charred and empty soul. She greets the dog with smiles and kisses then ignores the husband. Likewise, Bruce Dern portrays his vapid community leader role with perfect candor, and it becomes delicious to see him question what he perceived as the status quo.A truly classic and trail-blazing film, well directed and edited and brilliantly written and acted. Such a shame it remains so obscure and unknown. This is one of my top five favourite films and becomes richer and more intricate with each viewing.And I will never hear Nat King Cole sing the title song again and not picture the strained and pained perma-grins as the opening shot pans across the hopeful beauty contestants.

to do. The many characters Ritchie focuses on are human, with all the foibles that entails, so while it may be easy to laugh at the beauty pageant contestants and their problems, you do it with a touch of guilt because they are so earnest in their attempt to win respect from not only the judges, but the choreographer Michael Kidd , the den mother Barbara Feldon , and ultimately themselves. To mock them is to mock yourself for rooting for your favorite girl at the film's conclusion which fittingly, as it turns out, doesn't matter anyway.Now that's good satire.A truly under appreciated gem.

think that we should start a campaign to get this film the recognition it deserves.

American Beauty Pageant. Said pageant, the "Young American Miss" contest, proves to be the sole source of friction, vitality and excitement in the otherwise dreary and sleepy California suburb of Santa Rosa while also serving as a crassly pandering meat market and unfortunate reinforcer of strictly dividing gender role-dictated differences between men and women.Bruce Dern as the pathetic, obsessive, insignificant car salesman who funds the event, Nicholas Pryor as Dern's alcoholic, discontent friend who's fed up with the hollowness of his life, Barbara Feldon as Pryor's bitchy, negligent wife who's more concerned with organizing the pageant than she is about her husband's well being, Geoffrey Lewis as the pageant's smug, slimy sponsor, and especially the fabulous Michael Kidd as the acerbic, down on his luck Broadway dance instructor who takes the thankless job of choreographing the whole silly affair because he desperately needs the money all give expert, somewhat excruciatingly accurate performances. Colleen Camp, Joan Prather, Melanie Griffith and Annette O'Toole likewise excel as several of the pageant's conniving, fiercely competitive contestants. Michael Ritchie's able, insightful, wickedly spot-on direction, working from Jerry Belson's acrid, incisive, savagely barbed script, offers a caustic, scathingly candid and deliciously vicious ridicule of America's idiotic obsession with shallow appearances over genuine substance, our general squeamishness about sexuality Dern's son takes pictures of the contestants undressing which he later plans to sell to the townspeople , the inability of both sexes to openly communicate with and fully trust each other, the unspoken, but deeply ingrained "do whatever you got to do in order to succeed" Machiavellian ethic that continues to thrive to this very day, and the inanity and superficiality inherent in Middle Class American existence. A biting, rather painfully correct and most sadly under-appreciated 70's seriocomic sleeper gem.

her alcoholic husband. The vignettes and stories interweave in a perfect blend of sarcasm, sentiment, and silliness. Sample minor spoiler -when the pageant organizer sees a girl being helped out of the auditorium with a sprained foot, he rushes over and asks, "Can I get you anything? a doctor? a Pepsi?" A great script I was surprised Buck Henry *didn't* write. And watch for what happens to that Polaroid you'll know what I mean . A terrific movie with laughs and giggles galore.

Andy, is literally driven to drink and runs away from the "exhausted rooster" ceremony rather than kiss a dead chicken. Big Bob's son, "Little Bob" and his friends get caught running a business of taking pictures of the girls dressing rooms through the windows. In one of the less ethical aspects of the pageant, the Jaycees wait until their choreographer has taught the girls a dance number using a runway out into the audience. Suddenly the Jaycees take away the runway to accommodate "the golden circle" of $150 seats. As the choreographer tries the number without the runway, one of the girls falls. Putting the honest choreographer in a moral bind of money vs. safety, the Jaycees only put the runway back in by forcing him to deduct the cost of the "golden circle" tickets from his fee. This film is a lot of laughs, starting at the very beginning, when one of the local pageant winners presents as her "talent" a demonstration of how to pack your suitcase. During the credits, as she runs to the plane to the pageant, her suitcase flies open, spilling everything all overt he place. The contestants steal the show. Some of the "talent" is singing, and, well, none of them have ever won a Grammy. Shortly after Maria ingratiates her way into Barbara Feldon's favor, her "talent" of flinging lighted batons ends in disaster as a few of the other contestants chuckle conspiratorially.I didn't quit the Jaycees, but I certainly had many laughs at the meetings! In short, a great comedy! I recommend it highly and give it an "8."

main judge of the pageant who has an enterprising son with a Polaroid camera. Best of all is Michael Kidd as the choreographer. Kidd started out as a ballet dancer, moved to Broadway, and finally Hollywood where he danced, acted, and choreographed, later adding directing to his list of talents. Here, he gives a wonderful performance as a choreographer whose cynicism and toughness hides a heart of gold.There are too many vignettes among the contestants to describe - the talent competition that consists of packing a suitcase, the flaming baton; the rehearsals with the orchestra are hilarious, as is the contestant looking for her butter churn.The film hits just the right note between satire/comedy and drama. Beauty contestants haven't changed much; they all want to help people, and being brought up without a father is a distinct advantage. Boys are still horny. And never has any of this been presented in a more of a light, amusing way than in "Smile."

as is his peeping-tom son! Barbara Feldon is suitably uptight as the tough-as-nails pageant coordinator and Nicholas Pryor plays her suicidal husband. Feldon and Pryor have one of the film's best scenes as she mockingly tries to talk him out of killing himself. Michael Kidd is hysterical as a nasty choreographer and the contestants are played by a slew of almost starlets including Annette O'Toole, Melanie Griffith and Joan Prather.