Brenda Starr (1989)

User Rating:

4.3/10   

Director:

Robert Ellis Miller

Writers:

Noreen Stone (story) &
James D. Buchanan (story) ...

Release Date:

15 April 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure

Plot:

Mike is a struggling artist who draws the 'Brenda Starr' strip for the papers. When Brenda comes to...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Comic | Independent Film | Character Name In Title

Cast

Brooke Shields	...	Brenda Starr
Timothy Dalton	...	Basil St. John
Tony Peck	...	Mike Randall
Diana Scarwid	...	Libby 'Lips' Lipscomb
Nestor Serrano	...	Jose
Jeffrey Tambor	...	Vladimir
June Gable	...	Luba
Charles Durning	...	Editor Francis I. Livright
Kathleen Wilhoite	...	Reporter Hank O'Hare
John Short	...	Cub Reporter Pesky Miller
Eddie Albert	...	Police Chief Maloney
Mark von Holstein	...	Donovan O'Shea, Public Enemy #3
Henry Gibson	...	Professor Gerhardt Von Kreutzer
Ed Nelson	...	President Harry S. Truman
Tom Aldredge	...	The Fake Capt. Borg

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Company:

AM/PM Entertainment

Trivia:

Filmed in 1986. Timothy Dalton began filming his first James Bond film, The Living Daylights (1987), two days after completing work on this movie.

Quotes:

Brenda Starr: I'm having a terrible problem with some of those purses you're having me wear. They're just too small! I have to use teeny-weeny notebooks so they'll fit. Half the time I have the memorize what people say. I want my stories accurate!
Mike Randall: Brenda, I just draw you. I didn't create you, a woman did.
Brenda Starr: Well, tell her I don't mind the wardrobe. Of course, logically I couldn't afford it on what I earn. But I understand the public expects me to look chic, and I wouldn't want to let them down!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Inside 'The Living Daylights' (2000) (V)

Soundtrack:

Fiesta With My Love

In the days before Brooke Shields could act...

She would cash in on her looks. Her acting ability has finally reared its head with Suddenly Susan, but prior to her stint on TV Brooke Shields did a number of lack luster appearances films that were shot as A-quality pictures, but suffered from her poor acting ability.

"Brenda Starr" shows a turning point in Brooke's acting career, largely because it seemed as though she actually projected herself into the Brenda Starr character, verse reciting lines in her previous roles.

Even so the film is poorly directed, and veterans like Dalton and Scarwid cannot prop up a film that has a definate lack of vision. In fact the best sequences of the entire film are in Act I; from Shields braving a ledge to get an interview with an Irish immigrant gangster, to her welcome home to the office by the Brenda Starr comic strip's supporting characters.

The film was given a kind of feminine sense of adventure, which I believe detracts from what could've been a far more entertaining film; had the director just followed his personal instincts and created a good adventure film. The high points are seeing Brooke herself in very alluring fashions of the late forties. Beyond that there's not much here. Brooke looks the part, but couldn't act it ... at least not then.