Main Cast: Ryan O'Neal, Catherine Hicks, Giancarlo Giannini, Chad Everett
Release Year: 1985
Country: US
Run Time: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Writer-director Richard Brooks' final film features a weak script and poor acting but high energy direction in a tale of compulsive gambling in Las Vegas. Ryan O'Neal stars as Taggart, a sports reporter obsessed with gambling. As Taggart gets deeper and deeper into debt, he compounds his problems with assorted loansharks and gambling operators. Taggart has already lost his wife because of his compulsive gambling, but he takes up with big-timer Charley (Giancarlo Giannini), hoping to make a killing and settle the score. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
The final film by Richard Brooks is unfortunately a camp classic of the first order. Fever Pitch tries to be a sincere expose of gambling but it is so far off the mark its practically a work of surrealism. Brooks goes for a flashy style that is very much of its mid-1980's vintage (rock video-style editing, a pulsing synth score) but his storyline and dialogue rely on the kind of hokey conventions that haven't been seen and heard since the 1940's. Despite the anti-gambling tone of the story, he ends up making the casinos look like fun, exciting places to be and creates a finale that hinges upon the main character betraying all the lessons he's learned in order to give the film a hokey happy ending. It's also studded with unintentionally hilarious bits of serious drama that go seriously awry (the worst is a moment where the hero finds himself undergoing withdrawal symptoms when he tries to stop gambling). Fever Pitch is further hurt by some ludicrous casting: Ryan O'Neal never convinces with his wooden performance as the hero, Catherine Hicks lacks the sultriness to pull off the 'hooker with a heart of gold' cliché she has been given and Chad Everett's absurdly overwrought performance as a tough bookie is its own self-parody. Thus, Fever Pitch is a disaster on most levels but its combination of frenetic energy and jaw-dropping wrongheadedness make it a must-see for fans of Hollywood disasters. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
John Saxon - Sports editor; Hank Greenspun - Las Vegas Sun Publisher; William Smith - Panama Hat; Keith Hefner - Sweeney; Bridgette Andersen - Amy; Selma Archerd - Sister Theresa; Timothy Blake - Babs; Rafael Campos - Rafael; Bill Caplan - Poker Player; Lonny Chin - Miss Casablanca; Steve Danton - Towel Boy; Bobby Jacoby - Gam-A-Teen Boy; Allan Malamud - Reporter; Tony March - Bodyguard; Chad McQueen - Prisoner; Cherie Michan - Rose O'Sharon; Gary Pagett; William Prince - Mitchell; Tom Schanley - Scanlon; Timothy Scott; Johnny Sekka - Chocolate; Pearl Shear - Mrs. Applebaum; Heidi Sorenson - Airport Attendant; Mark Mitchell; Jeff Silverman - Working Press; Mel Albert - Working Press; Jose Aldana - Working Press; Mary Asta - Hitchhiker; Benita Bellamy - Exotic Dancer; D.P. Bentley - High Roller; Bud Beyrooty - Working Press; Stu Black - Bodyguard; Alan Buchdahl - Track Announcer; Steven Clow - Working Press; Rita Cox - Working Press; Carol Crotta - Working Press; Bob Keisser - Working Press; Tim Liotta - Working Press; Robert Lutz - Working Press; Len Miller - Working Press; Kevin Modesti - Working Press; Jim Murray - Working Press; Fred Robledo - Working Press; Leonard Sacks - Bet-Taker; Sid Sakowicz - Poker Player; William Schorr - Working Press; Diane Shah - Working Press; Jimmie Spades - Security; Rich Tosches - Working Press; Bill Willard - Casino Guard; Scott A. Zamost - Working Press; Joseph E. Bernard - Bernstein; Patrick Cassidy - Soldier; John Kirby - Bet-Taker
Credit
Aggie Lyon - Costume Designer, Michael W. Hoffman - Costume Designer, Richard Brooks - Director, Jeff Jones - Editor, Thomas Dolby - Composer (Music Score), Quincy Jones - Composer (Music Score), Nick Pagliaro - Makeup, Raymond G. Storey - Production Designer, William A. Fraker - Cinematographer, Freddie Fields - Producer, Jim Teegarden - Set Designer, Richard Brooks - Screenwriter
Fever Pitch is a 1985 movie starring Ryan O'Neal and directed by Richard Brooks. It was nominated for four Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture, as well as contributing to O'Neal's later Razzie nomination for Worst Actor of the Decade. (Fittingly, O'Neal was beaten by Sylvester Stallone: all four of the awards for which Fever Pitch was nominated were won by Stallone vehicles.) The original music score was composed by Thomas Dolby.
Plot
Steve Taggart is a Los Angeles sports writer who becomes obsessed with gambling. As Taggart gets deeper and deeper into debt, he compounds his problems with associated loan sharks, including the dangerous Dutchman.
Further complications are due to the fact that Taggart's newspaper editor has assigned him to write a series of stories about a compulsive gambler, advancing him considerable money to do so, unaware that Taggart's subject is himself. The writer's habit has already cost him his marriage, and his relationship with his daughter is in jeopardy. He goes to Gamblers Anonymous to try to get straight, then takes up with Las Vegas big-timer Charley to try to get even.
