Christy Lemire, Susan Wloszczyna and I have “gotten together” to discuss films in the past for Rogerebert.com: Our first conversation was about Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45, our second conversation was about Thelma and Louise turning 25.
Our latest is a conversation about the teen-melodrama-ice-skating-weepie-PHENOMENON known as Ice Castles. I can’t stop mentioning that one scene where Robbie Benson talks on the phone and he’s only wearing tighty whities. But there is a lot more to discuss.
//She is sweet and sincere and quite believable, I thought, in some very difficult scenes (particularly the one with Colleen Dewhurst in the attic).//
Dewhurst in the attic – the mind reels!
Colleen Dewhurts invests as much in her character as if she were gunning for an Oscar. She is ACTING with a capital A. Drinkin’, smokin’, barkin’ orders, laughing uproariously … oh God it’s so entertaining.
OK, I just rented the movie and I’m watching it right now.
!!!! Ha! Oh my God please report back.
Those aren’t just regular tidy whities. Those are horizontal slot undies, aka kangaroo pouch, which had a very “brief” popularity in the late 70s. He was being a little “big city” wearing those. They didn’t sell kangaroo pouch undies at the hardware store in those days.
Oh oh, the French girl is losing it (to appropriately doom and destruction music).
Stevie! You are giving me a history of that underwear and I could not love you more for it.
Kangaroo pouch!!
Maybe because he was on “tour” with the hockey team, he got a little city-fied?
That French girl scene made such an impression on me when I was a kid. It was horrifying!
Horrifying.
Product placement?
For SURE.
The creepy reporter reminds me of Ted Bundy.
So creepy! With his white turtleneck and brown blazer.
Don’t you hate it when you’re breaking up with your boyfriend and halfway through they call you to the podium to get your gold medal.
Oh shit, patio furniture.
Patio furniture ….. placed on the ice.
The doctor’s an asshole. Oh Lord, we are getting POV through her fuzzy eyes. “Daddy, is that you?” Gulp.
That’s right – doesn’t the doctor say “If it doesn’t get better in the next couple of days, it won’t change” or something like that?
He’s like, see this? Three days ago it was about the size of a quarter and now it’s about the size of a walnut. I hate a chatty surgeon.
Tom Skerritt made a mini career out of being dads to ambitious teen girls. The Turning
Point. Nuff said.
Colleen is losing it. Queen of the gnashers. Her jaw is so Actors Studio.
// Her jaw is so Actors Studio. //
hahahahaha Yes!! Her jaw is working overtime.
Colleen: I’m going to make this scene work if it’s the last goddamn thing I do!
Gimme some scenery to chew!
I am a crotchety old Yankee from Iowa, full of vinegar.
I sip from my flask to hockey games, I wear a little hat, I take no shit from anyone.
My shins have been banged up so many times when I’ve been setting up the bowling pins, I’ve had enough. Enough!
Oh shit, we’re in the attic now. Looks like a scene from the Miracle Worker.
“Do an axel!” Oh, Robbie.
Tough love!
Jeez, can’t you let this girl mourn the fact that she’s blind for at least 5 minutes?
Only gumption can overcome blindness. It’s an old Iowa maxim..
The movie is the symphony of sweaters.
Work it, Marvin Hamlisch! Robbie forgives her the little big city sexual indiscretion. He is so awesome. It’s all about the eyebrows and the lips. Sigh. Plus he is insightful (oh, and she doesn’t have sight! The irony).
Did you catch that when they were driving around in the truck in the beginning of the movie that Melissa Manchester was playing on the radio?
Yes! I did catch that! Hamlisch’s score is so omnipresent – it kills!
I really think Robbie is great, just a perfect teen idol. All emotions!
Plus sweaters and kangaroo pouch.
The flowers! Here comes Robbie. “We forgot about the flowers.” Jesus.
…. sobbing
“And we forgot how the gold-medal around your neck would throw off your equilibrium and center of gravity when you go on your congratulatory lap.” Think, Robbie! The devil is in the details.
Oh lord, please don’t let this movie end, it may not come again, and I want to remember. Love and a Peter Pan collar. It’s too much. Or is it just enough?
Any more and my heart would explode.
and yes, she goes back to the hand-made Colleen Dewhurst Peter Pan collar. No more fancy revealing child-bride fashion stuff.
Right, only now it’s got “Lexie” embroidered on it.
It reminds me of All the Right Moves. And Robbie was wonderful. Perfect pre-sexual love interest. Teddy bear love. Time to move onto Ralph Macchio.
What a lovely way to spend a rainy afternoon. Thank you, Red! Xxx
This was so fun!
and you’re so right about him being a pre-sexual love interest. (Lance Kerwin was another one of those for me.)
Kristopher Tabori was my babe. He made a TV movie with Alan Alda set in a prison. Picture Robbie Benson exactly how we was in this movie, only with a deep voice, thrown in jail and made the immediate love interest of the beefiest prison regulars. It does not end well. Those were the days of the extremely provocative TV movies, like Born Innocent.
// thrown in jail and made the immediate love interest of the beefiest prison regulars. //
Holy mackerel. I wonder if this is on Youtube.
A huge pet peeve of mine is that so many of those TV movies have not been released on DVD.
Like the one Gena Rowlands and Bette Davis made. It’s SO GOOD. It’s on Youtube, but that’s it, as far as I know.
Okay, when you Google Lynn- the hyphen gives you our Lynn-Holly.
This sounds like a bad B-movie: “Johnson was subsequently cast in the lead role of the Disney horror drama, The Watcher in the Woods. The film received a limited release in April 1980, but was soon withdrawn and not given a wider release until October 1981. Also in 1981, Johnson starred as Bond girl Bibi Dahl in the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only. In that movie she played yet another ice-skater who attempts to seduce an unwilling and much older James Bond, played by Roger Moore. In 1984, Johnson starred in Where the Boys Are, a remake of the 1960 film of the same name. The film was a critical and box-office failure.
“In 1996, Johnson quit acting to concentrate on her family; her last acting role at that time was a made-for-television film, Fugitive X: Innocent Target. She cited[when?][where?] her refusal to take roles that called for nude scenes as having derailed her acting career.
“In 2007 she returned to acting in a community theater production of It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Wow! I had no idea she was that Bond Girl!
So, par for my course, I don’t have half the memories of the movie as I have of the NOVELIZATION. I read it so many times.
For instance, I distinctly remember there being something in the novelization about how they handled the compulsories. Like they bribed someone to get an early spot and measured?
Oooh, I did not read the NOVEL. But that sounds very sketchy!
It was definitely sketchy – but they did realize that the compulsories would be a problem. (I miss the compulsories. I realize they don’t make good TV, but I miss them in ice skating. Probably because of this movie.)
Also, Robbie Benson – from Ice Castles to Beauty and the Beast voice?
And also the ridiculous made-for-TV movie about that Bobbie Gentry song. and wasn’t there a movie with Paul Newman?
THANK YOU
I didn’t even realize that this is a conversation I’ve been waiting for! ?
Ha! I know – I didn’t realize how much I had to say about it either!
I loved your conversation-and I love this movie. I saw it in the theater when I was 17, with all my girlfriends, and we were all crazy about it. We were Midwesterners, but not far from Chicago, so didn’t quite have that bowling alley/ice rink combo. Funny you said it was set in Iowa, for some reason I always thought it was Minnesota!
I will never be able to view this with anything but an emotional reaction. In fact, I was just in the kitchen singing the theme song, I had no idea I remembered the whole thing! I know in the conversation there were reservations with the older man, younger woman thing, and there should be-but back then? No one blinked at that. I think we were naïve in the fact none of us ever thought she actually had sex with him, no way. I know at 17-that wasn’t my impression at all.
Robby Benson was a HUGE heartthrob around that time. You didn’t see a lot of characters in movies that were athletic, yet sensitive-and we all swooned over him. I fell in love with him in Death Be Not Proud.
We weren’t as informed as young girls are now. In fact, I was in the public school system-but I couldn’t wear pants to school until I was in 7th grade. We had to wear dresses. It was a very different world, so we didn’t look at this movie like she was being penalized for following her dreams. We saw triumph. We saw love and hope winning the day.
Sheila, that line of Lexie’s you mentioned, something like “I love you, I know you don’t like me right now, but I love you…”, I don’t have it exact, but that was a seminal line for me. She loved him, he didn’t like her at that moment and she might not ever regain his love. I loved how honest she was about that, not playing any games, and it really resonated with me at that age.
“Now I can take the time, I can see my life, as it comes up shining now…”-MEMORIES!!
Maureen – sorry it took me a while to get to this! I love your comment!
I’m so glad you remember so well that line from Lexie about “I know you don’t like me right now” – it was amazing. I remember how it struck me when I was a kid – it’s a very complex thought – and now as an adult it strikes me even more. It’s a lot of complexity for a teenage romance. I loved how he rose in importance once she got injured – AND how he kept being mad at her, but he also devoted himself to getting her back on her feet. Those are very good scenes!
The Robbie Benson heyday slightly pre-dates me (only slightly) – but he was still a Playah in my formative years. It was fun to go back and watch this and remember again how good he is- what a perfect teen idol. Sensitive and honest and not hard to look at. :)
Re-watching as an adult – there’s a moment where the TV reporter guy comes up behind Lexie and puts his arms around her from behind. This is before we’ve even seen them kiss. I have zero memory of this element of the thing from when I was a kid – and now I’m like, “Dude! Take your hands off her!” PLUS it’s so unethical to get involved in a subject you’re devoting your whole career to promoting!
But yeah, I didn’t bat an eye at it when I was a kid.
// we didn’t look at this movie like she was being penalized for following her dreams. We saw triumph. We saw love and hope winning the day. //
Yeah, me too. I disagree with Christy and Susan about the “girl punished for dreaming big” interpretation. I think it’s pretty clear that life is better back in the small town for a variety of reasons, none of which have to do with playing it safe, playing it small. It’s about a girl remembering who she is and what’s really important – which is family, a nice boyfriend, and skating for the love of it. The pressure put on the other skaters – the French skater having a nervous breakdown in front of everyone, etc. – is a real situation for these young teenage athletes – and it’s hard to picture Lexie getting all caught up in that. That’s not who she was.
anyway, thank you for this, Maureen – it was such a fun conversation and it’s been so fun reading everyone’s memories of it.
Plus my friend Stevie’s first response! Fabulous!