Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)

Director:

Paul Mazursky

Writer:

Paul Mazursky (written by)

Release Date:

4 February 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

1953 Was a Good Year for Leaving Home

Plot:

An aspiring Jewish actor moves out of his parents' Brooklyn apartment to seek his fortune in the bohemian life of Greenwich Village in 1953...

Plot Keywords:

Jewish | Actor | Bohemian | Grocery Store | Coming Of Age

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Lenny Baker	...	Larry Lapinsky
Shelley Winters	...	Faye Lapinsky
Ellen Greene	...	Sarah Roth
Lois Smith	...	Anita Cunningham
Christopher Walken	...	Robert Fulmer (as Chris Walken)
Dori Brenner	...	Connie
Antonio Fargas	...	Bernstein Chandler
Lou Jacobi	...	Herb
Mike Kellin	...	Ben Lapinsky
Michael Egan	...	Herbert Berghof - Acting Coach
Rashel Novikoff	...	Mrs. Tupperman (as Rachel Novikoff)
John C. Becher	...	Sid Weinberg - Casting Director
Jeff Goldblum	...	Clyde Baxter
Joe Spinell	...	Cop at El Station (as Joe Spinnell)
Denise Galik	...	Ellen
Rochelle Oliver	...	Doctor Marsha
Sol Frieder	...	Mr. Elkins
Helen Hanft	...	Herb's Wife
John Ford Noonan	...	Barney
Carole Monferdini	...	Southern Girl
Gui Andrisano	...	Marco
Joe Madden	...	Old Poet
Rubin Levine	...	Street Violinist
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rutanya Alda	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Milton Frome	...	Drugstore Customer (uncredited)
Annie Gagen	...	Acting Student (uncredited)
Ray Gill	...	(uncredited)
Paul Mazursky	...	Casting Director (uncredited)
Bill Murray	...	Nick Kessel (uncredited)
Stuart Pankin	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Vincent Schiavelli	...	Rent Party Guest (uncredited)
Filomena Spagnuolo	...	Old Lady on Street (uncredited)

Directed by
Paul Mazursky

Writing credits
Paul Mazursky		(written by)

Produced by
Paul Mazursky	....	producer
Anthony Ray	....	producer (as Tony Ray)

Original Music by
Bill Conti

Cinematography by
Arthur J. Ornitz		(as Arthur Ornitz)

Film Editing by
Richard Halsey

Casting by
Juliet Taylor

Production Design by
Philip Rosenberg		(as Phil Rosenberg)

Set Decoration by
Edward Stewart		(as Ed Stewart)

Costume Design by
Albert Wolsky

Makeup Department
William A. Farley	....	hair stylist (as Bill Farley)
Robert Jiras	....	makeup artist (as Bob Jiras)

Production Management
Terence A. Donnelly	....	unit production manager (as Terry Donnelly)
Anthony Ray	....	production manager (as Tony Ray)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Terence A. Donnelly	....	assistant director (as Terry Donnelly)
Jonathan Sanger	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Robert Hart	....	construction coordinator (uncredited)

Sound Department
Dennis Maitland	....	production sound mixer
Arthur Piantadosi	....	sound re-recording mixer
Richard Sperber	....	sound effects editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Louis Cappeta	....	key grip
Willie Meyerhoff	....	gaffer
Joseph Di Pasquale	....	first assistant camera (uncredited)

Casting Department
Sylvia Fay	....	atmosphere casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Peggy Farrell	....	wardrobe: women
Max Soloman	....	wardrobe: men (as Max Solomon)

Editorial Department
Glenn Farr	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Paul Desmond	....	musician: solo saxophone
Cliff Kohlweck	....	music editor (as Clif Kohlweck)

Other crew
Tom Folino	....	assistant to producers
Bob Gelber	....	automotive advisor
Nancy Hopton	....	script supervisor (as Nancy Tonnery)
Shari Leibowitz	....	production officer supervisor
Ralph M. Leo	....	location auditor (as Ralph Leo)

Production Companies

• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Distributors

• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1976) (USA) (theatrical)
• Fox-Stockholm Film Distribution (1977) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Fox Video (1992) (USA) (VHS) (pan and scan)

Other Companies

• Pacific Title  titles

Also Known As:

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Iceland:L | USA:R | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In one scene, Larry's mother, an opera fan, refers to a recording "from Verdi's 'Tosca'". "Tosca" was composed by Puccini, not Verdi.

Quotes:

Faye Lapinsky:Who are you?
Bernstein:I'm Bernstein.
Faye Lapinsky:[surprised by his name due to his being black] You're Jewish?
Bernstein:No, darling; I'm gay.
Faye Lapinsky:I don't care how you feel; you're a great dancer.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Brady Bunch Variety Hour: Episode #1.5" (1977)

Soundtrack:

Blue Rondo A La Turk

A FILM TRIBUTE TO A VERY SPECIAL PLACE AND TIME

During June of 1954 in New York City, I graduated junior high school and, to celebrate the event, joined three of my classmates on a forbidden sojourn to the city's famous Greenwich Village. Exiting the subway station at Christopher street, we were amazed at the apparent ordinariness of this place we'd heard so much about from older adolescents and adults.

In fact, at first glance, nothing extraordinary seemed to be happening there, with the sole exception of more White people being present than four Black teenagers from Harlem were were accustomed to seeing.

For you see, this was the mid 1950's, Dr. Martin Luthor King Jr. had as yet to lead any freedom marches, Southern schools were as yet to be integrated, and in many Southern states Black people were lynched on Saturday nights as town entertainment. But three hours later, we knew that everything we'd heard about Greenwich Village was true and more. For this was a place far ahead of it's time.

In the Greenwich Village of the 1950's, racial integration had been in place for well over two decades. But far more important, forbidden talk of sexual liberation, interracial sex, homosexuality, along with political, artistic and literary freedom at all levels were openly discussed, flouted and displayed for all to see; performed to a background mixture of new age Jazz, early Rock and Roll and Folk Music. Virtually nothing was excluded from the social or musical menu this incredible place had to offer.

I can't speak for the rest of my friends on that day, but I immediately fell in love with the place and remained so, until it's untimely demise at the hands of the high rise-high priced real estate industry toward the mid 1970's. By then, the people who had made the place justifiably famous and notorious for what it was, could no longer afford to live there. So the Village remained,in name only, as it is today: a mere shadow of what it used to be.

Joyfully, director Paul Mazursky has managed to capture on film, a moving snapshot of the social life and time of a remarkable neighborhood, in what was probably the last fifteen to twenty years of it's legitimate life. And I do remember it so well. The rent parties for starving (sometimes talented) artists, the ubiquitous book shops, the coffee houses featuring impromptu poetry readings, the fashion statements (or blatant lack thereof), the mixing and making of all sorts of colorful characters who, even in their farcical attempts to parody themselves, were more alive and real then those who would put them down. This was the Greenwich Village of the 1950's and of legend.

This magical place was for me and many others (as was for the director who produced this film as an ode to his time there), our first real awakening and taste of adult life. And far more important, a fortuitous preparation for the new social order that was, in time, to come.

The place, as it was, is truly deserving of this wonderful little gem of a film.