Movies - Cool and the Crazy

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The film Cool and the Crazy was made for the cable television network Showtime in 1994 by cult film director Ralph Bakshi, who was previously only known for animated features. It was produced by Lou Arkoff (son of b-movie producer Samuel Z. Arkoff) as part of a series of TV movies made as part of a short-lived revival of American International Pictures.

Although Bakshi's film shares the same name with William Witney's 1958 film The Cool and the Crazy, which was also produced by AIP, the two films are unconnected. The former is an anti-drug picture along the lines of Reefer Madness
, whereas the latter is an original story created by Ralph Bakshi which was written during the late 1960s and early 1970s, under the working title If I Catch Her I'll Kill Her.

Because premium cable was still in its early stages, it was not noticed when it first aired on September 16, 1994, and despite it's big-name director and early appearances by future stars Jared Leto and Alicia Silverstone, the film is not well-known today.

The film is currently owned by Dimension Home Video. It was released on DVD in 2003.

Hummie Mann provided the film's Jazz score.

Plot Overview

High School sweethearts Michael (Leto) and Roslyn (Silverstone) happily marry during the 1950s, both 18. Things go along smoothly until Roslyn gets pregnant, at age 19. The bills pile up and the two grow apart from each other. Roslyn spends most of the time taking care of their child and hanging out with her best friend, Joannie (Jennifer Blanc), who's married to a guy named Bobby (Christian Frizzell). Joannie's been cheating on her husband with a man named Frankie (Bradford Tatum). Roslyn is introduced to Frankie's friend, Joey (Matthew Flint), a bad boy who's also married. Immediately, Roslyn begins an affair with Joey.

At first Michael doesn't suspect anything, but when the two girl friends go out at night and come back later and later, it dawns on him that they are both having affairs. Michael works at a design company with Lorraine (Christine Harnos), who's into the beat and Jazz scenes. One night, he goes out to have an affair with her. The next morning, however, his uptight attitudes causes him to back out of the affair when he learns that he's not her only lover. Eventually Lorraine leaves to go to New York.

At the same time, Roslyn's trying to break off her affair with Joey, but he won't give up that easily. Varied events soon escalate in violence. Joey kidnaps Roslyn, and Michael goes after them, and takes his wife back from him. Michael and Roslyn go their separate ways, and Michael hits the road. A series of black and white photographs from the film's production are shown in a montage that plays before the credits begin.

Quotes

Lorraine: So, how's it going over in Burbank with you guys?

:Michael: Well, it got real exciting one night - Sullivan had Presley on. It could be worse... I guess. :Lorraine: Well, Michael, hardly any of my friends - probably none -were married at 18 and had a kid at 19. That's got to be hard. :Michael: You live with those sick beatniks in Venice. Most of my friends who grew up with me are married. That's how we all became men. :Lorraine: We're not sick. We're just horny. :Michael: Well, maybe I'll come and visit you one day... if you promise me that you won't play that record. :Lorraine: You don't like Chet Baker? :Michael: I don't understand it. It has no beat. I mean, how do you dance to it? :Lorraine: Try listening to the feelings, Michael.

Joannie: Listen, Roslyn, I've been thinking.

:Roslyn: After what I just heard, you were not thinking. :Joannie: Come on, come on. This is serious. This is our lives, not some dress rehearsal. I'm tired of being some slave. I spent my whole life watching my mother cook and clean, never leave the house, never leave the valley. She died looking a hundred. She was only 45. She started out just like us - love in Hollywood High. Next thing you know, there's no money, no love, nothing. She raised all of us. So what? She broke her ass like a Mexican maid, and maybe every two weeks, she'd scrape together a few pennies for a hair set and wash, reading her Hollywood magazines for her high on Hollywood boulevard next to the studios. Big deal. :Roslyn: You're having an affair, aren't you? :Joannie: We have to live before we die. We're kids playing mothers to kids... and that includes our so-called husbands.

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