The Lords of Flatbush, 1974.
Directed by Martin Davidson, Stephen F. Verona
Starring Susan Blakely, Reneé Paris, Maria Smith, Paul Mace, Henry Winkler, Sylvester Stallone, Perry King
SYNOPSIS:
The Lords of Flatbush, which helped launch the burgeoning careers of Henry Winkler and Sylvester Stallone and was part of the 50s fad during the 1970s, makes its Blu-ray debut in a 50th Anniversary edition that doesn’t have any bonus features and offers mediocre image quality but is worth checking out as a nice little coming-of-age story.
I suppose if 1974’s The Lords of Flatbush hadn’t starred Henry Winkler and Sylvester Stallone in early film roles, before either of them became household names, it would be largely forgotten today. Maybe it would have found a second life in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000; I’m sure there are many who think it belongs on that series anyway.
Set in 1958, this is a run-of-the-mill coming-of-age story about four Brooklyn teenagers who have dubbed themselves The Lords of Flatbush, complete with jackets. Stanley (Sylvester Stallone) is the toughest of the group, always ready for a fight, but finds himself in a battle of another kind with his girlfriend, Frannie (Maria Smith), who says she’s pregnant and wants to get married. Wimpy (Paul Mace) is Stanley’s loyal follower.
Butcher (Henry Winkler) is the main wise ass of the group, cracking jokes and making comments to hide the fact that he’s actually pretty smart. Chico (Perry King) is the pretty boy of the group who tries to win over Jane (Susan Blakeley) despite her ambivalence toward him.
The quartet listen to doo-wop music and get in various kinds of trouble, including stealing a car and starting a fight with Jane’s new boyfriend, which escalates into a brawl involving the guy’s football team.
Each of them needs to figure out how to be a mature, responsible adult after graduating from high school, and that character arc is more pronounced for some than others. It’s an okay little slice-of-life kind of movie, although sometimes I felt like I was watching acting students play out scenes in class — the fact that the story is very episodic probably heightened that feeling.
Quentin Tarantino is apparently a fan of this one, admiring it for its “independent low-budget film aesthetic,” which I suppose is a nice way of saying, “Wow, this movie looks and feels cheap.”
I’m not saying I hate this one, though: Winkler and Stallone are fun to watch, especially the latter since his character seems to be an early prototype of Rocky Balboa. And it has its place in that 1970s trend of interest in the 1950s, which would really blow wide open just months later when Happy Days premiered on network TV and the world fell in love with Winkler’s Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli character.
This new edition of the film on Blu-ray highlights the movie’s 50th anniversary on the cover (it was released December 31, so the studio made it in just under the wire) but only offers the theatrical trailer as a bonus feature. It’s a shame the studio wasn’t able to at least put together a commentary track with some of the surviving cast members, or maybe with a film critic.
The film also looks like it’s in pretty rough shape, which isn’t a surprise given how old it is, the fact that it was shot on 16mm film, and the likelihood that no one in accounting thought it made sense to commission a restoration of the print.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
