Main Cast: Robert Townsend, Robert Townsend, Robert Townsend, Robert Townsend, Anne-Marie Johnson, Starletta DuPois, Helen Martin, Craigus R. Johnson
Release Year: 1987
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
This satirical look at the ambivalent relationship between Hollywood power brokers and African-American performers marked the writing, producing, and directing debut of Robert Townsend. The filmmaker also stars as Bobby Taylor, a struggling actor looking for his big break despite his family's and co-workers' reservations about his chosen career path. While working a day job flipping burgers, Bobby heads out to insulting cattle calls where white casting agents pass judgement on whether he seems "black enough." Meanwhile, he imagines himself playing Sam Spade, Rambo, and other movie heroes rather than the stereotypical roles actually available to him. When Bobby actually does win one such pimp-daddy part, however, he is forced to choose between accepting work that opens doors, but ultimately demeans him and returning to obscurity with his principles intact. Hollywood Shuffle's enormous supporting cast includes a wealth of black actors, from then-unknowns such as Damon Wayans to veterans such as 227 star Helen Martin. Self-financed and filmed on scraps of hand-me-down celluloid, the film helped establish actor Townsend as a director of note and also kick-started the career of co-screenwriter and co-star Keenen Ivory Wayans, who would cast Townsend in his own directorial debut the following year. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
This indie underdog mined the discontent of black Hollywood for parody and laughs earlier and better than Keenen Ivory Wayans's I'm Gonna Git You Sucka! or Spike Lee's Girl 6. Less lightweight than the former and less muddled than the latter, Robert Townsend's directorial debut glorifies the power of the celluloid dream machine even as he interrogates the ways it shortchanges black performers and audiences. Despite its richness, though, Hollywood Shuffle isn't an altogether successful film. The numerous movie spoofs, from escaped slaves and undead pimps to soul-brother action heroes, tend to run on longer than they should. The jheri-curl jokes have dated poorly, while the pervasive homophobia is all too typical of post-Eddie Murphy African-American comedy. Hollywood Shuffle remains a vital piece of filmmaking, however, because its broad humor is leavened with sympathetic characters and considerable vitriol. An accomplished supporting actor by the time he made this film, writer/director Townsend clearly knows the Hollywood system he skewers. He therefore saves his funniest and most barbed jokes for his portraits of condescending casting directors and back-stabbing fellow actors. Such performers as Starletta DuPois, Helen Martin, Anne-Marie Johnson, and David McKnight lend dramatic heft and real poignancy to the script's ideals-vs.-paychecks conflict. The picture's shoestring budget may show in every frame of borrowed film, but such production constraints only add urgency to Hollywood Shuffle's message. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Dom Jack Irrera - Writer; Paul Mooney - NAACP President; Lisa Mende - Casting Director; Robert Shafer - Commercial Director; John Witherspoon - Mr. Jones; Ludie Washington - Tiny; Keenen Ivory Wayans - Donald/Jerry Curl; Franklyn Ajaye - Body Guard #1; Jesse Aragon - Audition Actor/Student #1/Punk; Jim Beaver - Postal Worker; Conni Marie Brazelton - Hooker; Verda Bridges - Audition Actor/Bessie/Hostage; Wren T. Brown - Picketer #2; Grand L. Bush - Mandingo Ricky Taylor/Hood #5; Michael Colyar - Body Guard #3; Sarah Katie Coughlin - Sitcom Girl Friend; Richard Cummings, Jr. - Slave #3/Hood #1; Tony Edwards - Audition Actor/Eddie Murphy; Roy Fegan - Zombie; Marc Figueroa - Sitcom Father; Eugene Robert Glazer - Director; Myra J. - Picketer #1; Lorrie Marlow - Hooker #2/Reporter; Bobby McGee - Audition Actor/Zombie Pimp/Eddie; David McKnight - Uncle Ray; Lydia Nicole - Make-Up Woman; Brad Sanders - Batty Boy; Nick Stewart [Nicodemus] - Cookie's Father; Le Tari - Rudy; Damon Wayans - Body Guard #2/Willie; Kim Wayans - Customer in Chair; Jimmy Woodard - Advance Student/Basketball; Gregory "Popeye" Alexander - Pimp; Carl Craig - Audition Actor/Basketball; Rusty Cundieff - Audition Actor/Slave #1/Zombie; Donald Douglass - Basketball Player/Eddie Murphy; Sena Ayn Black - Receptionist; Michael Conn - Teacher #2/Police Detective #1; Christopher Jackson - Punk #1; E.J. Murray - Actor in Audition; Don Reed - Maurice; Nancy Scher - Client #1; Steven Fertig - Agent #2; Howard Allen; Beverly Brown; Nancy Cheryl Davis - Hooker; Steve W. James - Hood #3; Tommy Morgan Jr.; Michael Smith - Student #2/Zombie Pimp
Credit
Melba Farquhar - Art Director, Donald Douglass - Choreography, Robert Townsend - Director, W.O. Garrett - Editor, Carl Craig - Executive Producer, Udi Harpaz - Composer (Music Score), Patrice Rushen - Composer (Music Score), Gregory "Popeye" Alexander - Songwriter, Sheree Brown - Songwriter, Bruce Cecil - Songwriter, George James Hopkins - Songwriter, Morris O'Connor - Songwriter, Melba Farquhar - Production Designer, Peter Deming - Cinematographer, Carl Craig - Production Manager, Carl Craig - Producer, Robert Townsend - Producer, William Shaffer - Sound/Sound Designer, Steve James - Stunts, Robert Townsend - Screenwriter, Keenen Ivory Wayans - Screenwriter, Robert Townsend - Book Author
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The movie focuses on Bobby (Townsend) and his quest to succeed as a Hollywood actor. He is stuck working at a fast-food stand with some hilarious and demented characters who consistently try to destroy his plans for the future.
When he finally gets a break, he is forced to question his own morality. Should he join the system and play stereotypical roles? Or should he refuse, risking his dream of becoming an actor?
As he travels, he frequently has terrifying visions of the consequences of playing stereotypes. In one vision, Bobby is a detective pursuing a murderer with a Jheri curl. In another, he is Uncle Tom with an angry mob after him. Yet another vision shows Bobby in an audition for an Eddie Murphy type, while a final vision shows Bobby playing a King in a Shakespearean play.
One of the film's vignettes involves a parody of Siskel and Ebert's television show, Sneakin' in at the Movies. Featured are two African-Americans, Speed and my homie, Tyrone who bump into each other at a movie theater. They review movies using street dialect; while reviewing Amadeus and Salerius, Speed's entire review consists of yelling "Bullshit" at the screen. When the two disagree about the movie Chicago Jones and the Temple of Doom, Tyrone threatens Speed with the words, "Im'o bust yo' ass". They disapprove of Dirty Larry; instead of giving it a thumbs-down, the two give it the finger. Finally, the duo give lavish praise and a high five to the film Attack of the Killer Street Pimps. The vignette ends when Speed and Tyrone are caught sneaking into the theater and ejected.
Production
Hollywood Shuffle was produced on a very tight budget. Townsend personally financed the movie with his own credit cards, and, in order to avoid obtaining permits, he asked his crew to wear college sweatshirts to pose as students.
The film's trailer (included on the MGMDVD release), which is hosted by Townsend, jokes about the lack of funds. As the trailer ends, Townsend begs the audience to see the film as the set's furniture is repossessed. The trailer ends as Townsend is forced to use a disposable lighter when the electricity is turned off.
