seems to stay in show business because it's the only life she's ever known.

In "Grease," Frankie Avalon told Didi Conn, "You've got the dream, but not the drive." In "You Light Up My Life," Laurie has the opposite problem. She's got the drive, but not the dream. And that makes this movie awful and terrible to sit through!

Soap-opera style story about one girl (Didi Conn) pushed into show business (stand-up comedy) by her stand-up comic father and trying to make it into show-biz (acting, singing, anything). There is romance and the title song 'You Light Up My Life.' The song is a major plot device much like Bette Midler's 'Wings Beneath My Wings' is for BEACHES. Debbie Boone's rendition of the song was second only to Bing Crosby's White Christmas as the most popular single in history due in part to listeners attaching a spiritual tone to the lyrics (led by Christian radio stations and the fact that Debbie Boone was part of the Pat Boone family). Debbie Boone was singing the song on every talk and variety show on TV, she was very attractive, very wholesome (once again, Pat Boone's daughter) and TV loved her. This helped bring people into the theaters to see the movie, in fact, was the only reason why people went to see the movie. Debbie Boone was not in the film, nor was her voice. This was very disappointing to most people. Didi Conn (mostly known at the time for wacky characters on TV sitcoms not unlike her GREASE character) didn't sing the song in the film (though she sort of sang in GREASE). If only they had cast Debbie Boone. The song is a classic, the film, alas, is not. WHITE CHRISTMAS (song: 10, movie: 10), BEACHES (song: 10, movie: 7), GREASE (song: 8, movie: 9), YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE (song: 10, movie: 4).

Had "You Light Up My Life" been promoted for what it was, a low-budget growing-up film with a quirky and effective performance by Didi Conn, it would be better regarded today. Rather than the minimalist promotion and distribution this type of film normally receives, for some reason the distributors decided that this little film had the potential to make big money.

So they threw more money into marketing than had gone into production, they pre-sold the film with a hit recording of the title song (sung by Debby Boone although Kacey Cisyk actually does the singing in the film) released concurrently with the film, and they utilized a saturation booking technique normally reserved for their weaker blockbusters. This technique involves a lot of pre-release publicity and then opening it simultaneously in many theatres, with the goal of generating quick profits before bad reviews and word of mouth kill attendance (although a common practice today this was done less often in the 1970's).

The result was a lot of viewers who rightly felt that the film did not live up to its blockbuster billing, and a failure to appreciate the good points of the film. And there are some good points. Conn's earnest portrayal of a reluctant juvenile comedienne and good daughter trying to work out her adult identity rings true. You feel a protectiveness toward her that makes you more tolerant of the cornball elements. The child star vs stage-father stuff with Joe Silver seems genuine and the surreal television commercial material has some good comic qualities.

Kacey Cisyk (a session singer who was opera trained) recorded the song for the film but initially declined to record it for commercial release. She may have felt that it had no potential or maybe she just didn't wanted to be closely associated with a pop standard. So they recruited Debby Boone and her version went to the radio stations and record stores. Cisyk actually appears in the film as one of the bridesmaids.

Ironically, although the song works fine within the film, it hurts the film's reputation. People incorrectly believe that the film was just a lame attempt to exploit a hit record and that Boone was unwilling to allow her own version to be used in the production.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

I missed an opportunity to see this movie, way back in 1978. Recently I got to see it. The first thing that surprised me - there was no Debby Boone. I always associated her with the movie. That apart, the movie is light weight, enjoyable entertainment. Basically it is the story of a young woman finding her dependence and breaking out of her fathers shadow. It reminded me of the movie "Valdez horses" aka as "Chino", with Charles Bronson. Nothing dramatic happens and it does not build up to any crescendo. Overall, it is recommendable and pleasant to watch and suitable for all ages. Robert