Susie Q (film)

Susie Q is a 1995 Super RTL Original movie that aired on Disney Channel frequently in the mid 1990s. Justin Whalin, Amy Jo Johnson and Shelley Long starred. The movie told the story of a teenager dying with her boyfriend on her way to their Winter Formal back in the mid-1950s and coming back to her old house about 40 years later in order to help her parents avoid being kicked out of their trailer park home. Later, Zach (Whalin) moves into Susie's (Johnson) old house, but he is the only one who is able to see Susie.

Disney Channel stopped showing the movie later in the new millennium. It was given a "TV-G" rating, and it was already cut for some profanity, but not all, when it primarily aired on the Disney Channel.^[1]

Susie Q is also the title of an upcoming independent film focusing on the relationship between two brothers fighting over the attention of a girl they plan to rob.^[2]

Cast

• Amy Jo Johnson as Susie Quinn
• Justin Whalin as Zach Sands
• Shelley Long as Penny Sands
• Ernie Prentice as George Quinn
• Bentley Mitchum as Johnny Angel
• Tasha Simms as Betsy Quinn
• Allan Morgan as Russel Quinn
• Andrea Libman as Teri Sands
• Garwin Sanford as Coach Stanford
• Chris William Martin as Ray Kovich
• David Kaye as Don Tanner
• Dale Wilson as Roger Kovich
• Will Sasso as Policeman

Plot

In the fictional town of Willow Valley in Washington during the year 1955, teenager Susie Quinn prepares for her prom. She and her date Johnny Angel are oblivious to the fact that an inebriated motorist would soon force their car into a waterway where they subsequently drown. Forty years later, a teenager named Zach Sands moves into that very house with his widowed mother Penny who has a new job as a news reporter. Zach's father had died in a car accident on his way to Zach's basketball game -- and Zach feels so guilty he abandons basketball. Now a student at the local high school, Zach befriends the drama group but also makes enemies of the envious Ray Kovich whose father Roger is a banker.

While fishing with his younger sister Teri, Zach finds a bracelet that causes Susie's ghost to visibly manifest herself before Zach. Eventually, Zach researches Susie and finds that she died 40 years ago. That night, Susie visits Zach again, and proves to him that he is the only one who can see her. Later Susie arrives at Zach's school, where he's distracted by the other girls in school - Susie rips off part of the prom dress she's wearing to get his attention. Susie begs Zach to help her find out what happened to her parents, but while doing so causes a scene in Zach's class. She apologizes, but continues to cause trouble at school and home until Zach agrees to help. They find out that Susie's parents are facing homelessness at the hands of the local bank because of a missing title deed, and that the bank is demanding an unaffordable $25,000 balloon payment. However, this is only one part of a larger plan, led by Roger Kovich, that would eventually destroy the town. Teri discovers that much of the town's land legally belongs to Susie's grandfather, and it becomes a fierce race to the finish as Zach locates the requisite title deed and draws the attention of the police; meanwhile Roger is warned and makes his own plans. Finally, the Quinn family's story is broadcast on live television, the bankers give up, Zach returns to basketball in honor of his late father,and Susie departs to the afterworld from the bridge where she died. In the closing scene, Zach meets a girl who looks identical to Susie and who introduces herself as Maggie.

Accuracy

At the beginning of the film, which is based in 1955, a record player is playing Dale Hawkins' version of "Susie Q.", yet it wasn't until 1957 that the song was released on vinyl.^[3]

Footnotes

External links

• Susie Q at the Internet Movie Database
• Susie Q at allmovie
• Susie Q at the Internet Movie Database