Henry Jaglom's SITTING DUCKS (1980) is the least self-conscious, funniest, most entertaining of the eighteen independent pictures he has made since 1971. The film epitomizes what is best in his work. If you dig SITTING DUCKS, without being able to describe why, you will probably really come to root for the four screwed-up people the film is about.

Jaglom, an acquired taste, was born in London to well-off parents, who emigrated to America in 1941. He attended the Actors Studio, performed Off-Broadway, was put under contract to Columbia, where he appeared in such TV shows as "Gidget" and "The Flying Nun." He did character parts in early indie movies like DRIVE HE SAID, which threw him in with a group of ambitious young actor/directors: Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, etc.

In 1971, he became acquainted with Orson Welles, acted in his legendary, unfinished THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, and asked if the Great Man would act as a Magician opposite Tuesday Weld and Nicholson in Jaglom's first directorial effort, A SAFE PLACE. Welles agreed, and Jaglom was almost eternally grateful, featuring Welles doing a magic trick on his International-Rainbow Pictures logo, which has appeared in the first frame of every film since.

Welles, following his own vision of successful movie making at the time, also gave Jaglom the best advice he has ever had: Self-finance your films. Pre-sell the film in Europe in order to finance the next one. Utilize a stock company of dependable actors -- make them your friends. Create each film around a theme, as if it were an essay (a notion Welles had about then, which he thought might open TV up the way he had Radio in the 1930's). Use a mixture of script, happy accidents and improvisations to complete a picture. Maintain complete independence. Don't compromise, and pay little attention to the critics.

Regrettably, Welles was never able to pull off this advice with entire success himself, but Jaglom, independently wealthy to a fair degree, has applied Welles' ideas, and has become, like Woody Allen, one of a handful of directors, who stands on his own, year after year, knocking out films he writes, produces, directs, and often acts in. He has just completed IRENE IN TIME, starring a number of pals and old girlfriends. It premieres May 10, 2007.

SITTING DUCKS is no exception to Welles' rules, except it is less egotistical, less obviously personal, more plotted, and describes a more conventional shape for a film than most Jaglom pictures.

In SITTING DUCKS, a phlegmatic accountant, Simon (Michael Emil, Jaglom's brother), is the accountant for a mob operation working "The Numbers." Simon says that he is fed up that he has not been recognized for his brilliance, nor given scope for his mysterious power over women, and his wild pal, Sidney (Zack Norman) is always desperately in need of money.

They hatch a booby of a plot.

On a heavy numbers day, Sidney will pick up the receipts early, saying the regular man is off that day. Simon will throw his bosses off long enough for them to stuff the money in the tires of Sidney's old Cadillac limousine. Then they will take off, driving south, FAST!

The plan improbably works.

This odd couple drives down the East Coast with $700,000 buzzing under their feet. They want to take it easy, not wishing to rouse unnecessary suspicion. They will stay in nondescript motels, and when they reach Miami, they have arranged for a private plane to fly them to safety, out of everyone's grasp, in Costa Rica.

But Simon is naturally paranoid and obsessed with sex, while Sidney is a nervous, pill-popping, expansive nut case, who wants to spread his good news. It is Sidney, too rattled to drive, or let Simon drive, who impulsively hires a failed lounge singer, Moose (Richard Romanus), I presume an homage to the big hulk in FAREWELL MY LOVELY, to chauffeur them the rest of the way.

At the first motel they stop at, Simon is lonely, and intervenes at the coffee shop for a waitress, Leona (Irene Forrest), who is having an argument with her boss. She is promptly fired.

Almost simultaneously Sidney is hit on be a limber young woman, a knock out named Jenny (Patrice Townsend -- she would marry Jaglom shortly), who likes to do gymnastics in the motel rec area. As always seems the case, there is another man in her life. He is a handsome, self-absorbed fellow, who lounges around the pool, reading, working on his suntan, and paying not enough attention to Jenny.

[What a nut! you think.]

After Jenny has met Leona, and they have both met our two lamsters, Jenny has a falling out, for some reason, with her boyfriend, and both girls agree to drive down to Miami with Simon and Sidney. This is the beginning of much comic mischief.

And so, the Cadillac of Fools continues to zoom south in the night.

I taped this sleeper, SITTING DUCKS, one of the three times it played at 3 a.m. on Cinemax, twenty-five years ago. I have never run across it again, but understand that it is out on DVD.

If you want Henry Jaglom to confront death, try LAST SUMMER AT THE HAMPTONS, but if you want sheer murder, in a funny mode, try to find SITTING DUCKS.

A sequel, LUCKY DUCKS, sadly, went straight to Video in 1993.

Paul Glickman (THE PRIVATE FILES OF J. EDGAR HOOVER, 1977) did the cinematography. Michael Emil and Zack Norman are a natural team. And Moose (Richard Romanus) did the score.

That's about --

Oh, the unconcerned guy at the pool, Jenny's boyfriend, the guy with the top-knot . . . that's Henry Jaglom. Nowadays, and for many years, he has worn a trademark funny sort of pork pie hat.

Root out SITTING DUCKS. I think you might find a laugh or two in it.

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LAST SUMMER IN THE HAMPTONS (1995) is Henry Jaglom's amazingly upbeat look at Death, starring Hollywood Golden Age Star Viveca Lindfors, who was herself dying at the time. I have since learned that it was also Jaglom's coming to terms with losing both his parents within a short time. A brave, often amusing film about a subject we don't like to laugh about, or indeed contemplate on much --

http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-6ABD-142251AE-3A0CB42F-prod2



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older