The Feud (1989)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Bill D'Elia

Writers:

Thomas Berger (novel)
Bill D'Elia (writer)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

An Explosive New Comedy!

Plot Keywords:

Family Relationships | Feud | 1950s | Small Town | Black Comedy

Cast

Scott Allegrucci	...	Tony Beeler
Rene Auberjonois	...	Reverton
Ron McLarty	...	Dolf Beeler
Gale Mayron	...	Bernice Beeler
Libby George	...	Bobby Beeler
Stanley Tucci	...	Harvey Yelton
Don Hartman	...	Earnie
Josh Lozoff	...	Dickie Herkimer (as Joshua Bo Lozoff)
Lynda Clark	...	Marie
Roger Black	...	Bartender
David Dwyer	...	Coach
Tom Davis	...	Teammate
Joe Grifasi	...	Bud Bullard
Lynne Killmeyer	...	Eva Bullard
Kathleen Doyle	...	Freida Bullard

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Company:

American Playhouse

Dementedly funny

Tony Beeler lives in Hornbeck, but he goes to a dance in Millville, where he meets Eva Bullard. Hornbeck and Millville are rivals in football, but the towns are about to be enemies for more reasons than that.

Tony's father Dolf goes to a hardware store owned by Eva's father Bud. He wants paint remover, but he has a cigar in his mouth, and smoking and paint remover are a bad combination, even though the cigar is not lit. So Dolf gets in an argument with Bud and a Scrooge-like man in black named Reverton. The result is 'the feud'. A series of bizarre but unrelated events lead to each side blaming the other, and the desire for revenge.

Some more background: Tony has a geeky friend with tape on his glasses who likes to experiment with dangerous chemicals. Dolf works in the Millville Munitions plant. Tony's sister Bernice is a tramp.

Rene Auberjonois made Reverton quietly evil but often on the verge of exploding, though toward the end he was more looney than evil. Ron McLarty overacted as Dolf, but his performance fit this type of movie. One possible highlight (though I didn't care for it) was a scene where Harvey, a cop who didn't seem sane enough to be carrying a gun, gave an outlandish lecture to a boy whose ball went into the street. Stanley Tucci did quite a good job with this wacko. And Kathleen Doyle was a little too perky as Bud's wife. Joe Grifasi had the best opportunity of all to be weird as Bud, but I shouldn't say why.

I wish I had known ahead of time, but I used to live near where this movie was filmed, and I have gone inside a hospital in Statesville, N. C., which closed when I lived in the area and has been used as a movie set ever since.

Overall, I was pretty happy, but some of the humor was a little too dark.