THESE OLD BROADS
US, 2001, 100 minutes, Colour.
Shirley Mac Laine, Debbie Reynolds, Joan Collins, Elizabeth Taylor, Jonathan Silverman, Nestor Carbonell, Peter Graves, Pat Crawford Brown, Gene Barry, Pat Harrington, June Allyson.
Directed by Matthew Diamond.
These Old Broads is a film about bringing veteran actresses together – mirroring, more than a small amount, real life. In fact, the actresses had to be good sports to play these roles which are both flattering and not flattering.
The film is obvious in its storyline. A film with the actresses from the 60s is a greater success on re-release – therefore put them on a television show together. Of course, they cannot stand each other, have had affairs with the same man in the past as well as a lurid history behind the scenes. In fact, the film mirrors the lives of the actresses concerned and has many humorous but self-conscious references. Shirley Mac Laine’s character is very similar to her own character (and she played the Debbie Reynolds similar character in Carrie Fisher’s script for Postcards from the Edge). Debbie Reynolds is much like herself – even to the owning of a casino. Joan Collins sends up screen and television image with some references to her dubious marriages and sexual reputation – and a joke about her British accent being her Hollywood accent whereas she really came from Kansas. Then Elizabeth Taylor appears as the tough agent looking like an older variation on her Martha from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Unfortunately, much of her dialogue sounds like leftovers from Virginia Woolf. It is Jonathan Silverman as Shirley Mac Laine’s son, a would-be producer of documentaries who is asked to direct the reunion, who gives the most skilful performance. In the meantime Peter Graves appears as Debbie Reynolds’ husband, Gene Barry as the head of the studio. An uncredited June Allyson is the woman in the hotel who sees the old broads trying to dispose of Joan Collins’ husband.
There is a very strong sequence for those in the know where Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, in their characters, discuss the parallel situation that happened in real life when Elizabeth Taylor had an affair with Debbie Reynolds’ husband Eddie Fisher and then married him. The film seems like something of a reconciliation.
It all comes to light when it emerges that the screenplay was co-written by Debbie Reynolds’ daughter, Carrie Fisher. She also wrote the expose, Postcards from the Edge. If one listens to many of the lines spoken by Jonathan Silverman about his relationship with his mother, they seem very much lines that might well be the autobiography of Carrie Fisher.
So, the film is a comedy about old actresses burying the past and getting together. The dialogue is fairly rough at times, full of innuendo – and more explicit innuendo. So, it is a mixture of good and bad taste – and an intriguing look at Hollywood looking at itself as well as looking at the particular broads on show.
1.An entertaining comedy? Based on real life? Based on Hollywood? The title and its tone – and the stories, the allusions to Hollywood past, sexual scandals? The innuendo?
2.The Hollywood setting, the television stations, executives, studios? Hotels? The world of ageing actresses? The musical score? The song-and-dance routines? The final extravaganza song?
3.Audience response to the actresses? Their careers, their performances, as icons? Their screen images?
4.The basic plot, the success of the film, the planned reunion, the arguing and bitching, the crisis with Addie’s husband, the possible seductions, the arguments, the relationship between Kate and her son? The emotional clashes?
5.Wesley, his life, his work, ambitions for documentaries, making the pitch to Gavin? Gavin’s two-timing? His having to see the actresses, the different performance to get each of them to act? The visit to Beryl Mason? His being chosen as the director? The interactions with Gavin? The difficulties, his exasperations? His tense relationship with his mother? The revelation of the truth? His acknowledgment of his being gay? The episode in the gay club? The final success?
6.Gavin, nasty, the double-talk of the young producers? His assistant and his double-talk? The head of the studio and the appreciation of the actresses? The rehearsal and its all going wrong?
7.Tony, the gangster reputation, Joan Collins and her husbands? His escape, coming to the hotel room, the sexual encounter, his death – and the discussions about him? Wrapping him up, leaving him in the hotel foyer? The actresses being arrested – the headlines? The bail?
8.Kate, Shirley Mac Laine’s style, on the road with Mame? Not talking to her son? Her arrogance, being a star? Her disdain of the others? Her relationship with her husband, his leaving her? The truth about Wesley and his birth? Her finally admitting it? The comic aspects of Shirley Mac Laine’s performance - and relationship to her own life?
9.Debbie Reynolds, an image of herself, ebullient and bubbly? With Bill? Losing her money? Buying the casino, at work at the casino? Her keeping an eye on Bill, Addie’s possible seduction? The arguments? Her wig etc? The discussion with Beryl Mason – and all the references to Eddie Fisher?
10.Addie, the image of Joan Collins, the British jokes – and her sexual reputation?
11.Beryl Mason, Elizabeth Taylor’s appearance, sounding like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The hard-headed agent? The pretence about her death – and her being in the audience? The irony of the conversation about her relationship with Debbie Reynolds’ husband and the reality of Eddie Fisher?
12.Wesley’s dialogue, the expression of growing up in Hollywood, distance from the star parent? Carrie Fisher’s experience and her incorporating this into the screenplay?
13.Addie’s mother, from Kansas, her being bullied by her daughter, saying the wrong things? Being inventive to get rid of the body?
14.Wesley’s friends, their support? The issue of his being gay – and this being accepted? The song and dance by Joan Collins and Debbie Reynolds for the gay club?
15.A cheerful film – tongue-in-cheek, echoing reality, but with the vulgar touch as indicated by the title?
