The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Steve Kloves

Writer (WGA):

Steve Kloves (written by)

Release Date:

13 October 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Music | Romance

Tagline:

For 31 years it's been just the Fabulous Baker Boys... but times change.

Plot:

Frank and Jack Baker are professional musicians who play small clubs. They play smaltzy music and have never needed a day job...

Plot Keywords:

Brother | Piano | Audition | Singer | Lounge Singer

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 12 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Jeff Bridges	...	Jack Baker
Michelle Pfeiffer	...	Susie Diamond
Beau Bridges	...	Frank Baker
Ellie Raab	...	Nina
Xander Berkeley	...	Lloyd
Dakin Matthews	...	Charlie
Ken Lerner	...	Ray
Albert Hall	...	Henry
Terri Treas	...	Girl in Bed
Gregory Itzin	...	Vince Nancy
Bradford English	...	Earl
David Coburn	...	Kid at Vet
Todd Jeffries	...	Theo
Gregory James	...	Hotel Masseuse (as Jeffrey J. Nowinski)
Nancy Fish	...	Laughing Bar Patron

Runtime:

114 min | Australia:110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Gladden Entertainment

Trivia:

Brooke Shields turned down the role of Susie.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Frank, Jack and Susie get underway for the trip to the New Year's event at the resort hotel (a.k.a. Bill Gate's house), they are first shown driving southbound on the Mercer Street onramp to Interstate-5. Then the scene shifts to them driving near the Spokane Street exit southbound, five miles to the south. Then the scene shifts back to them driving emerging from a tunnel, which is actually the same southbound I-5 onramp, only a little farther past the initial shot.

Quotes:

Susie Diamond: So, make any resolutions?
Jack Baker: No, you?
Susie Diamond: Nah, I figure all that stuff's a bunch of crap, anyway. You do what you do, right?

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: She's Baaaack! (#4.20)" (2000)

Soundtrack:

My Funny Valentine

A unique mood among modern films

Possibly the best ensemble acting since the Hawks, Bogart and Bacall version of "The Big Sleep". There aren't many films of the eighties that match the sheer class of the best studio pictures of the thirties, forties and fifties. This one does. Watch the scene where Jeff Bridges lights Pfeiffer's cigarette for a few seconds' vignette of perfectly restrained and utterly revealing acting. But then, almost every scene in this movie is at or near this standard. It's a film in a thousand, if that, that makes you believe you are seeing a glimpse into real life at a particular place and time. The Fabulous Baker Boys is three people's intersecting lives in Seattle in the late eighties. As real as if you had been there? No. As right as if you had been there? Yes.