SPOILER
ALERT
With
his wife, Earl Keese drives home to his large family home in a
suburban cul-de-sac. Halfway to the sticks, the only other house in
Bird street lies empty, high-voltage power lines fizzing and
crackling ominously behind the houses. They sit in silence, Earl
watching tv. Both seem remote, estranged even, bored. The sound of
car doors brings Earl to the window; a Ranchero and a U-Haul, the
lights of the empty house on. Earl wants to invite the new neighbours
for drinks, but Mrs.Keese disagrees. A noise brings Earl out back
where he sees a German shepherd rummaging around. Taking a fresh
bottle of wine to his chair, Earl is disturbed by the unfamiliar
sound of the doorbell ringing...
ABOVE: Vic (left) takes Earl for a ride
BELOW: Ramona's sultry act has Earl hot & bothered, but they all end up friends...
Vic and
Ramona (Dan Aykroyd and Cathy Moriarty) are the new neighbours. Earl
Keese is, of course, the late and much-missed John Belushi in his
finale role. His wife Enid is played by Kathryn Walker, their
daughter Elaine by Lauren-Marie Taylor. Notably, Tim Kazurinsky
(Police Academy) has a small, but memorable role as Pa Greavy, a
grouchy local handyman-plumber.
Ramona,
a sultry Blonde flirts with Earl, all suggestion and innuendo. A
Blonde, blue-eyed Akroyd, 'Captain' Vic is loud, brash, over bearing
and over-friendly; right away he's in Earl's chair and taking over
his life. Much has been made of the role-reversal, Belushi and
Aykroyd swapping roles, but it deserves mention as it works
flawlessly. For once, Belushi is restrained, his manic persona
struggling at the characters bonds; Keese is a dull, everyday man
weighed down by life and cuckolded by his wife, while Aykroyd's Vic
is the riotous, life-o'-the-party kind you'd expect from his comedy
partner.
Enid Keese is on a Native American kick, chain smokes and
despises Earl.
ABOVE: Vic's daughter Elaine visits after being expelled from school, but Vic's bought breakfast...
The
film's main gag is straight out of farce; every time he is alone with
Vic or Ramona Earl's on the wrong end of things; the set-ups keep
coming so he's always in the wrong, tight-fisted, the grouch. The
second Mrs.Keese or other characters appear, the new neighbours are
the innocent victims and Earl's the bad guy. Example; Vic sets Earl
up into paying for take-out and then goes back to his house to
prepare it, trousering the cash. Earl rumbles him and confronts him,
only to look like the villain of the piece when a pained Vic is
affronted that his home cooking was spurned. The neighbours can do no
wrong and Earl's on the end of both their tricks and his own attempts
at revenge, which, of course backfire spectacularly.
A
troubled production, the actors went to war with Director John
G.Avildsen (Rocky, The Karate Kid) over what they saw as his
lack of comedy perception. Belushi tried to get John Landis (Kentucky
Fried Movie/Animal House/The Blues Brothers/Trading Places/etc)
to take over the helm. Personally, I find Avildsen's slightly
stiff direction works in the film's favour; though Landis' films are
amongst my all-time comedy favourites and he would almost certainly
have had a bigger hit with Neighbors (The
film wasn't a flop; it made money primarily because the studio
released it as widely as possible during the holidays).
Belushi's drug use was spiralling and it was showing. Further,
composer Tom Scott (Composer: Streets of San Francisco/Starsky &
Hutch, Sax player; Taxi
Driver, founder member of the
Blues Brothers band)
was replaced by Bill Conti (Rocky/For Your Eyes Only).
Conti's score, composed in seven days, works well and makes good use
of musical themes; the empty house is 'Twilight Zone', Enid Keese
gets the Indian war-drums and so-on.
ABOVE: Dan Aykroyd on set with Director John G.Avildsen
Two-thirds
of the film tells the story of a manic night; Earl goes from an
airless existence to an exiting rebirth in 24 hours. In this sense,
the film precedes Lester Burnham's renaissance in American
Beauty. Neighbors is full
of lovely touches, bits and pieces of comedy work that add up to a
great film. This was largely panned on it's release and proves movie
critics are about as reliable as a thirty year old Skoda. John
Belushi having a crafty shave to meet with Ramona, The
TV bits (Voiced by Aykroyd), the
'Swamp thing' scene... it just keeps giving. Cum,
cum-cum-cum indeed...
ABOVE: Vic's house is on fire (Holding the 'Hooly bar' is Tim Kazurinsky)
BELOW: Aykroyd poses for a publicity still
Four
months after Neighbors was
released, John Belushi died
from an overdose of cocaine and heroin. I prefer to think that
he went off with Captain Vic and Ramona.
sick ,twisted drug charged plot from j the ssat night pervs .... but a basic premise of a couple of weirdo ccharacters saving a dummy from a bad wife is t here .
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