Hi, Mom! (1970)

A Vietnam vet moves into an apartment and views in other people's windows across the street, meets one of the women, and discovers black theater.

Director:

Brian De Palma

Writers:

Brian De Palma (screenplay), Charles Hirsch (story),

Stars:

Charles Durning, Robert De Niro, Allen Garfield

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Charles Durning	...	Superintendent (as Charles Durnham)
Robert De Niro	...	Jon Rubin
Allen Garfield	...	Joe Banner
Abraham Goren	...	Pervert
Lara Parker	...	Jeannie Mitchell
Bruce Price	...	Jimmy Mitchell
Ricky Parker	...	Ricky Mitchell
Andy Parker	...	Andy Mitchell
Jennifer Salt	...	Judy Bishop
Robbie Heywood	...	Roommate
Leslie Bornstein	...	Roommate
Paul Bartel	...	Uncle Tom Wood
Gerrit Graham	...	Gerrit Wood
Nelson Peltz	...	Playboy
Delia Abrams	...	Date

Storyline

Vietnam vet John Rubin returns to New York and rents a rundown flat in Greenwhich Village. It is in this flat that he begins to film, 'Peeping Tom' style, the people in the apartment across the street. His obsession with making films leads him to fall in with a radical 'Black Power' group, which in turn leads him to carry out a bizarre act of urban terrorism!

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Plot Keywords:

manhattan new york city | experimental film | male full frontal nudity | racial issues | new york city | 

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Taglines:

God bless our humble upper-middle-class high-rise co-op and keep it free from smut peddlers, militants, urban guerrillas and Greenwich Village liberals.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1970 (UK)

Also Known As:

Blue Manhattan

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

West End Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The opening scene, in which John Rubin (Robert De Niro) is shown around his crummy new apartment by the landlord (Charles Durning), is a parody of a then-contemporary TV public service announcement for the New York Urban Coalition, in which a similarly slimy landlord shows off a dilapidated apartment to a black man. The movie scene follows the commercial rather closely, and both De Niro and the unnamed black renter accept the apartment with the same words: "I'll take it." The commercial, however, is in black and white. (The public service campaign, entitled "Give A Damn", was also responsible for the same-named 1969 hit single by the pop group Spanky & Our Gang.)

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Goofs

When Jon Rubin is finally about to seduce Judy Bishop in her apartment, you can see a microphone 'peeping' into the room several times from behind the sofa where she is lying down.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jon Rubin: Uh, excuse me, sir? Sir? Sir - uh, are you the janitor of this building?

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Connections

References Rear Window (1954)

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Soundtracks

"Be Black Baby"
Music by Eric Kaz
Lyrics by John Andreolli
Sung by Grady Tate
Recorded at A&R Studios under the supervision of Eric Kaz
Engineer: Dave Sanders

User Reviews

Too hip for 1970

This movie has the distinction of being too hip even for the hippest period in American movies. (It wasn't the underground hit it deserved to be.) Full of guerrilla street theater and put-ons, and featuring a very young Robert De Niro going through lighting-fast comedy routines, it's an amazing document of the era. Remarkable the number of great actors De Palma discovered--with De Niro at the top of the list.