Oscar (1991 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oscar
Oscar (1991)
Directed by	John Landis
Produced by	Leslie Belzberg
Written by	Claude Magnier (play) Michael Barrie (screenplay) Jim Mulholland (screenplay)
Starring	Sylvester Stallone Peter Riegert Chazz Palminteri Kurtwood Smith
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography	Mac Ahlberg
Editing by	Dale Beldin
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s)	April 26, 1991
Running time	109 min.
Country	USA
Language	English / Italian
IMDb profile

Oscar is a movie from 1991 directed by John Landis and starring Sylvester Stallone. The film is a remake of Oscar from 1967. It was a rare attempt by Stallone at doing a comedy role.

[edit] Plot

Oscar is an ensemble comedy that, except for the prelude, takes place over the course of one morning. The story follows gangster Angelo “Snaps” Provolone on the day where he is to meet with several prominent bankers and enter a legitimate profession, giving up his life of crime. His seemingly simple morning is complicated by a host of problems, including news of his daughter’s sudden pregnancy, his scheming accountant and a second daughter he never knew he had.

[edit] Characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Angelo “Snaps” Provolone (Sylvester Stallone): A feared gangster who, at the beginning of the film, promises his dying father that he will give up a life of crime, and instead “go straight.” He has a busy morning in preparation for a meeting with several prominent bankers, as he hopes to donate a large sum of cash and join the bank’s board of trustees, thereby having an honest job and keeping his word to his father. Snaps's day is filled with surprises and challenges, as all the while he tries to stay calm and not kill anyone. After his negotiations with the bankers go sour, he decided to abandon his short-lived honest ways and return to a life of crime.

Lisa Provolone (Marisa Tomei): The only child of Snaps and Sofia. Lisa is a spoiled daughter whose dreams of seeing the world’s great sights run into a roadblock because of her overly protective father. Wishing to move out of the house, she lies to her parents (at the suggestion of the maid, Nora) and claims to be pregnant. Snaps, believing the father to be Anthony (as he wants to marry "Snaps's daughter"), is shocked when Lisa says the father is Oscar, the old chauffer. Because Oscar is out of the country, Lisa is forced to marry Anthony (after a trick by Snaps), but gets out of the arrangement when she falls in love with someone else – Dr. Poole. She and Poole marry at the film’s end.

Anthony Rossano (Vincent Spano): The kind yet wily accountant of Snaps. Anthony’s early morning arrival to the mansion sets all events in motion. Anthony tells his boss that he’s in love, asks for a monumental raise, then tells Snaps the true love he speaks of is actually "Snaps's daughter." After Anthony professes his love for the daughter, Snaps agrees to let he and his daughter marry. What Anthony soon learns is this: The woman he fell in love with is not actually Snaps' daughter, but was merely pretending to be. Before Anthony can catch on, Snaps tricks him into agreeing to marry his actual daughter, Lisa, who is pregnant but without a husband. Anthony uses his cunning to get out of his hasty agreement, but Snaps always seems one step ahead of him. At the film's end, he arranges a budding romance between Lisa and Dr. Poole, getting him out of the marriage. He decides to marry his true love, Theresa, who, as it turns out, is actually Snaps's daughter after all.

Theresa (Elizabeth Barondes): A young woman who falls in love with Anthony Rossano. Afraid that her poor social standing will make Anthony leave her, Theresa lies and claims to be a daughter of Snaps Provolone, as she knows he is a man of importance (but she fails to realize that he is a gangster). Though she is overjoyed after learning that Anthony wishes to marry her, she calls off the romance when she sees Anthony’s quick temper concerning money and Snaps's scheming. She eventually reunites with Anthony and learns from her mother that Snaps Provolone is actually her long-lost real father. At the end of the film, she and Anthony are married.

Sofia Provolone (Ornella Muti): Snaps’s loving and emotional wife. She is left in the dark as to the morning's hectic happenings, and is often shocked to hear the conversations going on around her. ("You had a child with the new maid?!")

Dr. Thornton Poole (Tim Curry): A linguistics expert who arrives for an elocution lesson with Snaps. Poole is a world traveler, who giddily traverses the country in his studies of the sub-dialects of the English language. (“Next week, I’m off to Appalachia, to study the colloquialisms of the coal-mining community!”) In an effort to find Lisa a husband, Snaps tries to bribe Poole into marrying his daughter. The bribery attempts fail humorously, but Poole genuinely falls in love with Lisa, and the two marry at the end of the film.

Aldo (Peter Riegert): Snaps’s top man who took over the role of house butler when his boss went straight. Often underappreciated, Aldo tries to keep all the mansion henchmen in line in preparation for Snaps’s important meeting with the bankers.

Connie (Chazz Palminteri): A loyal but dim-witted button man for Snaps. Connie’s penchant for carrying numerous weapons and his slow brain make for several humorous moments.

Vendetti (Richard Romanus): A rival gangster of Snaps who’s worried at how quiet Snaps has been recently. Vendetti gathers a group of men and plans to assassinate Snaps in the early afternoon. His car full of men crashes near the house though, right in front of Lt. Toomey, who arrests the whole group.

Lt. Toomey (Kurtwood Smith): A cranky lieutenant who’s out for Snaps. He observes the morning’s unusual going-ons and believes that Snaps is setting up for a large meeting with the O’Bannon mob, a group of Chicago gangsters. When his men raid Snaps’s house at noon expecting to find money and gangsters, Toomey is humiliated when he discovers nothing but a bag of women's underwear. Disgraced, he exits the house, but gets lucky when real gangster Vendetti crashes his car nearby, giving Toomey the easy collar with all the press nearby for photographs.

The Bankers: Four snooty men who are at odds with one another over letting Snaps donate money and join their board of trustees. Because of the depression, they agree to allow Snaps on the board and meet with him (at noon on the day that the story takes place). When Toomey busts in on the meeting, the bankers are mistaken for the O’Bannon gang, a group of gangsters from Chicago.

Nora: The conniving maid who tells Lisa to lie to her parents about being pregnant. Halfway through the story, she abruptly quits her job, as she’s off to marry rich snob Bruce Underwood III (who was actually Snaps’ original groom choice for Lisa). Nora accidentally takes a bag of money out of the house instead of her underwear, which leads to bag confusion throughout the entire movie.

Roxanne: A replacement maid sent over by the service after Nora’s sudden departure. Snaps recognizes Roxanne (“Roxy”), as the two are actually former lovers who had a fling many years ago, before Snaps became a gangster. Roxanne reveals she left Snaps one night because she was pregnant. She is extremely surprised to see her daughter in the mansion – Theresa. Connie then puts all the facts together and reveals that Theresa is actually Snaps’ real daughter from a relationship 20 years ago.

Eduardo Provolone (Kirk Douglas): Snaps’s father who dies at the beginning of the film. Just before he passes, he makes Snaps promise to live an honest life.

Oscar (Jim Muholland): Snaps’s chauffeur who left the country to serve in the army. He was previously Lisa’s lover, and, at the film’s end, arrives at the double wedding to voice his protest to the wedding. He is “expeditiously” carried out of the church by Snaps’ henchmen.

Luigi and Guido Fenucci (Martin Ferraro and Harry Shearer): A pair of Italian tailors who arrive early to find Snaps the perfect suit for his important meeting. The Fenucci’s are constantly disrupted as problems around the house continue to occur. Snaps manages to convince Anthony that the Fenucci’s are vicious assassins who will murder Anthony on a moment’s notice should he step out of line.