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Partners (1982 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Partners' is a 1982 American gay-themed buddy comedy film directed by James Burrows and starring Ryan O'Neal and John Hurt as a mismatched pair of cops.
Plot
After a series of murders in Los Angeles's gay community, heterosexual police officer Sgt. Benson (Ryan O'Neal) is assigned to go undercover as half of a gay couple with Officer Kerwin (John Hurt), a Records Clerk. Kerwin naively believes that he is closeted, although the entire Department knows about his sexual identity. The pair discover an earlier murder and learn that both victims appeared in the same gay magazine. Each had received a call from a hoarse-voiced man asking them to model for him, only to turn up dead soon after. Benson models for the magazine and is approached by the same hoarse-voiced man; but, when another model turns up dead, the man is cleared as a suspect.
Benson grows close to Jill (Robyn Douglass), the photographer of his shoot, and plans a weekend getaway with her. Kerwin suspects her of the murders, but his superiors put it down to jealousy. Kerwin uncovers evidence implicating Jill; but, when the police move to apprehend her, they discover her corpse. Her death unknown to Benson, he arrives for his rendezvous with Jill; and Kerwin races to his aid. Jill's killer, a closeted man whom Jill and one of the victims were blackmailing, admits to Benson that he killed Jill and two of the men but insists that Jill killed her partner in crime. Realizing that Kerwin is outside, the killer shoots at Kerwin who returns fire. Kerwin is wounded, but the other man is killed.
Cast
* Ryan O'Neal as Sgt. Benson
* John Hurt as Kerwin
* Kenneth McMillan as Chief Wilkins
* Robyn Douglass as Jill
* Jay Robinson as Halderstam
* Denise Galik as Clara
* Joseph R. Sicari as Walter
* Michael McGuire as Monroe
* Rick Jason as Douglas
* James Remar as Edward K. Petersen
* Jennifer Ashley as Secretary
* Darrell Larson as Al
* Tony March as Aide #2
* Seamon Glass as Gillis
* Steven Reisch as Counter Boy
Production
Veber wrote the film in Paris, with little knowledge of the gay scene in Los Angeles. Veber wanted to do it because "it seemed to me it could be amusing and I wanted to do something quite different from 'Cruising' which seemed to me to be a really bad eye on the gay world.'A LITTLE FRENCHMAN' TRIES HIS LUCK IN AMERICA
Los Angeles Times 19 Jan 1982: g4.
"It's a comedy," said producer Russo. "It's a comedy that comes out of real situations, out of the tradition of French farce. I felt for both characters."
The leading roles were originally offered to Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen. Eastwood expressed interest if Allen signed, but Allen declined.
The film was one of six relatively low budgeted films rushed into production by Paramount Pictures in 1981 prior to an impending director strike, with budgets between $48 million. Paramount were interested to see what the results would be like on films with a shortened pre-production process. The other films were 'Some Kind of Hero', 'Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again', 'I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can', 'White Dog' and 'An Officer and a Gentleman'. A seventh film, 'Young Lust', was "picked up" from another production company. 'Partners' was championed within the studio by Don Simpson (Michael Eisner, also at the studio, said that he "hated" the script.). Of all the seven films, Paramount executives were most enthusiastic about the script for 'Partners'.
In the original script and cut of the film Hurt's character commits suicide "because his life was so sad," said Veber. "We shot the scene but when people saw the film they had grown to like Hurt so much that by the point that the suicide came as too much of a shock, so we took it out. In France it would have been quite acceptable. I found that interesting."
Soundtrack
'Partners: Music from the Motion Picture Composed and Conducted by Georges Delerue' is a 1.000 Units Limited Edition soundtrack album from the film of the same name, released on March 20, 2014, by Spanish label Quartet Records. The album, released in CD, contains 21 tracks composed and conducted by Georges Delerue, plus 3 bonus tracks.
The score was one of the first written by Delerue after he settled in Hollywood, and is also one of the weirdest and, until now, least-known works from his long career. The film, which suffered several cuts in the editing room, was finally released with a total of approximately 12 minutes of original Delerue music and a large number of pop songs and cues from other films produced by Paramount during the same periodby Giorgio Moroder, Dave Frank and Charles Fox, among others. But, having access to all the Delerue recordings (preserved in mint condition in the Paramount vaults), it was discovered that Delerue recorded not just one, but two different scores for the film. Only a few cues were used in the final edit, and many were used in places other than that for which the composer had been originally written them.
For the album, Quartet Records rebuilt the score in the best possible wayas Delerue conceived it, and followed the order of the film and included music for some sequences that were deleted in the editing room. Romantic, funny, charming, with lots of suspense music, haunting melodies, an unforgettable waltz, the scire finally come out of the closet 32 years after it was recorded. The package includes a 12-page full-color booklet with liner notes by Tim Greiving.
According to critic James Southall, the two main themes of the album are presented in the first two tracks. "Partners Theme" is one of those characteristic waltzes the composer did so well, with the sweeping strings and rhythm section such clear identifiers of his work, closest to his outstanding work in 'Steel Magnolias' (1989). Then in "1M2 / 1M3" comes the folksy secondary theme, a lovely homely feel from the harmonica solo. There's a beautiful, summery melody in "I Need Some Air", highlighted by a cheerful dancing flute solo. "M52" is a peculiar bit of action music, all madcap and jolly; elsewhere the suspense material is mostly more straight-faced, done fine but not the most interesting music apart from when Delerue dials up the melodrama a bit with some dramatic horns. Perhaps the highlight of the album is the heartfelt "Domestic Scene", the lilting theme at its most attractive. The soundtrack is slightly odd, the mix of gorgeous melodies with darker suspense and comedy action never quite flowing as naturally as the composer's music usually does, but it's a "nice breezy album that is never unappealing."
Track listing
All music arranged and conducted by Georges Delerue. All music composed by Georges Delerue, except bonus tracks.Reception
Rex Reed, writing for the 'New York Post', panned the film, saying, "Hollywood's latest crime against humanity in general and homosexuals in particular is a dumb creepshow called 'Partners' stupid, tasteless and homophobic, this sleazy, superficial film implies that gay cops can't be trusted to work with straight cops because they might fall in love with them."Russo, Vitto. "The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies". Harper & Roe, Publishers Inc. 1987 (Revised Edition). P282. Gene Siskel was also offended and later called it one of the worst films of 1982. O'Neal was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award as Worst Actor of the Decade.
When asked if the film drew any complaints from gay men during filming, John Hurt said, "They didn't like it that I was wearing a lilac-colored track suit in it. They say homosexuals do not necessarily do that. And the person who's saying this is sitting there in a pink track suit, It's a crazy world we live in."
The film was a financial failure. Head of Paramount Barry Diller later said "'Partners' was the essence of a badly made movie, partly because it was rushed against a date."
References
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