The 4th Tenor

I saw this movie on TV tonight and I really enjoyed it, even though I'm not a big fan of opera. Rodney Dangerfield was brilliant as Lupo, with his sharp wit and decent nature. It's quite a shame that he's not here anymore. What I also liked, is that everything worked out just great in the end. There were also some attractive women in T4thT, namely Gina (Annabelle Gurwitch) and Rosa (Anita De Simone). The whole wine thing was pretty interesting as well. If there's some soft drink of some sort (as I'm not too keen on anything alcohol-ish) to make a guy more attractive to women or a good sportsman, someone should let me know (ha-ha-ha)(big laugh). I would recommend this movie to most people, and I would certainly like to watch it again.

Do you find Rodney Dangerfield amusing? Would you like to see an entertaining Dangerfield film? Then avoid THE 4TH TENOR. It is a pitiful vanity project where Rodney generally neglects his strengths and wallows in sickening bathos.

As a prosperous Italian restaurant owner named Lupo, Dangerfield falls in love with a young luscious singer Gina (Annabelle Gurwitch). She doesn't return his affections, especially since Lupo can't sing opera. So he goes to Italy to take opera lessons. There, he meets a sweet local girl named Rosa (Anita De Simone) and learns the secret of great singing. Will Lupo find true love? Who really cares?

Part of the problem with THE 4TH TENOR is that Dangerfield is far less interested in generating laughs than in endearing himself to his audience. Rarely does he spew his customary one-liners. Instead he spends an awful lot of time acting lovelorn and wistful. But his strivings for sentimentality are so humorless and effortful, he becomes embarrassingly cloying. Even more disturbing is the concept of the geriatric, physically homely Dangerfield romancing women young enough to be his granddaughters. Part of the appeal in Dangerfield's stand-up act was that he acknowledged he was ugly and therefore unsuccessful with women. If he wanted to be a romantic lead in his dotage, why couldn't Rodney pursue women his own age?

The pedestrian supporting cast cannot enliven the dreary material. They are the type of bland performers you'd expect in a film deemed too poor for theatrical release.

THE 4TH TENOR is truly a morbid experience. One watches an embalmed looking man who, in attempting to touch our hearts, dies in the course of his performance, a once bright star whose career has been dying. If this is the best Rodney can offer, it's time for him to retire.

If it is true that Rodney Dangerfield "don't get no respect," then it is not for the want of trying. This latest outing into features by the 80-year-old comedian, who had a star unveiled recently on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, keeps the sight gags coming fast although a little restrained.

Rodney is Lupo, the owner of an Italian restaurant who employs singing waiters and waitresses. He is in love with one waitress whose operatic areas pack them in every night but she doesn't return the favor,

understandable as Lupo's singing voice could stop a clock. In a move to impress her, he flies to Italy for the best singing coaches.He has an open checkbook so he is quickly aided and abetted by a couple of con artists who see a crock of gold at the end of this particular rainbow.

If anything, this movie is lighter on extraneous humor and heavier on plot which, in my opinion, is an improvement over his earlier excursions. Dangerfield has good rapport with the assembled cast headed by Robert Davi as the chief antagonist. Once Lupo is in Italy, "The 4th Tenor" takes on a sort of fairy tale quality which increases the entertainment quotient and is sure to please more than the usual Rodney Dangerfield fans.

Ironically going from FIVE WIVES to THE 4TH TENOR with an immense change of plot and location and overall vibe, good or bad, seeming more an independent labor-of-love than a cheap comedy that couldn't afford to look like his older vehicles - hell, even LADYBUGS seemed big budget comparably... And the comedic star really seems to be enjoying himself - he hasn't been this energetic for a while. But what does show in his advanced age are the signature bulging eyes having pooped out. Maybe caused by the Las Vegas sauna accident that merited a lawsuit, he can hardly open those loony peepers at all...

Beginning in New York where Dangerfield's character is an Italian restaurant owner where he does his own standup comedy routines, he's comfortable in a role not entirely fiction. He was the owner of a nightclub for comics that was a success in New York City even before his success in movies, but herein he's a loser smitten with a trophy wife that will dump him unless he learns to sing... opera...

Most of the film takes place in Italy, supposedly, where the cinematography has an antique, vintage look like Renaissance paintings. Rodney fits like a paper sack in a rose garden, on purpose, but things begin to mesh when he meets a woman who's right for him despite still being in love with the cheating tramp back home - she's having an affair with ruffian Robert Davi. But when there's not trouble there's love, or the attempt. Probably the most realistic romance of any Dangerfield film. He's not cast with a pretty or cute lady to equal his character's money or the fact that he's an endearing and popular comic (Sally Kellerman is the best example)...

Anita De Simone can both sing and act, and lifts this strange fable higher than it has the right to be since it's really out there. Who knows, perhaps Rodney's personal Rosebud was being a singer instead of a comic... As dull as 4TH TENOR can be, it sure beats Sly Stallone's RHINESTONE... but that's another story.

Even though I'm a huge Rodney Dangerfield fan, I never had the chance to see this film until today since it was in limited release theatrically and the DVD is surprisingly hard to find. Now I know why: the flick just isn't any good. Dangerfield tries his best, but he can't save the uninspired directing (this was director Harry Basil's feature debut and it shows), poor production values, and sluggish pacing. The supporting cast of the usually reliable Annabelle Gurwitch, Robert Davi, and Charles Fleischer is disappointing with each given little to do. However, the first twenty minutes or so are quite funny with Dangerfield's signature quips popping up almost non-stop. Once Dangerfield starts singing, the viewing experience becomes a drag. The 4th Tenor is easily Dangerfield's worst. Basil also directed Dangerfield in Back by Midnight,a much better collaboration between the two. 3/10