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 | lucky seven for those of us who fondly recall this underappreciated satire. Keep in mind that it was only in 1966 that Congress first required ciagarette manufactureres to place specific warning labels on cigarette packs and that the last cigarette commercial (for Virginia Slims) was broadcast on "The Tonight Show" at one minute to midnight on January 1, 1971. While there were those who were worried that the lost of ad revenue would destroy network television (which seemed like a good idea at the time), the larger question was how cigarette companies would seek to market their product. In "Cold Turkey" the idea is advanced by Merwin Wren (Bob Newhart), an advertising executive who convinces the Valiant Tobacco Company to offer $25 million to any town that can stop smoking for thirty days. The idea is that the offer will generate free publicity but that no town in American would ever be able to successfully go cold turkey. But the 4,006 heavy smokers of Eagle Rock, Iowa take up the challenge, led by the thought of all that money and the persuasive efforts of The Reverend Clayton Brooks (Dick Van Dyke), of the Eagle Rock Community Church. The town had been trying to woo back the military, hoping the return of the military industrial complex would help the local cash flow, but that has not panned out. This film, co-written and directed by Norman Lear, on the cusp of remaking television with "All in the Family," falls into three acts. In the first Reverend Brooks convinces the townspeople to take the pledge, while in the second the members of the community deal with not being able to smoke any more (substituting sex seemed like such a good idea at the time). The climax of the film comes as it looks like Eagle Rock might actually be able to do it and Merwin Wren has to pull out all the stops to make sure that does not happen. There are plenty of laughs and while you have to feel "Cold Turkey" falls short of its true satirical potential, it is still worthy tracking down and checking out. In many ways "Cold Turkey" is the impoverished cousin of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," with a host of familiar faces such as Tom Poston, Vincent Gardenia, Jean Stapleton, Barnard Hughes, Graham Jarvis, and Edward Everett Horton. The comedy team of Bob (Elliott) and Ray (Goulding) appear in multiple roles of "familiar" Names. Bob is Hugh Upson, David Chetley, and Sandy Van Andy, while Ray plays Walter Chronic, Paul Hardly, and Arthur Lordly (think about it for a while and if you are my age you should get most of those). Add to the mix Randy Newman's first film score, which opens with his song "He Gives Us all His Love." What brought this movie back to mind was the decision of Hollywood to change the case at the heart of John Grisham's novel "Runaway Jury" from a tobacco case to a gun case. The reasoning was that Hollywood had already done a "cigarette" more with "The Insider," and, as we all know, Hollywood never repeats an idea and companies only pay to have products placed in movies not to have them not placed in movies. However, even a faithful adaptation of Grisham's novel would not be as brutal an indictment of the tobacco industry as "Cold Turkey." For that matter it has a pretty cynical take on small town Americana as well. Of course, in the end the joke is on the people of Eagle Rock, and, by extension, the rest of us. |
