Hey Good Lookin'

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Hey Good Lookin'
VHS cover.
Directed by	Ralph Bakshi
Produced by	Ralph Bakshi
Written by	Ralph Bakshi
Starring	Richard Romanus David Proval Jesse Welles Tina Bowman
Music by	John Madara Ric Sandler
Cinematography	Ted C. Bemiller
Editing by	Donald W. Ernst
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	October 1, 1982
Running time	77 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

For the Hank Williams song, see Hey Good Lookin' (song)

Hey Good Lookin' is a 1982 animated film written, directed, and produced by Ralph Bakshi. The film takes place in Brooklyn, New York, during the 1950s. Vinnie is the leader of The Stompers, a ragtag "gang" with delusions of grandeur. His girl, Roz, thinks Vinnie is the most wonderful thing on two legs. And his friend, Crazy Shapiro, would die for the honor of Vinnie and the gang. The film was originally intended to be a combination of live-action and animation. However, the studio financing the film found the concept to be unbelievable and forced the director to go back and animate the live-action sequences. The film was not a box office success, but has since gained a cult following.

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Cast
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film begins in Long Island on the present day, with a philosophical conversation between a garbage can and a pile of trash. A few blocks away, a middle-aged woman meets a strange man on the streets at night who shows her the remains of a leather jacket. In a flashback to 1950s-era Brooklyn, we meet Vinnie (voice of Richard Romanus), the leader of The Stompers, who values, in equal measure, the perfection of his hairstyle and scoring with girls. His best friend is Crazy Shapiro (David Proval), a loudmouthed freak who more than lives up to his moniker. Crazy's detective father, Solly, hates his son and routinely tries to kill him. In the alley where Vinnie and The Stompers hang out, roughhouse, and have sex with their girls, Vinnie meets and falls for voluptuous young Jewish girl-down-the-block Rozzie (Tina Romanus). The next day, Vinnie waits until evening for Roz to show up before leaving with Crazy for a night on the town. Meanwhile, Roz has been chained to her bed by her father so she won't be tempted to "do anything." Vinnie and Crazy meet up with a couple of girls who turn out to be prostitutes. Vinnie tells one of the girls that he "never pays for it," while Crazy is quickly jumps into bed with the other one, and the bed ends up crashing halfway out of the hotel room. Vinnie and Crazy go to sleep on the beach, and when they wake up the next morning, they find that they're a few feet away from a group of showering women—and their Sicilian mobster husbands. While Crazy inches over to the ladies, Vinnie finds a dead body buried in the sand. The screams of both Vinnie and the women alert the mobsters who begin to beat up Crazy as Vinnie runs off, finding himself on the black area of the beach where he bumps into Boogaloo and his gang, the Chaplains, and finds himself in a position to set up a rumble between their gang and the Stompers. This is a problem since Vinnie isn't nearly as tough as he makes himself out to be.

Roz and Vinnie.

Elsewhere on the beach, Vinnie meets up with Roz and the girl Crazy's dating, fat Eva (Jesse Welles). We find out that Crazy has killed all of the mobsters. The four head out to a party, where Vinnie tells the Stompers that they're going to fight with the Chaplains, to which the gang responds with adverse negativity. Much of the gang and their girls head out to a rock and roll show. Sal (Candy Candido) and his girl have a run-in with Boogaloo while driving, and wind up in a car crash. Vinnie finally persuades the Stompers to rumble with the Chaplains.

Crazy Shapiro and Vinnie.

At a drive-in fast food restaurant, Vinnie and Crazy make out with their girls — Crazy and Eva in a pile of hamburgers! When Roz spots a car that she thinks Boogaloo is in, Crazy is quick to drive off after it. They corner the car in an alley where Crazy shoots both of the black gang members in the car, much to Vinnie's shock. When Vinnie heads out of town, Crazy has sex with Roz on the pier. Meanwhile, Solly investigates the death of the two black gang members. He questions Boogaloo who tells him "Chaplains don't waste their bullets on themselves," and that he should be looking for the Stompers, noting that Solly's son is a member of the gang. Back at the pier, Solly fights with Crazy. As he's losing, Crazy tells his father that Vinnie killed them. Vinnie returns in time for the rumble between the Chaplains and the Stompers. As the two gangs wait for Boogaloo to show up, Solly drives up, ready to arrest Vinnie. On the rooftop of a nearby building, Crazy begins shooting randomly towards the street. We see him fight against his own hallucinations—including garbage can monsters and giant, naked women. Vinnie tries to run and is shot by Solly. Crazy jumps off the rooftop, landing on Solly, killing both. Meanwhile, we see Roz calling up a radio station to make a memorial request. Suddenly, Vinnie stands up, and walks away. Back at the present time, we see the man and the woman, revealed to be Vinnie and Roz's older selves. The two lovers reunite.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Production

Bakshi completed the initial version of Hey Good Lookin' in 1975.^[1] Hey Good Lookin' was originally going to be a live-action movie with a few animated characters (similar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Bakshi's rationale was that "the animated characters were such clichés of the period - balancing them with more realistic actors would be interesting".^[2] When Bakshi's original cut of the film was shown to Warner Brothers executives, they loved it. A week later, they told Bakshi that the idea of having live-action and animated characters in the same frame was too unbelievable, and delayed the film's release, forcing Bakshi to go back and animate the live action sequences in-between the making of three other films.^[2]^[3] It took 4-5 more years to complete the film as the studio requested.^[4]

"There was really nothing wrong with live action and animation productions," Bakshi said. "It was just that nobody thought about them making money till Roger Rabbit came out. Then they realized they made a mistake. But it was too late for Hey Good Lookin'."^[5] It is unknown who currently has the original live-action footage.^[5] One notable sequence in the released version of the film that was originally in live-action was the "rumble" ending: the black gang members are rotoscoped from the original live actors.^[4] A live-action scene cut from the film featured glam-punk band, New York Dolls, taking place at the party before Vinny attempts to convince the Stompers to brawl the Chaplains. While Vinny and Crazy are in the bathroom, the other Stompers fight with the Dolls back and forth outside the bathroom. Many photographs of the scene were taken during filming.^[5] In recent years, the film has become a cult classic. A soundtrack album was released in 2006.

[edit] Cast

Richard Romanus .... Vinnie (voice)
David Proval .... Crazy Shapiro (voice)
Jesse Welles .... Eva (voice)
Tina Romanus .... Rozzie (voice) (as Tina Bowman)

[edit] References

^ Cohen, Karl F (1997). Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.. ISBN 0-7864-0395-0.
^ ^a ^b Ralph Bakshi. Re: Most enjoyable film to make?. Ralph Bakshi Forum. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
^ Maltin, Leonard (1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. Plume. ISBN 0-978-0452259935.
^ ^a ^b Ralph Bakshi. Hey Good Lookin' (1980). Ralph Bakshi Forum. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
^ ^a ^b ^c Bakshi Board Exclusive Interview #4. Ralph Bakshi Forum. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.