Frankie and Johnny 1991   R, 118 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Garry Marshall
Cast: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hector Elizondo, Nathan Lane, Kate Nelligan, Jane Morris, Greg Lewis, Glenn Plummer, Harvey Miller, K Callan, Al Fann, Ele Keates
Based on Terrence McNally's great play, this movie adaptation is about the romance of cynical waitress Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and just-released-from-prison short-order cook Johnny (Al Pacino). 1 User Review
| User Review |
| | More than the sum of its parts | 1fatts 10/28/2007 | There are reasons this film should not work. It does not transfer well from its theatrical origins: there are "speeches" that are too clearly "speeches"; too many characters are stereotypical "New York menagerie of mankind." The ending is cornball by anyone's standards.
And yet the film DOES work, by and large. Credit to a really good cast and a more quiet control of tone and pacing than one generally expects from Garry Marshall. True, Michelle Pfeiffer is too pretty for the part, but she projects a quiet, sad emptiness which is convincing, even moving, and forms the center of the piece. And, true, Al Pacino can't quite pull off an optimistic innocent, but he is genuinely likable, and you pull for him.
We are ready to extend our suspension of disbelief a little farther than we might usually do because these are characters we care for, people who have not had an easy time of it and could use a break; and we are willing to gloss over the sit-com slickness of some of it to allow them the break. We would really like them to have a shot at doing better.
. . . and it helps if you like Clair de lune. |
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Frankie and Johnny 1966  N/R, 87 min.
Genre: Musical
Director: Frederick De Cordova
Cast: Elvis Presley, Donna Douglas, Harry Morgan, Sue Ane Langdon, Nancy Kovack, Audrey Christie, Robert Strauss, Anthony Eisley, Jerome Cowan, Joyce Jamison, Naomi Stevens, Henry Corden
Johnny (Elvis Presley) is a riverboat gambler who forsakes his lover Frankie (Donna Douglas) for the attentions of Nellie Bly (Nancy Kovack) in the film rendition of the folk song by the same name.
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|  | | Frankie and Johnny (1991) |
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| Oscar: Best Actor for Scent of a Woman (1992) |
| | Frankie and Johnny (1966) |
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