Smile

Rating:
Summary: A Forgotten Gem
Review: "Smile" is one of the most underappreciated comic satires of modern films. This dead-on look at the emptiness of small town existence is priceless. With biting humor and WONDERFUL performances by Bruce Dern, Barbara Feldon, Michael Kidd, Nicholas Pryor, Joan Prather and Annette O'Toole, "Smile" is a glowing example of brilliant filmmaking. With sharp, insightful direction by Michael Ritchie, "Smile" offers a hilarious look into the lives of townfolks trying to fill an empty void with the staging of a small town beauty pageant. The scene with O'Toole during the "talent" portion of the pageant is classic!

Rating:
Summary: Bruce Dern is fantastic!
Review: Definitely an unsung film. Bruce Dern plays an RV dealer(Big Bob Freelander) who is also a judge in the Miss Teen USA pageant which comes to his town. Brilliant comedy about the whole pageant scene. From the opening credits(over which Nat King Cole sings "Smile") this film has you. Dern's trophy shop working buddy(played perfectly by Nichoals Pryor) is fed up with small town life and wants to bail out. It is he who begins to criticize the pageant and all the other small town social crap. Very funny through and through. Flawless cinematography by the one and only Conrad Hall. Spread the word on this one, it's another dangling classic waiting to find it's spotlight.

Rating:
Summary: 'Smile' also has a great soundtrack......
Review: From Ted Farley, compere extraordinaire (and master of the faux pas)
'Smile' also has a great soundtrack. Apart from Nat 'King' Cole singing 'Smile' (by Charles Chaplin) over the titles, the 'Smile' soundtrack includes the Beach Boys 'California Girls', Neal Sedaka's 'You're sixteen, you're beautiful and you're mine ' and others!

Rating:
Summary: An underrated gem
Review: I found a crusty old copy of Smile at a video store and decided to take a chance, expecting at best a mediocre comedy. But I was surprised. This movie is really good, one of the best comedies of the 70's. How it ever faded away into oblivion is a good question?
This film is not dated at all. Unlike most old comedies, I found myself laughing throughout this whole movie. The humor is still fresh and revelant.
The movie deals with a teenage beauty pageant and the hypocrisy of a small town. It balances the subjects pretty well, saying just as much as a Douglas Sirk film about the later subject. This is displayed through Barbara Fenton's psycho character and Bruce Dern. (Both who do excellent jobs in this movie. Patricularly Bruce who will go on my future underrated actor list.)
This is the only film to deal with beauty pageants that has succeeded. It has so many great moments in it like the Mexican stereotype, the repressed geeky preteen boys running around town, and Annette O' Toole who shines in this movie as the redheaded dix. Her entry in the pageant is a classic.

Rating:
Summary: Short skirts and satire for the last beauty pageant
Review: I found the story a bit ponderous, but there were two things I thought worked really well in this movie.

First, though there was a lot of thinly veiled contempt for beauty pageants, I thought the girls themselves were treated sympathetically. I really liked the scenes of Annette O'Toole and her roommate getting dressed and discussing various win strategies. These were teenagers, some innocent, some mercenary, going after a goal handed to them by adults. It made the adults look like the ones who should have known better.

Second, I've always loved those '70s minidresses. The mini's revival this decade has never reached the, well, "heights" of minis in the mid-70s. It's hilarious to see girls in those tiny dresses wearing dainty white gloves. Although the short hems would seem to demand numerous peeks at girls' underwear, the film manages to show some restraint. One peculiar touch is the way that each day's events begins with a close-up of the embroidered day-of-the-week on Annette O'Toole's panties.

This was one of Melanie Griffith's first movies, but don't get it for that reason -- it's more of an Annette O'Toole movie.

Rating:
Summary: one of the best sleepers of all time
Review: I saw this movie at a theater when it first came out. There wasn't much advance publicity on this picture so I wasn't expecting much. This is an hilarious movie and it was still funny when I went back a couple of nights later to see it again. It's the story of a local beauty pageant in California(?). What makes this movie work is the wonderful way that different subplots, personalities, and sketches intermingle. There are the townspeople, the promoters, the overly curious adolescent boys of the town, and, of course, the contestants. Everything seems to work out alright in the end and we all have a good time getting there.

I've thought about this movie a lot in recent years and especially when our community hosts the Miss North Dakota pageant. I've looked for it in video stores but never found it. It's nice to know it's available on the internet. It just might be the best modern American film that nobody's ever heard of.