Hey Good Lookin' is a 1982 animated film written, directed, and produced by Ralph Bakshi. The film takes place in Brooklyn, New York, during the 1950s and focuses on Vinnie, the leader of a gang named "the Stompers," his friend, Crazy Shapiro, and their girls, Roz and Eva. It features the voices of Richard Romanus, David Proval, Tina Bowman and Jesse Welles. The film was produced during the same period as Bakshi's other street life-related films Heavy Traffic and Coonskin. Hey Good Lookin' was first completed in 1975 as a live-action/animated combination, in which only the main characters were animated and the rest were portrayed by live actors. However, Warner Bros. found the concept to be unbelievable and forced the director to go back and animate the live-action sequences.
Plot
In Brooklyn during the Eisenhower era, Vinnie (voice of Richard Romanus) serves as the leader of a gang named "the Stompers". He values, in equal measure, the perfection of his hairstyle and having sex with girls. His best friend, Crazy Shapiro (David Proval), more than lives up to his moniker. Crazy's detective father, Solly, hates his son and routinely tries to kill him. Vinnie meets and falls for Rozzie (Tina Romanus). The next day, Vinnie waits until evening for Roz to show up before leaving with Crazy for a night on the town. Meanwhile Roz has been chained to her bed by her father so she won't be tempted to "do anything." At the end of the night, Vinnie and Crazy go to sleep on the beach, and when they wake up the next morning, they find that they're a few feet away from a group of showering women and their Sicilian mobster husbands. While Crazy inches over to the ladies, Vinnie finds a dead body buried in the sand. The screams of both Vinnie and the women alert the mobsters who begin to beat up Crazy.
Crazy Shapiro and Vinnie.
Vinnie runs off, finding himself on the black area of the beach where he bumps into Boogaloo (Philip Michael Thomas) and his gang, the Chaplains, and finds himself in a position to set up a rumble between their gang and the Stompers. This is a problem since Vinnie isn't nearly as tough as he makes himself out to be. Elsewhere on the beach, Vinnie meets up with Roz and the girl Crazy's dating, fat Eva (Jesse Welles). We find out that Crazy has killed all of the mobsters. The four head out to a party, where Vinnie tells the Stompers that they're going to fight with the Chaplains, to which the gang responds with adverse negativity. Much of the gang and their girls head out to a rock and roll show. Sal (Candy Candido) and his girl have a run-in with Boogaloo while driving, and wind up in a car crash on the stage of the show. Vinnie finally persuades the Stompers to rumble with the Chaplains.
At a drive-in fast food restaurant, Vinnie and Crazy make out with their girls. When Roz spots a car that she thinks Boogaloo is in, Crazy is quick to drive off after it. Crazy ends up shooting both of the black gang members in an alley, much to Vinnie's shock. When Vinnie heads out of town, Crazy has sex with Roz on the pier. Meanwhile, Solly investigates the death of the two black gang members. He questions Boogaloo, who tells him that he should be looking for the Stompers, noting that Solly's son is a member of the gang. Back at the pier, Solly fights with Crazy. As he's losing, Crazy tells his father that Vinnie killed them. Vinnie returns in time for the rumble between the Chaplains and the Stompers. As the two gangs wait for Boogaloo to show up, Solly drives up, ready to arrest Vinnie. On the rooftop of a nearby building, Crazy begins shooting randomly towards the street, causing both gangs to begin shooting at each other, and fights against his own hallucinations—including garbage can monsters and giant naked women. Vinnie tries to run and is shot at by Solly. Crazy jumps off the rooftop, landing on Solly, killing himself and Solly at the same time. As Roz calls up a radio station to make a memorial request in honor of Vinnie's apparent demise, he stands up and walks away, leaving Brooklyn. In 1980s-era Long Island, this strange old man in a trench coat tells this whole story to this obese woman. We find out the two are Vinnie and Rozzie. Vinnie tries to explain to Roz why he left. She doesn't buy it. He has to prove himself. And the two lovers finally reunite.
Production
Production of Hey Good Lookin' began in 1974. It was originally conceived as a combination of live-action and animation.[1] According to Bakshi, "The illusion I attempted to create was that of a completely live-action film. Making it work almost drove us crazy."[2] The characters of Vinnie and Crazy Shapiro were based upon Bakshi's high school friends, Norman Darrer and Allen Schechterman.[3][4]
An initial version of Hey Good Lookin' was completed in 1975. However, distributor Warner Bros. told Bakshi that the film was "unreleasable" because of its combination of live-action and animation, but would not spend further money on the project, leading Bakshi to finance the film's completion himself out of the director's fees for other projects he headed from 1976 until 1982, such as: Wizards, The Lord of the Rings and American Pop.[4] The live action sequences of Hey Good Lookin' were gradually replaced by animated sequences, and a live-action sequence featuring the glam punk band New York Dolls was deleted from the film.[4]
Bakshi had selected a number of songs from his own record collection for the film's soundtrack, which were not used in the film due to the high costs of licensing the songs.[4] The film was initially scored by singer Dan Hicks, who became involved with the production of the film in 1974. Because the release of the delay of the film's release, Hicks' label released the material from these sessions under the title It Happened One Bite. When the film was released in 1982, it had been rescored by John Madara.[5] A soundtrack album was released in 2006.
Response
Hey Good Lookin' opened in New York City on October 1, 1982, and was released in Los Angeles in January 1983.[2] The film's release was limited, and it was largely unnoticed by the public.[4] Animation historian Jerry Beck wrote that "the beginning of the film is quite promising, with a garbage can discussing life on the streets with some garbage. This is an example of what Bakshi did best—using the medium of animation to comment on society. Unfortunately, he doesn't do it enough in this film. There is a wildly imaginative fantasy sequence during the climax, when the character named Crazy starts hallucinating during a rooftop shooting spree. This scene almost justifies the whole film. But otherwise, this is a rehash of ideas better explored in Coonskin, Heavy Traffic, and Fritz the Cat."[2] Quentin Tarantino stated that he preferred Hey Good Lookin' to Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets.[6]
References
- ^ Cohen, Karl F (1997). "Coonskin". Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.. p. 88. ISBN 0-7864-0395-0.
- ^ a b c Beck, Jerry (2005). "Hey Good Lookin'". The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago Review Press. p. 112. ISBN 9781556525919.
- ^ Gibson, Jon M.; McDonnell, Chris (2008). "Brownsville". Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi. Universe Publishing. pp. 125. ISBN 0789316846.
- ^ a b c d e Gibson, Jon M.; McDonnell, Chris (2008). "Hey Good Lookin'". Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi. Universe Publishing. pp. 180; 184. ISBN 0789316846.
- ^ Planer, Lindsay (2003). "Dan Hicks". All Music Guide to Country. Backbeat Books. p. 343. ISBN 0879307609.
- ^ Tarantino, Quentin (2008). "Foreword". Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi. Universe Publishing. p. 11. ISBN 0789316846.
External links
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