Smile (1975)

Director:

Michael Ritchie

Writer:

Jerry Belson (written by)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

It's time again for California's "Young American Miss" beauty pageant, the biggest event of the year for Big Bob Freelander and Brenda DiCarlo...

Plot Keywords:

Beauty Pageant | Beautiful Woman | Ambition | Talent Contest | Satire

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Bruce Dern	...	Big Bob Freelander
Barbara Feldon	...	Brenda DiCarlo
Michael Kidd	...	Tommy French
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Wilson Shears
Nicholas Pryor	...	Andy DiCarlo
Joan Prather	...	Robin (Miss Antelope Valley)
Denise Nickerson	...	Shirley Tolstoy (Miss San Diego)
Melanie Griffith	...	Karen Love
Annette O'Toole	...	Doria Houston (Miss Anaheim)
Maria O'Brien	...	Maria Gonzales
Colleen Camp	...	Connie Thompson (Miss Imperial Valley)
Kate Sarchet	...	Judy Wagner
Dick McGarvin	...	Ted Farley
William Traylor	...	Ray Brandy
Titos Vandis	...	Emile Eidleman

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Santa Rosa, California, USA

Company:

David V. Picker Productions

Trivia:

The final scenes were staged at the actual pageant, and no one - except script writer Jerry Belson and director Michael Ritchie - knew the winner, so the conclusion seems realistic.

Goofs:

Continuity: One of the audience members seen prominently during opening scene in Imperial Valley pageant later shows up again in closeup as Santa Rosa businessmen attending Bears Club luncheon.

Quotes:

Doria Houston: Santa Rosa is so beautiful. I mean, I thought the shopping mall in Anaheim was great until I saw yours. It's... a credit to the vision of your business community.

Movie Connections:

References "All in the Family" (1971)

Soundtrack:

Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo

Funny and disturbing satire

There's something very disturbing and creepy about the "wholesome" teen beauty pageant. It might be the "stage mothers" who are not just living through their daughters, but seem to actually be re-living the vainglorious days of their own pathetic lives before they became frumpy, boring housewives. It might be the way every male from the horny pre-teens to dirty old rotters leers at the teenage girls as they go through the "talent", "swimsuit", and "vim and vigor" portions of these ridiculous contests. Whatever it is, the subject is ripe for satire. This forgotten 70's movie is less famous than the more recent "Drop Dead Gorgeous", but it's really a lot more on-target as far as satire goes. Whereas the later film has its moments (Ellen Barkin's trailer trash mom with a beer can burnt onto her hand or the stupid contestant who has had a sexual encounter with Adam West), the satire in this movie is a lot more subtle and effective. There's the idiotic emcee who says things like: "Isn't she beautiful? Aren't they all beautiful? Isn't everybody beautiful?". There's the scary, Stepford-like pageant director (Barbara Feldon)who for the sake of "the girls" doesn't press charges after her drunken husband (quite understandably)tries to shoot her. Then there's the male community leaders led by "Big Bob" (Bruce Dern) who at one point dress in bedsheets and have an initiation ceremony in the park which ends up looking like an especially homoerotic Ku Klux Klan rally.

The adult actors are mostly just hilarious caricatures, but the contestants are more realistic and likable. The most famous faces are Melanie Griffith and Colleen Camp, but the main stars are Joan Prather (from TV's "Eight is Enough") and a young Annette O'Toole. The ending is kind of anti-climactic, but something about it kind of stays with you. It's not a great movie perhaps, but it was one made at a rare time when America could honestly look at itself in the mirror--and what is there is both funny and disturbing.