Echo Park (1986)

In the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, everyone is more than they initially seem. May waits tables, raises a son, Henry, and is an aspiring actress. She needs a roommate and takes in... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Dornhelm

Writer:

Michael Ventura

Stars:

Susan Dey, Tom Hulce, Michael Bowen

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Susan Dey	...	May
Tom Hulce	...	Jonathan
Michael Bowen	...	August
Christopher Walker	...	Henry
Shirley Jo Finney	...	Gloria
Heinrich Schweiger	...	August's father
Cheech Marin	...	Syd
John Paragon	...	Hugo
Cassandra Peterson	...	Sheri
Timothy Carey	...	Vinnie
Martin Suppan	...	Austrian consul
Robert R. Shafer	...	Commercial director
Dorothy Dells	...	Consulate secretary
Yana Nirvana	...	Woman in bar
Paul Anselmo	...	Policeman

Storyline

In the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, everyone is more than they initially seem. May waits tables, raises a son, Henry, and is an aspiring actress. She needs a roommate and takes in a pizza deliverer named Jonathan, an aspiring songwriter. In the adjoining flat is August, an Austrian body sculptor who appears in a deodorant commercial and dreams big dreams. May takes a job delivering singing telegrams as a stripper, Jonathan invites Henry to tag along with him on deliveries, August gets into trouble with the police who call his father in Austria, and the friendships, frustrations, and love affairs of everyday life come to a head.

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Plot Keywords:

dream | actress | stripper | bodybuilder | pink panties | 

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Taglines:

Reality is for dreamers.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA Austria

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 July 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

Unelmien kuja

Filming Locations:

Echo Park, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$701,892 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sascha-Verleih

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the scene when Jonathon moves in with May, he is carrying a stack of albums in his arms, noticeable in that scene and a later one is The Partridge Family's "Up To Date" LP. May is played by Susan Dey, who played Laurie Partridge in The Partridge Family

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Goofs

May's cigarette when she's on the stairs of her house.

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Quotes

Commercial Director: The smoke is supposed to be coming out of the nose holes, not the asshole, it's so simple!

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Soundtracks

"The Need"
Written and Performed by Dean Chamberlain

User Reviews

A cute film about some fairly pathetic people

A cute film. Echo Park is apparently a fairly seedy district of Los Angeles. Susan Dey plays a bartender who wants to be an actress (unheard of in L.A., huh?) and gets a job doing Strip-o-grams. The pathetic thing is, she considers this her big break. She takes in a roommate, Tom Hulce, who delivers pizzas for a living. He immediately falls for her, but she is enamored of a neighbor, an Austrian who spends all his time pumping iron. He is convinced that he will be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger, and is completely oblivious to how miraculous it is that there is one Arnold, and hardly a big market for another. Anyway, Hulce's character spends much of the film suffering that terrible pain of loving someone, but seeing her throw herself at someone inferior. I had never heard of this film, but I liked it fairly well. Cassandra Peterson and Cheech Marin have small roles, also. Grade: B