Smile

There's something very disturbing and creepy about the "wholesome" teen beauty pageant. It might be the "stage mothers" who are not just living through their daughters, but seem to actually be re-living the vainglorious days of their own pathetic lives before they became frumpy, boring housewives. It might be the way every male from the horny pre-teens to dirty old rotters leers at the teenage girls as they go through the "talent", "swimsuit", and "vim and vigor" portions of these ridiculous contests. Whatever it is, the subject is ripe for satire. This forgotten 70's movie is less famous than the more recent "Drop Dead Gorgeous", but it's really a lot more on-target as far as satire goes. Whereas the later film has its moments (Ellen Barkin's trailer trash mom with a beer can burnt onto her hand or the stupid contestant who has had a sexual encounter with Adam West), the satire in this movie is a lot more subtle and effective. There's the idiotic emcee who says things like: "Isn't she beautiful? Aren't they all beautiful? Isn't everybody beautiful?". There's the scary, Stepford-like pageant director (Barbara Feldon)who for the sake of "the girls" doesn't press charges after her drunken husband (quite understandably)tries to shoot her. Then there's the male community leaders led by "Big Bob" (Bruce Dern) who at one point dress in bedsheets and have an initiation ceremony in the park which ends up looking like an especially homoerotic Ku Klux Klan rally.

The adult actors are mostly just hilarious caricatures, but the contestants are more realistic and likable. The most famous faces are Melanie Griffith and Colleen Camp, but the main stars are Joan Prather (from TV's "Eight is Enough") and a young Annette O'Toole. The ending is kind of anti-climactic, but something about it kind of stays with you. It's not a great movie perhaps, but it was one made at a rare time when America could honestly look at itself in the mirror--and what is there is both funny and disturbing.

Extremely smart little satire that uses a state beauty pageant as a microcosm for a stinging look at American values, with hypocrisy rampant and greed triumphant. Writer Jerry Belson delineates his characters very carefully, so that we know whom to side with and whom to despise, and the nearly no-name cast portrays them brilliantly. Talented Joan Prather is the contestant we most identify with, decent, but slowly being corrupted as the urge to win overtakes her, and Michael Kidd is the semi-big-time choreographer who at first seems callous and unlikable but turns out to be merely seeing, and telling, it like it is. There's some too-easy comedy as we view the contestants' terrible talent competition entries, but at the end we've seen a remarkably thorough put-down of American values circa 1975. (Maybe it didn't get more attention because its utter honesty and accuracy about the American way of winning, a pet theme of the director's, made people uncomfortable.) The final scene, in the police car, is just a perfect wrap-up.

All the beauty contestants have to "Smile" in this 1975 film written by Jerry Belson and directed by Michael Ritchie. It's a take-off on pageants and American values in the '70s. It stars Barbara Feldon, Bruce Dern, Michael Kidd, and Nicholas Pryor, while featuring some familiar young faces as contestants: Melanie Griffith, Colleen Camp, and Annette O'Toole.

Feldon is the ever-chipper but icy "Young American Miss" who has no use for her drunken husband (Pryor) and devotes herself to the pageant; she's terrific, as is Bruce Dern as a used car salesman, the main judge of the pageant who has an enterprising son with a Polaroid camera. Best of all is Michael Kidd as the choreographer. Kidd started out as a ballet dancer, moved to Broadway, and finally Hollywood where he danced, acted, and choreographed, later adding directing to his list of talents. Here, he gives a wonderful performance as a choreographer whose cynicism and toughness hides a heart of gold.

There are too many vignettes among the contestants to describe - the talent competition that consists of packing a suitcase, the flaming baton; the rehearsals with the orchestra are hilarious, as is the contestant looking for her butter churn.

The film hits just the right note between satire/comedy and drama. Beauty contestants haven't changed much; they all want to help people, and being brought up without a father is a distinct advantage. Boys are still horny. And never has any of this been presented in a more of a light, amusing way than in "Smile."

A wickedly humorous send-up of small town boosterism, in which the junior chamber of commerce talks into mechanical dogs for food, turns on artificial birds for the sounds of nature, and substitutes a relentless smile for genuine feeling. Where also: just thinking you're having fun is more important than the real thing, and upbeat cliché becomes a way of life. Suddenly, into this hothouse arrives a tacky version of that crown jewel of artificiality, the beauty pageant, an event sure to drive everything into warp speed, which it does, but with surprisingly low-key results. The film avoids outright cynicism by humanizing the teen-age contestants, who are, after all, also products of small town America. Nevertheless, the script makes the disconnect clear: ritualized behavior has benumbed genuine emotion. The boosters have lost their inner selves, as will the girls if they continue on the contestant path. Amidst a uniformly fine cast stands Nicholas Pryor, whose portrayal of a desperate drunk looks so authentic, it shakes up the entire movie. A holdout from the deadening groupthink, he simply can't cope with the surroundings. Yet it is his emotional depth, from hangdog expression to slumping carriage, by which the rest of the community is measured. There's an undercurrent of the rebellious 60's running through this film, and I suspect it sank quickly because popular tastes were turning away from ironical characters named "Freelander". Nonetheless, a revival of this neglected gem is long overdue, not only for its often surprisingly subtle humor, but for the continuing relevancy of the message. However, don't look for it at your nearest chamber of commerce meeting.

"Smile" released in 1975, is director Michael Ritchie's commentary on the absurdity of beauty pageants. The movie takes place in Santa Rosa, as it is time for the "Junior Miss" California beauty pageant. Bruce Dern is spot-on as an RV salesman by day, and one of the judges of the contest by night. Interesting, he takes his part as a judge very seriously. Barabara Feldon plays a former Junior Miss, and she is at times hilarious as she is so intense and regimented about guiding the young contestants through the grueling competition. However, she has problems at home, including an alcoholic husband (Michael Kidd) who also seems to be on the verge of an emotional breakdown. Dern has a horny teen-age son (Eric Shea) who gets caught taking pictures through the windows of the girls changing their clothing, and then is sent to a psychiatrist as punishment! There is a bizarre initiation ceremony that Dern and Kidd attend, with the men dressed up in KKK attire. It has to be seen to be believed! Everything about this film reeks of the 1970's, from the famous "smile" pictures that were everywhere, to one of the contestants doing an imitation of the famous "Ernestine" the telephone operator, made famous by Lily Tomlin. For those of us who came of age in this decade (as I did) it was all so familiar and hilarious. The film is obviously a satire, poking fun at 1970's middle America. It was showing us who we were, warts and all. Look for a young Annette O'Toole and Melanie Griffith as two of the contestants, and all of the young ladies playing the beauty pageant contestants are quite good. The casting of this film is excellent. So check this out -- particularly if you remember this decade with the fondness, or maybe some groans too.