Thursday, February 1, 2018

Uncle Joe Shannon (1978)



          The success of Rocky (1976) created opportunities for nearly everyone involved in the project, among them supporting player Burt Young, who played the title character’s volatile brother-in-law in the first movie and several sequels. After broadening his skillset to include screenwriting by penning a TV episode and a telefilm, Young wrote a star vehicle called Uncle Joe Shannon and teamed with Rocky’s producers to make the film. That Young neither blossomed into a marquee name nor wrote another feature correctly indicates that Uncle Joe Shannon is an underwhelming picture. Formulaic, manipulative, and sentimental, it feels like a throwback to the cornpone weepies of the 1930s, and Young fails to deliver a properly dimensional performance—his tonalities range from addled to cranky to violent to weird, with his attempts at warmth seeming forced and mawkish. Yet Uncle Joe Shannon is surprisingly tolerable, and periodically more than that, because of the polish provided by cinematographer Bill Butler and composer Bill Conti. The movie’s look has that same appealing combination of grit and gloss as the Rocky movies, and Conti’s penchant for over-the-top scoring has never found a more suitable storyline.
          In the opening scenes, Joe (Young) is a successful trumpet player, playing sold-out concerts and scoring big-budget movies. Home life is wonderful, too, because he has a beautiful wife and a sweet son. After a fire claims their lives, Joe becomes a derelict, drinking himself into oblivion until circumstances make him responsible for a young boy named Robbie (Doug McKeon). This relationship follows roughly the contours you might expect, with Joe struggling to play the father-figure role while Robbie pushes Joe to get well. Then Young, in his capacity as the film’s writer, throws an absurd twist into the narrative, transforming the picture from a character study to a tearjerker.
          Given the rickety storyline and Young’s tendency to wail like an animal through emotional scenes, Uncle Joe Shannon should be cringe-inducing, but somehow it never sinks to that level. Even during the stupidest stretches of plotting, Butler’s photography is glorious and Conti’s music (which often calls to mind Chuck Mangione’s smooth-jazz vibe) is immersive. Moreover, it’s not as if Young’s performance is a complete bust—he channels despair believably, he gets humiliation right, and he’s loose and real even when the situations he’s playing are absurdly contrived. Complementing Young is McKeon, later to become a fine teen actor in the early and mid-’80s. Eschewing the cute-kid theatrics of, say, Ricky Schroeder, McKeon credibly manifests bitter rage in many scenes.

Uncle Joe Shannon: FUNKY

7 comments:

bistis6 said...

Even though the reviews were terrible, I've wanted to see this movie since its 1978 release. Unfortunately, it never played in my town, nor have I ever caught it on television. Where in the world did you track it down??? And I agree, Conti's score is terrific, a jazz elegy of loneliness and aching.

By Peter Hanson said...

Now available on DVD from MGM, believe it or not. I rented a copy from Cinefile in LA, a fantastic place I'm always happy to recommend. If you're not in LA, the DVD is available through Amazon. To the best of my knowledge the movie isn't currently streaming anywhere.

bistis6 said...

Great, thanks! Now if only they'd do the same for SLOW DANCING IN THE BIG CITY - which I DID see in '78 - I could have a mini Conti-fest.

Guy Callaway said...

"'Uncle Joe Shannon' should be cringe-inducing'"

Frankly, I can't believe what I'm reading. It IS the most sappy, mawkish crap imaginable.
Of course, that's just my .02, so I trust you'll take this as such.

Unknown said...

I've never seen the movie but I have the soundtrack. Odd that they hired Maynard Ferguson -- who has such a distinctive playing style -- to handle the trumpet duties. It must be disconcerting to see Burt Young onscreen and hear Maynard. I trust Maynard got involved due to the chart success he had with Conti's Rocky theme.

-Todd

By Peter Hanson said...

Guy, yes, absolutely, this is a shameless movie. But imagine how much worse it might have been with, say, Mickey Rooney in the leading role, or some other actor so desperate for approval that he's unwatchable. Besides the cinematography and music, what made this one tolerable for me is that Young gives a character-actor performance, not a leading-man performance. In some scenes, he's grotesque, and in some he's pathetic (as opposed to sympathetic). While that probably represents a failure on his part, inasmuch as the producers surely hoped he would come across as endearing, the grit of his weird acting creates an interesting dissonance when juxtaposed with the absurd narrative... In sum, this thing's awful but in a peculiar sort of way that I found interesting, and it's bolstered by ace technical elements. Having

Guy Callaway said...

All fair points, Peter.