Record City

This is another obscure movie I stumbled into on Amazon Prime Video. It's so obscure that when it was originally released, it didn't appear in any theatre in my Baton Rouge residence! The movie has lots of familiar TV character actors like Alice Ghostley, Ruth Buzzi, and Larry Storch. Before "The Love Boat" made him familiar, Ted Lange was in this, likewise, Ed Begley Jr. before "St. Elsewhere". Oh, and disc jockey Rick Dees appears here as DJ "The Gorilla" singing a song similar to his "Dis-Gorilla" and hosting a talent contest in which Gallagher and Kinky Friedman appear. None of the songs were familiar Top 40 hits though they could have been judging by the sound and flavor. In summary, Record City was stupid and politically incorrect and sloppy but it was also funny perhaps despite and because of that.

"Record City?" you say, "eh, never heard of it." Before there was EMPIRE RECORDS, there was RECORD CITY. After CAR WASH, there was.... well, RECORD CITY. Now, some of you film geeks out there might notice that this is auteur Dennis Steinmetz's only feature film. Yet the financiers didn't give the poor guy enough dough, because this opus was shot on tape, then transferred to film. Dennis deserved better! There are a few liabilities here... including the video photography -- which is reminiscent of having visine in your eyes. But, there are some virtues to be found: including some delightful performances by Alice Ghostley and Ed Begley, Jr and a script that combines the episodic flavor of CAR WASH -- only set in a record store. Considering that this film cost $6.95, it's good stuff. However, and this is not an insult, RECORD CITY plays beautifully after you've had 17 or 18 beers. Now, how many films can you say that about? If by chance this film is aired on television, I highly recommend taping it on the highest quality videotape you have available. Or, if you're a real cool kitty cat, record it on your dvd-recordable player. You owe it to yourself to have this film in your film collection -- to have and to hold -- forever and ever. RECORD CITY, all the way.

But worth watching to see some bottom-feeder 70s talent!

You may recognize a few!

The dialogue is cringe (vomit) worthy, as are the performances! Hilariously bad, so plan on seeing and hearing plenty of embarrassingly awful crap.

Twenty-four hours in the life of a Southern California record store as employees try to thwart a serial bandit while a kick-ass talent show goes on in the parking lot.

How's THIS for a cast? You've got Ted (Isaac from THE LOVE BOAT) Lange as a break dancing clerk (who organizes the vinyl records via his "Afro-tonic" computer), Ruth Buzzi as the sex-starved cleaning lady, Michael Callan (Riff in the original Broadway production of WEST SIDE STORY) as the store's womanizing manager, Jack Carter as HIS p-whipped boss, Harold "Odd Job" Sakata as a gay strong-arm collections man, Sorrell "Boss Hogg" Booke as a clumsy cop, a youthful Ed Begley Jr. as a would-be thief, Larry Storch as a deaf customer (and what WACKIER place for a deaf guy to appear in than a record store??), Alice (what's-her-name on BEWITCHED) Ghostley and Leonard Barr (Dean Martin's uncle, believe it or not) as an elderly couple, Rick (DISCO DUCK) Dees as the talent show host and Jeff (PINK LADY AND JEFF) Altman as his Nazi engineer, Frank "The Riddler" Gorshin as the elusive bandit ... not to mention Kinky Friedman, Gallagher and GONG SHOW staple Razzle P. Willie (you remember, the guy with the lips painted on his bare stomach and the over-sized top hat over his torso, who put a trumpet to his navel and mimed "The Colonel Bogey March") as themselves. Eat your heart out, Steven Soderbergh.

And underneath the slapstick and cameos, RECORD CITY has some choice observations to make on Serious Themes. Look at how the only straightforward characters in the film, serving as a Greek chorus if you will, are the local hookers. Notice how Callan forces himself upon his minimum-wage teen girl workers, but must himself submit to the financial whims of Carter. And appreciate how the talent show winner will have to sell out to commercial success. This film's take on prostitution is one of the most sophisticated since NIGHTS OF CABIRIA.

And observe how there's a blind Hasidic man at the film's beginning and a one-eyed nun (both essayed by Gorshin) at its end. We are all operating in a world, director -- excuse me, auteur -- Dennis Steinmetz is clearly asserting, where God is blind. In modern American cinema, only CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS dares make such a statement. When Ted Lange asks a colleague, "Have you been playing 'Yankee Doodle' with your dandy?", he might as well have been posing the same soulful question to a soulless 1970s America.

This movie had so many things going for it. I think the main problem might be how the script is stupid in a really distinctly awful way. There are these moments that feel like it was supposed to be a vehicle to launch Rick Dees? But by making him seem like a manic cartoon. It really reads like live action cartoons. And like I said, great cast. No fault to the cast and crew and hard working people that made this but dang. What a mess. Also we love and respect Frank Gorshin but damn he chews up scenery here like he hasn't eaten in weeks. THEN GALLAGHER SHOWS UP like whaaaaaat are you even talking about but it was just clearly fueled by tons of terrible drugs that made people feel a very false sense of confidence and belief in this script and it's execution. Oh Ed Begley Jr. Is in this and he's awesome and it's crazy because he's deep in a real character and everyone else is serving ham at 11 like weirdly horny and everyone is on a different level. The director like maybe had something going on in their personal life and weren't keeping their eye on the ball for any sense of consistency in the performances. Which is, again, infuriating because of how interesting and genuinely good the cast is. Also the racial and sexual stereotypes have aged super poorly but no shock there. Being super weirdly racist and homophobic was pretty standard in lowbrow comedies of the era. In every scene, every single character is as loud and weird and sleazy as humanly possible and by halfway through the film my brain has melted. It boggles the mind that at no point in the pre-release of this film not one person said,"maybe we should wait for the drugs to wear off and watch this again."

I mainly watched this film to see Kinky Friedman who is a character of legend in Texas. And an interesting dude. Let me tell you he is the most normal and grounded part of the carnival of madness that is this film. The echo-amplified voice of Rick Dees reverberates through this film like the shrieks of the faithful as the sept exploded per Cersei's orders. Where was I? Oh yes. This movie kind of sucks in a bad-horny way but suffers from a weak script and absent direction wasted on an icon like Ruth Buzzi. We forever stan RB. Also I'm not saying don't watch this movie. Just go into it knowing how much better it could have been and tell me you're not like dayumm. Okay thanks for reading.