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Some aspects of American culture make ideal targets for satirists like the media (Network, 1976) or politics (The Great Dictator, 1940) or even the American family (Lord Love a Duck, 1966). Beauty pageants, on the other hand, seem a little too easy to poke fun at but Michael Ritchie has found the perfect balance of irony and empathy in his 1975 satire, SMILE.

 

Focusing on the annual "Young American Miss" Beauty Pageant in Santa Rosa, California, Ritchie's dark and witty film charts the progress of some 25 teenage contestants over the course of several rehearsal days, culminating in a final evening competition. Among the young hopefuls are Robin "Miss Antelope Valley" Gibson (Joan Prather), who is a little bewildered by the whole ordeal, Doris "Miss Anaheim" Houston (Annette O'Toole), a hardened veteran of such events, and Maria Gonzales (Maria O'Brien), an aggressively competitive contestant whose specialty is the flaming baton. Just as crucial to the narrative are the organizers behind the scenes, particularly "Big Bob" Freelander (Bruce DERN), who owns the town's largest car dealership, and Brenda DiCarlo (BARBARA FELDON), a former Young American Miss herself.

 

Director Ritchie's approach to his subject matter in SMILE follows the same semi-documentary approach that made his other explorations of American culture so convincingly realistic - the world of competitive sports in the ski drama, DOWNHILL RACER (1969), and the creation, packaging and selling of a state senator in THE CANDIDATE (1972). Like both those films, SMILE is more interested in observing how the characters respond to and deal with competition, rather than who wins or loses. While there are plenty of humorous scenes where we do laugh at the contestants - a very bad, off key rendition of "Delta Dawn," an impersonation of Lily Tomlin's Ernestine creation - the director also enlists our sympathies for them through intimate scenes where they reveal their fears and skepticism. In one telling scene, Doris explains her philosophy to Robin, "Boys get money and scholarships for making a lot of touchdowns, right? Why shouldn't a girl get one for being cute and charming?" Robin ponders this for an instant before responding, "Yeah, but maybe boys shouldn't be getting money for making touchdowns." Equally memorable is this opening argument between the judges that sets the tone for the entire film.
1st judge: "Packing a suitcase? What the hell kind of talent is that? I can pack a suitcase."
2nd judge: "It's the only thing she can do without falling off the stage."
3rd judge: "She is cute. I kinda like the nightie joke."
1st judge: "That's exactly the kind of stuff they hate at the finals. They're not looking for sex."
2nd judge: "Everybody's looking for sex."

 

In contrast to the often naive contestants are the jaded adult organizers and sponsors who have experienced their own share of disappointments over the years. The eternally optimistic "Big Bob" admits to his best friend Andy (Nicholas Pryor) in a rare moment of candor, "I just learned a long time ago to accept a little less from life, that's all." Meanwhile, his son, "Little Bob" is sneaking around taking nude snapshots of the teenage contestants to show his school friends. Another subplot involves Andy's slide into alcoholism and dissatisfaction with his perfectionist wife, which reaches a black comedy climax when he puts a gun in his mouth and threatens suicide. His wife's callous remark from the next room, "If you're doing anything to mess up my clean rug...." prompts him to turn the gun on his real problem - a scene that prefigures the dark humor of more contemporary satires like American Beauty (1999).

 

One aspect of SMILE that makes it particularly interesting today is the offbeat casting - choreographer Michael Kidd in a rare film appearance as a celebrity judge, Melanie Griffith and Colleen Camp as competing contestants, and, of course, BRUCE DERNin a surprising change of pace performance from his usual psycho role. Ritchie's use of music - The Beach Boys' "California Girls," Ringo Starr's "You're Sixteen," and NAT KING COLE's "SMILE" - is equally inspired, often commenting on the sequence at hand.

 

In preparing for SMILE, Ritchie mentioned Milos Forman's The Fireman's Ball (1967) as an inspiration but you can also see traces of Preston Sturges's barbed humor in the mix, as well as the model for Christopher Guest's cult comedies (Waiting for Guffman, 1996, Best in Show, 2000), which follow a similar documentary-styled approach.

SMILE was well received by most critics when it opened theatrically but sunk without a trace after a week's run in most major cities. Regardless, the film holds up surprisingly well today and is still worthy of this rave review in The New York Times by Vincent Canby: "...a rollicking satire that misses few of the obvious targets, but without dehumanizing the victims. It's an especially American kind of social comedy in the way that great good humor sometimes is used to reveal unpleasant facts instead of burying them...SMILE, which is Mr. Ritchie's best film to date (better than DOWNHILL RACER (1969) and THE CANDIDATE (1972), questions the quality of our fun, while adding to it."

 

And, yes, there IS a Brian Wilson "connection":  the SMILE soundtrack includes the Beach Boys 'California Girls', - and WHAT A GREAT SOUNDTRACK IT IS! Apart from Nat 'King' Cole singing SMILE (by Charles Chaplin) over the titles, the SMILE soundtrack includes the above, Neal Sedaka's 'You're Sixteen, You're Beautiful and You're Mine ' and much more!

 

Prods: Michael Ritchie, David V. Picker, Marion Dougherty.Dir: Michael Ritchie. Scr: Jerry Belson. Phot: CONRAD L. HALL. Ed: Richard A. Harris. Mus: Charles Chaplin, LeRoy Holmes, Daniel Orsborn, Will Schaefer. Cast: BARBARA FELDON- Brenda DiCarlo, BRUCE DERN- Big Bob Freelander, Michael Kidd- Tommy French, GEOFFREY LEWIS- Wilson Shears, Annette O'Toole- Doria Houston (Miss Anaheim), Maria O'Brien- Maria Gonzales, Nicholas Pryor- Andy DiCarlo, Eric Shea- Little Bob Freelander, Joan Prather- Robin Gibson (Miss Antelope Valley), Colleen Camp- Connie Thompson (Miss Imperial County), Melanie Griffith. 113 mins. RM