JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY
US, 1984, 86 minutes, Colour.
Michael Keaton, Marilu Henner, Joe Piscopo, Danny De Vito, Maureen Stapleton, Dom De Luise, Byron Thames, Griffin Dunne, Peter Boyle, Ray Walston, Glynnis O' Connor.
Directed by Amy Heckerling.
Johnny Dangerously is a pleasing send-up, with affection, of gangster films. It is quite stylishly presented with great attention to period detail .
The file was directed by Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High). But it is a star vehicle for Michael Keaton (Nightshift, Mr. Mom). His lively, zany and engaging personality is used quite well in the central role of lie suddenly supreme gangster, Johnny Dangerously. He has many opportunities for comic routines. He is also helped by an attractive and expert supporting cast ranging from the glamorous, Marilu Henner and Glynnis O' Connor, to the comic, Peter Boyle, Maureen Stapleton. Griffin Dunne as Johnny's D.A. brother is suitably young and earnest. In fact, the film plays a lot with the old plot lines of '20s gangster movies with the criminal brother vs. the D.A. brother. Danny de Vito (Romancing the Stone) has a good supporting role as a crooked D.A.)
There are references to films of the period with a climax using the James Cagney vehicle The Roaring '20s. There is quite an amount of visual and verbal humour, a touch of the crude (including a very funny sex warning education film, 60s style, with writer-director Neal Israel (Police Academy, Bachelor Party) as a doctor).
While it night have been much better, it certainly is enjoyable of its kind.
1. The appeal of this kind of comedy, nostalgia, spoof and parody?
2. The re-creation of the early decades of the 20th. century? New York: streets, homes, clubs? The gangster atmosphere? The strong attention to detail and costume? The quoting of '30s files, especially The Roaring '20s? The feel for the period and echoing the characters and plot lines? The songs and the musical score?
3. The happy mood, the cartoon credits? Visual humour, verbal humour, deadpan remarks, puns? The blend of the contemporary and the nostalgic? Audience knowledge of conventions and the playing on expectations? e.g. the crashing into the 1935 figures, the shimmering for the flashback, the characters talking to the audience, the sudden cigarette commercial, the '30s sombre sex education film?
4. The film as a light-hearted moral fable - tongue-in-cheek? Johnny Kelly and his feeding the animals the top stealing the dog, Johnny telling the story and moralising? The not quite moral ending?
5. Michael Keaton and his style, comic flair? Working with the pets, the discussion with the boy? Johnny as a boy selling papers? His mother? Tommy as the child prodigy? The attack on Danny, and Johnny winning? Dundee being impressed and his invitation to Johnny? Johnny's mother, her washing, illness, need for operations? His decision to go into crime - and the spectacular fighting at the club, Johnny and his acrobatics as hero, his taking his name? Growing up, relationship with girls, shyness? As an adult, work at the club, Dundee's henchmen? The portrait of the group? Flash? Vermin joining the group his threat? Lil and her singing, his infatuation? His helping Tommy with his career, with his sex preoccupations? His taking Dundee's place? The newspapers and his anonymity, reputation?
