Gifted teen basketball player Henry Steele (Benson) is recruited by coach Moreland Smith (G.D. Spradlin) of Western University to play college ball. Leaving his small Colorado town behind, Henry heads to Los Angeles, where he enjoys the perks that go hand-in-hand with being a star athlete, including a cushy job, free room and board, and regular tutoring sessions with senior Janet Hays (Annette O’Toole), who does what she can to ensure Henry passes all of his courses.
But Henry’s showboating eventually lands him in hot water with coach Smith, to the point that he is asked to surrender his scholarship and voluntarily leave school. When Henry refuses, it kicks off a battle of wills between himself and coach Smith that grows uglier by the day. Despite the adversity, Henry is determined to remain at Western University, all the while hoping for another chance to prove himself on the court.
Benson, a talented basketball player in his own right, is absolutely convincing as both the star athlete and the yokel completely out of his element. His first day in Los Angeles, Henry is robbed by a hitchhiker (played by a young Melanie Griffith), then propositioned by coach Smith’s pretty secretary, B.J. Rudolph (Gail Strickland). Characters such as Henry, with their “aw shucks” innocence and small-town naïveté, are a dime a dozen in movies like One on One, yet Benson handles the role perfectly, winning us over at the beginning and keeping us on his side right up to the (admittedly predictable) finale.
O’Toole is also quite good as the tutor who has a problem with athletes that coast through college, only to fall in love with Henry when his back is against the wall; and G.D. Spradlin makes for a formidable foe, pulling every string possible, ethical or otherwise, to force Henry to quit.
Based on the above, I wouldn’t blame you if you think One on One is the kind of movie you’ve seen a hundred times before. You probably have. But you’re doing yourself a disservice if you let familiarity keep you away from this heartwarming motion picture. One on One may not be original, but it’s damn good all the same!
Rating: 8 out of 10
Inspired by Bobby Gentry’s hit 1960s tune of the same name, producer / director Max Baer’s Ode to Billy Joe is the sweet, incredibly dramatic tale of a young girl longing to be a woman, and the events that propelled her into adulthood far too early.
It’s 1953 in rural Mississippi. 15-year old Bobbie Lee Hartley (Glynnis O’Connor) crosses the Tallahatchie bridge every day while walking home from school, and more often than not her childhood friend Billy Joe McAllister (Robby Benson) is there waiting for her. It seems Billy Joe, who works at the sawmill with Bobbi’s older brother James (Terence Goodman), has developed quite a crush on Bobbie Lee, and does his best to win her affections
Though she plays coy, Bobbie Lee has feelings for Billy Joe as well. Her father (Sandy McPeak), however, thinks she’s too young to start dating boys. As Bobbie Lee is doing her best to convince her dad that she’s a woman, Billy Joe has an experience that changes his life, and may spell the end of his relationship with Bobbie Lee before it ever begins.
Benson delivers a convincing performance as the title character, from the exuberance and frustration of young love to the high drama of a drunken escapade that rocks his character’s world. Yet Ode to Billy Joe isn’t so much Billy Joe’s story as it is Bobbie Lee’s, and Glynnis O’Connor positively shines as the anxious teen out to prove to her father and mother (Joan Hotchkis) that she’s grown up, and ready for all that life in Mississippi has to offer. O’Connor and Benson, who also played a romantic duo a few years earlier in Arthur Barron’s Jeremy, have a palpable chemistry, and their scenes together are both sweet and touching (at least until the final act, when drama and tragedy take center stage). Yet it’s those moments when Bobbie Lee is confiding in her mother, or challenging her father, that are truly magical. Also turning up in a supporting role is James Best, as the proprietor of the local sawmill.
Shot on-location in Mississippi’s LeFlore and Tallahatchie counties, Ode to Billy Joe benefits from the local flavor that Baer and his team conjure up throughout the movie. The Tallahatchie Bridge is dilapidated, but has plenty of personality, and we get a real sense of the entire community as the story unfolds. There’s even a dramatic early sequence set on the fabled bridge, where Bobbie Lee’s father has a run-in with some drunk hillbillies trying to cross from the other side.
Those familiar with Bobby Gentry’s hit song already know that this story will end badly; Billy Joe McAllister will kill himself by jumping off the Tallahatchie bridge. But while the song tells us the “what”, the movie answers the “why”. Why did Billy Joe commit suicide? As a fan of the song, I had my theories prior to seeing the movie (one of which is the same assumption everyone in town makes), but I have to give kudos to writer Herman Raucher, who, with the twist he conceived, brought a poignancy to Billy’s suicide and the immediate aftermath.
An effective coming-of-age tale as well as a stirring tragedy, Ode to Billy Joe is a movie that will haunt you for days.
Rating: 9 out of 10
But the book got it wrong sometimes as well; Marlon Brando, one of the greatest actors of all-time, has a paltry 2.55 score (though, to be fair, it was his later performances that brought his average down).
Another actor the book unfairly maligned was Robby Benson. With a rating of 2.10 out of 4, the editors of Consumers Guide felt that Benson was too “boyish and gangling for his own good”. They were just as rough on his performance in 1973’s Jeremy, in which he played the title character, saying Benson “wallowed in his self-conscious charm”. I find this critique particularly puzzling, seeing as, in Jeremy, both he and co-star Glynnis O’Connor (making her screen debut) were essentially playing themselves!
An exemplary student and a damn good basketball player, teenager Jeremy Jones (Benson) is also shy, and has a hard time expressing himself. His music teacher (Leonardo Cimino) tells Jeremy that, although the young man is a talented cellist, he doesn’t “feel” the music; he simply imitates it, and that is preventing Jeremy from being a great musician.
But Jeremy gets an unexpected lesson in life and love when he falls for new student Susan Rollins (O’Connor), whose family recently moved to New York City. Coerced by his good friend Ralph (Len Bari) to ask Susan out on a date, Jeremy finds that she is just as quiet and introverted as he is. It isn’t long before the two are head-over-heels in love, but when Susan’s father (Ned Wilson) receives a new job offer, it may spell the end of their brief but very passionate affair.
Shot on 16mm in New York City, Jeremy has an almost documentary-like feel to it, and writer / director Arthur Barron does his part to keep things “real” by taking a very direct approach to the material. That’s not to imply the film is static or devoid of style; in one energetic scene, when Jeremy is running through the streets to arrange a “chance” meeting with Susan, the camera follows behind, sprinting right along with him. But Barron allows his characters, not cinematic bells and whistles, to drive the story forward, and both Benson and O’Connor manage to do just that.
Their scenes together are sweet, taking the awkwardness of first love and watching it evolve into something special. For one of their first dates, Jeremy takes Susan to the horse track (though he doesn’t bet, Jeremy is a master handicapper, and can predict the winner of any race), where they watch the jockeys and horses during their morning workouts. It’s here that we notice Jeremy and Susan are suddenly more comfortable in each other’s company, and their time together from that point on (including a tastefully-shot love scene) only strengthens the bond between them. Benson and O’Connor have a great chemistry (aided by the fact the two actually fell in love while making this movie), and are perfectly believable at all stages of their character’s budding relationship.
A delightful motion picture and a touching romance, Jeremy is also proof-positive that Rating the Movie Stars missed the boat on Robby Benson.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10