COOL AND THE CRAZY

'''Cool and the Crazy''' is a 1994 film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi and starring Jared Leto and Alicia Silverstone as an unhappily married couple in the late 1950s who both lead separate affairs. The film was Ralph Bakshi's first and only feature-length live-action film, being primarily known as a director of animated films, such as ''Fritz the Cat'', ''Heavy Traffic'', ''Coonskin'' and ''Hey Good Lookin'''. Although the filmmaker employed live-action quite heavily in his early feature films (most notably ''Heavy Traffic''), his only entirely live-action effort prior to ''Cool and the Crazy'' was the 1989 short film ''This Ain't Bebop'', which starred Harvey Keitel.^[1]
''Cool and the Crazy'' first aired on the cable television network Showtime in 1994 as part of the series ''Rebel Highway'', a short-lived revival of American International Pictures by producers Lou Arkoff (son of Samuel Z. Arkoff^[2]) and Debra Hill (best known as the co-writer of the horror film ''Halloween''^[3]). Other directors whose films appeared on the series included William Friedkin, Joe Dante and Robert Rodriguez.^[4][5] The original title of the film's screenplay was ''When I Catch Her I'll Kill Her''.^[6] The released title borrows from the 1958 American International release ''The Cool and the Crazy'', an exploitation film about juvenile delinquency. The plot of Bakshi's film is entirely unconnected to that of the earlier film.^[7]

Contents

Plot

Cast

History

References

External links

Plot

High School sweethearts Michael and Roslyn happily marry during the 1950s, both 18. Things go along smoothly until Roslyn gets pregnant, at age 19. The bills pile up and the two grow apart from each other. Roslyn spends most of the time taking care of their child and hanging out with her best friend, Joannie, who's married to a guy named Bobby. Joannie's been cheating on her husband with a man named Frankie. Roslyn is introduced to Frankie's friend, Joey, a bad boy who's also married. Immediately, Roslyn begins an affair with Joey. At first Michael doesn't suspect anything, but when the two girl friends go out at night and come back later and later, it dawns on him that they are both having affairs. Michael works at a design company with Lorraine, who's into the Beat and jazz scenes. One night, he goes out to have an affair with her. The next morning, however, his uptight attitudes causes him to back out of the affair when he learns that he's not her only lover. Eventually Lorraine leaves to go to New York. At the same time, Roslyn's trying to break off her affair with Joey, but he won't give up that easily. Varied events soon escalate in violence. Joey kidnaps Roslyn, and Michael goes after them, and takes his wife back from him. Michael and Roslyn go their separate ways, and Michael hits the road.

Cast

★ Jennifer Blanc ... Joannie

★ Matthew Flint ... Joey

★ Jared Leto ... Michael

★ Alicia Silverstone ... Roslyn

★ Bradford Tatum ... Frankie

★ Christine Harnos ... Lorraine

★ Tuesday Knight ... Brenda

★ Christian Frizzell ... Bobby

★ John Hawkes ... Crazy

History

According to Bakshi, he intended to make ''When I Catch Her I'll Kill Her'' as his first theatrically-released film, but the studio he originally pitched the story to thought that the material was "too hot."^[8] "A story about women cheating on their husband[s] was too far out at that time for some reason." Later on in his career, he submitted the screenplay with minor changes and the film went into production. Bakshi originally wanted to shoot the film in Brooklyn, but was forced to shoot in Los Angeles instead. Of the casting, Bakshi states "Christopher Walken was meant to play the villain. But the guys we got were right for the parts."

References

1. ''This Ain't Bebop'' (1989)
2. Biography for Lou Arkoff
3. Biography for Debra Hill
4. I Was a Teenage Teenager
5. REBEL HIGHWAY
6. Release info for ''Cool and the Crazy'' (1994)
7. ''The Cool and the Crazy'' (1958)
8. Bakshi Board Exlusive Interview #8

External links

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★ ''Cool and the Crazy'' at Ralph Bakshi.com

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