Nadine (1987)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Robert Benton

Writer:

Robert Benton (writer)

Release Date:

7 August 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

In 1950s Texas, a woman trying to recover sexy photos of herself and divorce her husband witnesses a murder and uncovers corrupt land dealings.

Plot Keywords:

Texas | 1950s | Murder | Beautiful Woman | Rattlesnake

Cast

Jeff Bridges	...	Vernon Hightower
Kim Basinger	...	Nadine Hightower
Rip Torn	...	Buford Pope
Gwen Verdon	...	Vera
Glenne Headly	...	Renée Lomax
Jerry Stiller	...	Raymond Escobar
Jay Patterson	...	Dwight Estes
William Youmans	...	Boyd
Gary Grubbs	...	Cecil
Mickey Jones	...	Floyd
Blue Deckert	...	Mountain
Harlan Jordan	...	Sheriff Rusk
Norman Bennett	...	Reverend
James N. Harrell	...	Deacon (as James Harrell)
John William Galt	...	Officer Lloyd

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

ML Delphi Premier Productions

Trivia:

Written specifically for Kim Basinger.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The movie takes place in 1954 and the letter jacket has the year 71 on the sleeve.

Quotes:

Buford Pope: I swear you two are living testimony to the fact that it's better to be lucky than smart!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Frame on the Wall: The Making of 'The Door in the Floor' (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

LA CHIVITA

The Best Texas Comedy in 30 Years

Let me begin by saying I am just astonished to see the low average of viewer comments for this splendid movie. I just have to figure the commenters are a bunch of Yankees who never set foot in the South and have no feel for the slow, quiet humor that this fine film represents.

But even that cultural adjustment doesn't explain the complete failure of these other reviewers to appreciate a really finely drawn comedy, from beginning to end. This is a wonderful work by the fine writer and director Robert Benton, who defies the axiom, Comedy is hard. He makes it look easy.

What he did was simple, looking back, but so very hard for most people to do: He set up a funny plot and kept it funny from one scene to another, by keeping it low key and letting the characters carry the humor lightly, one slightly ridiculous moment after the other, thus avoiding the great comedic danger: You can kill comedy by overworking it.

Benton takes a plausible story about some Texas corruption and discovered maps with some amusing twists to it and jacks it up with some great dialogue and some fine actors -- mostly Southern, as it happens: the fine actor Rip Torn (birth name, Ripley J. Torn, Jr., Texas) and Kim Basinger (Alabama). Robert Benton himself is from Waxahatchie, Texas, and wrote the screenplay with full knowledge and confidence of the plausibility of the plot and the reality of his characters.

Folks, I know lots of people like these characters. So do you. Good people, simple people, women who on the phone who soon ask, How's yer Mom 'n 'em? And Benton has given them a moment of great adventure and humor.

A few gems: Jeff Bridges: "I'm not in the Vernon Darlin' business anymore." Basinger naming her early fetus Doris Isabel and talking to her. Rip Torn: "Why is it you work your butt off all your life to get ahead and it takes two nitwits about ten minutes to screw the whole thing up." And in her most glorious beauty, Glenne Headley as the girlfriend, full of Texas spunk.

I truly pity the Yankees and Californians west of Bakersfield who cannot see the beauty of this film. But you know what? We don't need you. This movie is like Elvis. It will live forever.