Main Cast: Matthew Broderick, Marlon Brando, Bruno Kirby, Penelope Ann Miller, Frank Whaley, Paul Benedict
Release Year: 1990
Country: US
Run Time: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
In this farcical comedy, Matthew Broderick plays Clark Kellogg, an aspiring director who arrives in New York City to attend film school. However, moments after he arrives in the city, he's robbed by Victor Ray (Bruno Kirby), leaving him no money for the $700 in books required by his instructor, Arthur Fleeber (Paul Benedict). A few days later, Clark runs into Victor and demands his money back, but Victor has already lost it (on a horse race in which he wasn't entirely sure the animal he bet on was a horse). Instead, he offers to fix Clark up with a job with his boss, an "importer and exporter" named Carmone Sabatini (Marlon Brando), who bears a stunning resemblance to Don Corleone in The Godfather. Clark's adventures with Sabatini are just beginning when he's instructed to pick up a package from the airport. Clark is expecting it to be contraband, and he's right, but not in the way he figured -- it turns out he's accepting delivery of a komodo dragon, which is to be served at a "gourmet club" specializing in dishes prepared from endangered species. Marlon Brando's hilarious comic variation on one of his best-known roles is the highlight of this film, but Bruno Kirby and Paul Benedict also deliver fine comic turns, and Matthew Broderick copes nobly with his role as the film's lone normal person. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Marlon Brando's performance as Don Corleone in The Godfather is one of the most memorable in cinema history, and the actor's bravely pays homage to the part in writer-director Andrew Bergman's screwball comedy The Freshman. Brando runs away with the movie, and deservedly so: he delivers an astonishing, perfectly controlled comic performance. Bergman commandingly sends up Corleone and stages a number of other satiric moments, but despite being goofy and sloppy at times, the movie never becomes a spoof. The affable performances of Brando, Matthew Broderick, Paul Benedict and Bruno Kirby (who appeared in The Godfather Part II) sustain The Freshman's genial air. Gangster movies were a favorite revisionist target of such mid-1980s films as Prizzi's Honor and Married to the Mob; the closest match-up to Brando's work in the The Freshman, however, might be Robert De Niro's self-referential performance in 1999's Analyze This. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide
Jon Polito - Chuck Greenwald; B.D. Wong - Edward; Maximilian Schell - Larry London; Richard Gant - Lloyd Simpson; Kenneth Welsh - Dwight Armstrong; Pamela Payton-Wright - Liz Armstrong; Leo Cimino - Lorenzo; Bert Parks - Himself; Gianni Russo - Maitre D', Gourmet Club; Andrew Airlie - Mall Patron; Patricia Andrews - Mall Patron; Drake Arden - Student in Fleeber Classroom; Trivett Christina - Mall Patron; Warren Davis - Fr. Frank; Daniel Desanto - Mall Patron; Daniel Dion - Gas Attendant; Fifi Donahue - Grand Central Station Booth Lady; Marnie Edwards - Mall Mother; Adrienne Howe - Mall Patron; Joe Ingoldsby - Waiter in Restaurant; Tex Konig - Leo; Vera Lockwood - Aunt Angelina; Jefferson Mappin - Hunter; J.H. Millington - FBI Man; Derek Mitchell - Student in Fleeber Classroom; Geraldine Quinn - Student in Fleeber Classroom; Edward Roy - Mall Patron; Doug Silberstein - Mr. Glassman; Amanda Smith - Mall Patron; David Stratton - Student in Fleeber Classroom; Wendy Dickson - Mall Patron
Credit
Alicia Keywan - Art Director, Lynda Gordon - Casting, Judy Taylor - Casting, Mike Fenton - Casting, Rocco Musacchia - Consultant/advisor, Aleida MacDonald - Costume Designer, Julie Weiss - Costume Designer, Andrew Bergman - Director, Barry Malkin - Editor, David Newman - Composer (Music Score), Carmine Coppola - Musical Arrangement, Harlan Goodman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ice Cube - Songwriter, Barry Adamson - Songwriter, Andrew Bergman - Songwriter, Nick Cave - Songwriter, Bob Dylan - Songwriter, Ray Evans - Songwriter, Jay Livingston - Songwriter, Hugo Race - Songwriter, Chuck Rio - Songwriter, Bernie Wayne - Songwriter, Melvin Glover - Songwriter, Mick Harvey - Songwriter, Blixa Bargeld - Songwriter, Patricia Green - Makeup, Harald Ortenburger - Camera Operator, Ken Adam - Production Designer, Daniel Davis - Production Designer, William A. Fraker - Cinematographer, Mike Lobell - Producer, Gordon Sim - Set Designer, Neil Tifunovich - Special Effects, David R. Ellis - Stunts, Andrew Bergman - Screenwriter, Hoagy Carmichael - Featured Music, Frank Loesser - Featured Music, Johnny Mercer - Featured Music, Harry Warren - Featured Music
