Main Cast: Jacqueline Bisset, Jim Brown, Joseph Cotten, Corbett Monica, Ramon Bieri
Release Year: 1969
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Christine (Jacqueline Bisset) is the young bank teller who is bored with her job and her husband. She leaves for Las Vegas where she scores a job as a chorus girl. The beautiful Christine does not have the talent to parlay the job into an upwardly mobile career. She marries an older man and becomes a "kept woman." Tommy Marcott (Jim Brown) is the greeter at a casino who poses for pictures with the guests and marries Christine. When Christine is invited to dinner by Roosevelt Dekker (Ramon Bieri), she is beaten up by her host. Tommy tracks down the construction magnate at a local golf course and beats him to a pulp. Danny (Corbett Monica) is the comic who gives Christine her first tour of Vegas and his bedroom. Christine hires a pilot to skywrite an obscenity that sums up her feelings about her experience. Joseph Cotten also appears in this drama of a naive young woman nearly swallowed up by the seamier side of the Las Vegas nightlife. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
Review
This time capsule from the dawn of the New Hollywood era is a surprisingly potent little riff on the showbiz expose. At first, The Grasshopper seems like a mix of an old-fashioned women's picture and a Jacqueline Susann potboiler but it surprises the viewer by bringing unusual shadings to familiar melodramatic conceits. Its depiction of the showbiz milieu comes off as well-observed and witty (a highlight is a Las Vegas party scene depicting the interactions of several hangers-on in a pithy style) and it edges its way into darker, despairing narrative territory in a way that manages to sneak up on the audience. Director Jerry Paris's style is dramatic and visually expressive, offsetting the narrative's dramatic shifts with flashy visuals and a fragmented editing style that gives the proceedings an tense, fast-paced quality one normally doesn't get from this kind of film. Better yet, he gets excellent performances from a unique cast: Jacqueline Bisset delivers the expected movie-star charm but also gradually brings out the destructive elements of her character with impressive subtlety while Jim Brown turns in a nicely understated performance as her most notable lover and Ed Flanders steals a few scenes as a pushy, fast-talking casino boss. In short, The Grasshopper might be a melodrama but it has a bite to it that might surprise the unexpecting viewer and is thus worth a look to cult-film aficionados. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
Christopher Stone - Jay Rigney; Roger Garrett - Buck; Stanley Adams - Buddy Miller; Dick Richards - Lou Bellman; Tim O'Kelly - Eddie Molina; Stefanianna Christopherson - Libby; Sandi Gaviola - Kyo; Eris Sandy - Vicky; Jay Laskay - Manny; Therese Baldwin - Gigi; Chris Wong - Billy; Kathalyn Turner - Ann Marie; John Aprea - The Ice Pack; William H. Bassett - Aaron; Ed Flanders - Jack Bishop; Marc Hannibal - Marion Walters; Dave Ketchum - Football Conventioner; Jessica Myerson - Wedding Chapel Owner; Tom Nolan - Vic; Penny Marshall - Plaster Caster; Jim Smith - Larry
Credit
Tambi Larsen - Art Director, Fred Roos - Casting, Donfeld - Costume Designer, Jerry Paris - Director, Aaron Stell - Editor, Billy Goldenberg - Composer (Music Score), Gus Norin - Makeup, Sam Leavitt - Cinematographer, Jerry Belson - Producer, Garry Marshall - Producer, Don Sullivan - Set Designer, O. Thol Simonson - Special Effects, John R. Carter - Sound/Sound Designer, Jerry Belson - Screenwriter, Garry Marshall - Screenwriter, Mark McShane - Book Author
