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Married to the Mob

I don't recall this film getting much attention on DL (even though I've been coming here for about 6 years now)!

It came on the other day and I have to admit that it's one of my favorite movies of all time. Michelle Pfieffer and Alec Baldwin are at the height of their gorgeousness...Mercedes Ruehl is hilarious...Matthew Modine is charmingly befudddled...and Johnathan Demme does some pretty clever tricks with his direction...

Anyone else a fan of this movie? If you happen to hate it, I'd be curious to know why!

by Anonymousreply 66December 4, 2019 2:02 PM

My recollection was that it was a dead-on, hilarious, illustration of life growing up on Long Island (New York). Dead-on perfect.

by Anonymousreply 1September 6, 2010 3:58 PM

didn't Mercedes Ruehl get an Oscar nom for this?

by Anonymousreply 2September 6, 2010 4:04 PM

I wanna divorce!

by Anonymousreply 3September 6, 2010 4:07 PM

Great movie!

by Anonymousreply 4September 6, 2010 4:08 PM

I always thought Pfeiffer was miscast and that her make-up to make her look guido-ish was laughable, even though I really like her. And Matthew Modine has always struck me as a vast waste of space, but the movie overcomes both of these obstacles and you have to love something that gave Alec Baldwin, in his prime, the opportunity to wear black bikini briefs.

by Anonymousreply 5September 6, 2010 4:08 PM

One of my favorites too. It sort of makes me sad when I see it now ...Alec Baldwin was so sexy and seemed to be headed to major film stardom at that point and I had just started to fully appreciate Michelle and was sure she would become a superstar but she didn't quite reach that. Ruhl too ...expected a better career for her.

by Anonymousreply 6September 6, 2010 4:11 PM

Love the scene in the hot tub place where Alec is moving in on the tub with his hairy chest, black speedos, and black socks.

by Anonymousreply 7September 6, 2010 4:13 PM

I love, love, love this movie and watch it every time it comes on. Great soundtrack. %0D %0D My only complaint is that Alec Baldwin's skivvies scene was at least a half-hour too short.

by Anonymousreply 8September 6, 2010 4:13 PM

'I put the stones to her' Haven't seen it in ages but that line - or something like it- I'd never heard that expression before. Loved the film. What happened to Demme? His directing career eventually fizzled.

by Anonymousreply 9September 6, 2010 4:19 PM

[quote]I had just started to fully appreciate Michelle and was sure she would become a superstar but she didn't quite reach that.

She did, but not for too long. By her own choice, apparently.

I love the film. I love Something Wild, as well. And I highly recommend Melvin and Howard, which was Demme's interesting take on Howard Hawks.

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by Anonymousreply 10September 6, 2010 4:20 PM

You meant Howard Hughes, of course. Yes, all those films from that particular point in Hollywood history were special. So many good ones. A very special period in film making and,now, in the Age of Comic Book and Graphic Novel Movies and Frat Boy Fantasies in which the ugly nerd gets the pretty girl ---- ayyyy, Hollywood has fallen so far.

by Anonymousreply 11September 6, 2010 4:30 PM

[quote]You meant Howard Hughes, of course.

Yes! Thanks for the correction.

by Anonymousreply 12September 6, 2010 4:44 PM

Mercedes Ruehl delivered one of the funniest lines in "Married to the Mob" when she reached across the ticket counter, grabbed the airline reservationist and said, "Just give me the fucking ticket!"%0D %0D Ruehl was hilarious. My boyfriend and I continue to joke about that line to this day. %0D %0D Alec Baldwin and Michelle Pfeiffer were at their Italian/Jerseylicious best.%0D %0D

by Anonymousreply 13September 6, 2010 4:46 PM

Oh my God, I loved this movie--but I can barely remnember anything other than Alec Baldwin stripping off his suit. You know those, "I knew I was gay when. . ." stories? Well, there's my moment. Twelve years old and, to make this appropriate to this thread, baddabadabing! To this day, I love a guy in black bikini briefs and black socks.%0D %0D More movies should feature more men in briefs. Delish!%0D %0D Here's the clip. (Skip to 5:57 and start watching there.)

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by Anonymousreply 14September 6, 2010 4:54 PM

Another fan of this film, but haven't seen it in a long time. It was a great story and I liked all the cast in their roles.

by Anonymousreply 15September 6, 2010 5:02 PM

Good fun movie in the vein of Desperately Seeking Susan - everything just tied in a nice tight plot. %0D %0D And the soundtrack was one of my favorites as a kid.

by Anonymousreply 16September 6, 2010 5:08 PM

[quote]Alec Baldwin and Michelle Pfeiffer were at their Italian/Jerseylicious best.

Jersey? Get the fuck ouuta here, it's Lawng Eyelund. That Castle Nightclub is really an office building and looks just like that on Sunrise Highway. Dumbest looking building and actually only five minutes up the road from where Alec Baldwin grew up. Must be neat to grow up and then come home to film a movie. The FoodTown were the wives meet is also in Massapequa. The motel was actually Leonard's Of Great Neck catering Hall.

by Anonymousreply 17September 6, 2010 7:33 PM

I enjoyed it a lot but i dont know how it would hold up today.%0D %0D Pfeiffer could have won the Oscar a few years later, as Demme's next film was Silence of the Lambs, and he offered it to her first, but she turned it down as she found it too grisly. She also turned down Thelma and Louise! Those two movies accounted for three out of the five 1991 Best Actress nominees, had she done both films, she would have been an absolute lock for the win, as there was literally no other realistic contender but Foster, Davis, or Sarandon that year (Dern and Midler had no chance).%0D %0D Ruehl did win a supporting Oscar, for The Fisher King.

by Anonymousreply 18September 7, 2010 1:18 AM

R7 and R14, I loved that part, too. I paused and jerked quite a few times to that.

And R13, you forgot the "dickhead" at the end of Connie's line.

by Anonymousreply 19September 7, 2010 1:49 AM

For me it just kind of laid there. Pfeiffer and Stockwell were miscast. I preferred Demme's "Something Wild".

by Anonymousreply 20September 7, 2010 2:00 AM

Loved that movie. Pfeiffer's all-time best film--she made being a good person seem really sexy. The scene over the credits with her (in that great polka-dotted red dress) and Modine dancing in front of the Courts building is really romantic.

And so many great lines:

"You'll find a FLEA collah in aisle five!"

"'Because I care... Tony'"

"Give this man a free shake!"

"I'm sorry to be a ballbustah, but that's JUST the way I am!"

"Kiss it goodbye, Tony..."

"Hey Angela, I was thinking..." "Well, there ya go, working without tools again!"

by Anonymousreply 21September 7, 2010 2:06 AM

[quote]The scene over the credits with her (in that great polka-dotted red dress) and Modine dancing in front of the Courts building is really romantic.%0D %0D Does she fall on her head at the end of that scene? I always wondered. %0D %0D Agreed on the dress, Michelle is just adorable in the whole movie.%0D %0D

by Anonymousreply 22September 7, 2010 2:14 AM

Michelle Pfeiffer has a long torso and short legs.

by Anonymousreply 23September 7, 2010 2:17 AM

I love the Village hair salon she works in called "Hello, Gorgeous" where you answer the phone, "Hello, Gorgeous!"

by Anonymousreply 24September 7, 2010 2:21 AM

"Heah's ta elevatahs! Ya meet the nicest people onnem!"

by Anonymousreply 25September 7, 2010 2:22 AM

Cute film. But it's odd that he cast so few, if any, Italian-American actors to play Italian-American comic -and somewhat stereotypical- roles.

Stupid oversight, or did no IA actors want to be in it?

But yes, Baldwin's strip scene is precedes all those "Men at Play" suit-sex porn flicks in hotness.

by Anonymousreply 26September 7, 2010 2:47 AM

what a hot scene with Alex Baldwin. Love a man in black bikinis and long black socks

by Anonymousreply 27September 7, 2010 5:24 PM

My favorite NYC story -- I was in the (then) Loew's 84th St. theatre watching the film right after it opened, at an afternoon show. I guessed the other customers in the half-empty theatre were in the business (so was I); dressed in black, too cool for school, etc. %0D %0D Spoiler alert:%0D %0D There's a scene towards the end when Pfeiffer and Modine and the gangster are in the Miami hotel suite in a climactic scene. Three big knocks on the suite door. Although the plot gives no reason to expect the wife, the entire theatre screams "Don't Open the Door -- It's Connie!" Ruehl was that good, and that scary in the role.%0D %0D Well, you had to be theer.

by Anonymousreply 28September 7, 2010 5:40 PM

Ruehl wasn't nominated for Best Supporting Actress (but she should have been).

1988 nominees-

Frances McDormand-Mississippi Burning

Sigourney Weaver-Working Girl

Joan Cusadk-Working Girl

Geena Davis-The Accidental Tourist

Michelle Pfeiffer-Dangerous Liaisons

by Anonymousreply 29September 7, 2010 6:25 PM

Michelle Pfeiffer may not be Italian, but her incredible vulnerability always gets me when I watch her in this. I find her character's desire to lead a good life quite touching,a nd it really underpins all the hilarity. %0D %0D Such a well-written and acted film!

by Anonymousreply 30September 7, 2010 6:43 PM

Underpants! @ 6:30 mark

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by Anonymousreply 31September 7, 2010 7:06 PM

I was in it too!

by Anonymousreply 32September 7, 2010 7:07 PM

Why do they call him "Cucumber Frank". Is he a vegetarian?

by Anonymousreply 33September 7, 2010 7:14 PM

Another not to be missed Baldwin movie is Miami Blues with Jennifer Jason Leigh. He has a scene in jockey shorts that still burns with the heat of ten thousand suns in my libidinous soul. I would still give him head just for giving me that cinematic moment. He was AWESOME.

by Anonymousreply 34September 7, 2010 7:18 PM

Chris Isaak's cameo as the killer clown popping out at the drive through ...

by Anonymousreply 35September 7, 2010 7:20 PM

And we are your friends Angela, whether you like or not.

by Anonymousreply 36September 7, 2010 7:24 PM

Hey Ellen! How's that career working out for ya?

by Anonymousreply 37September 7, 2010 7:27 PM

and yours, Nancy?

by Anonymousreply 38September 7, 2010 7:40 PM

My career is on FIRE, R38. TV series, TV movies, and a featured role in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants!!

About to 49 years old and working regularly in Hollywood! Susan Olsen and Rae Dawn Chong can't say that!!

by Anonymousreply 39September 7, 2010 7:54 PM

Back in the day at the Wall Street Sauna there were a lot of guys looking like Baldwin. Hot Italians undressing to their little bikinis. Loved it

by Anonymousreply 40September 8, 2010 5:36 PM

r40--was the wall street sauna a gay place? (i know, dumb question--but still).

by Anonymousreply 41September 8, 2010 5:44 PM

They got the shallow guidette persona down perfectly....

by Anonymousreply 42September 8, 2010 7:55 PM

It's so amazing to think of how hot Baldwin was then compared to how he looks today.

Back at about that time (1988), I remember sitting across from him on the NY subway--he was bitching about something to a young Asian-American woman who was sitting with him, and no one else on the subway recognized him (I only did because of MARRIED TO THE MOB). He was just six feet of sexiness--so gorgeous. And now he's a blob--a funny blob, but a blob nonetheless.

by Anonymousreply 43September 8, 2010 8:12 PM

Isn't it amazing? I just watched "Beetlejuice" again (Netflix on-demand; inspired by the gay actor's death) and he was so skinny, but still had a nice butt.

Now he's Jabba the Hut.

by Anonymousreply 44September 11, 2010 6:43 AM

See, for me the movie is all about Matthew Modine. He was at his peak around Vision Quest and here. And he and Michelle Pfeiffer have great chemistry. %0D %0D Upthread - yeah, remember the bit ove the end credits where Michelle Pfeiffer's dancing backwards on the steps, and she backs onto the railing and tips over - it's clearly a mistake and Matthew Modine just instantly leaps in to grab her legs, but you never find out what really happened to her. Looks like he saved her from a concussions, though.

by Anonymousreply 45September 11, 2010 1:33 PM

This is a movie from Jonathan Demme's best period, which also includes the wonderful Stop Making Sense, Something Wild, Citizen's Band and Melvin and Howard. I'm in the minority of people who detested Silence of the Lambs. From then on it's been all downhill for Demme.

by Anonymousreply 46September 11, 2010 1:41 PM

Remember lol in the theater at the piano player who makes up a song about the Dean Stockwell character (Tony): "He's the paesan the sun always shines on...."

And Michelle Pfieffer saying: "Everything we own fell off a truck!"

by Anonymousreply 47September 11, 2010 1:54 PM

I love Mercedes Ruehl. Criminally underrated.

by Anonymousreply 48September 11, 2010 2:27 PM

I wholeheartedly agree, R46. "Melvin and Howard" is much better than "Silence of the Lambs," which is essentially a big budget horror movie.

by Anonymousreply 49September 11, 2010 2:37 PM

When Connie gets off the plane while it's still going down the runway, I just died. "Honey? Forget about it."

by Anonymousreply 50September 11, 2010 2:52 PM

Don't forget the opening scene at the Cedarhurst train station, with Al Steiner's, home of a 1,000 Bar Mitzvahs, in the background!

The King Arthur themed restaurant actually existed on Sunrise Hwy in Valley Stream near the Green Acres Mall in the 60s. It was owned by one of the actual Goodfellas.

by Anonymousreply 51September 11, 2010 3:04 PM

"Honey? Forget about it!" Thank you for reminding me of that, you made my day! Bwahahahaha!

by Anonymousreply 52September 13, 2010 3:05 PM

Sorry to bring up an old thread. I watched the film last night. Not a great film by any means, but Pfeiffer and Modine have great chemistry in it (the scene on the sofa when he gives her a foot massage is so subtly comical and tender... and sexy at the same time, you don't see that kind of subtle character 'negotiation' in films anymore) and every supporting character is perfectly cast and given great lines.

You just know that if someone were to make this kind of film today they would cast Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson as the leads, which means that all the charm of the story would be lost.

Here's the dance at the very end of the film:

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by Anonymousreply 53December 7, 2010 11:12 PM

[quote]You just know that if someone were to make this kind of film today they would cast Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson as the leads,

Over my dead body!

by Anonymousreply 54December 7, 2010 11:15 PM

Hey, thanks for bumping this thread - I think i'll go watch the movie again this weekend. The son's 'acting' always bugged me, but I love Mercedes Ruehl in this. 'Call me a ballbuster, but it's just the way I am.' %0D %0D And the part where Matthew Modine's getting his hair 'washed' - I think he was really in pain there, lol.

by Anonymousreply 55December 9, 2010 10:29 AM

bump for the original

by Anonymousreply 56May 11, 2014 4:57 PM

Thanks for bumping this! Fun read. I really just enjoy this film. In 1988 as a kid I thought it was a bore. Its really a gem.

by Anonymousreply 57May 11, 2014 7:47 PM

I would watch this film again. I still like Demme, he is at least a competent filmmaker. Not sure what happened to Michelle ... at some point in the 1990's she kind of lost her luster. She was a great natural actress and had an enviable run of good parts in good movies, but I don't think she could carry this into her 40's and beyond. Vanity? Maybe she would be better served by a television series now, a la Jessica Lange.

by Anonymousreply 58May 11, 2014 8:17 PM

[quote]Not sure what happened to Michelle ... at some point in the 1990's she kind of lost her luster. She was a great natural actress and had an enviable run of good parts in good movies, but I don't think she could carry this into her 40's and beyond. Vanity? Maybe she would be better served by a television series now, a la Jessica Lange.

She became very mannered as an actress as she aged, and became worse. The big change is in "The Age of Innocence"--she suddenly becomes very mannered and weepy and rolls her eyes too much. It took her a few years to learn to drop all thta, and by the time she did she was no longer on top.

by Anonymousreply 59May 11, 2014 8:22 PM

[quote]Not sure what happened to Michelle ... at some point in the 1990's she kind of lost her luster.

She didn't get good parts--that's the simple answer. She's still pretty great in stuff like "White Oleander," etc., even if the movies aren't very good.

by Anonymousreply 60May 11, 2014 8:26 PM

Agree. She was great in White Oleander. The aging thing is tricky for women in Hollywood. All the money chases the new, the young, the comic blockbuster. Streep was smart to always play her age, and it showed that audiences will support stories with a woman over 40 as the lead. Pfeiffer maybe just needs the right part in a big film and then she could have another run, or a tv show that lets her draw a new audience.

by Anonymousreply 61May 11, 2014 8:35 PM

[quote]Remember lol in the theater at the piano player who makes up a song about the Dean Stockwell character (Tony): "He's the paesan the sun always shines on...."

The best scene!

by Anonymousreply 62December 4, 2019 4:54 AM

Matthew Modine & Alec Baldwin were at peak hotness in this. Mercedes Reuhl deserved an Oscar nomination.

by Anonymousreply 63December 4, 2019 4:57 AM

Never much a Michelle Pfieffer fan. She was OK in this but as I think as noted Mercedes Ruehl gave the more memorable performance. And Nancy Travis as the cheating wife should have had much more screen time.

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by Anonymousreply 64December 4, 2019 7:46 AM

Ha, I recognise my pro-Matthew Modine comments from 9 years ago! I still feel the same way, even if Mercedes Reuhl is the best thing about this movie. The bit where she busts into Michelle Pfeiffer’s hideous flat, notices what a dump it is, catches her with the wrong guy and STILL has the balls to insist she just got there on the wrong night is hilarious.

by Anonymousreply 65December 4, 2019 9:11 AM

Was happy to see Mercedes Ruehl in HUSTLERS

by Anonymousreply 66December 4, 2019 2:02 PM
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