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Under the Rainbow
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Wikipedia article
'Under the Rainbow' is a 1981 American comedy film directed by Steve Rash and starring Chevy Chase, Carrie Fisher, Eve Arden, and Billy Barty. The plot is loosely based on the gathering of little people in a Hollywood hotel to audition for roles as Munchkins in the film 'The Wizard of Oz'.
Plot
In Kansas 1938, little person Rollo Sweet lives in a homeless shelter while waiting for an offer from Hollywood with bus fare to California. Other residents crowd around a radio, but the reception is poor. Rollo climbs to the roof to fix the antenna, then slips and falls from the roof.
In Culver City, California near Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, a diverse group of people check into a hotel. Among the hotel guests are Annie Clark, a longsuffering employee at MGM; an Austrian duke, duchess, and their Secret Service escort Bruce Thorpe; Nazi secret agent Otto Kriegling; Kriegling's Japanese contact Nakamuri; a large group of Japanese photographers; and 150 little people, including Rollo Sweet, who have been cast as Munchkins in MGM's 'The Wizard of Oz'. The hotel itself has been left in the hands of the owner's incompetent nephew Homer while the boss himself is out of town on business.
The characters' lives intertwine through various cases of mistaken identity. Kriegling incorrectly assumes his contact from Tokyo must be one of the photographers. Nakamuri, knowing only that his Nazi contact is a little person, believes he must be hidden among the Munchkins. Nazi military maps are smuggled into Annie's copy of the screenplay for 'The Wizard of Oz'. An assassin on the trail of the Duke and Duchess kills one of the Japanese tourists instead. Homer assumes Kriegling to be one of the Munchkins and carries him bodily off to the studio costume and makeup shop. Meanwhile, the Munchkins' constant drunken antics make life difficult for everyone.
Finally, Krieger and Nakamuri corner Annie, Thorpe, the Duke and the Duchess in a hotel room, where the assassin makes one last attempt on the Duke's life. As he draws his gun, Nakamuri points his camera at the assassin. A bullet fires from the "camera" and the two shoot each other dead.
Krieger points his sword at Annie's throat demanding to have the map, whereupon Thorpe tells him the map is hidden in a locket on the Duchess's dog's collar. Krieger runs out of the hotel front door after the dog, which runs onto the movie studio lot where it, Krieger, and the pursuing crowd of Munchkin actors disrupt the filming of 'Gone With The Wind.' Krieger gets the locket and tries to get away in a vintage bus, with Sweet pursuing him in a horse-drawn carriage. The chase ends as the two crash.
Sweet wakes up back in Kansas. As in 'The Wizard of Oz,' the whole story was a dream, populated by characters based on the other homeless people in the shelter. A bus full of little people pulls up to take Sweet to Hollywood.
Cast
Production
Fred Bauer, Steve Rash and Ed Cohen had previously made 'The Buddy Holly Story' together. In November 1979 the filmmakers announced they had signed a deal with the newly formed Orion Pictures to make the movie with Chevy Chase to star.FILM CLIPS: Warner Bros. Going Slow on 'Garp'
SCHREGER, CHARLES. Los Angeles Times 07 Nov 1979: f17. Production was delayed due to an impending actors strike. "The heart of the film is that no person's dream is too big or too small," said Bauer. "This is America where you can do whatever you want." Cohen said "we've taken something that really happened and turned it into entertainment."LITTLE PEOPLE GET BIG BREAK
Goldstone, Patricia. Los Angeles Times 31 Jan 1981: b13.
The production marked the first film role of several actors, including Phil Fondacaro and Debbie Lee Carrington. Jerry Maren, who played the small role of Smokey in this film, had previously played a member of the Lollipop Guild in 'The Wizard of Oz'.
Some location filming occurred at the Culver Hotel, where the actors playing Munchkins had actually stayed during the production of 'The Wizard of Oz'. Filming took over four months. Various reasons were given including the lack of acting experience among the little people, and Chase's depression following the death of Douglas Kenney (something Chase denied).
Reception
The film was a box office disappointment grossing $8.3 million in its initial run.Seventh Annual Grosses Gloss Meisel, Myron. Film Comment; New York Vol. 18, Iss. 2, (Mar/Apr 1982): 60-66,80. According to Rotten Tomatoes, 0% of professional critics gave the film a favorable review.[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/under_the_rainbow Under the Rainbow]. 'Rotten Tomatoes'. Accessed 14 March 2021. The film was nominated for Razzie Awards for Worst Musical Score by Joe Renzetti, and Worst Supporting Actor (Billy Barty). It received extremely negative reviews, many of which condemned the various sight gags involving the little people.
References
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