The Great American Beauty Contest

50 single girls show up in Los Angeles for the annual Miss American Beauty contest, overseen by a former winner (the implacable Eleanor Parker) and her version of a Bob Barker (Bob Cummings), both desperate to keep the proceedings honest. Spelling-Goldberg TV-movie for ABC portends to have some modern relevance amongst the standard fluff: Miss Oklahoma is really a feminist--planning to use her acceptance speech to shame the archaic institution of beauty pageants--while Miss New Jersey is "a Negro" with a race-chip on her shoulder. Unfortunately, the teleplay is more soap opera than incisive document, and the finale appears to be making a quasi-point when really it's just a cop-out. Farrah Fawcett is a giggly, high-spirited Miss Texas, Louis Jourdan is appropriately shady as a movie producer and substitute judge, but it's Brett Somers who gives the film's best performance as Farrah's seen-it-all chaperone. Not much style, wit or humor, just a run-of-the-mill movie of the week.

This "ABC Movie of the Week" installment is about a beauty pageant. However, if you are looking for a comedy such as "Smile" or "Drop Dead Gorgeous", you need to look further. And, if you want a film critical of pageants, you should also look further. Instead, it's a bit like a soap opera--with the lives and concerns of several of the contestants and contest officials played out for the folks at home. It's reasonably watchable but also easy to skip. Much of this is because there really is no edgy quality about the film...and you have all the usual caricatures (such as the girl with daddy issues, the activist, the angry black contestant, etc.). The only really interesting moment for me was Eleanor Parker's talk with the black lady who was ready to quit the pageant because she was sure the Miss American Beauty pageant would never allow a black lady to win. This little moment was lovely and had depth...just wish the rest of the film had these qualities as well.