Ragtime (1981)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Milos Forman

Writers:

E.L. Doctorow (novel) and
Michael Weller (writer)

Release Date:

6 January 1982 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was Ragtime

Plot:

A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.

Plot Keywords:

Pianist | 1910s | 1900s | Piano | Car

Awards:

Nominated for 8 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

James Cagney	...	Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo
Brad Dourif	...	Younger Brother
Moses Gunn	...	Booker T. Washington
Elizabeth McGovern	...	Evelyn Nesbit
Kenneth McMillan	...	Willie Conklin
Pat O'Brien	...	Mr. Delphin Delmas
Donald O'Connor	...	Evelyn's Dance Instructor
James Olson	...	Father
Mandy Patinkin	...	Tateh
Howard E. Rollins Jr.	...	Coalhouse Walker Jr.
Mary Steenburgen	...	Mother
Debbie Allen	...	Sarah
Jeffrey DeMunn	...	Harry Houdini (as Jeff Demunn)
Robert Joy	...	Henry 'Harry' Kendall Thaw
Norman Mailer	...	Stanford White

Also Known As:

Love and Glory (Philippines: English title)

Runtime:

155 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | Iceland:12 | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

81 West Main Street, Mt. Kisco, New York, USA

Company:

Dino De Laurentiis Company

Trivia:

This film reunited James Cagney (coming out of a 20-year retirement following One, Two, Three (1961)) with Pat O'Brien, his frequent co-star from the 1930s and 1940s. It was the last theatrical film for both of them.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Charles W. Fairbanks was not the Vice President of the United States when he was running with Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. He was a Senator from Indiana and was chosen as Roosevelt's running mate that year. Roosevelt was Vice President when he succeeded to the presidency upon William McKinley's assassination and he had no Vice President for his first term of office.

Quotes:

P.C. O'Donnell: Nobody's intimidating me, Mister. You just don't know what you're getting yourself into, and I'm trying to keep your nose clean. Now, would you be a good boy and just get along.?
Coalhouse Walker Jr.: I want my car cleaned!
P.C. O'Donnell: Clean it then, damn you! Clean it and go!
Coalhouse Walker Jr.: I want the man who did it to clean it!
P.C. O'Donnell: All right, all right, let me pit it this way. I can arrest you for blocking a public service exit, for creating a public nuisance, and about ten other things I ain't gonna mention. Now, am I making myself clear?
Coalhouse Walker Jr.: Yes.
P.C. O'Donnell: Good.
Coalhouse Walker Jr.: Officer, I still want my car cleaned.
P.C. O'Donnell: Oh, for Christ's sake! Ain't you got any sense in your head? I'm trying to help you! You leave me no choice.
Coalhouse Walker Jr.: I'm sorry.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Remembering 'Ragtime' (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

ONE MORE HOUR

Ragtime Era Tragedy

Back in the day when Hollywood was grinding out B westerns it wasn't unusual at all to see famous folks of the west in stories that had absolutely nothing to do with their own lives or to see many famous people interacting when they never even met in real life.

Ragtime revives some of that dubious tradition in filming E.L. Doctorow's novel about the Teddy Roosevelt years of the first decade of the last century. Teddy figures into this briefly as does his Vice President Charles Fairbanks. Booker T. Washington is here too, as are the principals of the Stanford White murder, and New York City Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo.

It's quite a blend because Roosevelt and Fairbanks ran for re-election in 1904 as Fairbanks is shown delivering a campaign speech. He wasn't even Vice President then, just a Senator from Indiana. Fairbanks was running for Vice President because Roosevelt had no Vice President in his first term. He succeeded to the presidency when Willima McKinley was assassinated.

The Stanford White murder took place in 1906 and was then called the crime of the century. Many such murders right up to O.J. Simpson were given that dubious distinction. And Rhinelander Waldo was not NYPD Police Commissioner until 1910 and he was much younger than James Cagney.

Still and all E.L. Doctorow's book is made into a fine film which got a whole bunch of Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director for Milos Forman and Supporting player nominations for Howard Rollins, Jr. and Elizabeth McGovern.

The main story is about Coalhouse Walker, Jr. a black ragtime pianist and his Sarah. She has his baby and they'd like to get married. But a whole lot of things, some of them peripherally connected to the true events and people previously mentioned that lead him and a gang to take possession of the Morgan Library and threaten to blow it up.

Howard Rollins was a real tragedy. This was a great start to a short, but brilliant career that included his long running role as Virgil Tibbs in the TV series In the Heat of the Night and the film A Soldier's Story. He died way too young from AIDS contracted from a lot of intravenous drug use.

Elizabeth McGovern is the famous Evelyn Nisbet, the girl on the red velvet swing which was the title of another film that dealt with the Stanford White murder. McGovern's performance is probably closer to the real Evelyn than Joan Collins was in that earlier film. She's basically a goldigger who juggled two men, her husband Harry K. Thaw and her upscale lover, society architect Stanford White. Her circus act led to White's death, Thaw's commitment to an insane asylum and a vaudeville career for her.

Ragtime was eagerly awaited because of the anticipated return of James Cagney to the screen after being off for 19 years. Cagney is clearly aged, but he gets through the role because unlike that television film Terrible Joe Moran, he's not the center of the film, though he's first billed. Note that he's sitting down during most of his performance and when he has to stand the camera is a discreet distance. It's nothing like the bouncing Cagney of old, but light years better than Terrible Joe Moran.

This was also the final joint appearance as it turned for the team that invented the buddy film, James Cagney and Pat O'Brien even though they have no scenes together. O'Brien is Harry K. Thaw's attorney and Mrs. O'Brien plays Thaw's mother under her maiden name of Eloise Taylor. She was an actress before she married Pat, but gave up her career to raise their four children.

Author Norman Mailer plays Stanford White, fulltime architect and hedonist and Robert Joy plays the demented millionaire Harry K. Thaw and both fit the parts perfectly. Maybe one day we will have a definitive film version just concentrating on the murder and it's aftermath for the three principals.

Milos Forman gave us a remarkable evocation of an exciting time in American history. It seemed that America had limitless possibilities then. I doubt they'll be saying that about the first decade of this century.