FILMS… Flashback to a Family Themed Farce with Kirstie Alley

#1990s #AllPosts

 

Remembering when Kirstie Alley kept it in the family…

 

Kirstie Alley heads an all-star 1990s movie comedy which is just what the doctor ordered.

 

With Scott Bakula

With Sam Elliott

Sibling Rivalry 1990 Movie Trailer – Kirstie Alley, Carrie Fisher, Ed O’Neil, Sam Elliott, CappaZack

 

I was sad to learn that the supertalented Kirstie Alley had passed away recently. This film and television actress was one that I knew I had to write a tribute to. This was not just because of the less than subtle hints coming from my family members. It’s more than clear from me, my Darlin Husband and my now film buff mum that Kirstie was one much-loved actress from our many recommendations. Yet this actress and her legacy had left me with no doubt about how I would tribute to her.

I like many others was first introduced to this actress after she appeared in the TV comedy series Cheers (1982-93). Unlike my Darlin Husband who had first spotted her in her film debut role as Saavik in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). In this role, she starred with the Corinthian leathery-voiced and silver fox – even though he was mulleted – Ricardo Montalban as Khannnnnnnnn and that familiar Star Trek crew.

My mum and I remembered Kirstie in her Cheers (1985-6) role as Rebecca Howe, which was a role that had admittedly had my teenage self more than a wee bit envious. This as her love interest was played by Tom Berenger, who regular readers will know as one of my 80s Crushes. She also starred with Berenger in Shoot to Kill (1988) along with Clancy Brown and the late Sidney Poitier.

Other Kirstie Alley telly, that I was glued to back in the 1980s included North and South (1985-86),. This was a seemingly never-ending mini-series epic about before, during and after the American Civil War. This was from the POV of the North and South and had more stars than your average Irwin Allen disaster movie. I would heartily recommend it if you want to wallow in a dream guest star list and it’s definitely a mini-series with something for everyone.

The acting talent was headed by – a then crush – Beaches (1988) actor John Read, Hanover Street (1979)’s Lesley Ann Down, and Patrick Swizzle Swayze before he took up Dirty Dancing (1987). Other stars included Gene Kelly and Olivia DeHavilland. So the history buff, your granny and an all-star cast / classic movie aficionado in your house are all catered for with some fictional soapy-themed plots meeting real-life history. It was one of a mini-series trilogy based on the books by John Jakes, the same author that brought you another mini-series in the same vein called The Bastard (1978).

However, my favourite of her films was one from 1990 as Kirstie took on the leading role in the comedy, Sibling Rivalry (1990). It is which is an underrated film farce. But like her role in North and South, she is accompanied by a sterling starry lineup for this (still) Realweegiemidget Reviews weepie (because of the ending). The list of acting lovelies includes in no particular order Jami Gertz, Bill Pullman, Ed O’Neill, Carrie Fisher, Scott Bakula, John Randolph and Frances Sternhagen. And in another case of lucky Kirstie, just one of her love interests is played by the dulcet-sounding silver fox, Sam Elliott. And with that tache… Yay.

Anyway, Kirstie is Marjorie Turner, a woman who used to write but stopped writing years ago much to her frustration. She feels she hasn’t been herself for years. Marjorie explains through narrative flashbacks that for the last eight years, she has been the perfect wife to Harry Turner (Bakula), who was the first man and lover in her life.  She adds that she was orphaned at an early age. Since then she has taken responsibility for her wee sister, Jeanine (Gertz) who she thinks needs to go to college rather than work in a pet shop specialising in all things fish, and have a relationship that lasts longer than 24 hours.

Marjorie’s husband, Harry (Bakula) is a doctor and is one of a family of doctors who all work together in their own practice. The Turner family intrudes into Marjorie’s home life all the time and constantly treats her like crap. These relatives include Iris (Fisher) and her doctor husband and Marjory’s mother-in-law (Sternhagen), Rose and her father-in-law, Charles (Snr) (John Randolph).

Harry doesn’t take much notice of Marjorie’s needs, be it for affection or sex as he’s obsessed with his work as a doctor and pandering to his family. One day, her in-laws are visiting Marjorie and Harry. They are looking forward to their prodigal son / brother returning, after being away overseas for 15 years. It appears this brother rarely kept in touch, and nearly won a Nobel Prize.

Marjorie complains about Harry’s behaviours in the bedroom to Jeanine, who suggests she has an affair. Her reasoning is so she can compare Harry with him, as she points out he has been Marjorie’s only lover. Marjorie fumes and goes shopping for the dinner party to celebrate Harry’s brother’s return.

At the till a rugged moustached man asks her to help him write a card as he is sending a fruit basket to his family get-together. She helps him by saying “Start without me…”, as he is in two minds about going to this party…  This handsome stranger then helps her feel less angry. They go for lunch together, and he takes an interest in her and listens to her. Despite not knowing their names they then end up in a hotel room.

It’s suggested from the trail of discarded clothes and the accompanying dialogue that they make mad passionate frenzied love… Afterwards, she tells him she loves her husband and doesn’t want to see him again. After she tries to wake him up, she discovers he’s dead…

Meanwhile, in a different family, Nick (Pullman) has been loaned all the money for his rent by his policeman brother, Wilbur (Ed O’Neill). Wilbur wants to become a police chief and fears his brother might jeopardise his chances. Nick works as a vertical blinds salesman and is so bad at his job he hasn’t sold any. He tells his boss, that he’s going to try a local hotel… there he tries his luck at the hotel by waiting for an opportunity to hang the blinds up to persuade the manager.

Things then get supercomplicated… In a panic, Marjorie leaves the hotel room – and the corpse – and then trips over a box containing one of Nick’s vertical blinds in her hurry. She leaves her wallet behind and the door ajar. Nick finds her wallet and then enters the opened hotel room. He then attempts to put up the vertical blinds, but he falls backwards after losing his balance. The pole he was holding onto is then thrust into the bed. Nick then finds the corpse and thinks he’s killed someone called Charles Turner (Sam Elliott)…

Marjorie returns home and phones the police anonymously. She asks them to investigate the hotel room and gives the phone number. On investigation, Nick answers the door of the hotel room and says it’s a prank. These plots collide as Nick then phones Marjorie, who is preparing the dinner – with Jeanine – for the Turner family get-together. The family is getting tetchy as it seems the prodigal son / brother is running late.

Marjorie then goes to collect her wallet from Nick at the hotel, after she stresses to him that he isn’t her husband. Just before she leaves, a fruit basket is delivered, and some all too familiar words are read…  and Marjorie realises she just slept with her brother-in-law.

In the hotel, Marjory and Nick plan to make Charles’ death look like a suicide. At home, the Turner family go out to eat. Alone in her sister’s home, Janine answers the door as a cop called Wilbur comes to investigate the call Marjory made earlier. There is definitely an attraction between him and Janine and they begin to date…

The family are distraught at the news of Charles’ suicide but are comforted by his beautiful words in the suicide note (written by Marjorie). But at the family’s autopsy on their son / brother, it is discovered the tablets forced down Charles’ throat – by Nick – weren’t deadly. Harry vows to find out the truth…

This fun farce has a complicated but well-written comic script.  This well thought out script added to the fantastic stars is a winning formula. It’s easily one of Kirstie’s roles – unless you include the unintentional one of Village of the Damned (1995) – that will make you smile, empathise and sympathise with her in the highs and lows of this character’s story.

The AFI Catalog site HERE reports that Screen International reported this movie was filmed as Kirstie not only filmed Cheers but also Look Who’s Talking Too (1990). Despite performing in these three very different roles simultaneously, Kirstie makes Marjorie a fresh, likeable and credible character. Alley effortlessly brings her empathy to this character’s predicaments in her multi-layered performance, as things get more complicated for her character. However, after her character meets Charles, as Marjorie she seems hesitant and vulnerable when she talks to Charles about herself. It seems it’s a self she appears not to have thought about for a long time.

Marjory’s guilt about her “actions” with Charles is instant, even though they made love and as Marjory tells her sister ” It wasn’t sex. It was good!” In Kirstie’s role, she is fabulous verbally, her reaction when her sister points out he may have died during their lovemaking is priceless. She is also just as comic non-verbally you can feel her character’s anguish, anxiety and regret over her fling. It is clear her character has a fear of losing Harry, despite his flaws and in-laws when she admits to not wanting to be alone and that she loves Harry.

Kirstie is a wonderful lead for this sterling cast from the big and small screen. All her in-laws seem mean, cold, selfish and are only concerned about Charles. Even Harry seems ignored by them and this may explain the movie’s title, especially when Iris constantly tries to upstage him. The supporting cast excels in showing their unsavoury traits and makes the Turners quite villainous, and scenes which show these behaviours include one where they even carry out Charles’ autopsy.

I feel this film is a fantastic vehicle to show Kirstie’s skills in this black comedy. A scene where she tries to cover up her involvement in Charles’ death, has Alley throw herself in various positions as she tries to find the fifth of five condoms they used. This is funny not just as she explains this fact to Pullman’s Nick (who is super impressed at Charles’ prowess in the bedroom). As Marjorie retraces her steps to where she and Charles made love, Alley acts naturally in this response, as she throws herself at a sofa in a sexual manner.

I was surprised that a number of renowned critics disliked it. These critics included Roger Ebert who gave it one and a half stars. Although he did add HERE after the film’s release that Kirstie is

“one of the warmest and most natural actresses at work right now”

However, IMDB adds HERE that this film was a hit in Italy. There this film was given the misleading title of Brief Fling with a Corpse. In comparing the alternate European titles and translations, Videospace HERE lists more including Finland’s film title for this film Vaarallinen Syrjähyppy translates as Dangerous Side Jump. However, my favourite is the Spanish title Hay un muerto en mi cama which translates as There is A Dead Person in My Bed.

Recently my Darlin Husband introduced me to the reboot of Village of the Damned (1960). One I’d been tempted by because of the cast, then one I’d avoided after seeing the fabulously atmospheric black and white original movie. Village of the Damned (2005) stars Christopher Reeve in the role George Sanders took in the original and lots of kids with CGI created eerie eyes in the spooky wigs and in colour. Yet it surprisingly falls into the so bad it’s good category. But it’s a film for everyone, as Kirstie as this Star Trek movie actress met another Star Wars (1977-) talent, Mark Hamill, as the stars collide…

 

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