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Married To The Mob

I forgot how much fun this movie was. Excellent cast (even Matthew Modine!) Michelle at her most charismatic in my opinion. Dean Stockwell and Mercedes Ruehl were fucking awesome.

My italian grandfather took me to see this when I was in the 6th grade and I was completely bored. I remember him heartily laughing at the "Everything we have fell off of a truck" line.

Now I love it.

by Anonymousreply 39February 13, 2020 6:37 PM

Great movie. Pfeiffer and Modine were adorable together, and the soundtrack was fabulous.

by Anonymousreply 1May 11, 2014 4:20 PM

I saw it when I was 21 at the dollar cinema in 1988. It was truly entertaining and hilarious. Mercedes Ruehl really stole the film and should've been oscar nominated. Loved the rest of the cast too. So many great lines and funny script.

by Anonymousreply 2May 11, 2014 4:33 PM

More on the film:

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by Anonymousreply 3May 11, 2014 4:57 PM

It's a high point for Michelle Pfeiffer, Dean Stockwell and Matthew Modine.

by Anonymousreply 4November 26, 2019 9:56 AM

Modine was hot as hell in this. He still looks pretty good, IMO.

by Anonymousreply 5November 26, 2019 9:59 AM

This movie has it all including a David Byrne score

by Anonymousreply 6December 4, 2019 3:32 AM

I love this movie. Personally I prefer 1980s Jonathan Demme to 1990s Demme (when he went all serious). His '80s films were so quirky and interesting.

I agree about Mercedes Ruehl. She was a fucking riot and deserved an Oscar for this film not The Fisher King. Dean Stockwell as well. He was actually quite sexy in this. And hairy Alec Baldwin in his undies - fuck, yeah.

Michelle Pfeifer was terrific in this. She had a great year in 1988 - Tequila Sunrise, Dangerous Liaisons and this film. She proved she was a star.

And the soundtrack is fabulous. Love Debbie Harry's cover of "Liar, Liar". Shame the soundtrack is out of print now.

by Anonymousreply 7December 4, 2019 3:42 AM

Connie Russo is a such great character, paranoid and jealous to the point of rage, twisting a carton of raw eggs at Food Town with a pleading grimace (“Cauz...if I EVAH catch you two TUGETHAH...I...I...”). How did the cast and crew keep straight faces? Ruehl commanded every scene, even in the b-loop footage during the film’s closing credits. I think she was offered a great many supporting roles in comedies and rejected them (she said “Eve Arden already had that career”). Ruehl’s part was really clever writing, great editing, costumes, and masterful character acting like Eileen Brennan in her prime.

But poor Matthew Modine’s performance is just OK, and it was badly eclipsed by all of the better character actors. His goofy shuffling, mugging and nerd-speak all seem so uncomfortably forced, like court-mandated improv class. He was probably miscast? At that time, he was this super tall, fit and handsome young man. So when several characters call him “dogface” it must have seemed like an inside joke. An elevator scene in which he pretends to have a cold and contorts his face as if fighting the urge to sneeze lands really flat. If you turn down the volume, it could be set in a group home. But he’s a good actor and allegedly an even nicer guy (progressive environmentalist, I think he ran for SAG-AFTRA President).

Married to the Mob is a really cool throwback regional comedy, though. Alec Baldwin was a ringer, down to the very pronunciation of pronouns (“...I gotta tawk ta huh..”). Pitch perfect.

by Anonymousreply 8December 4, 2019 4:59 AM

I have the soundtrack on CD. It’s so good. Deborah Harry’s “Liar Liar” sounds great. Also Chris Isaak’s “Suspicion of Love”. Isaak has a cameo in the film as the Killer Clown at Burger World.

by Anonymousreply 9December 4, 2019 5:12 AM

So jealous r9. I had the soundtrack on cassette back in '88 but have never been able to find the soundtrack on CD anywhere. Not even thrift shops. Probably one of the most elusive soundtracks on CD aside from Looking for Mr. Goodbar - which I did find.

I agree r8 about Modine. I don't think he's horrible but he is miscast. He has a goofy charm though.

by Anonymousreply 10December 4, 2019 5:27 AM

Alec Baldwin in the black briefs was very memorable. I think I'd only seen him play nerdy in Beetlejuice. And I had such a teenage crush on Matthew Modine. Pretty much my ideal guy.

Plus Pfeiffer and Stockwell and Ruehl. Whole cast was great. It must have been fun to make.

by Anonymousreply 11December 4, 2019 5:45 AM

I don’t think he was mis-cast, I think he was supposed to represent the kind of naïveté and innocence that Michelle Pfeiffer’s character would be attracted to after living with a mob husband. But I’m biased as I think Matthew Modine is adorable.

by Anonymousreply 12December 4, 2019 9:34 AM

Dean Stockwell was on screen from childhood and he never had an awkward phase.

by Anonymousreply 13December 4, 2019 12:31 PM

R12...I did see those qualities in Modine, and Demme added some clever devices like Agent Downey’s cat feeding and dressing contraptions, and his vintage Citroen. There is also a neat scene where he’s stroking a cat during the surveillance of Angela’s cold water flat in the East Village. That gesture was sweet and revealing. Modine held his own overall in that really incredible ensemble. The film is one of a few stealth masterpieces, like the Coen Brothers’ Miller’s Crossing, another great film of that period. These films are full of meaty character roles, and it’s a pleasure watching them for that alone. Also great cameos like Buster Poindexter, Chris Isaak, Al Lewis and Demme’s posse of reliables like Charles Napier, Paul Lazar.

by Anonymousreply 14December 4, 2019 2:32 PM

I love how Demme captured NYC in both this film and Something Wild. That's the NYC I wish I could have visited.

by Anonymousreply 15December 4, 2019 11:37 PM

Alec Baldwin at his hottest.

by Anonymousreply 16December 4, 2019 11:41 PM

First time I heard New Order

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 17December 5, 2019 6:36 AM

I loved the dance with Michelle and Matthew! Dean Stockwell was very good, almost too good for the material.

by Anonymousreply 18December 5, 2019 3:59 PM

I think Jeff Daniels, who did Something Wild with Demme, would have been better in Modine's role. Still, I love this movie too.

by Anonymousreply 19December 5, 2019 4:22 PM

Matthew Modine is adorable in this. You’re all nuts.

by Anonymousreply 20December 5, 2019 4:38 PM

Modine was adorable, but the character as written was a little precious. I would have liked to see Kyle MacLachlan do it, a la Dale Cooper.

by Anonymousreply 21December 5, 2019 4:45 PM

Wonder why New Order re-recorded Bizarre Love Triangle for the film? Self-initiated? Demme requested it? Record company rights issue?

by Anonymousreply 22December 5, 2019 4:54 PM

I want a divorce!

by Anonymousreply 23December 6, 2019 3:25 PM

A triple bill of Stop Making Sense, Something Wild and Married to the Mob is perfection.

by Anonymousreply 24January 3, 2020 7:33 PM

Definitely Demme's peak R24. I'd also love to see his original directors cut of Swing Shift, which was reportedly far superior to what got released after Goldie Hawn fucked with it. I think it may be lost forever, sadly.

by Anonymousreply 25January 3, 2020 7:52 PM

Yeah, I would love to see that cut of Swing Shift. Apparently it was floating around out there but I think the original master is gone.

by Anonymousreply 26January 4, 2020 7:15 PM

Married to the Mob is so hilarious. It anticipated by a full decade all the jokes from The Sopranos about Tony's and Carmela's godawful taste--one of my favorite parts of the movie is when Tony and Angela go off to the mobsters' meeting in Miami, and stay at the hideously garish Eden Roc Hotel, and the soundtrack plays Jane Child's "Welcome to the Real World"--as if that ridiculously over-the-top hotel were somehow "the real world".

It has incredibly funny performances by Dean Stockwell and Mercedes Ruehl, but the real standout is Michelle Pfeiffer--she somehow makes her character's goodness seem deeply funny.

It's one of the very best in the genre of neo-screwball comedies. One of my favorite things is that at the very end, right before Pfeiffer and Modine reconcile, Angela is working again at the "Hello, Gorgeous!" beauty salon (where the workers answer the phone saying, "Hello, Gorgeous!"), and one of her clients is praising her effusively for her skill at cutting hair--and it's so rewarding a moment because so much of the plot revolved around Stockwell's and Alec Baldwin's characters thinking Pfeiffer's could never make it on her own and that she couldn;t do anything because she was just a woman--that she was only good for fucking.

by Anonymousreply 27January 4, 2020 7:51 PM

I could watch this one and Something Wild on repeat forever. But I wonder what happened to Demme after Philadelphia that he started churning out such majestic crap: Beloved, that horrible Charade remake, RICKI AND THE FUCKING FLASH!!! It's like he suddenly lost his touch overnight.

by Anonymousreply 28January 4, 2020 8:03 PM

I'm sorry Demme died comparatively young, and I'm very sorry he started making pious crap like after Silence of the Lambs. he had such a gift for genre pictures (like horror and screwball), and wasted the last years of his career on woke films that really weren't very good.

by Anonymousreply 29January 4, 2020 8:05 PM

Love Pfeiffer but she was completely unbelievable as Italian in this movie and Modine was completely unbelievable as a federal agent. Total lightweight.

by Anonymousreply 30January 4, 2020 8:06 PM

I don't know quite what happens to directors who have a quality output when they're relatively young, then things go to hell, but I'd include Demme on that list, along with Paul Mazursky and Peter Bogdanovich. Is is some quality of too many cooks + smoke blown up the director's ass + some directors only have a few good movies in them + who knows what else does it. It would be great if young directors could be like Billy Wilder or even Hitchcock, but it seems to be some magic combination.

by Anonymousreply 31January 4, 2020 8:29 PM

R31 That’s a good question. I think Bogdanovich is broke and living with his mother-in-law. It’s a shame because his early films were so good.

by Anonymousreply 32January 6, 2020 12:39 AM

Bogdanovich kept throwing away his money (and his career) on women.

by Anonymousreply 33January 6, 2020 12:41 AM

I saw this in the theater and really enjoyed it. I'm smugly happy that my little teen self recognized a good movie when I saw one.

by Anonymousreply 34January 7, 2020 9:01 AM

“He’s the paisan the sun always shines on....”

by Anonymousreply 35January 7, 2020 10:29 AM

Very funny film, can’t get enough of Mercedes Ruehl. And this movie was probably where I got my black briefs fetish.

Offsite Link
by Anonymousreply 36January 7, 2020 12:59 PM

Mercedes Ruehl, as Connie, popping up in bed calling for “Tony! TONY! TONE?!” was probably one of the funniest few seconds of the film. Ruehl mastered character acting on a level up there with Eileen Brennan in Private Benjamin. She devoured that small part.

by Anonymousreply 37February 13, 2020 5:15 PM

Those far out 80s fashions.

by Anonymousreply 38February 13, 2020 6:27 PM

[quote] Hello, Gorgeous!" beauty salon (where the workers answer the phone saying, "Hello, Gorgeous!"), and one of her clients is praising her effusively for her skill at cutting hair--

In the 80s, anybody in NYC could cut hair. They started off at Astor Place giving $10 haircuts & $30 cap highlights, then graduated to Dramatics where they picked their “stage name” like Butterfly, Ocean, Edge. A friend of mine got haircuts from a guy called Edge for years.

I think the Russian mob in America was born with mama Astor Place haircutters & papa NY Taxi & Limousine Commission

by Anonymousreply 39February 13, 2020 6:37 PM
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