Smile(1975 film)

Smileis a 1975 Americansatiricalcomedy filmdirected byMichael Ritchie,written byJerry Belson,and starringBruce Dern,Barbara Feldon,Michael Kidd,andGeoffrey Lewis.Filmed on location in Santa Rosa, the film premiered at the USA Film Festival inDallas, Texas,and opened theatrically in Los Angeles in July 1975 before screening at the 1975New York Film Festival.Though it received generally favorable reviews from critics, the film was a box-office flop. In the years since its release,Smilewent on to develop acult following.It was adapted into a 1986Broadway musical of the same namewith songs byMarvin HamlischandHoward Ashman.

Smile
Original theatrical poster byJohn Alvin
Directed by	Michael Ritchie
Screenplay by	Jerry Belson
Produced by	Michael Ritchie
Starring	Bruce Dern Barbara Feldon Michael Kidd Geoffrey Lewis Eric Shea
Cinematography	Conrad L. Hall
Edited by	Richard A. Harris
Music by	Dan Orsborn
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	March 20, 1975(1975-03-20)(USA Film Festival)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.3 million

Premise

The film focuses on various personalities involved in abeauty pageantinSanta Rosa, California,and satirizes small-town America and its peculiarities, hypocrisies and artifice within and around the pageant.Melanie Griffith,Denise Nickerson,Annette O'Toole,andColleen Campappear in early roles in their respective careers as pageant contestants.

Plot

Big Bob Freelander is a used car dealer, and the head judge of the Young American Miss Pageant held inSanta Rosa, California.Brenda DiCarlo is the pageant's executive director, and her husband Andy is a resentful alcoholic. Andy is unhappy as he is about to become an exhausted rooster aging out of the localJaycee chapter,which requires the humiliating ritual of kissing the anus of a dead chicken.

Thirty-three teenage girls, all local pageant winners from throughout the state, arrive in Santa Rosa where they are instructed by Brenda and assigned with local host families. Meanwhile, Little Bob, Big Bob's son, pores through the contestant applications analyzing the girls' breast sizes, and conspires with his friends to photograph the contestants in various states of undress.

The girls are introduced toLos Angeleschoreographer Tommy French who teaches them dance routines. Wilson Shears, the pageant producer, clashes with Tommy, who is cynical and blunt with the contestants. The girls subsequently give interviews to the judges. While the girls shower in the auditorium locker rooms, Little Bob snaps Polaroid photographs of them through a window, but is caught by Wilson, who forces Little Bob to confiscate the photographs to a police officer.

At the Thursday preliminary show, novice contestant Robin Gibson is one of three winners. She later gets advice from her roommate, pageant veteran Doria, on how to excel at the pageant, such as puttingVaselineon her teeth to improve her smile. The following morning, Big Bob takes Little Bob to a psychiatrist over the previous night's incident, but the doctor assures Big Bob that Little Bob is simply a sexually curious boy.

That night during a pageant performance, several contestants sabotage the gushingMexican-AmericanMaria's patriotic routine, damaging the stage sets. Meanwhile, Andy visits the Jaycee chapter meeting, but fails to go through with the initiation ritual. When he returns home, he gets into an argument with Brenda, and shoots her with a pistol, grazing her shoulder. Big Bob visits Andy in jail the next morning to provide moral support and espouse American values, but Andy insults him, accusing him of speaking like a Young American Miss. Meanwhile, the show becomes more expensive than was anticipated, and Wilson pressures Tommy to remove a ramp because it is taking up seating. This results in an injury to a contestant, and Tommy agrees to reinstate the ramp and to make up the difference out of his fee.

Big Bob arrives at the final night of the pageant, which Brenda also attends despite her shoulder injury. After final judging is concluded, MissFountain Valley,Shawn Christianson—an outsider to the other contestants—unexpectedly wins the state title. The following morning, contestant Robin Gibson passes by Big Bob's RV lot, where he is attempting to sell an RV to prospective customers. In a patrol car nearby, the policeman who confiscated Little Bob's photographs, stares at a full-frontal nude photograph of Karen Love, MissSimi Valley.

Cast

• Bruce Dernas Big Bob Freelander
• Barbara Feldonas Brenda DiCarlo
• Michael Kiddas Tommy French
• Geoffrey Lewisas Wilson Shears
• Eric Sheaas Little Bob
• Nicholas Pryoras Andy
• Titos Vandisas Emile
• Paul Benedictas Orren Brooks
• William Trayloras Ray Brandy
• Dennis Duganas Logan
• Kate Sarchet as Judy,Modesto's Young American Miss
• Joan Pratheras Robin,Antelope Valley's Young American Miss
• Denise Nickersonas Shirley,San Diego's Young American Miss
• Melanie Griffithas Karen,Simi Valley's Young American Miss
• Annette O'Tooleas Doria,Anaheim's Young American Miss
• Maria O'Brien as Maria,Salinas's Young American Miss
• Colleen Campas Connie,Imperial Valley's Young American Miss
• Carol Ann Williams as Helga,Vacaville's Young American Miss
• Shawn Christianson asFountain Valley's Young American Miss/The Winner

Themes

Film scholar Jonathan Kirshner notes that, whileSmile"takes some easy shots at the superficial culture of teen beauty pageants," it is more concerned with the character of Big Bob, who functions as "a metaphor for America, whose boyish optimism and can-do spirit are beginning to fray as he stalls in middle age... It is a film about the emerging dissatisfactions of its characters."Film historianKen Dancygernotes that, inSmile,"no target goes untouched... In the final scene, the real victims, the contestants who are being sexually exploited, become, in the next scene, the target of Ritchie's commentary on these beauty contests."

Production

Development

The film marked the third and final entry in directorMichael Ritchie's "American Dream Trilogy", three films focusing on the theme of competition, which includeDownhill Racer(1969) andThe Candidate(1972).Ritchie developed the idea for the film after having served as a judge for a real beauty pageant in Santa Rosa, California, and based many of the incidents depicted in the film on events he had witnessed himself.

Filming

Principal photographytook place in and around Santa Rosa, California, with the pageant held at Veteran's Memorial Auditorium.

Release

The film premiered at the USA Film Festival inDallas,Texas on March 20, 1975.Its Los Angeles premiere followed on July 9, 1975,and it was entered into theNew York Film Festivalin October 1975.

Commercial performance

According to director Ritchie, the film was only seen by approximately "92,000 paying customers" by the end of its brief theatrical release, which he attributed to the distributor,United Artists,losing faith in the film and shortening its theatrical run.He also felt that the studio had misrepresented the film too heavily as a satire, as well as marketing it as a salacious examination of beauty pageant culture, which alienated audiences in smaller regional markets.

Critical response

Smilewas well received upon release, with praise for the humor, satire and performances.Vincent CanbyofThe New York Timescalled the film a "pungent surprise, a rollicking satire that misses few of the obvious targets, but without dehumanizing the victims. It's an especially American kind of social comedy in the way that great good humor sometimes is used to reveal unpleasant facts instead of burying them."Roger EbertofThe Chicago Sun-Timesgave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying that though "Ritchie has so many targets that he misses some and never quite gets back to others," the film still "does a good job of working over the hypocrisy and sexism of a typical beauty pageant."John Simondescribed the film as "funny, sobering, and strong".It was one of the few American films screened at the New York Film Festival that was admired by criticPauline Kael.

In the years following its release,Smilewent on to gain acult following.In 2014,IndiewirelistedSmileas one of the "ten great overlooked films from the 1970s."IndieWiresaid the film was "overlooked even within Ritchie’s canon: a gentle, occasionally caustic but mostly warm satire." Indiewire called the performances "uniformly top-notch," and said "Subsequent beauty-pageant movies likeDrop Dead GorgeousandLittle Miss Sunshinehave tended to feel like pale imitations next to it. "

OnRotten Tomatoes,the film has an approval rating of 100% based on reviews from 17 critics, with an average rating of 7.80/10.

Home media

MGM Home Entertainmentfirst releasedSmileonDVDon August 24, 2004.The independent film distributor Fun City Editions released the film onBlu-rayon April 27, 2021.

Stage musical adaptation

Main article:Smile (musical)

The film was adapted into a Broadway musical in 1986 byMarvin HamlischandHoward Ashman.

See also

• List of American films of 1975
• Drop Dead Gorgeous,another satirical film about a beauty pageant.

Sources

• Dancyger, Ken(2013).Global Scriptwriting.Burlington, Massachusetts: Focal Press.ISBN978-1-136-04810-4.
• Kellow, Brian (2012).Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark.New York City, New York: Penguin.ISBN978-0-143-12220-3.
• Kirshner, Jonathan (2012).Hollywood's Last Golden Age: Politics, Society, and the Seventies Film in America.Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.ISBN978-0-801-46540-6.
• Simon, John (1982).Reverse Angle: A Decade of American Film.New York City, New York: Crown Publishers Inc.ISBN978-0-517-54471-6.

External links

• SmileatIMDb
• Smileat theTCM Movie Database
• SmileatAllMovie
• Smileat theAFI Catalog of Feature Films