Sam's Song (1969)

Directors:

John C. Broderick
John Shade

Writer:

John C. Broderick (writer)

Release Date:

1979 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Some answers are worth killing for...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Independent Film

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Robert De Niro	...	Sam Nicoletti
Jennifer Warren	...	Erica Moore
Jarred Mickey	...	Andrew Moore (as Jerry Micky)
Terrayne Crawford	...	Carol Moore
Martin J. Kelley	...	Mitch (as Martin Kelley)
Anthony Charnota	...	Vito Nicoletti
Lisa Blount	...	Vivian Buck
Sybil Danning	...	Older Erica
John Medici	...	Joey
James Brown	...	Lt. Benson
Sam Anderson	...	Paul
Tony Brande	...	Father Testa
Matt Greene	...	Marge's Assistant (as Matthew Greene)
Alvin Hammer	...	Cemetery Caretaker
Jack Slater	...	Party Guest

Runtime:

89 min | Netherlands:92 min | 86 min (re-cut version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Trivia:

Robert De Niro was angered that Cannon Films took his previously shot footage and inserted it into an entirely new movie - legal action was almost taken.

Quotes:

Vito: It's been twelve years since I had a mayonnaise and peanut butter sandwich. Now that's what I call cruel and unusual punishment.

Movie Connections:

References Star! (1968)

IMDb info is wrong

Just to let you know: Sam's Song is in fact a finished movie. In my country you can buy a very cheap DVD release which is actually titled The Swap, but it does contain the full movie Sam's Song.

Not that you guys are missing out on anything if they only released The Swap in your country. Sam's Song is also a horrible movie which doesn't seem to have any kind of plot.

De Niro plays some kind of amateur screenwriter/director who is invited by a befriended couple to some big mansion for a party. He meets a girl there and most of the movie is basically De Niro and this girl falling in love (which is translated on screen as the two of them just running around on a beach and stuff like that). Maybe they did in fact run out of money at a certain point because there doesn't seem to be a real ending to this mess.

The dialogues are laughable most of the time, the scenes just seem to jump from one thing to another with no real meaning or purpose. And I couldn't call it acting either what those people on screen are doing.

I can only assume this was some lame and cheap attempt at making an arty farty movie but they failed miserably. Or maybe this "style" of movie was just popular in the sixties, because there's another De Niro movie out there (Greetings, which is in fact directed by Brian DePalma) that's just as bizar as this movie.

Maybe some real hardcore De Niro fans would appreciate to see some early De Niro work like Sam's Song, but I can say without a doubt that this is a strong contestant for the first place in my top 10 of worst movies of all time.