| Movie Movie | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Stanley Donen |
| Produced by | Stanley Donen |
| Written by | Larry Gelbart Sheldon Keller |
| Starring | George C. Scott Trish Van Devere Red Buttons Eli Wallach Barry Bostwick Harry Hamlin Barbara Harris |
| Music by | Ralph Burns |
| Cinematography | Charles Rosher Jr. Bruce Surtees |
| Editing by | George Hively |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. / ITC Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | November 1978 |
| Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Movie Movie is a 1978 American double bill directed by Stanley Donen. It consists of two short films, Dynamite Hands, a boxing ring morality play, and Baxter's Beauties of 1933, a musical comedy, both starring the husband-and-wife team of George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere. A fake trailer for a flying-ace movie set in World War I is also shown.
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At the start of the film, George Burns tells us that we are about to see an old-style double feature. In the old days, he explains, movies were in black-and-white, except sometimes "when they sang it came out in color."
Joey Popchik, a young man from a poor family, dreams of one day becoming a lawyer. His sister is losing her eyesight, so he becomes a boxer to raise the money to have her cured. Along the way, he gets seduced by fame and fortune, and runs afoul of a crooked boxing manager. In the end, his sister is cured and Joey, so that "poetic justice could be served," races through law school to become the prosecutor who puts the villain behind bars, spouting corny courtroom aphorisms such as "a man can move mountains with his bare heart."
Legendary theatrical producer Spats Baxter learns he's dying. To support the daughter he's never known after he's gone he plans to create one last Broadway smash. A young ingenue with dreams of performing on Broadway arrives to audition. Baxter's accountant is at heart a genius songwriter. Baxter's star is a spoiled actress who almost destroys the entire production with her drunkenness and reckless spending of the show's money. In the end the ingenue must go on in her place, becomes a star, and learns that Baxter is her long-lost father. As the curtain falls, a dying Baxter tells her, "One minute you're standing in the wings, the next minute you're wearing 'em."
In the theatrical release, as George Burns leads us to expect in the film's prologue, Dynamite Hands and the mock film trailer were in black-and-white, while the musical Baxter's Beauties of 1933 was in color. Some home video editions featured a colorized version of Dynamite Hands.
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