Welcome to the 7 Levels of Tubi - I am your host Jordan Smith…your poet Virgil on this journey into the underworld of publicly available streaming movies. Joining us this week are Tim, Casey and Bekah.
Gang, last time we touched a true earthly pleasure. Hooper - let’s face it - was a delight and a modern genre masterpiece.
This time out - man - we’re back at what feels like the bottom so let’s make it a learning and growth experience, ok?
It’s Stacy’s Knights - American video title The Touch - from the OSCAR award winning team of Kevin Costner, director Jim Wilson, and writer Michael Blake!
I wish I could say this movie was a more auspicious beginning to this storied partnership - now in ruins. But…uh..no.
My review was written in May 1984 after watching the movie on Vestron video cassette.
Retired; former editor of Motion Picture department of Variety Newspaper (NY hdqts.). Variety signature for reviews: lor_.
Served as Chairman, New York Film Critics Circle: 1993/94.
Favorite interviews were with: Michael Douglas, Sophia Loren, DeForest Kelley, Joan Chen, Joe Henderson, Ismail Merchant, Klaus Kinski,
"Stacy's Knights" is a stillborn feature attempt to dramatize average people's hopes for hitting the jackpot in the casino world of blackjack. Filmed in 1982 under the more appropriate (if uncommercial) title of "Double Down", pic was marginally released theatrically last year but is more suitable as low-key tv fare.
Weak cast is led by Andra Millian as Stacy, a shy young girl (termed a "mouse" by the casino surveillance staff) who goes to Reno with her drama school teacher Jean (Eve Lilith) to make a killing at the "21" tables. There they meet Will (Kevin Costner), a local boy with a fancy hat, who recognizes Stacy's card sense and amazing memory and suggests the trio go into partnership to break the bank at a casino run by nasty Shecky Poole (Mike Reynolds)…
So, anyway, it’s a pile of garbage where the Producer (Wilson) is out of place in the director’s chair - Blake’s script is pure paint by numbers - and Costner is killed offscreen in the second act.
You can easily envision a situation where Blake’s novelistic writing could be used as a spine for a more dynamic screenwriter. Wilson might have stepped back from directing to create a better filmmaking environment from a producer’s position. Costner’s presence and appeal could be situated more centrally - perhaps even authorially.
What might have…oh, right.
The strange way Kevin Costner managed to get ‘Dances with Wolves’ made
The Costner, Wilson, Blake team did a ton of business and made some really, really, really great movies.
Stacy’s Knights (Nights, Double Down or The Touch) was not one of them.
On the other hand in “Today I Learned”
An odd name jumped right out of the opening credits. - Norton Buffalo.
Norton Buffalo w/ Bonnie Raitt 1977 (Live) ←Click Here
Here he is ripping off his signature harmonica switch solo on Bonnie Raitt’s Runaway (!)
The trouble is - in this movie he’s never allowed to be this dynamic for even a moment given that every shot seems fifteen seconds too long. The end result is Buffalo never gets a chance to open up beyond the final casino escape scene and his contribution amounts to the feeling of chilly sunsets evoking loss instead of fiery nights of risk or passion. A bummer.
Anyway, we added a trivia element and de-emphasized the shifting nature of the cinema scale and had a lot of fun making our way to our next Tubi deep dive…
Take a listen and we’ll see you next time!
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7 Levels of Tubi: Stacy's Knights / The Touch